Thought Leadership Best Practices
Thought Leadership Best Practices
for its innovative insights. As many technology companies have come to realize, thought leadership is an increasingly vital driver of business success.
What differentiates a thought leader from its competitors is the recognition from the outside world that it deeply understands its business, its customers, and the market in which it operates. To develop this level of recognition, many companies are now creating thought leadership programs to enhance their credibility, position their leaders as industry visionaries, and differentiate their technologies and services from competitors.
Whether a company wants to increase awareness to a broader audience, influence a highly-targeted
group of analysts or drive increased traffic to its website, these seven best practices can help ensure a well-planned thought leadership program:
1. Think outside-the-box. One of the reasons many companies fail to be consistently identified above
the market crowd is they repeatedly deliver the same, safe messaging. To get noticed, companies must
tell customers and prospects something they don’t already know. By developing topics that take a
creative slant on a customer problem or solve an industry issue in a unprecedented way, a company
can increase its market awareness.
2. Highlight competitor weaknesses. No matter who your competitors are, there’s a strong likelihood
that your technology capitalizes on weaknesses they’ve missed. By highlighting competitor deficiencies and shortcomings in a balanced approach, you can distinguish your corporate strengths and how they are superior to meeting customer needs.
3. Cultivate a unique voice. Every company has a distinctive way of communicating with clients,
prospects, partners and the media. Whatever your company’s style, a conscious effort should be made
to develop and hone that voice—and then deliver it consistently across all forms of communication.
4. Get the message out. Deliver your insights through as many avenues of communication as
possible. This includes traditional approaches such as white papers, case studies, newsletters, articles and corporate presentations. But blogs, webinars and podcasts are also well-suited to thought leadership communication. Make it easy for customers to find your ideas and how they apply to solving key issues.
5. Aggressively promote. Get your thought leadership communications into the hands of anyone who
might care about them. Use email marketing to entice prospects to download a white paper. Submit
articles to a wide variety of online magazines read by your industry. Make it easy for partners to
subscribe to your newsletter. The more aggressively you promote your messages, the quicker you’ll be
seen as experts in these areas.
6. Commit to a strategic imperative. It’s commonly assumed that the size of a company is
proportionate to its thought leadership, but this isn’t true. In fact, ideas and insight, if cultivated correctly, can accelerate any sized company to the forefront of recognition. No matter what size your company is, you can achieve a successful knowledge program by a committed effort on the part of everyone involved.
7. Work with a professional writing team. Whether or not your leadership team can deliver
consistent, insightful messages, utilizing the help of a professional writing team with experience in thought leadership support can accelerate your efforts. A seasoned writing team can help with strategic planning, topic development, message consistency, and the use of powerful storytelling to get your company noticed.
Enhance your thought leadership program today:
Learn how you can develop thought leadership throughout your organization. Gleaning from the
insights of experts, the experiences of successful companies, and the latest research on important
topics, McLellan Creative’s team of technology marketing writers can help you develop thought
leadership strategies that will bring you recognition from prospects, customers and the media.
Thought Leadership Best Practices - To learn more about this author, visit John Gillett's Website.
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Thought leader is a term used to describe a company that is recognized among peers and competitors
for its innovative insights. As many technology companies have come to realize, thought leadership is an increasingly vital driver of business success.
What differentiates a thought leader from its competitors is the recognition from the outside world that it deeply understands its business, its customers, and the market in which it operates. To develop this level of recognition, many companies are now creating thought leadership programs to enhance their credibility, position their leaders as industry visionaries, and differentiate their technologies and services from competitors.
Whether a company wants to increase awareness to a broader audience, influence a highly-targeted
group of analysts or drive increased traffic to its website, these seven best practices can help ensure a well-planned thought leadership program:
1. Think outside-the-box. One of the reasons many companies fail to be consistently identified above
the market crowd is they repeatedly deliver the same, safe messaging. To get noticed, companies must
tell customers and prospects something they don’t already know. By developing topics that take a
creative slant on a customer problem or solve an industry issue in a unprecedented way, a company
can increase its market awareness.
2. Highlight competitor weaknesses. No matter who your competitors are, there’s a strong likelihood
that your technology capitalizes on weaknesses they’ve missed. By highlighting competitor deficiencies and shortcomings in a balanced approach, you can distinguish your corporate strengths and how they are superior to meeting customer needs.
3. Cultivate a unique voice. Every company has a distinctive way of communicating with clients,
prospects, partners and the media. Whatever your company’s style, a conscious effort should be made
to develop and hone that voice—and then deliver it consistently across all forms of communication.
4. Get the message out. Deliver your insights through as many avenues of communication as
possible. This includes traditional approaches such as white papers, case studies, newsletters, articles and corporate presentations. But blogs, webinars and podcasts are also well-suited to thought leadership communication. Make it easy for customers to find your ideas and how they apply to solving key issues.
5. Aggressively promote. Get your thought leadership communications into the hands of anyone who
might care about them. Use email marketing to entice prospects to download a white paper. Submit
articles to a wide variety of online magazines read by your industry. Make it easy for partners to
subscribe to your newsletter. The more aggressively you promote your messages, the quicker you’ll be
seen as experts in these areas.
6. Commit to a strategic imperative. It’s commonly assumed that the size of a company is
proportionate to its thought leadership, but this isn’t true. In fact, ideas and insight, if cultivated correctly, can accelerate any sized company to the forefront of recognition. No matter what size your company is, you can achieve a successful knowledge program by a committed effort on the part of everyone involved.
7. Work with a professional writing team. Whether or not your leadership team can deliver
consistent, insightful messages, utilizing the help of a professional writing team with experience in thought leadership support can accelerate your efforts. A seasoned writing team can help with strategic planning, topic development, message consistency, and the use of powerful storytelling to get your company noticed.
Enhance your thought leadership program today:
Learn how you can develop thought leadership throughout your organization. Gleaning from the
insights of experts, the experiences of successful companies, and the latest research on important
topics, McLellan Creative’s team of technology marketing writers can help you develop thought
leadership strategies that will bring you recognition from prospects, customers and the media.
Thought Leadership Best Practices - To learn more about this author, visit John Gillett's Website.
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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