In an increasingly crowded and complex marketplace it is becoming more difficult to distinguish between businesses with real technical or niche expertise, and everyone else. More and more sectors are starting to experience the same challenge faced for years by specialist industries such as construction, tech, and engineering; how to craft a compelling marketing message based on an increasingly complex value proposition?
If you and your business are asking this question, then you could already be sitting on the answer: your people. The people who drive your business are the ones that possess the key knowledge that will solidify your market presence. Thought leadership translates that irreplaceable knowledge into collateral that builds long-term confidence in your organisation.
What does ‘thought leadership’ mean?
To us, thought leadership is any content marketing that presents useful information and insight to draw attention to your in-house expertise, which in turn positions you as the thought leader for a particular subject matter.
A few things thought leadership is not however:
- Focused on brand and product at the expense of the wider industry.
- Short-term lead generation.
- Self-indulgence that provides no actionable value to the reader.
Taking what you know and turning it into useful informative content is the crux.
Why invest in thought leadership marketing?
When it’s well-crafted and properly distributed on the right channels, thought leadership boosts awareness of your brand. The benefit of thought leadership over other awareness marketing tactics, is that over time your business becomes synonymous with the latest developments in your industry. This builds consumer conviction, enough to swing the balance in your favour when it’s time to make a purchase decision.
For example, many think ‘McKinsey & Company’ when they think management consultancy. McKinsey devotes serious resources to thought leadership, perhaps better than anyone. Several leading experts offer deep, daily insight into every area of management. That insight is then presented in multiple formats and strategically shared across social channels.
It’s a lot of work, but it gives McKinsey a frankly intimidating market position. Would it be worth the cost if they were selling fast-moving goods? Probably not. But for consultancy, with long lead times and consequence-laden purchase decisions, establishing that level of credibility isn’t just smart marketing, it is essential.
Who should be doing thought leadership?
Experience has shown us that mature organisations with well-established business models can reap huge rewards from this kind of content. They already have a wealth of industry experience and knowledge tied up in their employees. Auditing in-house skills and thinking how to produce useful content can be a revealing, rewarding experience for larger organisations.
But unfortunately, some organisations often fail to understand the value thought leadership can add. Entrenched approaches favour straightforward sales and marketing. Marketing as a whole can lose out in these scenarios, thought leadership is given no time to flourish whilst quick leads are being chased.
Failing to establish a broad marketing-mix can come back to bite your business in the medium to long term. This is especially very true for businesses selling big-ticket products and long-term services. Where purchase is a weightier decision, you risk losing out to competitors who spent time building that brand equity.
And, as we said right at the start of this article, an increasing number of businesses are becoming more specialist, and paths to purchase are becoming more complex. Lead generation marketing is great, but only once you have built the credibility to support a purchase decision.
But everyone’s already a thought leader, aren’t they?
One glance at LinkedIn and you’d be forgiven for thinking the thought leadership space is already saturated. Everyone has an opinion that they can’t wait to share with you. But look a little deeper, and you’ll see that there are few that are accomplishing the distinction between thought leadership and influencing.
Genuine thought leadership is still actually quite rare. A 2022 literary review examined a selection of 47 recent marketing articles. These were all taken from credible sources like the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Interactive Marketing, and Marketing Science.
Of these 47, 41 covered influencer marketing in depth. Only 6 did so for thought leadership. No wonder so many people miss the essential differences:
- Thought leaders base what they say in facts, data, and evidence. Influencers have the freedom to be more subjective, or even speculative.
- A thought leader aims to inform and convince their audience. An influencer is as likely to try and inspire or entertain them; their impact is more abstract.
- Thought leaders want you to trust and respect them. Influencers mainly want you to like them or ‘follow’ them.
Yes, thought leadership requires skill to meet the goals of a mature business. But there’s good news too; your industry likely still has room for you to make a big impact and ultimately position yourself as the thought leader.
When well researched, intelligently planned and cleverly distributed, thought leadership can be your biggest marketing asset. All you need to do is get it right.