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Seven critical steps to positioning you as a thought leader
| Guest post by: Craig Badings |
Article Overview: The seven key steps in the START IP methodology will help your arrive at a robust thought leadership position for you or for your company and its brands.
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Free Download - Your content will die if you don’t shift your paradigm By Craig Badings |
Seven critical steps to positioning you as a thought leader
Used
judiciously with the right amount of commitment and strategic input, true thought
leadership is an extremely powerful tool in a company’s communications arsenal
and in differentiating the company, brand or individual from its competitors.
However, the problem for
businesses searching for information on thought leadership is that while there
is a ton of stuff out there on how to take your leadership campaign']);"> thought leadership campaign to market,
there is hardly anything to guide companies on how you arrive at a thought
leadership position in the first place.
The following
methodology, START IP sets out seven
steps to help you and your company arrive at a robust thought leadership
position. While each step has been
significantly summarized for the purpose of this article, you will get the
picture. Apply it thoroughly, and you
will arrive at a great thought leadership position for your brand.
START IP stands for:
·
Scan the media and social media sites for issues impacting your
brand, your sector or your specific area of expertise. In all likelihood there will be some that
present a great thought leadership opportunity.
·
Track your competitors’ share of voice to understand what they are
doing and to make sure you will not be competing in an already crowded thought
leadership space. You are looking for a
space that nobody owns.
·
Analyse and understand the ‘true north’ of the company, i.e. your
values as well as those of your audience – so that you can align your thought
leadership ideas with these and use them to guide the thought leadership position
you take.
·
Review your current intellectual property to see if there are any
pockets of IP, some of which are taken for granted, that can be refreshed,
added to and packaged in multiple ways for your audiences. This may include research, opinion pieces for
media, a dedicated microsite, a newsletter, talks at the local chamber or
industry body, round tables with your customers and the like.
·
Trend spot and identify the forces which are likely to shape your
audiences lives now and in the future.
Explore whether you can align your leadership campaign']);"> thought leadership campaign with
these trends to provide insights that will be useful to you and your audiences
by delivering insights and information that gives them something of value over
and above selling a product or service.
·
Identify a thought leadership champion to lead your campaign - maybe
it's you or maybe it’s someone else in the company. It could even be a group of you. The bottom line is that it needs a face with
the credibility to carry it off.
·
Panel means appointing a panel of other experts or thought leaders
from different walks of life. The idea of this panel is to bring a fresh
perspective to the table, one that comes from outside the organization and one
that will question your point of view and in the process help add rigor to your
thought leadership position and what you take to market.
The best
thought leaders engage with and listen to their audiences in order to
understand their needs. They're in tune with their audience and are constantly
seeking feedback and adapting what they deliver based on this feedback. Importantly,
they are focused on adding value to their customers’ lives beyond merely
selling them a product or a service.
Your audiences’
subliminal take-out from your leadership campaign']);"> thought leadership campaign should be: “These guys get me, they understand my issues
and they are providing something of value to my life.”
Ultimately a
strategic, well delivered leadership campaign']);"> thought leadership campaign will translate into a
higher profile as well as a heightened reputation for your business. It will engender among customers a perception
that you deliver great value to them which in turn leads to greater trust,
loyalty, word of mouth and finally increased sales.
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|
About the Author: Craig Badings RSS for Craig's articles - Visit Craig's website Click here to visit Craig's website   Thought leadership benefits |
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