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Thought Leadership Best Practices

Written by: John Gillett

Article Overview: 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. In addition, it provides organizations with a cost-effective marketing alternative to establishing leadership in an industry or segment. This paper provides best practices for developing and executing a successful thought leadership program.

Thought Leadership Best Practices

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.

Related Articles
  The secret questions of successful thought leaders
  Three key challenges facing thought leadership
  Does product, sales or market leadership equal thought leadership?
  The impact of thought leadership on your employees
  Content = thought leadership. Wrong.

Article Tags: audience influence, balanced approach, business success, competitor, conscious effort, corporate strengths, customer problem, deficiencies, forms of communication, industry visionaries, leadership program, leadership programs, market awareness, meeting customer needs, program 1, shortcomings, slant, technology companies, thought leader, thought leadership



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