What is a thought leadership strategy?
While “thought leadership” might sound like a corporate nonsense word, or something from the novel 1984, it’s actually one of the most effective marketing strategies out there.
Through a thought leadership digital marketing strategy, your team becomes the authority in your industry and you’re able to teach others what you know. This expertise can then be turned into a powerful lead generator and closer.
In order to display expertise in your industry, you have to know your stuff and effectively tell others about it. You can accomplish this by dedicating some time to research, content creation, and publishing across various channels including YouTube videos, online courses, blog posts, social media posts, email newsletters, and more.
Thought leadership is all about increasing your brand’s credibility by providing actionable and useful content to your audience, marked by your personal flair.
How does thought leadership benefit your business?
By sharing your knowledge about your industry, you shift potential customers’ perspectives. They move from considering you as one option among many, to viewing you as the go-to source in your industry. Thought leadership establishes trust and sets a unique tone for your marketing. Instead of simply telling customers to buy your product, you are offering solutions to their problems.
Being bold and going against the grain is a great way to conduct thought leadership. Say what no one else will say. Differentiate yourself from the crowd. Go against the popular narrative in your industry if applicable. Make predictions and analyses about your industry. Tell stories about your business experiences.
Personal stories and niche advice will connect you with your customer and give them a unique insight into the workings of your business.
The power of personality-led thought leadership
Personality-led thought leadership involves choosing one or a handful of people to be the face and voice of a company’s digital marketing efforts. These individuals should routinely publish visual and written content about trends, updates, products, and interesting developments in your industry.
There are two types of personality-led thought leadership to consider:
1. Founder-led thought leadership
With this strategy, a company’s founder or CEO will serve as the face of the company, regularly posting on LinkedIn, social media, and the company website. They become a known and trusted source in their industry. They film short-form video content and publish weekly or monthly articles about current events for their company and industry.
2. Team-led thought leadership
This avenue is similar to our strategy at USDP. With team-led thought leadership, different departments can expound upon their individual niches and expertise. Instead of one leader discussing the business as a whole, each division adds to the conversation. This content can come in the form of YouTube shorts and tutorials, social media posts, individually written blog posts, LinkedIn activity on personal accounts, and more.
Fortifying your overall digital marketing strategy
Eventually, personality thought leadership will start to pay off for your digital marketing efforts. It adds a unique layer to the marketing funnel, particularly in the awareness category. Generating marketing awareness through individual employees helps to reinforce the human side of your operation.
Once your company is in the routine of producing thought leadership content, new clients will begin to find you thanks to online algorithms. Clients that knew about your business, but weren’t as familiar with your leadership or broader team, will appreciate the peek behind the curtain. Knowing who’s making decisions, who to call with questions, and how your team operates will help your customer base trust you. Building and fortifying these connections will repay you in dividends down the road.
For more insight about thought leadership and how it can help your business, reach out to our team at USDP!
