What Is Thought Leadership? And When You Should Use It?

How much do your customers, colleagues and peers trust you and your brand? If you haven’t thought about this question, you should! Trust matters and impacts if people buy from you.

One of the best ways to gain trust and credibility is through thought leadership. By executing a the right strategy, you can become more credible and show your expertise all that much more.

That said, few terms sound the alarm for the buzzword police more than thought leadership.So, what is it and what can it do for you?

Let’s start by getting on the same page about what it is, when you should consider using it, and how it helps balance the talent and experience of your team (with the authenticity today’s audiences demand).

Quick Takeaways

• Thought leadership builds trust: Establish credibility by providing valuable, consistent content that addresses your audience’s questions.

• Focus on audience needs, not self-promotion: Thought leadership isn’t about hyping your brand—it’s about offering solutions and insights that genuinely help your audience.

• Avoid the “unique point of view” trap: Consistency and authority matter more than trying to differentiate every piece of content.

• Ideal for B2B and beyond: Thought leadership can benefit both B2B and consumer brands by building trust and authority in your industry.

What Is Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership is a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience, and passion inside your business, or from your community, to consistently answer the biggest questions in the minds of your target audience.

And you do this in the formats your audience likes to consume, consistently.

It’s not dependent on having a certain pedigree. You cannot call yourself a “thought leader” (or an “influencer,” for that matter). That’s a term you have to earn from others. And that comes from developing content that answers the questions your audience is asking.

So a viral video is not thought leadership. Your byline in Forbes is not thought leadership. An annual research report (by itself) is not thought leadership.

One way to measure this: do you rank for the top keywords in your industry? Does your website attract a growing number of new traffic, leads, and sales.

Here’s a quick explainer of what thought leadership content marketing includes.

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When Should You Consider a Thought Leadership Approach?

One of the best ways to establish authority on your topic is to produce deep research on the subject. You have to present a depth of knowledge that no one else has.

You also have to define all of your customers’ challenges and define the best ways to overcome them. Many brands think this is an opportunity to talk about their products and how they are better.

I would caution against that approach. As soon as you start promoting yourself, your audience will start to tune out and you will lose the trust you worked so hard to build.

Who Should Use Thought Leadership Content Marketing?

Thought leadership is important for both Consumer and B2B companies. But the complexity of the decision making process in B2B, the length of time it takes for decisions to be made, and the number of people involved, all point to thought leadership as an important component of B2B Content Marketing.

Thought leadership content can help anyone involved in the business decision to gain alignment among their peers, which is often no small task.

And for marketers, thought leadership allows us to define the category of our solution or our brand purpose in customer terms. So even consumer companies can use thought leadership effectively to support their overall mission and to define authority in their space. After all, branding is all about being associated with specific needs of your consumers.

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Is Thought Leadership Right for Your Brand?

Thought leadership can span across almost any industry and companies big and small. In considering executing thought leadership best practices, you should make the decision based on your ability to provide in-depth knowledge to your audience.

However, you should also consider your audiences’ key challenges and pain points. Thought leadership content is based on answering questions and providing solutions – it’s not a place to hype your products or services. (And it’s certainly not about talking about how great you are).

Thought leadership makes a lot of sense in most B2B content marketing scenarios, typically because the buying cycle is longer and may require multiple approvals. Building the relationship involves trust and respect. With the right thought leadership content, you can inspire these things.

Being a Thought Leader: Becoming Influential

Another unique aspect of thought leadership content marketing is that it can be two-fold. Your personal brand can be considered a thought leader, and other subject matter experts in your organization can be as well.

Most recommend both because each is a reflection on one another. The true leader relies on the insights and experience of others. Thought leadership is not the outward content created by an egomaniac!

And titles aren’t as important as we might think. Thought leaders don’t have to be high-profile. For audiences to be persuaded by their content, they think it should be educational, drive action, use data, say something new, and cause discussion.

Get Started

To become influential, you and others in your organization should create a presence online through social media and other channels, such as being quoted in industry articles or presenting at conferences. Here are a few specific ways:

• Get Active in Associations: Most thought leaders have membership in industry associations, so they should make use of it. This includes being active in local chapters or serving on committees. You will begin to grow new relationships and be further revered.
• Submit Proposals for Speaking: If you want to get the attention of your audience at a trade show, you’ll have more luck hosting a presentation than standing in a booth. The key is what you submit to present. It should be a topic that you have extensive experience and, if possible, one that you have internal research to support. Surveying your field on a topic and developing a report based on this will be well received.
• Guest Star on Webinars and Podcasts: You’ll make perfect guests for your webinar or a partner’s. This is where you control and guide the conversation. Podcasts are another vehicle for getting heard. Check into the podcasts that are relevant to your audience and connect with those hosts.
• Make Connections in the Media: No matter what field you are in, there are likely many niche publications that cover it. Find ways to network with journalists in these niches, so when they need a quote from an expert, they’ll reach out to you. You can also proactively pitch stories to journalists on platforms like JournoRequests.
• Be a Guest Blogger: Look for opportunities to submit original content that names you as the author in guest blogging. Possible outlets are industry publications, partners, and even customers.

Publish High-Quality Content Today with Marketing Insider Group

It takes considerable time and effort to put out thought leadership content consistently. You may not have the resources to meet your content objectives. But, you don’t have to go it alone. Tap our team of expert content marketers to build a program for you.

Marketing Insider group will help you get more traffic to your website with weekly blog articles; included is a full year’s content plan and monthly reporting. Want to get in touch? Contact us to book a call with our growth manager.