Best Practices are methods or procedures that are known to be effective. Industry experts determine these thought leaders or multiple leading companies in an industry and are widely accepted within the industry.

Minimum Requirements:

1. Provide 2-3 best practices surrounding the topic. For each, include the following:
   1. A 2-3 sentence description of the best practice
   2. Why it is a best practice (why we chose it)
   3. Available metrics of success that provide it is a best practice
   4. 1-2 examples of industry experts and/or thought leaders discussing the best practice.
   5. Provide one image for each best practice.
2. If the client states they do NOT need success metrics, provide the following:
   1. 5-7 best practices surrounding the topic
   2. A 2-3 sentence description of the best practice.
   3. Why it is a best practice (why we chose it)
   4. 1-2 examples of industry experts and/or thought leaders discussing the best practice.
   5. Provide one image for each best practice.

Identifying Best Practices

• Always start with a direct search using keywords such as “best practices,” “top tips,” “best ways,” etc.
• If you find multiple, pre-compiled lists of best practices, sift through them to find those directly from industry experts or repeated among multiple reputable sources.
• If you cannot find these through a general search, use more specific search strings, Boolean and X-ray searches, and filters to pull relevant results.
• Look for information from industry experts or leaders and ensure that those you find represent the current market. Best Practices from 2018 may not be best for a company in 2021. Similarly, pre-COVID best practices may not be relevant today.

<aside> ⚠️ Note: Search strings and advanced search methods, e.g., X-ray and Boolean search, are tools, not strategies. Do not mention these in your research reports. Instead, note the publishers of the resources, reports, and databases consulted (e.g., International Data Group (IDG)).

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Findings

• Once you’ve identified the best practices, describe them and provide information to support them. Usually, your Research Criteria will indicate what supporting information is needed. If not, you can consider one or more of the following:
  • Who are some industry experts or thought leaders talking about these best practices?
  • What are some examples of companies that have adopted these best practices?
  • What are the success metrics associated with these best practices?
• Organize your findings using bullets and concise headings/subheadings.

Research Strategy

• In your Research Strategy, briefly explain why you included these specific best practices (the criteria you used to determine best practices). Also, mention (and ideally cite) the primary sources you consulted (e.g., industry reports from Deloitte or McKinsey) when identifying the best practices.

  <aside> 💡 If it makes more sense to explain the criteria for “best” within the body of the research, please feel free to do so. Still, add brief notes summarizing the Research Strategy in its section, e.g., “Marketing automation best practices were determined based on repeated mentions across reputed sources such as X, Y, and Z.”

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• As always, explain if you deviate from the Research Criteria, e.g., if the Research Criteria says, “Provide 2-3 hiring best practices for CPG companies that offer household supplies. If hiring best practices specific to CPG companies that offer household supplies are not found, you may include hiring best practices for CPG companies overall.” Now, suppose you couldn’t find hiring best practices specific to CPG companies that offer household supplies and instead provided hiring best practices for CPG companies overall. In that case, you will explain this in your Research Strategy to let the client know that you looked for the exact information they wanted first and only expanded focus after this information was not found.

  <aside> ⚠️ Note: If the Research Criteria clearly state that data on hiring best practices specific to CPG companies that offer household supplies is unavailable and we will instead provide hiring best practices for CPG companies overall, there’s no need to spend time looking for information that the strategist confirmed isn’t available or mention this in the research strategy.

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• If you made assumptions or performed triangulations or calculations, clearly state so in your research strategy.

  <aside> ⚠️ Note: If it makes sense to provide the assumptions, triangulations, or calculations within the findings section, please do so, but briefly summarize the Research Strategy in its section. Here’s an example:

  We calculated the number of millennial smartphone users in Europe using the percentage of millennial smartphone users and the total number of smartphone users. The calculations [or assumptions or triangulations, as applicable] have been provided above [or in the XYZ section of the report].

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