The best thought leaders are authentic, sharing their insight using their own distinctive voice to bring out the best in every company, every person, every interaction. It's a bold new way to do business, and it works.
⇢ Thought leadership is highly engaging. 58% of VIP decision makers spend more than 1 hour per week reading thought leadership content, with 21% spending more than 4 hours per week.
⇢ Thought leadership drives growth. 58% of business decision makers said thought leadership had led them to award business to an organisation.
⇢ Thought leadership creates value. 61% of C-Suite decision makers say they are more willing to pay a premium to work with thought leaders versus non-thought leaders.
Source: LinkedIn, Nov 2019
We’ve all seen successful thought leaders online, but have you ever wondered how they got started? After many years of working with business leaders behind high-growth start-ups, enterprise businesses, manufacturers and technology giants - we’ve boiled down the secrets to thought leadership success.
There’s no magic recipe - every thought leader by their nature is different - but here are 8 simple steps to rustling up some engaging thought leadership of your own:
Thought leaders are exactly that, their experts in a specific topic or technology. Successful thought leaders are those who consistently showcase their expertise to an engaged audience. Trying to focus on too many areas can dilute your offering.
Thought leaders are visionary. They intuit change and communicate it to their network and beyond. Technology today shapes every industry. When you talk about technology, you lead your industry. You can provide tremendous value to your customers by talking about how technology changes will impact their business.
Great thought leaders sell a perspective, not a product. While it might be tempting to extoll your company’s offer, don’t. Thought leadership isn’t the place to sell your technology or service. Instead, use your platform to paint a picture of the future, one that makes your company’s offer the obvious choice, but stops short of listing features and benefits. If you’ve done a lot of sales in your career, this can feel counter intuitive, but the goal of thought leadership is to start conversations that lead to meetings. Save the sales pitch until then!
How you package your thought leadership counts. Successful thought leaders know how to deliver their insight in different channels and in different ways - they meet their readers where they are. Whether that’s sharing short snippets of video on social or long-form articles placed with media. The key is to identify the audience you want to reach, the key message you want to land, and the best way to cut through the noise to deliver it.
Great posts are made in the comments. You should aim to create thought leadership that drives conversations, so be sure to respond to people who comment on your posts. Agreeing with the status quo is a non-starter. Get comfortable with taking a contrarian stance, expressing a disruptive opinion or asking a challenging question. Differentiation for your company is key - the same applies to your thought leadership.
Thought leaders aren’t made in a single post. Just like going to the gym, you need consistent effort to see the results you want. The key here is setting aside time to devote to your own practice as a thought leader. Look at ways to include it in your busy schedule - perhaps setting time aside 15 minutes at the start of each day or devoting an hour or two once a week in the evening. It’s easy to make excuses - there’s undoubtedly always something higher priority going on in your business at any given time that could, if you allow it, steal your attention. But whenever these conflicts of attention happen, think about the long game. What’s the cost of not being a thought leader in your career and in your industry?
Seeing your peers’ thought leadership online, it’s easy to imagine it’s one person’s effort. But behind the scenes, successful thought leaders often have a team supporting them. Whether you engage a thought leadership agency to help you execute your ideas at scale, or simply share your thought leadership with your team for feedback - two, three or ten heads are better than one.
If you’ve tried engaging your marketing team or PR agency to help you and it hasn’t taken off, that’s likely because thought leadership is a new way to reach and engage customers - PR 2.0 if you will. People in traditional agencies and marketing roles often haven’t had the training in this new discipline they need to help you succeed, so consider bringing in a thought leadership specialist to help them upskill. By pressing on with your thought leadership, you’re helping the team around you evolve to meet the challenges of this new media landscape and you’re evolving your relationship with customers too.
Looking for more tips on how to become a successful thought leader? Check out our handy guide to hacking LinkedIn.