In the crowded space of content marketing, explaining concepts or sharing your insights is no longer a way to stand out. Many brands struggle with the challenge of creating a unique identity and building genuine connections amidst the noise. The problem is that generic content loses its relevance over time and is often lost in the crowd. This is where thought leadership content comes into the picture. “What is thought leadership content?” can be defined as positioning yourself as an authority while helping your audience navigate their most crucial problems will allow you to build a more meaningful relationship with them. With this blog, we will cover the steps to create thought leadership content that will differentiate you from your peers and also drive real engagement
Thought Leadership Content Strategy
Before sharing any thought leadership content, it is crucial to outline the path you will follow to build your content. Here is how you can get started:
1. Define your goals
The first step to your content strategy is to define your goals as “what you want to achieve” once you position yourself as a thought leader. Is your goal brand awareness, generating leads, or launching a new product? It will also help you measure the performance of your thought leadership content and create better strategies. These are the most common objectives that brands define from their thought leadership content:
Source: marketinginsidergroup
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2. Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is fundamental to any content strategy, and when we talk about thought leadership, it is no different. You need to understand the pain points of your audience, what motivates them, and what resonates with them. To help resolve this, you can get help from customer interviews or look up your social media to see how they are engaging.
3. Review Existing Thought Leadership Content
As long as it is important to be unique, it is also essential to check what your peers are doing. What are the platforms they are posting on, what content they are focusing on, what is the frequency, and what content is getting the most engagement? It will help you build a better-performing content strategy. Here you can learn how to do a competitor analysis in easy steps
You also need to understand what type of thought leadership content is available in your niche to create your own. It can be;
- Blogs
- Social media
- Company forum and communities
- Trade publications and journals
- Conferences
- Webinars and seminars
4. Create Valuable Content
Now the next step is creating content. Let us figure out how you can do that, but before that, this is the most common type of thought leadership content that is being created:
- Articles/blogs
- Video content
- webinars or events
- White papers
- Research
- eBooks
- Podcasts
- Data visualization
How do I generate content ideas?
When thinking about content creation, the major problem is “From where will I get topics” or “How can I figure out what to write?" Don’t worry, we got your back. Here are the approaches you can follow to create thought leadership content:
Approach 1: Best practices and solutions that didn’t work out
Everyone creates content around the “best practices” or “the ideal way to do it,” and a topic gets saturated after some time. What you can do differently is create content around why this “best practice” didn’t work out or what is the better way to do it. This will position you as a thought leader and help you build credibility among the audience.
Approach 2: Share your learning from a case study.
As an industry veteran, you are not only required to put your expert insights but also content that will resonate with your learning audience. This is where you should share your insights about your learning journey and how differently you look after concepts. For instance, if you are reading a case study, you may ask these questions to create thought leadership content:
- What didn’t work as per your expectations?
- What worked beyond your expectations?
- What are the learnings you will apply in the future?
These questions will help you create content around thought leadership.
Approach 3: Conduct original research and share results
Find a topic that you think is most intriguing for your audience, and then do your research. The quality of your study is directly proportional to the amount of data you are collecting. You can carry out this research on your own through Google Forms or LinkedIn polls if you have a great social presence and engagement. But if you do not have that, then you can take the help of professional agencies like the Editorial Institute to carry out the research for you. And afterwards, build content with the help of your findings.
Approach 4: Share the methods you used to achieve success.
Based on your experiences, try to create unique content that will help the audience solve any problem. For instance, Dan Martell introduced the “DRIP Matrix,” which solves the most common problem of his targeted audience. The framework talks about how valuable a task is in terms of money and energy and where you are investing your most time based on these quadrants shown below:
Source: samuelthomasdavies
It is always better to create a visually appealing framework or method that will attract your audience to try it out.
Approach 5: Share your insights on the latest industry trends.
You can also create content around the latest trends and insights of your respective industry. Sharing your insights and talking about the latest trends will also help you be relevant. For instance, AI and automation are transforming industries, and you can share your insights on how they are impacting your industry or field. You can also find trending topics using SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. This will work flawlessly if you want to create blogs. The Editorial Institute also provides expert infographic services that turn complex data into visually captivating and easy-to-digest narratives.
5. Content Production Process
Once you have figured out what you will write, it is important to figure out how you will write it. Once you are creating your content calendar, it is important to ask these questions:
- Does the thought leader write the content by themselves?
- Will it be ghostwriting?
- Do I need to outsource the content?
- Can I find any tools to create content?
Based on your business, choose the most feasible and effective method.
6. Distribute Your Content Effectively
Social media is an effective tool when we talk about reaching the masses. It helps your brand build credibility and authority. Here are the easy steps you can follow to leverage social media for your thought leadership content:
- Identify which social media platform has most of your targeted audience and start publishing aggressively.
- Build valuable content posts consistently; do not just sell.
- Engage with your followers or subscribers—respond to their comments.
- Try to focus on user-generated content.
Other methods you can choose to distribute your content are:
- Pitch it to journalists and media houses.
- Collaborate with non-competitive brands
- Collaborate with industry thought leaders
Let us turn your data into compelling stories that captivate your audience. Explore our tailored content strategy service today and achieve your business goals!
Thought leadership content examples
Let us see how these Giants have deployed thought leadership content to enhance their brand presence:
1. Hubspot
Area of interest: Marketing and Sales
Types of thought leadership content used: blogs, webinars, and research reports
Hubspot has mastered the art of engaging content with the help of blogs, research papers, and webinars. This approach involved regularly publishing educational content backed with thorough research and data.
- Monthly blog visits: Hubspot’s blogs attract 7 million visitors every month, making it one of the most visited blogs in the industry.
- SEO+ Thought leadership content strategy: It helped them to rank for 34,000 keywords, which drives a large chunk of organic leads.
- Inbound marketing: 75% of Hubspot’s leads come from only inbound marketing.
- Webinars: Hubspot webinars have a 67% conversion rate of converting webinar participants into relevant prospects.
- Reports: “The State of Marketing” was downloaded 150,000 times in 2022, which shows its credibility and value.
2. McKinsey and Company
Area of interest: Management consulting
Types of thought leadership content used: podcasts, industry reports, and whitepapers
McKinsey publishes industry reports, which also talk about the latest trends. For instance, the research paper “The Future of Work After COVID-19” provides comprehensive insights into the global trends to look out for.
- Industry reports: McKinsey’s “The Future of Work After COVID-19” was downloaded 100,000 times in 2021, showcasing its popularity.
- Podcast: The “McKinsey Podcast” ranks among the top 10 business podcasts in many countries and has around 1 million downloads across platforms like iTunes and Spotify.
- Corporate influence: As per the survey by the Financial Times, McKinsey reports are considered one of the top three trusted sources of business insights by 72% of Fortune 500 CEOs.
3. Simon Sinek
Area of interest: leadership and organizational culture
Type of thought leadership content used: books, TED talks, YouTube videos
How it helped: Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” has become one of the most-watched TED talks, offering a fresh perspective on leadership and purpose-driven business.
- TED Talk: Simon’s TED talk “Start with Why” has been viewed 60 million times on TED.com and has been translated into more than 40 languages, creating a global influence. TED
- Books: The book written by Simon “Start with Why” has sold 1 million copies and is still one of the best-selling books in the business. Also, it has been featured in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.
- YouTube Presence: His interviews are covered across multiple topics and have views in millions. For instance, one of his interviews, “Millenials in Workspace,” has 17 million views.
4. The New York Times
Area of interest: journalism and media
Type of thought leadership content used: investigative reports, opinion editorials
How it helped: The New York Times board of writers often writes about opinion pieces and investigative pieces on special issues, current political issues, and current events. They hold the power to influence the ideas of the audience. Their piece on “Climate Crisis” is a great example of it, which influences people on many levels positively.
- Reach of opinion editorials: The New York Times has over 10 million subscribers as of 2023, making it one of the most popular publications.
- Social media: The channel has around 55 million on Twitter and generates thousands of retweets on social, political, and economic topics.
Credibility: NYT has readers across 180 countries, with 78% of the readers showing trust in the accuracy.
5. SalesForce
Area of interest: cloud computing and CRM
Type of thought leadership content used: blogs, research reports, and webinars
How it helped: The major work of SalesForce includes “State of Sales” and “State of Marketing,” which provided insights into customer relationship management and digital transformation trends too. The papers were backed by strong research and data to help create actionable content and navigate ways to scale in the digital economy.
- SalesForce Blogs: the blogs have a great influence on social media channels like LinkedIn, having 2.7 million followers.
- Thought leadership content: The content by Salesforce has been cited in publications like Forbes, Business Insider, and Harvard Business Review, showcasing its credibility and influence on the market.
- Webinars: SalesForce regularly holds live webinars, which have an audience of thousands.
6. Neil Patel
Area of interest: SEO and Digital Marketing
Types of thought leadership content: blogs, video tutorials, and podcasts
How it helped: Neil Patel is a strong thought leader in the digital marketing space. His blogs, YouTube videos, and podcast “Marketing School” offer in-depth strategies and content strategy tips to help businesses improve their online presence.
- Audience reach: Neil Patel’s website has over 7 million visitors monthly. His content pieces have a profound dominance in the industry.
- YouTube Channel: He has a strong audience of 1.2 million on YouTube with an average engagement of 10 thousand to 50 thousand.
Thought leadership is just not another tool to increase the visibility of your brand; rather, it also helps foster valuable connections with your audience. With insightful content, you have a chance to outshine your competitors and create an identity, similar to the brands we talked about in this article.
If you are ready to elevate your thought leadership content game, then The Editorial Institute is here to help you out. Our research will help you create content, ensuring your voice leads any conversation.
