On Words and Business

Thought leadership is not:

• Same old, same old. It isn’t taking an existing idea and calling it leadership.
• Ordinary. It isn’t saying the same thing everyone else is saying.
• Small. It isn’t shyly whispering your ideas into someone’s ear.
• Safe. It isn’t standing still under the shelter of how you’ve always marketed.
• Trite. It isn’t looking to the past and recycling content without adding something fresh.

Read this article to discover what thought leadership is and how you can lead the conversation.

Some questions to ask yourself about anything you want to call thought leadership:

1. Am I saying something new?
2. Is this important to share?
3. Can I take a stand or take a risk?
4. How innovative is this?
5. What is the vision?

Or should I say where is the big idea.

As this article referring to marketing of IT services suggests, thought leadership and sharing ideas with customers requires a plan. It also requires taking your readers by the hand and leading them where you want them to go, step by step. Don’t just put content out there. Help them want to find it and want to understand it.

What are the big ideas you want to share with your audience? Where do you want them to go with you? How will you encourage them to come along for the ride?

How has the customer changed?

• Customers will hunt for the best content to address their needs. The company is now the prey.
• Customers will market your company for you, if you give them quality content.
• Find the influencers in your customer base–they are the ones to reach first and most often.
• Content available online helps create an online community–always open.

Thanks to Tim Parker for these rules of content marketing.

How does your content marketing campaign fit with the 3 stages of buying?

A few thoughts:

1. Identifying the problem

• Whitepaper discussing the nature of the issue and a resolution
• Case study showing what challenges previous customers faced
• Ebook sharing thought leadership about the industry and common challenges

2. Identifying the solution

• Enewsletter with brief case studies showing how customers have resolved the problem
• Webcast answering typical customer questions
• Whitepaper discussing the nature of the issue and a resolution

3. Identifying the right solution

• Podcast with one of your subject matter experts talking about the benefits of your solution
• Online video showing your product in action
• Case study of customer who tried many solutions before finding yours

Seth Godin on the benefits of educating your customers.

The bottom line: “…sooner or later, the inevitability of information spreading works in favor of those that bet on it.”

Are you ready to make people smarter?