What is thought leadership? What does it mean to be a thought leader, how does it relate to content marketing and how can being one increase sales for your business?
Let’s Define ‘Thought Leader’
Wikipedia refers to it as “business jargon”. We shouldn’t take unsourced Wikipedia definitions as gospel and thought leadership is more than just jargon. Editor Joel Kurtzman coined the term ‘thought leader’ and referred to them as “the world’s most innovative and distinguished executives, authors, and academicians” in his 1997 book, Thought Leaders: Insights on the Future of Business. One of my industry favourites, Brian Clark from Copyblogger dislikes the term because it has a “guru status” to it.
In my view, thought leadership means being an authority on a subject by answering questions and solving problems that your audience has. Additionally, to be a thought leader in something you have to provide new, innovative, fact-based insight to your industry.
Are You A Thought Leader In Your Industry?
There’s one thing I always say whenever the concept of thought leadership comes up: Every subject can have a thought leader for it but not everyone can be a thought leader for a particular subject.
Think about that for a second. Then, ask yourself: Am I a thought leader in my industry?
Do people rush to you to get the latest news or knowledge on topics related to your business? Because that’s really what it comes down to. Your audience sets the bar for what you talk about as a thought leader. Your audience asks you the questions and it’s up to YOU to come up with answers using your unique perspective. But thought leadership doesn’t just develop overnight. Just like a house, you need to build it.
How Can Content Marketing Build Thought Leadership?
I’m a firm believer that actionable, resourceful content can not only help build your status as a thought leader but generate sales. People do research before buying and a lot of that is spent on the Internet. That’s the opportune time to build a relationship with them early in the buying process. If you can bring them quality content they can use and quality content more often, you’ll be able to start building and nurturing that relationship. So start a blog, write some ebooks and produce a few podcasts to begin. Then keep doing it.
Brand affinity and trust are key factors in buying. People want to trust what you have to offer and that trust is earned. You can earn that trust with publishing great content, at a consistent basis. The more quality content you offer, the more reputable you become. With a better reputation comes a stronger following of people where THEY will dictate what content you push out. They will ask you the questions and expect your expertise.
But let’s not forget - a thought leader has to START all this by publishing content they feel is relevant to their target audience and industry.
Through content we can nurture that relationship and get prospects closer to buying - largely due to your status as a thought leader.
How Can Thought Leadership Affect Your Sales?
If you’re looking to drive more sales (and who isn’t?), then it makes sense that thought leadership would increase your sales. For example, would you rather purchase inbound marketing software from Don Cherry or Rand Fishkin? If you know Rand and his company, Moz, you’ll know that he’s a thought leader in Search Engine Marketing. Don Cherry is not. You’d probably trust Rand more given that he writes blog posts, pushes relevant content and sells marketing software. He’s provided useful content and new insight to marketers that built trust and a passionate following. He established himself as a thought leader through the credible reputation he built. What are the results? He leads one of the industry’s most successful companies.
The bottom line with thought leadership is that you want to:
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Build and nurture relationships with prospective customers by engaging in industry-relevant conversations
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Become the source that people rush to for information relating to your industry
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Build brand affinity and trust so that customers come to you at purchase time
Relationship building is central to content marketing and thought leadership. Becoming a thought leader doesn’t just mean that one person in your company takes on the role as industry expert. You want everyone - your sales team, your operations team - to be experts in what your company specializes in. As I said earlier, not everyone will end up being thought leaders for your industry...but they can.
So take action by starting a company blog and blogging often. Start by producing ebooks and turning them into offers on your website.
Once you've done that, come back to this post and leave a comment on your progress.
Alternatively, if you're having trouble starting one, let us know. Start the discussion below!
About the Author:
Ramesh Ranjan is the Inbound Marketing Specialist at LocalTrifecta Internet Marketing, where he helps businesses across Metro Vancouver increase sales and revenue through Inbound Marketing. His marketing heroes are Marcus Sheridan, John Caples and John Carlton. In his off time, he can be found playing roller hockey in Richmond, blogging on his personal website, and at the top of the office hockey pool. You can follow and connect with Ramesh over Twitter and Google+
