Thought leadership gets you noticed. It’s one of the most important competitive weapons, particularly in B2B marketing. It works at every level. You can use it to influence key accounts, small businesses, business partners and the media.
Thought leadership generally takes the form of papers, conference presentations, interviews, research and associated media campaigns. It is targeted directly at customers, business partners, shareholders and other influencers and stakeholders, including government. It is also targeted at broadcast and printed media, ranging from the most general (such as national TV, radio and press) to the more specific (such as relevant trade press, whether sector or cross-industry).
Good thought leadership uses a variety of approaches, from launching new research results and conceptual thinking, to endorsement of an approach by business celebrities or other respected figures. Good thought leadership has what the PR industry calls legs i.e. the story runs for a long time. It introduces or develops a theme that the relevant media and recipients of the message find of enduring interest, a theme which is open to further development or new angles.
The aim of most thought leadership is to change the way that customers or business partners think about you; in particular to think about you as a company that has something more to offer than just your products. Therefore, the content is ideally focused on benefits rather than features. For example, outsourcing suppliers produce thought leadership aimed at encouraging prospective clients to think about the benefits of offloading relevant business tasks and how it will change the client company in terms of cost structure, balance of risks and rewards.
Thought leadership based on research or surveys is aimed at getting clients to think of the supplier as someone who can not only sell them an excellent product, but advise on its deployment and even on ways that the client can change how they use the supplier’s product to manage their own customers.
In its most advanced form, thought leadership is part of the creation of a business ecosystem. This entails several business partners seeking to create a new way for customers to think about what they are doing and buying that favours its partners. This is usually done in opposition to another group of business partners (for example, Linux versus Microsoft).
Thought leadership is a powerful weapon when it works well and is therefore given significant budgets, particularly by companies aiming to break into new markets or change their positioning in an existing one. These budgets can amount to millions of pounds and this excludes the time spent by the managers of the company in planning and disseminating it.
However, my experience of working on thought leadership projects for over 20 years is that quite a lot of what claims to be thought leadership isn’t really leading. We’ve all seen it sales brochures dressed up as white papers, drafted by the client and polished by the PR agency or some other supplier. Sometimes the intent is sound and the execution poor or it’s the other way round. The biggest problem with both intent and execution is lack of consistency.
Changing how senior decision makers think about a supplier or about an issue takes a long time. As studies of branding have shown, it can take years to shift perceptions of a B2B brand. For example, market research shows that even though well over half of its income comes from services, IBM is still thought by many clients to be primarily a supplier of computer hardware and software. The same applies to products and services suppliers in many other industries. They often start with a limited range of products and then their drive to add value leads them in the direction of added value services, but they are still seen by most customers as suppliers of the original product.
Changing perceptions requires a campaign of years, not months, and this means the intent must be clear and constant, with a focused and continuing execution so the target market gets the message. The other reason for insisting upon consistency is that it produces better quality material and it educates recipients, particularly the media, to expect even better and more useful material from you and your PR agencies.
My own favourite form of thought leadership is incisive research and analysis, clearly and concisely presented. It gives the media excellent material to report, and excellent material is rare. Something new, stated credibly and clearly gains wide media coverage. In business-to-business, a cogent report can be used with the media and as a marketing tool directly with customers.
The research does not have to be new empirical research, although the media loves to have plenty of figures to quote. Existing empirical material, interpreted differently, gets good attention from media and clients. And remember, there is also a cultural difference the UK market is generally interested in ideas and thinking, while the US market is interested in figures. I have found that combining desk research with good analysis, controversial opinion and credibility can create excellent coverage.
So what are the benefits? Thought leadership can give you a stronger reputation as well as increased visibility, from even better, more cost-effective, longer-lasting PR, and in my view, a more cost-effective deployment of some of your marketing budget.
