Thought Leadership Strategy by Houssam talhouk

Mastering Thought Leadership in 2023: The Ultimate Guide

Having a proper thought leadership strategy is instrumental in building a solid brand presence. It entails more than merely sharing opinions or providing new information on a subject.

After examining and interviewing over 300 marketers and industry professionals, we have designed a process for crafting a potent thought leadership strategy.

In this guide, we will explore what thought leadership is, how to create compelling thought leadership content, and how to use it to distinguish yourself and engage with your audience.

Defining Thought Leadership

Thought leadership involves presenting authentic and genuine content that draws on the author’s expertise, insights, and experience, with the aim of sharing that knowledge with others.

Thought leadership centers around creating value, fostering knowledge, and taking a stand.

While some argue that thought leadership involves presenting strong and occasionally controversial opinions in a piece of content, others believe it’s about being a subject matter expert (SME) and using that expertise to exert influence within a specific niche.

In truth, thought leadership encompasses both aspects.

Based on research, thought leadership entails sharing inspiring, research-driven content that promotes change and delivers educational value.

Thought leadership is not just about lecturing to a wide audience, it also involves a strong collaborative component, where thought leaders can work together and exchange experiences, expertise, and knowledge.

Top thought leaders are acknowledged experts in their fields. They can be CEOs, consultants, authors, coaches, or businesses (B2C and B2B).

Characteristics of thought leaders typically include:

• Firm opinions
• Extensive experience
• Comprehensive knowledge
• Transparency
• A willingness to share their wisdom with others
• The ability to think creatively

Advantages of Thought Leadership Marketing

Let’s examine how thought leadership can contribute to your company’s growth.

Quick facts:

• More than 60% of businesses already incorporate thought leadership in their content marketing
• Almost a third of them are planning to do so soon

Incorporating thought leadership into your broader content strategy can benefit you in three ways.

a. Establish Brand Credibility and Authority Sharing valuable and original insights enhances your brand profile.

As your brand profile becomes more established, your audience will be more interested in what you have to say, positioning you as an authority in your niche.

Thought leadership also reinforces your brand narrative.

You can promote essential ideas that you want your audience to believe in and drive a shift in their perspective.

b. Generate Backlinks, Shares, and Mentions

Although thought leadership is not an SEO strategy per se, it can increase the likelihood of people linking to your content and strengthen your SEO profile.

If your content features valuable opinions, research, and data, it can naturally encourage others to share and reference your material.

However, avoid publishing thought leadership articles solely for the purpose of generating likes, shares, and backlinks, as this weakens your content and diminishes its impact.

c. Attract Potential Clients

While thought leadership content is not meant to convert prospects directly, it helps you build a loyal audience and attract potential customers.

For example, Seed, a probiotics brand, focuses on educating users about the science and sustainability behind probiotics, rather than just promoting their product. By adopting a “probiotics are a science” approach, they offer a new way to care for one’s health, which has helped them boost brand awareness and amass a significant following.

Crafting a Robust Thought Leadership Strategy

Developing a thought leadership strategy is not a one-size-fits-all process, as many factors depend on your business’s unique attributes.

However, here are six core steps to follow, regardless of your company’s size and reputation:

a.      Set Your Objectives

Begin by identifying what you want to achieve when positioning yourself as a thought leader.

Consider your existing marketing goals and how thought leadership can support each one.

Also, define your target audience, ensuring they align with your buyer personas and identifying who might benefit the most from your insights.

Remember that your audience may extend beyond your buyers to include potential customers.

b.      Analyze Current Thought Leadership

Research existing thought leadership in your niche, including your own and your competitors.

Explore various industry communication channels such as online forums, news resources, trade publications, personal brand platforms, company blogs, social media, webinars, seminars, and conferences.

This will help you understand current thought leadership trends and ideas and familiarize yourself with the main thought leaders in your industry.

c.      Determine Your Organization’s Expertise and Thought Leaders

Identify your organization’s area of expertise and specialization.

Reflect on your broader brand story and values to decide who your authentic and innovative thought leaders will be.

Build a roster of thought leaders by considering key experts working in or with your company, ensuring they share common traits such as alignment with your brand and its values, strong opinions, industry knowledge and expertise, experience in public sharing, and a loyal following.

d.      Develop Your Thought Leadership Content

Create content that showcases your thought leaders’ knowledge, passion, and expertise.

Use various formats, such as articles, videos, webinars, and podcasts, to share your insights and connect with your audience.

e. Distribute and Promote Your Content

Utilize multiple channels to distribute and promote your thought leadership content. Leverage social media, email marketing, guest blogging, and collaborations with other thought leaders to reach a wider audience.

f. Evaluate the Outcomes

Measure the results of your thought leadership efforts by tracking metrics like website traffic, social media engagement, backlinks, and new leads generated. Adjust your strategy as needed to optimize its effectiveness.

Develop Your Thought Leadership Content

Now that you have a plan in place, it’s time to create your thought leadership content. Here are some statistics on the types of content thought leaders produce:

Quick facts on thought leadership content types:

• More than 90% of the US based organizations involved in thought leadership create articles
• Almost 50% of organizations produce videos
• A third of them participate in webinars or events and opt for white papers as a thought leadership format

Begin with writing articles and then explore other formats such as videos, webinars, podcasts, and ebooks as you become more comfortable.

Before you start creating content, decide on the topics you want to cover.

Research Topics There isn’t a single way to source thought leadership content. Consider your goals and audience to generate content ideas, stay updated on the latest trends in your niche, and learn from other professionals in your field. This will help you understand what issues your audience is interested in and ensure your content gains traction quickly.

Some other ideas for thought leadership content include:

• Unique experiences or insights from you or other thought leaders
• Strong company opinions that challenge industry norms
• Exclusive data and statistics available through your business
• Industry research and insights from company resources or subject matter experts (SMEs)
• Collaborations with customers, partners, opinion leaders, and influencers
• Key learnings from your personal background and story

Utilizing specialized tools for Topic Research can make discovering trending topics easier. Trending content topics related to your chosen SEO keywords can provide a wealth of potential ideas.

Map Out the Content Production Process Consider how the content will be produced. Determine who will create the content, whether it will be ghostwritten, structured as a podcast interview, or outsourced. Thought leaders who are also good writers are an asset.

Internal SMEs can be valuable for creating thought leadership content. However, if their writing skills are not up to par or if it’s too much of a burden, consider working with a professional copywriter to create appealing content based on interviews with thought leaders or SMEs.

Stay Flexible Maintain flexibility in your editorial and publishing calendars, as trends and news can change rapidly. Be prepared to adapt your content accordingly. Podcasts, for example, can be an effective way to quickly create and deliver timely content.

Distribute and Promote Your Content

Creating interesting, useful, and insightful content is not enough; you need to ensure it can be found online. Distribution and promotion strategies are critical components of a thought leadership campaign.

Recommendations for distributing your thought leadership content depend on your business. If your thought leaders have an existing network willing to promote their content, engagement and feedback are more likely. For small businesses and startups struggling with exposure, consider these tactics:

• Promote on internal and external company channels
• Pitch to journalists, publications, and industry influencers
• Collaborate with non-competing brands
• Team up with opinion leaders and influencers
• Analyze content creators in your industry and create content that encourages them to share it

If you have a budget for paid promotion, consider adding sponsored content to your strategy.

Engagement is crucial for thought leadership, so participate in conversations with communities, leaders, and influencers discussing your content. Be active on community platforms, forums, and other spaces to connect with experts in your field.

Measure the Results

Measure the performance of your thought leadership marketing to evaluate whether you’re achieving your goals. Various content metrics can be helpful in measuring performance metrics and sales outcomes.

Key results generated from thought leadership content, based on research:

• More than 80% of thought leadership content results in organic traffic
• More than 60% leads to an increase in social media following and engagement
• More than 45% of thought leadership content generates actual leads and sales

Conclusion

Challenge the Norm with Your Thought Leadership Thought leadership requires authenticity, deep expertise, and ideas that challenge conventional ways of thinking and acting. To communicate thought leadership effectively, you must create high-quality content on relevant topics that genuinely interest your audience.

Conduct in-depth topic research and produce content that is engaging and unique. To enhance and reinforce your thought leadership content strategy, explore resources like the State of Content Marketing 2022 Global Report.

By following these steps and continually refining your approach, you’ll be able to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and make a lasting impact on your audience.