Produce a gated research report

A research report earns attention when it answers a question people in your market are already asking but can't answer with confidence. Kite looks for those questions in the places buyers ask them. It checks search demand for the topic, reads discussions on sites such as Reddit, X, and Hacker News, and looks at what competitors and industry publications have already published. It also asks which questions AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity answer vaguely, because a vague answer usually means there's no good source yet.

From that research, Kite proposes a question and a working title, such as "How 300 B2B marketing teams staff their content programs in 2026." It also lists the three to five headline findings the report should test and explains why each one would interest your buyers. Writing the expected findings down first keeps the survey or data pull focused on the numbers that will matter, and it gives you a clear point to say "yes, that's the report we want" before any data is gathered.

Kite can gather the data for a report in three ways, and many reports combine them.

The first is a survey. Kite writes the questions, including the questions about role and company size that you'll need later to break down the results. It then builds the survey in your connected Typeform account. To collect responses, Kite can write the invitation email for your list and send it through HubSpot or Mailchimp once you approve it. It can also write social posts asking people to take part, and it can build a list of people who fit the profile you want to hear from and draft personal invitations to them.

The second is public data that nobody has pulled together. Kite's built-in research sources cover company funding and hiring, company news, search demand, the ads companies are running, website performance, and how brands appear in AI answers. That makes some reports possible with no survey at all. For example, Kite can check how 200 companies in your category show up when buyers ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude for a recommendation. It can also compare hiring for marketing roles across a market, or measure page speed across the leading sites in an industry.

The third is your own data. Numbers from your product or customer base, such as how customers use a feature or how long a typical project takes, are the hardest for a competitor to copy. Kite can read those numbers from a connected tool such as PostHog or a spreadsheet, or from a file you share with it.

Kite analyzes the data against the findings it set out to test. It reads the survey responses from Typeform, or pulls the public or product data, and works out the numbers behind each finding. Then it breaks them down by the groups that matter to your buyers, such as company size, role, or industry.

Each finding in the report states the number of responses or records behind it. When a finding rests on a small group, such as 40 respondents at companies with more than 1,000 employees, Kite says so beside the number. Kite also keeps sourced facts separate from its own interpretation of them. That honesty is what makes a report citable, because a writer who quotes your number needs to know what it's based on.

The analysis often turns up something nobody expected. When a finding contradicts the plan, such as small teams spending more on content than large ones, Kite reports it and suggests making it a headline. Surprising findings are the ones people share.

Kite writes the full report in your brand voice, using your positioning and what it knows about your customers. A typical report opens with a summary of the headline findings. Next come a section for each finding with its charts, a section on what the findings mean for the reader, and a method section. The method section explains who was surveyed or which data was used, when, and how many responses or records the report covers.

Kite designs the report using your brand colors, fonts, and logo, and creates charts for each finding. It delivers the finished report as a PDF ready for download. It can also prepare a hosted version of the report with charts readers can explore. You review the draft and the design before anything is published, and you can ask for changes in plain language, such as "lead with the hiring finding" or "cut the section on agencies."

Kite builds two pages on your website. The first is an open findings page that states each headline number plainly, explains how the data was gathered, and links to the full report. This is the page journalists, bloggers, and AI assistants can read and quote. Kite writes it so each finding can stand on its own, with a clear heading, the number, and one or two sentences of context.

The second is the landing page for the full report. It describes what's inside the report and asks for the details you choose, such as name, work email, company, and role. When a visitor submits the form, the page gives them the PDF. Each submission reaches your team's leads inbox in Kite and the inbox of the site's owner. If you connect Mailchimp, Kite also adds each person to your Mailchimp audience with a tag for the report.

If you'd rather gate the report with your own Typeform form, Kite builds that form in your Typeform account and sets its closing screen to link to the report. It then checks for new responses on a schedule you choose and adds each person to HubSpot as a contact, so sales can see who downloaded the report.

On a website Kite hosts, it publishes both pages directly once you approve them. If your site runs on Webflow, WordPress, Contentful, Sanity, or Storyblok, Kite publishes through your connected content system.

A report needs a launch, and Kite plans one around the findings. It writes the announcement email for your list and sends it through HubSpot or Mailchimp after you approve it. It also turns the headline findings into a series of social posts with suggested timing, one finding per post, and publishes them through your connected social accounts when you authorize it.

Kite also pitches the report to the people who are likely to quote it. It finds the journalists, newsletter writers, and bloggers who cover your market and reads their recent work. Then it drafts a pitch for each one that leads with the finding most relevant to what they write about. For more on how Kite researches reporters and personalizes pitches, see Run a media outreach campaign.

After launch, Kite measures the report on three counts: readers, leads, and citations. On a website Kite hosts, its built-in analytics show how many people visited the findings page and the landing page, where they came from, and how many submitted the form. Sources include search, email, social, and AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. Kite compares how many visitors each source sent, so you can see whether the announcement email or the LinkedIn posts brought in more readers.

For leads, Kite can check which people who downloaded the report later turned into deals in HubSpot. For citations, Kite can watch the web for pages that mention the report or its findings and tell you when a new one appears. It can also track whether AI assistants start citing your findings page when buyers ask about the topic. For more on that measurement, see Improve your visibility in AI answers.

The results shape the next edition. If one finding drew most of the attention, Kite suggests building next year's survey around it. If one channel brought in most of the qualified leads, Kite plans the next launch around that channel.