Thought leadership is the delivery of authentic and genuine content that leverages the expertise, insight, and experience of the author, with the goal of sharing that wisdom with others.

Thought leadership - when done right - can be an excellent way to reinforce your brand and enhance your ...

• Define your goals and audience
• Review existing thought leadership in your niche
• Explore the various communication channels in your industry

Incorporating thought leadership into your wider content strategy can help you to:

• Establish the...

Identify what exactly you want to achieve.

To do this, consult your existing marketing goals, and consider how thought leadership can help you achieve each one — if indeed it can.

For example, if your goal is to raise awareness of your brand (and the solutions it’s offering), the...

Clearly define who your audience is. These people would be aligned with your buyer persona(...

Do the research and see what thought leadership already exists in your niche.

Explore the various communication channels in your industry, such as:

• Online forums and communities
• News resources (online and offline)
• Trade publications and journals (online and offlin...

It’s a good idea to build out a roster of thought leaders. Think about the key experts working in your company. Here are some aspects to look at:

Alignment with your brand and its values. If your thought leaders are not firm believers in what your brand is all about, and ar...

Sources of Ideas for Thought Leadership Content:

• Your/your thought leaders’ unique experience.
• A strong opinion embraced in your company that goes against the industry norm.
• Unique data and statistics you can access due to the nature of your business.

Our study shows that articles remain the most popular thought leadership content format (91,4%), followed by video (44,1%), webinars/events (36,2%), white papers and research (33,2%), ebooks (29,9%), podcasts (21,7%) and data visuzalitions (20,7%).

There are a few things to bear in mind:

Giant, well-known organizations with extensive resources tend to organically become thought leaders in their sectors. And yet, thought leadership is all about you creating value, building knowledge, and taking a stand. Small businesses and startups with strong ideas and experienced leaders have t...

Since thought leadership is all about sharing knowledge and unique opinions, there’s no reason why it can’t (and shouldn’t) work in B2C. The rules are the same: make sure you understand your customers, do some research, be genuine and deliver valuable information

Strategies and tactics around the distribution and promotion of your thought leadership content — and any valuable content, for that matter — a...

Thought leadership is about creating a conversation, so ensure that you follow through and engage directly with the communities, leaders, players, and influencers that are discussing your piece. 

In a larger organization, you may have brand or reputation management personnel that can handle...

As with any tactic, it’s important to measure the performance of your thought leadership marketing. 

Organic traffic is the key benefit of producing thought leadership content (81,4%). Besides, a big proportion of companies also manage to boost social media following/engagement (64,9%), and...

Thought leadership requires authenticity, deep expertise, and ideas that strive to challenge the conventional way that things are done. To communicate all of this effectively, it needs to take the form of high-quality content on topics that are relevant, and that your audience really cares about....