3 Ways B2B Brands Can Maximize the Value of Thought Leadership
Thought leadership content is one of the most prevalent and potentially valuable investments that brands seek from communications professionals. However, both brands and marketers frequently make a number of missteps when it comes to understanding and maximizing the full value of this type of content.
For thought leadership to drive business, either the thought leader needs to engage in conversations around their content or hand the reins to someone who will. But marketers often fail to generate revenue from thought leadership because they do not strategically distribute their content in ways that grow relationships and therefore revenue.
To ensure that you’re not leaving leads and money on the table, marketers and brands need to work collaboratively to develop content from post to prospect: drafting differentiated content, actively engaging with the target audience in a two-way conversation, and prioritizing expertise over salesy language.
Write helpful, personal, and distinctive content
One of the main values of thought leadership content is that it adds specificity and personality to a brand by showcasing the differentiated ideas of its leaders. But many leaders and marketers miss the mark by limiting their content to weighing in on trending topics without contributing anything original or thought-provoking.
For example, a lot of ad/martech companies these days are starting to produce content about the metaverse. I'm not a metaverse skeptic; I've even written some of this content myself. But much of it shares a crucial flaw: its thesis or conclusion is some version of, "We don't know what the future will hold."
Specificity is the hallmark of great arguments. It's not off limits to acknowledge uncertainty. But you need to be specific about what's uncertain — in other words, articulate known unknowns. For example, you might note that brands are using NFTs to excite customers and add a new dimension to their loyalty programs. When describing the current and future marketing uses of NFTs, you might present data on their limited adoption so far and liken potential adoption issues to those of other technologies.
There's a huge difference between this acknowledgement of uncertainty about a specific aspect of NFTs' marketing applications and a piece that says something cliché like, "No one knows yet what the future will hold," or "The only certain thing in digital marketing is uncertainty." (These clichés are especially common in intros and conclusions — look out for them, and edit them out.)
When writing about emerging technologies (or anything else), keep it specific. Avoid generalizations and industry cliches. Thought leadership that doesn’t aspire to differentiate your brand with personal, memorable content will leave gains on the table.
Proactively connect with your target audience in a two-way conversation
Just having original, thoughtful content isn’t enough. Here’s the hardest part of transforming a thought leadership content strategy into new business: Even the best agency and most compelling writer can’t make a thought leadership campaign land sales on their own.
For thought leadership to drive business, leaders and marketers have to be active and strategic about making sure that their content lands in front of their target audience. This requires a collaborative effort: leaders need marketers to anticipate and speak to the questions, concerns, and desires of a targeted audience. But marketers too need the faces of the company to:
Post content regularly
Connect with target audiences
Engage with target audiences’ content and have conversations about their own content
The content itself is just the beginning: Thought leadership ultimately uses content to contribute to and invite relevant discussions in your industry as a route to forming more and new connections with your target audience. Those connections don’t happen automatically. They develop through mutual engagement: the kind of real back-and-forth that makes audiences feel like they’re taking part in a larger conversation, not just receiving lip service or empty branded content. This is why social channels are so key in developing a well-rounded content strategy: they provide a low-stakes platform for following up on the conversations sparked by more formalized earned media thought leadership campaigns.
Thought leadership content generates leads and sales by starting and maintaining conversations with prospects in a way that showcases your expertise and investment in your industry. But none of that happens if a writer creates great content and leaders just post it and forget about it. As for the agency or content team, it's their job to have honest conversations with thought leaders about distribution and figure out how the work will get done — not just produce well-written articles and call it a day.
Be helpful, and wait for the prospect to come to you to make a sale
Thought leadership writers face a central tension: They’re supposed to provide actionable tips related to their company/client’s space but without promoting the company. I see a lot of drafts that struggle to strike this balance — educating from a place of expertise without selling what their company does. What I suggest instead: Start by framing the argument around where the industry is heading.
So, it’s not: Brands need first-party data, and these tools (which my company sells — wink) will help them get it.
It’s: Brands need first-party data. This is hard due to privacy changes, the distance between the brand and the consumer, etc. Brands will tackle this by offering rich loyalty benefits, being more transparent about data collection, and giving the consumer more control over their data.
Maybe the client creates tools that allow the brand to do x, y, and z to solve problems a, b, and c. But in this framework, you’re not selling the tools that create loyalty programs or give the consumer more control. (Many writers make this mistake.) Instead, you’re explaining where brands will have to go — which, if it’s not just a repetition of the existing consensus (a different problem), will help marketers set goals.
How marketers reach those goals is up to them to research — and they’ll ideally do so on, say, your blog. But in the essay, you’re not selling. You’re clarifying problems and identifying solutions. If the thesis and advice really are original and informative, you’ll have an essay worth reading far beyond its promotional potential for the author’s business — in other words, you’ll have an essay that sparks the interest and conversation that draws the sales to you.
Tl;dr
When it comes to thought leadership that moves the needle on growth, writing great content is only the first step. Once you have your content, you need to proactively and consistently share it with your target audience. Then, you need to treat them like actual people, using appropriate platforms to engage with them in a two-way conversation. At that point, prospects will come to you, and with them, the sales and relationships that drive future growth.
