Thought Leadership is a powerful communications strategy for building a strong brand and generating both inbound interest and customer loyalty.

Although most commonly used when marketing innovative, technology-based solutions, Thought Leadership can be an effective strategy in more competitive markets, too.

There are three primary benefits making the case for Thought Leadership:

Perhaps most important, Thought Leadership can be a highly effective tool for establishing a vision of a solution (a term from my Solution Selling training days) in the minds of potential buyers, helping them pull you through their buying process.

Innovators and Early Adopters in the early stages of the Technology Adoption Lifecycle naturally gravitate to Thought Leaders and typically become a startup’s first customers.

Sign me up! you say. But think again. Being a Thought Leader isn’t necessarily for everyone.

It’s Not About You (Do You Really Want to be a Leader?)

Importantly and somewhat counter-intuitively, Thought Leadership is not about you. It is about what you can do for others.

A genuine Thought Leader is someone who shares expertise, perspective, methods and knowledge, often for free, to help others do better at their jobs, solve problems and be successful.

Traits of the Thought Leader:

You have valuable expertise to share.
You are honest and care about the success of others.
You are not trying to sell your product or service every time you offer your thoughts.
You don’t care what you look or sound like – you’re a champion of ideas and not seeking personal celebrity.

The role of the Thought Leader is to educate and inform, not just to promote.

Most people can quickly sniff out a self-interested fake, which can quickly backfire on a would-be Thought Leader who is exposed as a common huckster. That does not mean you can’t grow a successful business with shameless commercials, just know that is not Thought Leadership.

Thought Leaders are easy to reach. That means sharing your contact information and being readily available to respond to emails and social media comments. If you are afraid of being “spammed” and do not want to be open to unsolicited pitches, then maybe Thought Leadership is not right for you.

Just be honest with your motives, and then decide if Thought Leadership is right for you.

Okay, at this point I have probably lost half the audience!

If after reading all that you are still here and want to try your hand at becoming a Thought Leader, then read on.

Establishing Thought Leadership

Good, you are still here! Now, let’s turn to how to become a Thought Leader.

If the goal is establishing Thought Leadership, then Content Marketing the strategy for achieving it.

“Content” is a very big umbrella under which can be found a wide variety of communications including:

White papers
Case studies
Videos
Infographics
Research papers
Journal articles
Public speaking engagements
Podcasts
Videos
Blogs
Books
Media placements
Op/Ed pieces

All of these content types are useful for communicating your message, and most effective when used in combination. Leverage the content types that fit your style, time availability and budget and then be consistent with your communications program.

Example: A good example of a Thought Leader is Parker Walbeck with Fulltime Filmmaker. Walbeck’s YouTube channel is one of the best sources of videography expertise around, and it is all for free. If you want to get more in-depth, he does offer online courses at the Fulltime Filmmaker website. YouTube, where people share videos, is the perfect platform for showcasing expertise on making videos!

But wait, isn’t every one of Walbeck’s free videos a sales pitch for his paid courses? Doesn’t that make him a huckster? No, not really, and here is why. Each of his videos is a standalone piece and not a thinly veiled infomercial. After watching one of his videos, you are going to gain valuable knowledge on how to do something important and walk away a better videographer. You do not have to buy a course to get something useful out of his free content.

Proof that Parker is a Thought Leader is the fact that I’ve mentioned him in this piece. We have never met in person, and I have received no compensation from him, yet here I am singing his praises.

Commit to Content

Thought Leadership requires a long-term commitment. You can’t just pen an op/ed piece and expect the world to beat a path to your door.

Establishing yourself as an expert requires a long-term commitment to publish content, your perspectives and works, sometimes over a period of years…and it never stops. Genuine Thought Leaders cannot imagine stopping their efforts to share, it is in their DNA.

Where does the content come from?

Some people are just natural fountains of creativity and ideas. They always have something to contribute, and they thrive on sharing knowledge, expertise and experiences. For them, Thought Leadership is natural, because their friends, family and customers typically look to them first for their perspective on things. The founder, CEO, a key executive or even a mid-level manager may fit this description.

Others are not naturally so creative or inquisitive. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Thought Leadership is out of reach for their company, it simply means that strategy execution will need to be a well-organized group effort. In the case of someone who fits all the requirements of a Thought Leader, but is too busy to devote time to a communications effort, expertise will need to be sourced from the team. It may be that an introverted engineer in R&D is the expert, but content writers and executives are needed to package the expertise into content.

Your Role as a Marketer

Most of the time, Thought Leadership driven from the top, as an influential founder or executive chooses to pursue the strategy.

As a marketer, your role is to bring order to the chaos and organize the Thought Leadership effort into a repeatable workflow to ensure consistency, frequency and quality of communications. Process is your friend.

Consistency is your other best friend. Every Thought Leadership piece needs to be consistent with your Brand DNA, and part of your role is to be the gatekeeper and alert your team to the potential risks of publishing a particular message.

If you are trying to get buy-in from the top for a Thought Leadership strategy, you have a more difficult job than someone working in an organizational culture that naturally embraces it. As mentioned earlier, Thought Leadership is not for everyone or every company.

Why It Matters

Thought Leadership can be a powerful strategy for marketing your company and solutions, but as noted above not everyone is cut out to be a Thought Leader. If the approach is a good fit for you and your organization, then we encourage you to embrace it fully and share your wealth of knowledge with the world!

Benefits:

As a Thought Leader, you become influential and are seen as someone who can solve problems. That can improve inbound interest in your company and its solutions.
Thought Leadership is very potent at the early stages of the Technology Adoption Lifecycle and helps you stand out with the Innovator and Early Adopter audiences.
It is not for everyone. If you can not bear sharing your knowledge and expertise “for free,” then avoid this path. Being easy to reach is a downside, because you will necessarily receive a lot of unsolicited pitches (there are some methods to avoid this, BTW).
A commitment to ongoing content development is essential for establishing Thought Leadership. If you do not have the time, find a qualified marketing agency or individual who can help establish and manage a workflow to ensure a steady stream of ideas and content.

Let’s Talk! Schedule a free 30-minute Digital Marketing consultation to see if there is a fit between your marketing challenges and our capabilities.

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About Prism Group

Prism Group is a full-spectrum, multi-talented B2B agency focused on Energy Tech, Technology, Energy, Services and Media markets. We Tell Stories That Matter, because our clients are working to change the world for the better. What makes us different is that we put into action the strategies we recommend – we get it done, so you can get results and increase the value of your business.