In this episode of Create Like The Greats, Ross Simmonds takes us behind the scenes of one of the most exciting AI developments in recent months—ChatGPT's Deep Research feature built on OpenAI's O3 reasoning model. This episode provides a detailed breakdown of how Deep Research can help with competitive analysis, persona building, content strategy, and thought leadership. If you're someone who works with data, content, or digital strategy, this episode is packed with actionable insights.
Key Takeaways and Insights:
🔍 Introduction to Deep Research
"Deep Research" is the latest tool from OpenAI leveraging the O3 reasoning model.
It enables multi-step, web-based research directly within ChatGPT.
It rivals the expertise of high-paid consultants at a fraction of the cost.
💰 Cost & Value of Deep Research
Priced at ~$200/month as part of OpenAI’s advanced plan.
Can analyze web pages, PDFs, forums like Reddit, review sites, and blogs.
Capable of returning rich reports using 20+ external sources.
📊 Use Cases for Marketers
Comprehensive Competitive Analysis
Generate full-stack brand reports in McKinsey-style format.
Pulls competitor messaging, tactics, and public sentiment from platforms like G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, SimilarWeb, and Reddit.
Case Study: Foundation Marketing’s own deep report generated in 6 minutes from 27 sources.
Persona Development and Review Mining
Create buyer personas from Reddit threads, product reviews, and social media chatter.
Identifies pain points, motivations, and message framing.
Case Study: A stealth competitor analysis for Distribution.ai revealed valuable data on solopreneurs and feature gaps.
Content Opportunity Discovery
Surface high-value keywords with low coverage across your and competitors’ content.
Instructions on how to feed a keyword spreadsheet to Deep Research and ask it to identify gaps.
Strategic Thought Leadership Development
Input white papers from Gartner or McKinsey.
Ask Deep Research to extract trends and suggest new ideas aligned with your niche.
Synthesizes expert-level content into actionable ideas for upcoming quarters.
🧠 Pro Tips for Using Deep Research
Be specific with your prompt—clarity leads to better results.
Supply background context, goals, documents, and keyword datasets.
Avoid uploading sensitive data, but enrich inputs where possible for maximum output quality.
Resources & Tools:
🔗 ChatGPT Plus (includes Deep Research)
🔗 Foundation Marketing
🔗 Distribution.ai
🔗 Review Platforms:
G2
Capterra
TrustRadius
🔗 SimilarWeb
🔗 Reddit
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