58% of decision-makers have said that thought leadership has impacted their decisions to choose a company’s products or services over competitors. This makes it important to design a thought leadership market strategy that will help build trust and credibility for a brand or an individual. With an effective strategy, brands can drive loyalty, generate leads, and build trust.
But how do we create a thought leadership marketing strategy that fosters growth? With this guide, let’s understand the essential steps to be followed to build an effective and powerful thought leadership marketing strategy.
Meaning of thought leadership marketing
Thought leadership is a way or method wherein businesses or individuals position themselves as experts in the domain. They provide value and knowledge by sharing insights, research, and other perspectives. In this competitive market, thought leadership will help in building long-lasting relationships with customers. Thought leadership can position your brand as a go-to resource for information and valuable insights.
So now let’s understand the fool-proof plan of building a perfect thought leadership marketing strategy.
Steps to follow for perfect thought leadership marketing strategy
Step1: Define your goal
Until you know your goal, you cannot decide which way to go. The stepping stone for any successful thought leadership marketing strategy is to define the goals and purpose behind your thought leadership initiative. You can ask these questions yourself to find out:
- Do you want to drive awareness?
- Will you educate the market?
- Do you want to build stronger industry relationships or build customer loyalty?
The answers to these questions will define your goal about thought leadership and also understand your audience in a better way.
Use case- Global: LinkedIn B2B Market strategy.
LinkedIn is now widely known for its B2B content and has built a strong thought leadership platform. The institute conducts thorough research on B2B content to promote the platform and drive conversions. With strategic partnerships with academic and industry leaders and by educating the B2B industry, LinkedIn has positioned itself as an expert in the B2B market space.
Use case- India: TCS, a leading Indian IT services company, has established itself as a thought leader in digital transformation. They identified various decision-makers in many industries as their target audience and produced content to rectify their problems.
Takeaway: Identify a focus area that matches your expertise and your audience’s needs so that your content resonates with your audience.
Step 2: Find a niche and have a Unique Selling Point
Now, once you have gained clarity on your goals and audience, it is time to identify the topic you will be focusing on. An effective thought leadership strategy focuses on industry-relevant, unique topics and provides fresh perspectives on those. You can select these areas as well:
- Topics that reflect your brand expertise
- Where the industry is evolving or lacks clarity.
Case Study- Global: Hubspot inbound marketing strategy
Hubspot is one of the pioneers in inbound marketing. By producing blog posts, whitepapers, and research papers, Hubspot has redefined marketing tactics and moved away from outbound methods. This conversation has helped many brands approach their marketing strategy differently. This unique selling point has given them the authority to be one of the most prominent thought leaders in the marketing field.
Case Study- India: Infosys, a giant in India's tech market launched “Digital radar”. This annual report assesses the digital maturity of companies globally. By providing unique insights, the company has established itself as a thought leader, offering valuable perspectives.
Takeaway: Don’t run behind doing what everyone’s doing. Find out unique topics or gaps in your industry and try to fill those.
Step 3: Develop high-quality content
If you let your ideas float around without solving people’s problems, you have a faulty thought leadership marketing strategy. To create a successful marketing strategy, you are required to give actionable insights and real-world applications to your audience. Your content must be deep enough to educate your audience but at the same time needs to be accessible. Here’s how you can polish your resources:
- Invest in research, case studies, and relevant studies in your field.
- Regularly push quality content to engage your audience and check on the feedback always.
Case study- Global: McKinsey and company’s reports
McKinsey and Company has established itself as a thought leader by producing high-quality content that is backed by relevant data and statistics. McKinsey is trusted worldwide by leaders for actionable recommendations and guides. These reports do not talk about a topic superficially but go into depth covering all aspects. This helps the audience to gain a broader perspective on a topic.
Case Study- Indian: Wipro publishes a “state of cybersecurity report” every year to share insights on cybersecurity trends, threats, and best practices. With high-quality content, the company has established itself as a trustworthy resource in the cybersecurity industry.
Takeaway: Original research will always help you stand apart from the crowd. When you present information backed by data, it is always valuable in the eyes of your audience.
Step 4: Diversity in your content format
A well-structured thought leadership marketing strategy contains diverse channels for content production. You should always have a mix of resources like blogs, whitepapers, videos, podcasts, webinars, and social media. Here is what you can explore:
- Long-form content like whitepapers, research papers, blogs, and case studies are great for in-depth explanation.
- Short-form videos or infographics work amazingly to make any complex topic simpler.
- Interactive formats like live webinars and Q and A sessions will help engage with the audience and connect better.
Use case- Global: Gary Vaynerchuk’s diverse content approach.
Gary, who launched the first online liquor store, has utilized the content variation approach to its fullest. At the moment he has 10,312,521 followers on Instagram, 4.51 Million subscribers on YouTube, and a LinkedIn channel growing at the rate of 0.6% every day. He has built a strong personal brand by sharing his thoughts and ideas consistently on various platforms like podcasts and social media posts. He has reached a much wider audience while keeping his message the same.
Use case- India: HCL employs an omni-channel content strategy. The company takes the help of blogs, webinars, podcasts, and social media platforms to drive engagement. The company also has a trends and insights section on its website, covering topics in-depth.
Takeaway: Experiment till you hit the jackpot! In the beginning, don’t limit yourself to a single platform. Focus on the primary platform where your target audience is and for everything else, just repurpose your content.
Step 5: Work on building a community
Thought leadership thrives where it is backed by a strong community. You must focus on building a community where your audience feels secure, valued, and involved in activities. You can foster better communities by:
- Create posts on social media that help the audience to ask questions and invite feedback.
- Host live events like webinars or workshops that will help people to interact with you and your brand.
Use case- Global: Harvard Business Review’s Reader Community
Harvard Business Review has built a strong community by consistently sharing quality content and engaging with the audience on social media. People interact with Harvard Business’s posts and drop their insights too. This has resulted in thought leaders turning to the institute for insights on numerous topics.
Use case- India: Zoho is a great example of building community. The company engages its audience through community forums, social media channels, and user groups. With consistent engagement and feedback, Zoho has managed to build a strong and loyal community.
Takeaway: Don’t treat your thought leadership as a monologue wherein you will deliver and people will receive. It is a conversation, wherein people will take part to drop their insights, join discussions and learn from one another.
Step 6: Always collaborate
Credibility is the essence of being a thought leader and it is extremely difficult to earn it especially when you’re starting off. When you’re defining your goals, ensure you do not skip building credibility among your audience. Collaborating with fellow influencers, leaders, and organizations is a great way to improve your reach and enhance your credibility as a thought leader.
Use case- Global: Microsoft collaboration with OpenAI
Microsoft’s collaboration with OpenAI not only fostered advancements in the field of AI and ML but also elevated both companies' thought leadership in AI and ML. By conducting joint research, presentations, and co-authored research papers, these companies have positioned themselves as a responsible voice for AI development and future technology.
Use case- India: Mahindra Group collaborated with sustainable business consultants and environmental scientists for its corporate social responsibility initiative. This involves carbon neutrality and electric mobility solutions. With this collaboration, the company has positioned itself prominently as an innovative and responsible leader in sustainability.
Takeaway: Collaborating with influential people can expand your reach. Search for organizations or people who have the same brand values and add uniqueness to your content.
Step 7: Analyse and refine your strategy
Effective thought leadership is an evolving process. Therefore, it is important to analyze your marketing strategy regularly to see how it is benefiting you. You must set your KRAs to define their success and tweak how they deliver the most results.
Use case-Global: Cognizant data-driven thought leadership
Cognizant, a global technology consultant firm analyses its thought leadership strategy regularly. They define success by sharing and engaging with the audience, and formats that are performing the most.
Use case- India: Reliance has taken a data-driven strategy to maintain its online presence in various sectors. The company tracks engagement rates, social media shares, time spent on the website, and many other parameters as such. Based on this data, reliance constantly refines its content to meet the audience’s evolving needs.
Takeaway: Analyse your strategy regularly and make data-driven decisions for the best results.
End note
Developing a thought leadership strategy is a dynamic process that requires clear goals, an understanding of the audience, and timely delivery of content. Now make sure to follow these steps to develop your content marketing strategy.
