Becoming the Go-To Expert: A Step-by-Step Blueprint for Building Thought Leadership

Thought leadership, establishing yourself as an expert in your field, is important for several reasons. It attracts clients who want to benefit from your expertise. This is crucial in public procurement because contracting authorities are incredibly risk averse. Working with a thought leader poses less of a risk than other (ordinary) suppliers, so lead generation often turns into conversions.

A thought leadership strategy helps differentiate your business from your competitors. Consistently delivering valuable content that sparks conversation, leads to the exchange of innovative ideas, and encourages engagement builds your credibility in the market. It makes your brand shine like a beacon to public sector buyers. 

We’re going to explore thought leadership, what it takes and how to distribute your ideas to as wide a target audience as possible.

Get Into the Right Mindset

Being a thought leader and producing industry-leading content requires a particular mindset and approach to create content that’s worthwhile. You’ll need to thoroughly know your industry. Read news, research papers, watch webinars from industry leaders, attend networking events, and run surveys on pain points in the market. 

Then think about the data. Thought leaders don’t regurgitate the same-old in a different format. They shine a new light on something highly relevant to their niche. 

Remember, thought leaders aren’t alone. Rope in employees for creative ideas, new perspectives, and a well-rounded approach to your topic. Collaboration shows staff how much you value their input; how important they are to your business operations. 

There is typically only one “figurehead,” which is usually the business owner. However, there can be more figureheads (within reason) if there are employees with a deeper understanding of the topic who can answer questions without hesitation. 

Research Specific Pain Points

It’s important to find valuable resources you can use for credible data that forms the basis for great insights. Reputable sources include industry-specific publications, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and blogs from other industry leaders. 

Constantly evaluate content to ensure accuracy and verifiability, and the quality of engagement on relevant online communities.

Gather data using interviews, surveys, and polls. For example, how many agree with the data and how many interpret it differently? You can use these tools to discover the real-world value of topics and insights. In other words, are they relevant to industry pain points?

Work with your team to find worthwhile ideas and brainstorm unique angles you can use to develop insightful and engaging content.

Develop High-Value Thought Leadership Content

Consider content presentation. One topic might suit a white paper, while another might suit a long-form blog with infographics, tables, and charts. Webinars are great if you’re comfortable in front of a camera and (possibly) a live audience. 

You could even publish a thought-provoking research paper. However, it must contain original research, which takes time to collect, analyse, interpret, and present.  

Formats differ, but the structure remains more or less the same.

• Hook: The bait that snares readers with new ideas.
• Context: Set the scene: The why and the how.
• Insight: The path to your unique insights. It must flow logically so readers think, Ah, yes. Perfect sense and so brilliant. 
• Actionable takeaways: The practical value that can improve business operations, offerings, and functions. 

Encourage Sharing

How do you extend your target market and attract a high-calibre audience? Your content must be shareable. You must provide something (an infographic) that they cannot wait to share with their network.  

It should be interesting and easy to digest – perfect link bait. 

Interesting or insightful quotes are great for sharing on social media. They’re teaser quotes to send social media users to the full paper, blog, or webinar. 

Consider gated content, so it’s only available to those who enter their email addresses – perfect lead generation. 

Distribute Thought Leadership Content Far and Wide

Ideally, you want to reach influencers worldwide. When you have a solid reputation as a thought leader, this is likely an achievable goal. For now, you’re still building the foundations as an industry genius. 

You do this by:

Publish content or teaser content on all distribution channels, including your website, blog, LinkedIn post, Instagram (infographic), X (quote), your newsletter, industry newsletters, industry magazines, etc. 

Outside sources won’t publish the entire piece, but you don’t want them to. You want links back to your original content, so teasers to outside channels must be especially compelling and shareable.

Collaborate with industry influencers; co-host webinars and share speaking engagements. Even an endorsement and sharing on the influencer’s channels will help because you get access to their network.

Building an Online Community of Subject Matter Experts

You must be well-known and respected to be the go-to expert in your field. That requires a community. A community differs from a network, which is like a directory of acquaintances. A community is closer, more intimate, with more engagement.

Some social media platforms enable groups to facilitate conversation and deepen relationships with key influencers and other interested parties. Slack, LinkedIn, and Facebook have group options which can be public (anyone can join) or private (only approved members).

Try to have both, but only if you have the time and resources for proper management. Open groups extend your target audience. Closed groups are for info sharing, discussion, real-time events, and recorded content to provide maximum value.

Measuring the Impact of Your Thought Leadership Strategy

We know measuring KPIs and metrics is important, but what metrics drive change?

Metrics can be divided into two categories: Actionable and vanity. Vanity metrics look impressive and are great for wowing stakeholders and potential clients, but they don’t have practical value. Actionable metrics deliver insights to make informed decisions about products, services, and business development. 

For example:

Dashboards help you track performance, so you know when and where adjustments are needed to optimise your content strategy.

We’ve said you must address genuine challenges, not the ones you think are important. Quarterly reader surveys reveal exactly what your community struggles with and help develop ideas and content to provide valuable, actionable solutions. 

Manage Your Thought Leadership Content Strategy

Given the importance of topic selection, scale of research, and high degree of specialisation, it’s recommended to form an internal “content council.” It helps develop relevant, high-quality content from different perspectives so it’s truly comprehensive.

Some contributors might be good writers or presenters, so give them opportunities to shine. But keep the tone consistent by creating editorial, style, and tone guidelines.

Your council also assesses content for accuracy, value, and flow. Once it’s approved on all fronts (including spelling and grammar), you can go ahead and publish.  

Create a publishing schedule for the year. Don’t leave big gaps between posts because you lose momentum and might frustrate your followers. Short gaps compromise quality and will cost you followers. 

Common Pitfalls in Thought Leadership Content Marketing

Becoming an expert is difficult. Fluffing it is easy. Here are three common challenges that trip up experts in the making.

1) Overpromising

You must generate interest in your content and sell the piece to your audience. However, avoid the trap of overenthusiastic selling. Terms like “industry-changing” and “revolutionary insights” must be backed by genuine vision and cutting-edge thought leadership.

2) Ignoring feedback

Listen to your audience. They tell you what they want to know. Ignore them at your peril because if you keep missing the mark, you’ll come across as more interested in your reputation than providing insightful, actionable solutions. This highlights the importance of quarterly surveys, and why you must take note of comments on all your content.

3) Over-extending your reach

Remember, Jack of all trades and master of none. You want to be a master, so explore your niche and cement your credibility as a thought leader. Then, if you want to, you can explore a new niche. However, ensure it’s related to your area of expertise and isn’t a leap in an entirely new direction. Your followers won’t know what hit them.

Cadence Marketing Supports Your Thought Leadership Strategy

There is no shortcut to thought leadership. If you don’t put in the work or give your readers more of what they want, you’re not going to have the clout to reach the top.

Cadence Marketing is there to support you throughout your journey, providing essential market research, guiding you through content planning, and developing promotional mail content marketing campaigns.

In fact, contact us and take advantage of our free content calendar template to map your marketing and publishing schedules for the next 12 months.

Are you taking steps to become a thought leader? Please share some of your journey with us in the comments below.