Over the past year, content marketing and thought leadership have become popular catch-phrases. Try typing “#content marketing” into a Twitter Search and see how many results you get; this past Friday, the topic generated nearly 50 tweets in the span of an hour.
For B2B marketers – especially those of us who work with consulting firms, accounting firms
and IT service providers – thought leadership is nothing new. We’ve been using content (e.g., trend reports, market analyses, by-lined articles, podcasts, books and e-books, microsites) for years to build differentiation and visibility.
In the offline world, proprietary content has always been a valuable sales tool to start conversations, build credibility and open doors. In the online world, it has become a cornerstone of brand positioning and engagement.
Earlier this month, Gartner Group issued a news release on the benefits of Thought Leadership Marketing. In it, Gartner refers to the growing discipline of Thought Leadership Marketing (TLM), which analyst Rolf Jester defines as “giving away a little valuable intellectual property to establish your potential usefulness to [a] client in the expectation that the client will use your expertise and services.”
According to Gartner, Thought Leadership is a company’s sampling program. Just as packaged goods companies encourage customers to “try before they buy” by giving away samples, so too do thought leaders write articles and blog posts, give speeches, host webinars and participate in online forums. By so doing, they give customers a chance to sample their expertise. They offer a taste of the individual and/or institutional knowledge that they build into every product and service.
On its own, sampling is a valuable tool. It builds credibility and helps reduce the risk of buying – especially when what’s being sold is an intangible such as advisory services, analytics or protection products. But thought leadership marketing has additional advantages, which is why it’s also gaining popularity among a broad range of B2B and B2C companies (e.g., banks, consumer health companies, product companies, pharmaceutical/device manufacturers and retailers to name a few).
Among the top five benefits:
- Credibility: Thought leadership demonstrates your thinking and expertise. It’s a chance to showcase the “4 Ps” of Thought Leadership– i.e., predictive thinking, prescriptive advice and provocative yet prudent points of view. By offering up information, insights and ideas, you position yourself (and your company) as a trusted resource.
- Efficiency: Most companies sell more than one product or service. Typically, thought leadership cuts across products to address issues that impact multiple customer groups – issues such as regulatory change, demographic trends and emerging technologies. As a result, a single piece of content can generate visibility, awareness and engagement for several products. In one-on-one meetings and conferences, sales professionals can use findings from reports and studies as door openers with clients. And, marketers can repurpose the same content (in the form of reports, transcripts, articles, media quotes, videos) to drive online traffic to company websites and microsites.
- Engagement & Differentiation. Traditional marketing approaches are losing their impact. As a result, marketers are turning to thought leadership as a way to differentiate their products and services. Companies motivate customers with ideas and information. They start a dialogue in which they “engage with” prospects vs. “selling at” them.
- Searchability. Good content increases find-ability. As more companies launch mircosites and digital information hubs, the battle for readers/fans has become fierce. Search engine optimization (SEO) and link acquisition help you build a fan pipeline.
- Spreadability. Content and ideas are the raw material of social marketing. Nowadays, it only takes 10 fans (as Seth Godin reminds us) to make ideas and points-of-view spread. “Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it.…If they love it, they’ll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or perhaps just three).” Social networks are tailor-made for sharing content. Good ideas – i.e., blog posts, articles, videos, analyses – spread broadly and quickly.
Of course, ideas – like most things – vary in quality. Some are insightful and game-changing. Others are inconsequential. As more companies scramble to develop Thought Leadership, the playing field becomes increasingly competitive and the bar for originality rises. Sampling programs only work, after all, when quality levels are high.
For companies that meet (or exceed) the bar for high-quality content, Thought Leadership Marketing is an approach that sells.
Is your company using Thought Leadership to drive revenue? If so, what’s working well? What’s holding you back?
To reach Meg:
Phone: 212.840.0095
Email: meg@blisspr.com
Twitter: @megwildrick
LinkedIn: Meg Wildrick
02/10/2010 at 9:55 AM Permalink
Great thoughts. Thanks!
02/10/2010 at 11:19 AM Permalink
Hi Meg, a subject very close to my heart and you make some great points, some personal observations around thought leadership are:
It is important that those providing the content see the value it can create otherwise you can very quickly find yourself spending all day chasing people for a few hundred words, try to track the success of your content and celebrate internally when you get some traction.
Also remember that your C Suite are not your only potential thought leaders in your organisation, just because they lead your company does not mean they can produce credible content that everyone will listen to. IBM and Microsoft come to mind when I think of business that have facilitated the opportunity for staff at all levels to produce and publish content internally and externally. When putting together your thought leadership strategy have a think about who has the time to produce content and which audiences are you trying to influence. Management are likely to listen to management but an engineer is much more likely to listen to another engineer.
Be aware of self appointed thought leaders (HiPPO – Highest Paid Person’s Opinion is always a good one), as they may have a lot to say, but if they are not trusted or listened to by the people you care about, it can be written off as just more noise.
02/10/2010 at 8:25 PM Permalink
Your summary of the Gartner research is welcomed and timely. Many companies overlook the value of this important marketing asset because they under-value the authoritative role they actually play in the marketplace. I am struggling with this with one of my clients. I sent them your post this morning and this afternoon they said, “OK, now we get it.” Thanks for helping!
@markwschaefer
02/11/2010 at 10:30 AM Permalink
Mark, thanks so much for your comments. We’re delighted that you were able to put the post to good use! Agree 100% that many potential thought leaders don’t realize what they know — or how it could help others. Have always been inspired by the Robert Frost quote that: “half the world has something to say and can’t; the other half has nothing to say and won’t stop” (paraphrased). If we (collectively) as thought leadership marketers help the 1/2 with substance say what they have to say — credibly and understandably — our clients will benefit…and so will their customers.
02/11/2010 at 10:34 AM Permalink
Thanks Edward. Terrific point about the C-suite and self-appointed thought leaders. The word “leadership” often triggers folks’ hierarchy reflex. But original thinking (as you point out) doesn’t subscribe to job titles!
Great input.
02/11/2010 at 10:38 AM Permalink
Thanks Jessica. If you know of any organizations that are doing a particularly good job monetizing their thought leadership, please let us know. We’re in the process of gathering stories and metrics to prove the business case. We promise to share everything we learn.
02/20/2010 at 12:15 PM Permalink
Thank you for the great post. I especially like the efficiency post since it discusses how thought leadership typically cuts through some many product areas.
I do think that more product oriented firms are trying to add thought leadership as one of the key pillars of their strategic marketing plan. In my opinion, you shouldn’t have separate streams of marketing content and separate marketing budgets for TL vs other areas. They need to be integrated. TL and other content can work at all stages of the life-cyle of a customer. One way to avoid this is take a solutions marketing approach instead of viewing a goal or campaign as focused on a product, a service or thought leadership.
All the best, Mark
02/25/2010 at 5:59 AM Permalink
Hi Meg, good post. I agree with Mark, thought leadership needs to be integrated into every touchpoint of the marketing campaign.
I think the key lies you your wording ‘trusted resource’. Thought leadership is everything to do with trust – no matter what tactics you employ to take your thought leadership campaign to market, if it is not working towards positioning your brand/company as the trusted, ‘go to’ source for valuable insights, information or sector/topic experts then it is not going to work. Only when your publics trust you will they buy from you and better still refer you.