Brands are using thought leadership as a way to build loyalty and create distinct value for their customers. This article will explore how brands can use this strategy to make an impact in 2021.
In the age of information, it can be difficult to break through. Brands that have a unique perspective and relevant content that’s not just another run-of-the-mill article or blog post are more likely to rise above the noise. Take these steps to build your thought leadership brand in 2021
“The thought leadership brand in 2021” is a difficult task, but it’s possible. The “brand thought leadership examples” can help you get started.
Many individuals believe that thought leadership is simply a fad. But if companies like Redshift by Autodesk, Johnson & Johnson, and MR PORTER’s Journal can effectively increase brand recognition and become thought leaders in their fields by producing thought leadership material, we need to take a step back and reconsider.
It takes time to develop into a top specialist in any area. Creating a strategic thought leadership content strategy requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention the potential for significant errors. But it’s worth a shot since, if done well, it can establish your brand as a valuable, trustworthy source of information and keep you on consumers’ minds.
This post will define a thought leadership brand and provide six practical strategies for developing one.
What is the definition of a thought leadership brand?
Thought leadership is a content strategy used by companies to educate their target audience about their industry, offer useful insights, and establish authority. Blog postings, videos, ebooks, reports, social media sharing, webinars, podcasts, and conferences may all be part of a thought leadership marketing strategy. Because it takes time to create, market, and gain audience value, it’s a long-term approach.
People will view you as a thought leadership brand or a thought leader after you have established yourself as an authority. This includes your customers, rivals, and the whole industry. You’ll raise brand recognition, generate more leads, enhance consumer engagement, and strengthen social proof. American Express is a great illustration of how thought leadership can help you develop a brand.
What is an example of a company that has benefited from thinking leadership? OPEN Forum was founded by American Express in 2007 to offer small company owners with insights, ideas, and contacts to help them expand their companies. OPEN Forum has evolved from an online forum to a go-to place for company owners to share ideas and learn from one another. It’s also the number one source of new cardmember leads for American Express, making the bank a market leader.
6 recommendations for establishing a thought leadership brand
Isn’t it fantastic what American Express accomplished with OPEN Forum? Implement the following strategies to get the most out of your content and transform your brand into a thought leader in your market to bring your brand to that level.
1. Recognize your intended audience.
Let’s talk about the winners over at American Express once again. They founded OPEN Forum with the exclusive goal of assisting small companies in their growth. They put themselves in the shoes of small company owners to understand what they need, what they want to learn, what material they are interested in, and how American Express can help.
“How do you make sure your branded material is relevant to your audience? In the instance of American Express, the solution is to use data to acquire as much information as possible about our audience’s interests. What are the most popular books among our fans? What is it that they are responding to? We utilized their responses to create material that was relevant to our target audience.” —Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly, American Express’s SVP of Partnerships and Business Development.
Your consumers are the ones who will read your material and determine whether or not your company is a thought leader. As a result, doing research on your target audience should be the first step in any thought leadership approach. What are their aches and pains? What are the questions for which they are searching for answers? What drives or motivates them? Join the platforms where they talk, interview, or learn about them in any other manner. You can be sure you’ll be heading in the correct path if you do so.
2. Examine what your competitors are up to.
Every company aspires to be a thinking leader, but few succeed. There are a variety of reasons for this, but one of the most important is that they produce material that has already been covered or that they duplicate stuff without expressing their views. They put a lot of thinking into it, but they overlook leadership. You’re not performing thought leadership if all you’re doing is paraphrasing what your rivals (or other experts) have previously stated. Remember that if you want to establish your brand as a thinking leader, you must take the initiative.
That is why, after learning about your target audience, you must do extensive competition research. What exactly are they discussing? What kind of content do they create? What are their posting locations and frequency? Is there anything in their material that you think is missing? How do you make your material stand out if you’re covering the same topic? You may identify gaps in published material in your business, become inspired, and come up with fresh ideas for your content marketing plan by evaluating published content in your sector.
3. Determine your area of expertise.
To be a thinking leader, a company doesn’t have to know everything. A thought leadership brand, on the other hand, understands what they’re communicating and does it better than the competition. They know their market and produce content that provides their consumers with fresh, distinctive, or more useful information. They recognize their talents and take steps to maximize them.
LinkedIn published an excellent infographic on their site about three kinds of thought leadership that a company may use to build their thought leadership content strategy:
- Focus on news, trends, breakthrough technology, and insights into the market the brand serves as industry thought leadership. Burning Glass Technologies, for example, produces thought leadership material on labor and the employment market.
- Embody the brand’s vision, purpose, values, culture, and distinctiveness via organizational thought leadership. Everything Patagonia posts on their blog, for example, speaks to company mission.
- Become the greatest solution for consumers via product thought leadership. REI Expert Advice Blog, for example, positions itself as a site where anybody can “learn new skills, select and maintain gear, prepare for your travels, and have incredible adventures.”
Choose the kind of thought leadership you want to pursue and make sure your messages and tactics match. Remember that not every business is positioned to be a thought leader in every field.
4. Don’t be scared to publicize your work.
The first and best location to share your thought leadership material is on your company’s website. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t be creative on your blog. Being active on social media platforms, guest blogging on other related sites, speaking on podcasts, and arranging events/webinars are all examples of this.
Furthermore, you should vary your content style since each channel has distinct content needs, and your consumers learn in different ways. Some people like to use pictures and infographics. When watching videos, some people learn quickly. Others like reading. You can quickly reach a large number of people and increase brand recognition by creating thought leadership material in various forms.
It’s important to remember that it’s one thing to market your material and another to keep it under control. Being too promotional may irritate your customers and, in the worst-case scenario, ruin your brand.
5. Keep your genuineness.
Ascertain that your material is real and true to your brand. That doesn’t imply your material has to be entirely unique; rather, it should provide genuine value and contain facts that assists your audience in making better choices.
Developing a consistent brand voice is a fantastic approach to make your thought leadership material more genuine. This allows you to distribute your content consistently across all platforms and increase brand recognition—your consumers will know precisely what you’re about anytime they view your material.
6. When it comes to content outsourcing, be cautious.
To create and distribute content, a brand may work with a publisher or a content marketing firm. However, it’s important to remember that thought leadership is inextricably linked to your brand, who you are, and what you stand for. Your ideas, research, views, experience, and skills are what you produce. As a result, you must be proactive in providing it.
However, this does not rule out the possibility of hiring an agency to assist you create thought leadership material. In reality, from concept to distribution, a trusted outside vendor may significantly help you in developing a thought leadership brand. However, you should only do so once you’ve already established yourself as an expert in your area.
Microsoft and Gimlet Creative’s partnership on the “.future” podcast series is an outstanding example of how to do it properly. Microsoft produces material, which is subsequently packaged and distributed by Gimlet Creative. Remember that the greatest person to convey what’s going on in your mind is you.
It’s not simple to establish yourself as a thinking leader.
If it were simple, everyone would be one, which implies there would be none. “If everyone is exceptional, then no one is,” David McCullough famously remarked. Trophies lose their significance if everyone receives one.” Being referred to as a thought leadership brand may be a lengthy and difficult process.
Make a substantial time and energy commitment in determining your brand’s strengths and shortcomings. Then, choose your target audience, pick a particular area to lead in, lead by saying something fresh in your field, and be genuine in whatever you do. You’ll become a thought leader sooner or later, and you’ll be proud of it.
The “thought leadership strategy pdf” is a step-by-step plan for building a thought leadership brand in 2021. This includes how to build your personal brand, the importance of social media, and how to use content marketing.
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