Now marketing has been about being memorable and trustworthy. Consumers prefer the brands they see the most. So if you’re running a business or just starting, ask yourself a question: do the audience treat you as just another brand or look at you as an authority?
Advertising and building a brand are excellent ways to establish yourself in any domain, but associating your brand with thought leadership will help you create authority. Thought leadership weaves all your marketing efforts into a beautiful yarn. When discussing its benefits, thought leadership helps increase credibility, improve SEO, and catch buyers' eyes for a business.
What is thought leadership?
Before looking out for the best examples of thought leadership, let’s understand what exactly is it. The best way to describe thought leadership would be “a strategy to share knowledge and gain credibility rather than just selling”. To elaborate, when a person or an organization puts themselves on a pedestal of being a “go-to source” or “expert” in any domain, apart from selling their products and services, they qualify as a thought leader. You can share your insights with your audience through written content, videos, seminars, webinars and more such platforms. It helps attract your consumers, impact buying decisions, and nurture customer loyalty.
Best thought leadership examples 2024
- Microsoft AI for sustainability
Microsoft always positioned itself as a pioneer for artificial intelligence, but in 2024, things took a different turn. The company’s focus shifted to AI-driven sustainability initiatives. By combining AI with environmental data, the company has helped many organizations reduce their carbon footprint, resulting in a more environment-friendly business model.
What’s the thought leadership initiative: The company put forward a front of a sustainable brand which is in high regard during this time.
- Beyond meat
Beyond Meat is building a strong narrative around sustainable food production. They are using data and science to promote plant-based food items on a global level. They have become a key contributor to the eco-friendly food innovation, advocating plant-based alternatives for non-vegetarian food.
What’s the thought leadership initiative: The company launched a “beyond protein” report that talks about sustainable practices, environmental benefits, and plant-based advancements. Collaborating with research organizations, beyond meat is actively sharing insights on the benefits of a plant-based diet for the environment and health as well.
- Stripe
Stripe is helping to shape the regulatory compliance landscape by offering resources to other businesses. This has made Stripe a go-to source for startups to navigate digital payment laws.
What’s the thought leadership initiative: Stripe has launched a “regulatory compliance hub” for fintech startups. Its main agenda is to provide guidelines, compliance kits, and best practices to help navigate the complex regulatory environment in digital payments.
- Coursera
Coursera is establishing its authority in digital learning by preparing the workforce for a future dominated by AI. The company is focussing hugely on future and career-oriented skills.
What’s the thought leadership initiative: With its initiative “future of work,” Coursera is publishing reports on job market trends. Their insights include gaps in the skillset, how AI is shaping industries, and how the current workforce needs to adapt to changes. This has helped organizations and individuals prepare better for evolving career landscapes.
- Slack
Slack is building itself as a business leader in employee collaboration and engagement with insights on hybrid work, flexibility, and transformation in the workplace.
What’s the thought leadership initiative: Slack’s initiative “Future Forum” involves studies, research papers, and events that provide solutions for modern work-life problems.
- Lemonade
The insurance industry runs by trust and Lemonade has broken the code for it. The company focuses on transparency and ethical AI to bring insurance services to the next level. They are popular for providing easy-to-understand resources and their customer-centric approach.
What’s the thought leadership initiative: Lemonade publishes “Transparency chronicles”, which is a resource explaining their practices, claim processes, and business model in layman's language. They are open about how their AI-driven claims work and have gained the trust of thousands of consumers.
- Shopify
Shopify has shown commitment to empowering and educating small businesses over the years. This has solidified their position as a thought leader in the e-commerce space. By providing valuable resources, online courses, and guidance to small businesses on how to navigate through the challenges of the e-commerce market, they have gained high regard as an e-commerce thought leader.
What’s the thought leadership initiative: Shopify’s “Compass” is a resourceful hub encompassing webinars, e-commerce tutorials, data-backed reports, and online courses. Whether you’re a merchant, partner, or vendor, Shopify has all the resources to help you thrive in the business.
Why do these leaders stand apart?
Why we have picked these organizations as the best examples of thought leadership? Let’s see how they redefine the traditional norms and set a different path in thought leadership:
- Has a deeper knowledge
Having a superficial knowledge of your domain will not set you apart as a thought leader; you need to dig deep. These thought leaders encompass a deeper knowledge of their industry, products, and trends, which lays the foundation of their insights. Learning is always a continuous curve. These leaders have picked niche ideas and continue to learn and explore them.
- A different perspective
Being a thought leader doesn’t mean that you have to innovate something or give a new theory every time you speak. Although, you must present a fresh perspective, beyond repeating what everyone else around is saying. Thought leaders can anticipate trends, monitor growth, and react to industry shifts. To truly become a thought leader, you are required to think big.
- Being Authentic
Authenticity is a pivotal quality of being a thought leader. People follow those who are genuine in their passion and remain committed to their cause. If you’re genuinely interested in what you do, only then you’ll be able to share ideas with your audience authentically.
- Communication
Effective communication is a major quality of being an influential thought leader. We have seen in all the examples given, how every brand has communicated its thoughts and ideas effectively through written or verbal communication.
What do we learn from these thought leadership examples?
If you’re planning on becoming a thought leader or promoting your brand through thought leadership, here are some applicable lessons that you can learn from the examples we discussed before:
- Always lead by example
These thought leaders not only introduced innovative ideas but also lived up to them throughout. We can see how Lemonade has built an insurance system that it truly believes in.
- Find a niche
Like how Coursera is focusing on AI-driven marketspace and preparing the workforce the same, you must also select a niche to make contributions. This doesn’t mean that you need to limit your interest, but you need to find a focal point to share your insights.
- Build authentic connections
You must engage your audience and build authentic connections to gain their trust and credibility. You can share your journey, vision, and hardships so that people can connect with you.
- Embrace changes
Combining your knowledge and futuristic tools can be a revolutionary move. We see how Microsoft has moved into a transformative AI space which has expanded its area of business. So, always be open to opportunities to learn new tools and techniques that will help you execute your ideas better.
Benefits of Thought Leadership
Now as we have discussed what thought leadership is, the best examples, and what you can learn from it. Let’s now understand why thought leadership has been the talk of the town recently.
- Build credibility
When you constantly answer the questions asked by everyone in the domain as a brand or an individual, it will build great credibility among the audience. By solving your target audience’s problems, you will be able to position yourself as a go-to person/resource in the niche.
- Expand your opportunities
Sharing your thoughts and bringing new insights consistently can help you expand your opportunities. As you will be able to connect to different thought leaders, organizations, and people in your industry.
- Influence your audience
Thought leadership gives you the power to persuade and impact buying decisions. As you gain access to a new audience, it depends on you how to influence them and convince them to use your product or service.
- Attract consumers
Thought leadership is definitely not a lead-magnet. However, building authority and credibility can help you generate more leads and even help in better conversion.
The competition in every domain is outrageous and building credibility in this digital age has become a prominent challenge. Thought leadership will help you stand apart from the rest of the crowd while building credibility among your audience
