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Thought leadership marketing is the most authentic form of marketing. It can be used to inform purchasing behaviours by sharing information that helps customers, prospects, and followers to increase their decision-making capacities without actually selling. In most B2B sectors, direct promotional communication is no longer effective at all.
Markets consist of a myriad of different players, and your business isn’t the only one active in the market. A thought leadership approach, however, enables your organisation to occupy a unique market position that is less easy for competitors to copy. Your competitors can easily copy a promotional message, but they will find it much harder to imitate a company’s ‘personality’.
50% of decision makers share interesting content with their colleagues or network. 42% of recipients indicate that this has led them to contact the content provider. Employees enjoy developing and sharing valuable content with others. It contributes to their knowledge, workplace engagement, and job satisfaction.
47% of companies claim that receiving valuable content has a direct impact on the chances of a company being awarded deals or contracts.
88% of companies say that receiving valuable content is a reason to shortlist a company when considering collaboration
Educational innovation is being researched in many countries. You will receive valuable information from us in a nicely designed format. Expect new innovations, skills, learning systems, statistics and many other topics within education. The statistics are based on the expertise of hundreds of thousands of teachers and education specialists.
In times of rapid change, there’s great need for information. Organisations are looking for answers, guidance, new ideas, and inspiration to help inform their decisions and maintain market position.
Valuable content enables you to communicate with your target audience more often than if you were to use traditional messaging. This also leads to many more contact points for sales and account management. This approach also offers opportunities during earlier phases in the buyer's journey, in which you can assert 'pre-influence'. Decision makers appreciate valuable content, with 58% saying that they consume one or more hours of content from thought leaders in their industry every week.
Thought leadership can give the brand experience a boost. Do you want to be seen as an innovative disruptor, or perhaps a guide that navigates companies through the future?
Of course, prospects and customers are free to choose their suppliers. A thought leadership approach can, however, help you influence this choice, increasing your chances of getting shortlisted.
Many companies possess valuable information, solutions, visions, and perspectives on the future. Sharing this information in an inspiring way ensures that customers and prospects become more aware of the strength of the organisation.
Potential customers are generally happy to provide information in exchange for valuable content. We can see what information is being consumed and elicit (digital) interactions with prospects and customers. Sharing content is also an excellent way of creating contact points for sales and account management.
The online and offline press are constantly looking for news and interesting stories. Your brand can be an important source for case studies, discoveries, and insights. Furthermore, a good thought leadership approach will inspire journalists to connect your brand to your target audience via independent sources.
Followers and fans can be converted into valuable customers for the future. Thought leadership, being a ‘seduce and connect’ strategy, can help engage 'connected consumers’ with our stories, experiences, and inspiration. This will encourage them to further spread this knowledge, resulting in turnover, improved media reach, and an enhanced brand experience.
What you provide needs to fulfil a need or provide value that is not currently present, or is inadequate in either quality or quantity.
A novel point of view is critical. For example, readers want to know about the direction in which their industry is headed and who’s driving the change.
This can be achieved by including your own case studies or introducing important influencers or trends, along with sources from within the industry.
Decision-makers are busy. This generally means that they prefer easily digestible content that is snackable, personal, and accessible. Examples include compact white papers, animations, videos, or other rich media that has compelling storytelling. This works even better when combined with physical, in-depth meetings and other sources of
Needs can also be fulfilled and value can be provided by offering useful tools and valuable platforms, presentations, and other resources that impart information and inspiration in different ways.
“You cannot be a thought leader if others don't follow”. The result of a good thought leadership strategy is that decision makers start following you. But it’s also important – and this requires special effort – to get highly knowledgeable decision makers on board, even when they’re often critical. .
It’s important to keep your communication consistent and to use various, but aligned, educational messaging tools. Thought leadership is not a campaign; it is a continuous flow of relevant information that inspires and educates in equal measure.
The implementation of this approach requires the combined teamwork of various internal talents and external specialists in production, execution, and monitoring. Good management is critical to a well-functioning team.
The value and results of a thought leadership strategy will increase if it’s realised in collaboration with customers and other stakeholders.