Thought Leadership FAQs

WHAT IS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP MARKETING?

In the course of my conversations with CEOs / Founders / Directors I get a lot of questions about Thought Leadership Marketing.

I decided therefore to create an FAQ and I trust that this will be useful regardless of whether Thought Leadership is right for your company or not, or right for you right now.

In the context of Marketing, Thought Leadership refers to the publishing of Long-Form materials (either online or offline) which authentically share great and original ideas / thinking without pushing for instant Sales. It is an intentional strategy for growing Brand Recognition & Respect in a way which is more in line with the natural customer journey than is overt advertising or self-referential advertorial (company horn-tooting). It can be undertaken generically via a company but in my view is most powerful when written (or, often, ghostwritten) under the name of the CEO, Founder or Key Directors, and especially where these have original insights or an unique charisma or ‘voice’.

Ultimately, the fundamental reasoning behind Thought Leadership Marketing is that people (whether that be direct consumers or the Decision Makers at potential future Client-Firms) learn to trust Brands over time through the fact that they authentically share useful information without any intention of immediate gain (as opposed to intention-grabbing immediate pleas for Sales, which is ultimately what Advertising amounts to). And frankly, why wouldn't they? It is a very natural Sales journey. As such I would also suggest that Thought Leadership undertaken cynically may not produce optimum results.

In addition my honest view with 25 years' experience is that Thought Leadership Marketing is not for everybody and is not for every company. Companies with easily comprehensible, wholesome and straightforward values such as customer service and specialist expertise may not in fact benefit from Thought Leadership marketing to the degree that would be required to make it worth their while. For example, specialists in specific areas of building services may well be better served with conventional marketing.

Thought Leadership Marketing however remains the Exemplar Marketing for companies, or CEO's of Companies, who want to grown Brand Prestige on the basis of a Brand or Company Ethos that is driven by more than a Bottom Line and conventional basic service values.

At SLTLA we also take a broad view of what Thought Leadership materials are than many corporate agencies do but agree that it can include:-

White Papers, Ideas-Driven E-Books & other in-depth, research-backed publications;
Long-form in-depth ‘content’ (although I dislike the term) and other online ‘deep-dives’ which are authentic and ideas driven;
‘Newsletters’, in-house magazines (where these are editorial-quality and scarcely refer to the company itself but rather provide helpful or insightful ideas);
Quality self-published books if they share ideas rather than just company projects; full-length books published by conventional publishing houses - these can be especially prestigious but also require especially well thought-through proposals (see below);
Videos / podcasts etc. if these are sharing ideas (being editorially trained this is not my area but we might consider this as part of broader Strategy and recommend you seek a multimedia specialist);
Blog Series – where the blog is both in-depth and meaningful – on this note be aware that Search Engines are now penalising shorter-form content (which they term ‘shallow’ or ‘thin’ content) in favour of deep-dive Long Form material.

Unlike many agencies we also perceive conventional publishing via existing reputable publishing houses and sector journals as exceptionally powerful forms of Thought Leadership (especially in conjunction with a broader strategy / campaign). Some see these, rather, as 'PR' but for myself they are not only central to Thought Leadership (if they are ideas-driven and not merely talking about the company) but also the most effective and prestigious channels since they are in effect peer-reviewed and retain great caché. As such we also define Thought Leadership Marketing as including:-

Full-length books authored by company CEOs/Directors (usually in collaboration with a ghostwriter) and published through a conventional and respected publishing house. In my view, this is the single most powerful form of Thought Leadership due not only to the pre-existing prestige and credibility, but also the promotional opportunities which follow via interviews, book reviews and the like;

Conventional publishing in industry journals, if the features are driven by concepts rather than talking self-referentially about the company’s work. Again, the only reason I can see why the ideation, writing and placing of conventional editorial features are not included in some agency remits are that it is already being handled separately as ‘PR’ – but this disconnect can undermine the central message which should underlie all Thought Leadership activities, including conventional publication. In fact, repeatedly publishing conventionally in sector journals on the same area of expertise is one of the most obvious and straightforward ways to connect a company in people’s minds to a particular expertise and for me, is a critical plank of strategy which should be undertaken strategically in conjunction with other avenues.

Any endeavour which shares company’s Intellectual Property or Innovation (in a way that doesn’t damage profits or give away secrets, obviously!) is also by definition Thought Leadership.

IS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP MARKETING THE SAME AS ONLINE CONTENT?

No. Or at least not in my book (pun intended). Offline conventional corporate publishing (books and features) can certainly be a central plank of any Thought Leadership Strategy. Equally, Thought Leadership need not always be online. In addition not all Content is Thought Leadership, and in a sense, the problem is right there in the word ‘content’ itself. As I wrote in a piece in the debut edition of our in-house News Digest the STOCKtake, I challenge you to find a leading French vineyard that refers to its finest vintage as ‘wineglass content’. How do you want your finest Thought to be received? Nonetheless very many ill thought through and unnecessary Thought Leadership campaigns included blogs that, themselves, were pretty much nothing but 'content' - i.e. they were written for no other purpose than to exist, and were often farmed out to amateur writers. This is nobody's fault, of course, but merely reflects the fact that many companies who would never have benefited from Thought Leadership were sold somewhat of a myth. Which is not to dismiss the immense value of Thought Leadership marketing to the companies for whom it was intended.

ARE WE ALREADY DOING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP?

If you or your company are already writing and publishing Long Format and ideas-driven features or materials, then yes. However, if you are really only talking about your own work or projects, then that is not Thought Leadership, rather it is conventional self-promotion / PR. If what you are saying is not fundamentally helping people irrespective of a Future Potential Sale, then it may be many things and it may boost your Stats - but it is not Thought Leadership.

However if your features / long-form Posts are providing genuine ideas to readers whom you don’t expect to purchase from you immediately, then yes, you are certainly already undertaking Thought Leadership. The questions then become:

Is it working? In what way is it working?
Is it being undertaken strategically or ad hoc?
Is there a central message underlying all avenues? Is there something important you want to say? Does your business drive change?
Is it standing out from the crowd? Is it compelling to readers or simply yet more adequate but dry corporate material that can hardly be told apart from that of your competition? Do people even remember it after they have read it? Is it emotionally engaging them?
Will it still stand out in a couple of years’ time when AI use becomes more prevalent and near-anyone can 'do' pseudo-Thought-Leadership?

IS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP NECESSARY? IT SOUNDS COSTLY WITH NO INSTANT GAINS

Of course no specific marketing technique is necessary … and you are quite right: there are few instant gains. If you are Desperately Seeking Sales (to paraphrase) then Thought Leadership is not going to help you in the next Financial Quarter, possibly not even in the next two. But you have a 1-Year Business Development Plan and a 5-Year Growth Plan. Where are the 1-Year and 5-Year Thought Leadership Plans?

B2B (and complex or costly B2C) clients / customers don’t become so overnight or because of a single Ad. For affordable consumer products, it is not a big deal to try out a new product on a whim – but in B2B (or B2C in, say, the Investment world) – there is significantly more at stake. As such clients / customers approach only after associating (over time) a company, individual or brand with a solid reputation for expertise. As such, Thought Leadership mirrors the natural Customer Journey. If it doesn’t work overnight, that’s largely because Clients don’t trust overnight - but why should they?

Sometimes the problem is not so much Customers / Clients as peers. I have read of at least one company (not a personal client of mine, merely a good example) who were financially successful but, for some reason, were not being taken seriously in their industry. Ultimately the CEO wrote a book and, successfully received, the company finally gained the credibility it deserved.

Certainly, the effectiveness of Thought Leadership material (especially offline material) can be difficult to measure (at least with digital, analytics provide data) since unless a client openly tells you how they know you and why they have approached you (or you ask them), it can be difficult to find out who is reading your material, how it is perceived and whether it is 'converting'. And this lack of stats can be seen as a reason not to do it at all. Yet it must also be borne in mind what I call the Cost of Loss here - what happens if you simply don't bother but your competition does?

Too, I’m often astounded with B2B services at how much time and money is spent on very short-form 'content' (by which I mean Social Media such as X – formerly Twitter) and the gathering and peacocking of the Stats thereof. I have strong doubts about the ROI for Social Media for B2B companies (I feel it has much more use for B2C companies) but it can be rather feel-good and look great in reports simply because engagement can be measured more easily.

By contrast, I’ve watched companies regularly publish in-depth features sharing expertise (and in conventional industry journals – so no cost at all other than that of the writer) and quietly build a reputation in the areas on which they focus and also, equally quietly, continue to win Contracts in those areas over and over again. To those who are too impatient for this strategy, all this Contract-winning may look like a miracle or mere coincidence. So you might also want to consider the cost associated with NOT doing effective Thought Leadership over time.

At the end of the day it’s truly a judgment call as to which marketing activities you feel are most ultimately useful in relation to how you want yourself and your company to be perceived long-term.

DO I NEED TO HAVE A STRONG IDEA BEFORE WE TALK TO A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AGENCY?

It depends. For me, I would say it tends to help but only because it takes more meetings at the outset when the ideas are very scattered, which can slow down the process. Still, I’ve scarcely met a CEO or Company Director who didn’t have some interesting and innovative ideas (do people without ideas found companies? Rarely!), or come across a company where there was nothing original about their working methods. Usually the problem is, rather, one of either,

Lack of articulation. The thoughts and ideas are there - almost inherent - but not quite fully articulated verbally.
What Knowledge Managers call Tacit Knowledge. The company is doing things differently and innovatively but nobody has realised! They haven’t articulated even to themselves that it is different. Interestingly, once these are articulated there is sometimes a further bonus – where entire new Service Offerings can be created.

Having said that, you probably want to be an ‘Ideas Person’ or you simply won’t enjoy the process of creating Thought Leadership material. If that’s the case, delegating to your Marketing Team and having them work with a more corporate agency will likely be a better option. It likely won't be as unique but it still has benefits, and working with me simply won't suit you if you’re not genuinely passionate about 'talking ideas' or feel you don't have time to discuss them.

DO YOU WORK ON ALL SUBJECTS?

When it comes to ideation and / or actual writing, I try to work only in areas in which I have a degree of specialist knowledge – please see the Specialisations Page for more information (as well as my Biog). However for Strategy Consultations and/or Strategic Plans I am able to work more broadly because the basic fundamentals of Thought Leadership Marketing are applicable to all sectors.

Specialisations