Becoming an industry thought leader and employing thought leadership marketing are things that many organizations aspire to. Granted, not everyone wants to be a thought leader, however, it’s safe to say that nearly everyone in a given industry would love to sit in the coveted position that the thought leader enjoys. The thought leader is certainly not always the market leader, but they are often very profitable and occupy a differentiated and defensible position in the industry. The question is, how do they get there and what sets them apart? Why can’t everyone be a thought leader?
First, few companies have the discipline and commitment to fully execute and sustain and thought leadership marketing strategy. In a recent conversation with an organization seeking to employ thought leadership, it was evident that they had many of the makings of a thought leader, but they were inconsistent in their application of thought leadership principles and hadn’t realized the full benefits of seeking to occupy the thought leader position in their industry. However, with just a few tweaks, they could occupy the spot of the thought leader. How? Let’s look at the first elements that you should look for if you’re seeking to be a thought leader in your industry.
Let’s explore these concepts of Assets, Attitude, Acceptance, and Alignment further.
Assets
Admittedly, I believe that Assets are not the most important part of the equation here. That said it’s the first thing that most organizations need to look at when exploring thought leadership marketing. You must have a sufficient base of assets or be able to develop these assets in order to be a thought leader. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are a few important assets.
Do you have the required assets to leverage as a thought leader?
- Intellectual capital
- Innovation & intellectual property creation
- Unique insight and expertise
- Cases & results on your products & services
Attitude
The most important aspect that we find in the making of a successful thought leader is their attitude. I know, it’s a bit of a soft factor, but if you don’t have a value-first mentality and a proclivity for educating your market and customers, all of the greatest assets in the world will never see the light of day. These are but a few of the attitudinal elements that make up the thought leading organization.
What are the attitudinal markers of a thought leader?
- Desire to educate clients; the market
- Willingness to share real value (this makes it easier to use social media as well)
- Ability to control your “urge to sell”
- Long-term mindset on contributing to the industry dialogue
Acceptance
You could also call this the ‘market research’ portion of thought leadership. Having a raft of assets and a sharing attitude are nothing if it will fall on deaf ears. Not every industry is right for thought leadership marketing, but there are few things you can look at to determine a fit. Studies by ITSMA, The Economist Intelligence Unit and MarketingSherpa have all pointed to the efficacy of thought leadership content in gaining the attention of and persuading buyers.
How will our thought leadership be accepted?
- Are clients persuaded by thought leadership?
- The industry is in need of fresh perspective
- We’re credible, or at least neutral in our industry
Alignment
Alignment could very well be the glue that holds this all together. If your CEO is not on board (nothing is worse than coming up with a great marketing strategy only to have your CEO on a different planet) or if your front line teams are not on board, thought leadership marketing is not a viable strategy. Being a thought leader takes an entire company’s support to succeed.
What does the thought leadership aligned organization look like?
- Clients embrace ideas & engage in dialogue
- Front-line teams embrace and leverage thought leadership
- Thought leadership is aligned with industry challenges & conversations
- The point of view, channels and tools work together to deliver results
The so-called “Four A’s” of thought leadership marketing are just the beginning, but being such, they are a great place to start as a self diagnostic to determine how well your organization could do by pursuing a thought leadership position in your market. If you have the required assets and attitude to start down the road of being a thought leader gaining acceptance and alignment within the marketplace, you’re on the way!
The following is a sample of a radar diagram of how an organization might look if they assess their thought leadership ability on a 4 A scale. You can see that the organization has almost everything but the right attitude to get started.
Hi Dana, under “Attitude” and your bullets, desire to educate and willingness to share value, I find that thought leaders need to be willing to publically present their ideas. It’s not enough to write a whitepaper and call it a day. A good marketer will find other avenues for a thought leader to get their message out (speaking slots, podcasts, webinars etc), however the thought leader must be willing to continuously promote their ideas through such venues.
I bring this up, because it is a crucial part of being a thought leader and not everyone has the stomach for public speaking and/or the fortitude for continued promotion. It’s also tough because in many Professional Services firms, thought leaders have utilization goals that need to be balanced with these promotional efforts.
Bullseye! This is a topic near and dear to my heart – thank you.
From time to time I advise clients on this and I also act in this capacity for my employer as well. Two parts that bear elaboration:
1. Evergreen – you have to be ready, willing and able to explore and research new areas and topics. This is key. Thought leadership is the R in R&D. The first step toward intangible asset creation. So long as it is on-target with your company’s value proposition and relevant to client or customer needs and novel to your organization – you are on track. I’m not a big believer in recycling what your organization already knows and does. My belief is thought leadership is an opportunity to add value to your business and to clients. If there’s green field – why not plant it – as opposed to dumping fertilizer on the same well-tilled ground? I was once pulled into a client situation where the organization had produced a survey report they were very proud of. Aspirations were high – they wanted to sell it as a one-off. My advice? Give it away and use the inputs to explore and cultivate new topics – then give that away, and so on. The goal? Add value and strike out in new directions. Solve new problems, create new services, and make money in new and interesting and differentiated ways.
2. Helpful – helping someone is different from providing a good or service. This is where a lot of organizations get hung up. They worry about giving away the “secret sauce.” Two points here: 1. if you follow the recipe above, you are striking out in new culinary directions – not giving away the recipes for creating the tasty dishes you are serving up to your patrons. Translation – you have nothing to lose. 2. Value is created when you understand the specific context and challenges of the people you are serving. This is different from sharing helpful paradigms, ways of framing things, data points and observations, etc. You’d be surprised how often people will come to you and say things like “we really like your thinking on X, but our situation is A and we don’t see a way to get to Y (the outcome of doing X). Can you help us?
Summary – thought leadership is for creating new value, not recycling old stuff.
Thanks again for the post.
Great post and inspired me, particularly in category #2. One build might be the idea of “no fear of having your ideas stolen.”
Say, for example, you write a whitepaper (and per first comment, that’s not the end of the road) and you share it with someone in the industry who has a bigger platform (more readers/followers) whatever. It’s natural to have a fear of being co-opted.
My hunch (and I’d be curious on your thoughts) is that thought leaders persevere and just keep doing it. Since the ideas were their own to begin with, they know that others just can’t execute and evolve it in the same way.
So, now I am going to share my big ideas with everyone
Hint: it’s called Community Driven Marketing (damn! I couldn’t resist my urge to sell. Guess I don’t have what it takes. Bummer..)
Keep up the good work.
Jeremy,
That’s a great addition to the discussion – attitude + perseverance is essential to being a thought leader. It’s one of the reasons why you see ‘best practices’ staying as such, because no one implements them…
In fact, there’s a quote I read just yesterday on this. It comes from a session at a National Speakers Association event (I’m an NSA member and it was from Speaker magazine) which went like this:
(Answer to the question “Why do you so willingly share such personal details about your business success with your competition.”)
“I’m sharing all of this with you freely because I know that no one in this room will do even 10 percent of what I’m sharing with you, despite your best intentions.”
(at which point, everyone chuckled at the blatant truth in his reply).
It’s just that. Thought leaders have a different attitude, mindset and way of approaching the market than non thought leaders. It’s actually ironical when you think about it – other thought leaders would NOT steal your info, or they wouldn’t attain status as a thought leader, and those that aren’t thought leaders rarely have the chutzpa, drive and stamina to pursue the thought leader’s path, so while they’ll snatch an idea or two, that’s the most they’ll get – you still own the system, process and high ideals that you’ve put out there, and you’ll continue to attract business because of it!
I have no words .. except-
WOW!
Fascinating explanation..
Great post Dana! Couple of things to add/reiterate:
- I think true thought leaders also have to be risk takers. In that to truly move industry conversations and client practices forward, you typically must question long-held industry beliefs. This sometimes means you upset people, even your company’s own clients, but if you aren’t pushing, prodding, questioning and forcing companies/people to rethink what they are doing – then you are not a thought leader but a thought supporter. And sometimes you even end up being wrong.
- Secondly, a thought leader can’t always be first – particularly in the social world we live in. So part of your role today is to be a thought “catalyst” (my term – self promotion here) and to share ideas first offered by others, including competitors.
Anyway, excellent and well thought out post!
Loren McDonald
The one factor I see as critical in sustaining thought leadership is the ability to deliver results. You touch on this a bit in your last “A”. A constant of successful tactical and strategic results driven by thought leadership ends up being the most important factor when being evaluated by clients and peers.
Many thought leaders don’t know how to go out and execute and eventually challenges their thought leadership role.
Typical Dana:
-on target
-useful and useable
-valuable
-poignant
Thanks, man. I’m always learning from you.