Most agency blogs recycle the same information from the same public sources. The advice is not wrong. It is just not distinctive. Publishing it positions you as someone who follows the industry, which is the minimum viable credential for being considered at all.
Proprietary research positions you differently. When you publish data that only you have, because you generated it from your own scanning activity using F! Insights, you become the source rather than an aggregator.
In This Article
What Proprietary Data Looks Like
Proprietary research is any data you generated that others cannot easily replicate without your specific methodology or access. For a local SEO agency, that means scan data across a category and market that you collected through your own prospecting and fulfillment work.
To learn more about building local authority with scan data, visit Run a Local Ranking Heatmap and Find Dead Zones. How to Read a Geogrid and Build a Local SEO Action Plan and Turn 10 GBP Scans Into a Publishable Industry Report cover adjacent steps in detail.
Examples: “We scanned 200 HVAC businesses in the Dallas metro and found the median review count is 47 with the top quartile averaging 180.” These are specific, local, and sourced from your own work. Nobody else has this data.
The F! Insights Data Advantage
F! Insights bulk scanning produces a scored dataset for every business you scan: overall scores, category scores, review counts, competitive position, PageSpeed metrics. Over time, that dataset becomes a research asset. A bulk scan of 200 businesses in a target vertical produces the raw material for a market report that no competitor can replicate without running the same scans. For how to build the prospect pipeline that generates this data as a byproduct, see Automate Your Agency’s Prospecting With Bulk Scanning.
Research Formats That Build Authority
| Format | What It Contains | Best Distribution Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Category benchmark report | Median and top-quartile metrics for a specific business category in a specific market | LinkedIn, direct email to prospects in that category, press |
| Competitive gap analysis | The most common GBP gaps across a vertical you specialize in | Cold outreach as a pre-read, speaking engagements, podcast appearances |
| Local market intelligence report | A snapshot of a specific city’s GBP competitive landscape across categories | Chamber of commerce partnerships, local business publications, referral partners |
| Quarterly trend report | How metrics in your target vertical have shifted over a 90-day period | Email list, LinkedIn, clients as a retention touchpoint |
The Publishing Workflow
- Run a bulk scan on a specific vertical and market using F! Insights. Aim for at least 50 businesses for meaningful aggregate data.
- Pull the aggregate findings from your pipeline dashboard: median scores, most common gaps, highest and lowest performers.
- Write the report around three to five specific findings with the data as the lead and your interpretation as the context.
- Publish on your blog with a clear headline that names the category, the market, and the key finding.
- Create a one-page PDF version for distribution via email and direct download.
Distributing the Research
- Direct email to prospects in the category the research covers. The report itself is the value-first outreach.
- LinkedIn posts that pull a single striking finding from the report and link to the full version.
- Local business associations and chambers of commerce, which are consistently looking for useful content to share with their members.
- Referral partners, particularly web designers and accountants who serve the same category and market you are researching.
For a more detailed workflow on building a recurring market report as an agency service, see How to Publish a Local Market Report as an Agency.
Ready to start generating proprietary data? Download F! Insights here.