Short-form content, or posts, aren’t everything.
Yes, it works for entertainment. But if we want to engage thoughtful readers, we must present insights.
Content Marketing 201: Thought Leadership
I embrace the following definition of Thought Leadership.
“Thought leadership… a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience, and passion inside your business, or from your community, to consistently answer the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience on a particular topic.”
- What Is Thought Leadership? And When You Should Use It?
You can see the power of Thought Leadership when it is done correctly. At your best, you are reaching into the minds of your prospects, feeding them with important information, and influencing them towards a buy decision.
Thought Leadership is (actually) a business case in disguise.
And a well-constructed business case answers the pros and cons of the buying decision. How do we do that? By providing business knowledge our clients are not privy to.
What Makes a Good Thought Leadership Material?
It is important to identify the target audience for your Thought Leadership material. I refer to the identification of decision-makers.
You might think it is no different from social media content marketing because you can target specific audience groups with FaceBook, Instagram, and LinkedIn ads. I beg to differ.
There is a difference between targeting specific groups of the masses vis-a-vis decision-makers.
Consider the following.
Decision-makers represent the minority (in terms of headcount) in any organization.
It takes 1 NO from the decision-maker to negate 100 YES from stakeholders.
Decision-makers must make the purchase THIS or THAT call, given limited financial resources.
Decision-makers do not commit to a buying decision without in-depth analysis. They are responsible for good or bad outcomes.
Our Thought Leadership material must present foreseeable, tangible, positive outcome(s) for our target audience.
Therefore, we must draw upon our professional expertise to answer questions deeply relevant to their business today and tomorrow.
The Mechanics of Thought Leadership: Case Studies
I turn to Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg Businessweek for in-depth reads.
There are reasons for that. For one, I value credibility. I want to read about management material written by practitioners. I also want to know that what I am reading has been reviewed with due care by editors, publishing only top-notch material.
Secondly, I need not worry about fake content. I know what I get is based on experience and results.
Our YouTube Channel – Knowledge Topics
On our Youtube Channel, we produce content to uncover topics that permeate all walks of life. Our community can understand what it means to be in the trenches of our interest.
Here are some topics of interest we recorded with high viewership:
Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.).
Why we buy what we buy.
Mindset and Career.
Marketing on a Dime.
Green Technology.
Robotic Era.
Mental Health.
Our goal is to share our research with our community from a practitioner's standpoint.
Summary
Thought Leadership materials are hard to craft.
It requires us to go deep, share experiences, and present insights.
But, a well-crafted Thought Leadership material builds trust. And trust is the first step to getting deals.
The job of Bottomsup Perspective is to research, discuss, and share our findings so our community can grow with us.
This topic is one example of sharing our practitionership.
Do you believe in what we do?
If you do, push this big purple button.