What Sets Thought Leadership Content Apart from Other Strategies?

What is thought leadership?

Thought leadership is the ability to convince an audience that an individual, business, or brand is an authoritative source and that it should be trusted by users and/or prospective customers.

Thought leadership can utilize speech, writing, or presentations in order to establish a trustworthy and reliable voice. Establishing your brand as authoritative is not only a way to outshine the potential competition, but it is also a way to ensure that your audience feels comfortable with the information they are receiving from you.

Types of thought leadership content

Choosing the type of thought leadership content that is right for your next campaign will greatly depend on the type of business you are promoting and your intended audience. Some of the most common types of thought leadership content today include:

• Inspirational content: Sharing inspirational images, stories, or interviews can help incentivize action and motivate changes.
• Educational content: Educational content is extremely important and adds value to any brand that promotes it.
• Opinion content: At times, it may even be valuable to add your own opinion to an article to help humanize your brand.
• Industry trends: Content that explores current industry trends also adds value to any brand while establishing an authoritative voice for your business.
• Industry research: Sharing industry research is another way to add value to your brand and to garner followers who are looking for reasons to follow and entrust your business.

How is thought leadership different from other strategies?

Thought leaders strive to take the lead of entire markets, not just their own businesses. Using thought leadership content marketing is extremely useful for both business leaders and anyone interested in establishing a professional and authoritative reputation within their industry. Becoming a thought leader is not an overnight process, and typically takes time, commitment, and dedication in order to do so in any market today.

Benefits of a thought leadership content strategy

Developing a thought leadership marketing strategy requires an understanding of the audience you intend to reach and the value you intend to add to your customers' lives. Learning the benefits that thought leadership content has to offer can help you determine which strategy is right for your own blog strategy.

Enhanced brand reputation and credibility

Value is the cornerstone of thought leadership articles, which is why it is imperative to have your company's digital marketing strategy in place before publishing any content. When you produce thought leadership content, you can quickly begin to establish a professional brand reputation as you boost your credibility, both online and locally.

Increased trust with your target audience

Gaining the trust of your followers as well as prospective customers is also an important aspect to keep in mind when marketing any brand with the use of thought leadership content. Whether you're interested in expanding your email marketing audience or your social media following, you can do so by presenting your brand's thought leadership content to your existing followers.

By sharing industry research articles, trends, and sourced pieces, provide your followers with peace of mind as they feel more comfortable entrusting your brand as an authoritative source.

Generate leads and increase sales

Another benefit of thought leadership content is the ability to increase the number of leads and sales you generate, resulting in a major spike in revenue.

After you have launched a successful thought content campaign, you will have a much easier time gaining the trust of users. Over time, the more thought leadership content you produce, the easier it will become to generate leads and sales with less manual labor.

How to create thought leadership content

Creating thought leadership content with curated content, social media channels, and even newsletter promotions can help establish any brand as authoritative and trustworthy.

However, creating thought leadership content is not the same as creating simple evergreen content or content that is designed to fit in with the latest trends or memes.

Knowing how to differentiate your thought leadership content from traditional marketing copy is key to a successful campaign, whether you are managing a large brand or a small eCommerce store.

Identify your target audience

Before you can begin crafting thought leadership articles, you will first need to identify your target audience and the demographics you intend to reach. Identifying demographics ahead of time can help to save time while also reducing the amount you spend on promoting the thought leadership articles you create. Identifying your target audience is possible by considering the following factors:

• Gender: Are you targeting a particular gender to increase overall engagement?
• Age: What age range are you interested in reaching?
• Location: Are you interested in targeting entire cities and states, or particular neighborhoods?
• Income: Will you be honing in on individuals based on their income level and the existing price point(s) of your own products and/or services?
• Interests: Are you interested in the hobbies of your users? If so, will you be using platforms such as Facebook Ads to target individuals by 'Liked' pages and specific interests?

Choose a topic

Select a topic that is most likely to resonate with your audience. Consider the demographics you are targeting and the type of issue or trend that is most likely to attract the attention of your followers or potential customers.

Conduct research

Conduct adequate research on the topic(s) you intend to share. Ensure that any information you collect is well-sourced and that found sources can be published for all to see.

Develop a unique perspective

If you are looking to increase sales and lead generation, you will need to develop your own strategy and a unique perspective on the topic(s) you intend to cover.

This is especially important if you are interested in ensuring that the topics you cover resonate on a deeply personal level with your target audience. Having a unique perspective can help to establish any business as authoritative while also working as a conversation starter and as an engagement increase booster.

Create compelling content

When crafting content for a thought leadership content strategy, it's important to do so by being as compelling, interesting, and unique as possible.

Creating informative content that cannot be found elsewhere is another way to establish your brand as an authoritative go-to source. If a user is unable to find the content they are looking for anywhere else online, they are much more likely to return to your website in the future or refer it to others that they know your way.

Promote and distribute your content

When it comes to content marketing, knowing how to effectively promote and distribute your content is half the battle. Even if you create the most compelling content available on the net, it may never take off or receive the views and clicks it deserves without a proper marketing and distribution strategy in place.

Knowing how to properly promote and distribute your content goes a long way when it comes to establishing any business or brand as a thought leader today. Some of the most common channels to consider sharing thought leadership content on include:

• Newsletters: Using newsletters (locally and online) to promote thought leadership content is a great way to establish any business or brand, regardless of your current industry.
• Social media: The use of social media is another way to quickly build your brand as authoritative and trustworthy. Social media platforms include Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and even TikTok, depending on the target demographics you are trying to reach as a thought leader.
• Official website: Using your official website is one of the best locations to share thought leadership content. Launching your own unique blog or using the homepage of your website can help top search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing to successfully crawl your website.
• Use hashtags and follow trends: Keep up with the latest relevant trends on your preferred social media platforms when promoting your latest thought leadership articles. Be sure to implement relevant hashtags that are also most likely to resonate with those who have a genuine interest in learning more about your business or brand.
• Post consistently: Whether you choose to create a regular newsletter or promote your thought leadership content via social media, be sure to do so on a consistent basis. Consistency is one of the most important elements involved in any successful thought content marketing strategy, both online and off.

Elevate your content strategy with thought leadership content

Discovering the powerful benefits of thought leadership content can come in handy with your next marketing campaign strategy. Whether you create content to incentivize engagement and drive sales or if you just want to spread valuable information, thought leadership content can have a significantly positive impact on any business or brand.

If you need help creating effective content or want to check out thought leadership content examples in real life, check out Mailchimp. With Mailchimp, you can learn how to easily manage thought leadership content to ensure each piece that you publish is fully optimized for maximum reach.