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Thought leadership = emotional connections on steroids

Guest post by: Craig Badings

Article Overview: There are heaps of benefits to thought leadership but the one that will differentiate your brand above your competitors is creating that emotional connection.

Thought leadership = emotional connections on steroids

"What return on investment can I expect?"

This is typically the first question I receive when speaking to companies about their thought leadership program. While I can talk passionately about this and rattle off numerous benefits, there is one sentence I read the other day which I think absolutely captures it. It is from well-known blogger Gary Vaynerchuk , who said: "You will not catch up with monye, because the people who have the emotional relationship will stay ahead."

In this one sentence, Gary sums up the very essence of why thought leadership or valuable content is so important to a company's marketing efforts.

It's about the emotional connection!

How powerful is that - we all know what happens when we have an emotionally rewarding experience with a brand. Not only do we consciously say to ourselves: "These guys really get me/make me feel special..." but we tell other people about our experience - we become brand ambassadors.

Thought leadership is the extra mile

We hear ad nauseum about going the extra mile for the client, adding that magical quality 'value', and the need to differentiate ourselves. Well I've got news for you - the right thought leadership content aimed at the right audience and preferably information that addresses that audiences' major business issues and challenges delivers all three in spades.

What better way to engage with your clients, imbue loyalty and position yourself and your company as the 'go to' expert in your field.

I can list over 70 leadership benefits']);"> thought leadership benefits but the stand out return has to be the emotional connection it creates.

It's amazing how much easier the sale is once an emotional connection has been established.

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Article Tags: emotional connections, thought leadership



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