Growing Your Business With Thought Leadership Marketing

In today’s world of mass communication and relentless advertising, it can be difficult to build your brand.

There are so many businesses vying for the attention of consumers that it’s easy to get lost in the crowd.

But if you want to grow your business, you have to do things differently than everyone else.

And that’s where thought leadership marketing comes in.

Think about Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk and Tim Ferriss – these guys are considered thought leaders in their respective industries. They’re highly successful in business, but they also have a lot of knowledge about their subjects that they share with other people through books, podcasts, speeches and more.

What Is Thought Leadership Marketing?

Thought leadership marketing is the process of sharing valuable knowledge about your field with others to establish a reputation as an industry expert. By doing so, you differentiate yourself from the competition and gain credibility.

Why Should You Use Thought Leadership Marketing?

When you use thought leadership marketing, you have the chance to become a thought leader yourself. You can do this by offering your services for free or for a low cost to others, and then writing about it on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. By answering relevant questions and helping others freely, you are actually marketing thought leadership traits that give your business distinct advantages.

If you’re wondering why you should use thought leader marketing, here are three of the most compelling reasons.

1. Thought Leadership Leads to Trust

People are more likely to trust your business and its products if they know that you have expertise in your field. One way to build trust is by becoming a thought leader in your industry.

By publishing articles, social media posts, videos or podcasts that educate people about topics related to your business, you become an expert in your field. This leads potential customers to trust that you know what you’re talking about and can help them solve their problems or achieve their goals. When people trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you because they feel confident about making a purchase from someone who knows what he’s doing and who has their best interests at heart.

2. Thought Leadership Builds an Audience

Your audience is your biggest asset. You can’t build a business without customers and clients, and getting them to come to you is a challenge. That’s where thought leadership comes in. By becoming a thought leader in your niche, you can use your expertise to attract an audience that will listen to what you have to say and become customers or clients.

3. Thought Leadership Can Improve Your Business

It helps you become a trusted source of information and advice on a particular topic or industry. This makes it easier for customers to reach out to you when they have questions or concerns about their own businesses.

Check out these statistics that prove thought leadership marketing can improve business:

– Nearly half of C-suite executives share their contact information upon reading thought leadership.

– Fifty-eight percent of decision-makers say they select companies based on their thought leadership content.

Sixty-one percent of decision-makers are fine with paying premium prices to collaborate with a brand that leverages thought leadership marketing.

Thought Leadership Marketing Best Practice

Now that we’ve covered what thought leadership marketing is, let’s review some best practices before you get started.

1. Know your audience

Knowing your audience is the key to succeeding with any marketing strategy, and thought leadership is no different. It starts with your buyer persona. What motivates or inspires your audience? What are their pain points? What questions are they asking?

With this information, you can create thought leadership marketing ads that resonate with your buyer personas. As your business grows, reevaluate your buyer personas so they align with customer needs.

2. Be active on social media

Being active on social media is important, because it allows you to be seen as an expert in your field. This means that you should be using hashtags, engaging with people, and getting your name out there. The more you’re seen on social media, the better.

3. Offer Information on Products and Services

Some of your thought leadership marketing should provide insights into the products and services you offer — especially if they’re directly related to the subject matter of your thought leadership article. This is a great way to engage readers, but it also helps them understand how your business can help them solve their problems. If they see that you are knowledgeable about their needs, they are more likely to trust you when it comes time to buy something from you.

4. Analyze what your competitors are doing

If your competitors are creating thought leadership content, analyze what they’re doing. What topics do they cover? How often do they publish new content? What types of people do they speak with? How do they position themselves in relation to their competitors or industry? These questions will help you determine if this is something that would be beneficial for your business. Don’t be afraid to get inspiration from your competitors.”

How do you find competitor thought leadership marketing content? You can start by searching their social media accounts. Another way is to type in your industry’s keywords into a search engine like Google and see what the top results are.

5. Offer Valuable Content

Offering valuable content to your audience is a sure way to move up the ranks of thought leaders in your field. Your content doesn’t have to be something new or groundbreaking — it just needs to help people solve problems and give them advice on how to improve their lives.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, thought leader marketing is really about putting yourself out there. You have to be willing to put yourself on the line and share your credibility with the world. If you believe in what you’re doing 100% (and it should go without saying—you should), you shouldn’t be afraid to let everyone know just how confident you are in what you’re doing.