A marketer, a PR and a thought leader walk into a bar, arm in arm.
The barman takes one look and asks, “What line of work you fellas in then?”
There’s no punch line here.
It’s actually a question that a lot of people struggle to answer.
Marketing, PR and thought leadership are so closely intertwined, it can be difficult to differentiate where one begins and the others end. The result is confused strategy, ineffective activations and suboptimal results.
So here’s a simple primer to help you know what’s what in your marketing mix - and get the most out of all three.
Marketing: What your company says about itself
Marketing, in a nutshell, is your company talking about itself.
It’s the way your company talks to the market, your customers and prospects, signalling its offer, unique selling proposition, competitive advantage, customer results and value.
Marketing, at its heart, aims to take prospective customers on a seamless journey - typically from awareness, to consideration, to purchase, ideally winning loyalty and advocacy from the customer on the way.
Given these broad goals, PR and thought leadership often fall under marketing’s remit - but they are also separate disciplines in their own right, with specific goals. In some companies, for example, PR (also known as Communications) sits outside marketing in its own department while in others, it’s part of the marketing team.
Examples of Marketing activations: Website, email marketing, advertorials, whitepapers, customer case studies, sales collateral, investor decks, tradeshow and event presence, print and paid ad campaigns, social media presence, and so much more.
Public Relations: What others say about your company
If Marketing is your company talking about itself, Public Relations (PR) is the art of getting other people to talk about your business - specifically media.
This external validation by media gives your company message broader reach and third-party credibility - which is especially valuable in the early stages of a business when other measures of success like customer traction and growth have yet to be proven.
Many B2B companies employ PR agencies specifically to help them shape their message so it’s media-friendly and to help broker coverage opportunities, leveraging relationships with media that can take PR professionals years to nurture.
Examples of B2B PR activations: press releases announcing company milestones such as new product releases, customer wins, new hires, funding or mergers & acquisitions; media round tables; publicity events; investor relations; and crisis comms.
Thought Leadership: What you say about your industry
Thought leadership, on the other hand, is the new kid on the marketing block.
It’s where you - not your company - talk about the things that matter to your customers. And that is: their business, their challenges and opportunities, and the trends that impact the work that they do.
Unlike marketing, thought leadership isn’t trying to sell a product, platform or service.
True thought leadership sells a point of view. Ideally, one that matters to your customers.
Thought leadership is most effective when championed and actioned by people in your team. They don’t necessarily have to be senior, but they do have to be completely immersed in your customers’ world.
Companies can create thought leadership “content” - but when delivered by marketing, old habits tend to creep in and the urge to sell the product rather than a point of view often wins … resulting in content that, although badged internally as thought leadership is, in fact, thinly disguised marketing.
At ThoughtLDR we recommend as a starter focusing on the primary customer problem your company solves. Use thought leadership to position yourself as the world-leading expert on that problem.
Look at it from all sides. Consider the reason the problem exists, the evolution of the problem, the scale and cost of the problem - and what it means for the future (of the customer's company, of their industry and the wider world) if that problem is or isn’t solved.
It’s important to remember that, much like JayZ, your customer has 99 problems.
What’s great about thought leadership is that it allows you to prioritise the problem your company solves in your customer’s mind.
Do it right and your marketing and sales efforts will be a lot more effective because a) the customer now recognises that the problem you solve is the most important one for them to address today, and b) they recognise you, and by association your company, as an authority on that problem.
Examples of Thought Leadership: Thought leadership can take many forms. Blog posts, LinkedIn think pieces, conference keynotes, opinion pieces. It’s important to remember that there’s a strong appetite from overstretched editors for editorial-quality thought leadership - many titles will happily publish opinion pieces for free on the problems and trends impacting their readers, as long as it’s non-salesy.
Getting help
This is the section in an article where the instinct to sell typically overrides the thought leadership intention. The place at the bottom of the page where most companies would tack on some marketing, elucidating why they are the right business to help you solve the problem.
But in the reader’s mind, that sales pitch at the end immediately negates all the thought leadership above.
Our advice is to resist the temptation to market your company in your thought leadership. Rest assured - when you diagnose the problem well, people trust you have the cure.
So there you have it - our primer on the differences between marketing, PR and thought leadership.
But of course, we can’t end without some kind of a punchline. (Stop us if you’ve heard this one before…)
A marketer, a PR and a thought leader walk into a bar, arm in arm, looking like they’ve made a night of it.
The barman takes one look and says, “What line of work you fellas in then?”
The marketer, slurring his words, says, “I make you want things you didn’t even know you needed.”
The PR props himself up on the bar and says, “I make shurrr the things you didn’t even know you needed are the talk of the town!”
The thought leader orders three shots, turns to an imaginary audience and says something about a paradigm shift. The marketer interrupts him and says he needs to mention “the USPs”. The PR tries to reach someone on his phone but they don’t pick up.
The barman leans across the bar and takes a long, hard look at them, unconvinced.
“I think you need to talk to ThoughtLDR.”
End.