Thought leadership is a phrase that is thrown around a lot in strategy meetings and planning sessions, the idea being that you can build brand loyalty and active audience participation by sharing fresh insight that provides direction, or even solutions, to common challenges many of your customers face. If your company has a team of brilliant engineers, technicians and application experts working behind closed doors, why keep that innovative thinking to yourself?  Or if your company isn’t very high tech, how can you use thought leadership material to communicate your company’s value and service principles?

The days of maintaining a brochure website that outlines your markets and related products are fading away.  Companies with a successful online presence keep their audience engaged and encourage repeat visits by generating fresh content that demonstrates their value proposition and expertise. 

According to commentators such as Elise Bauer, a distinguishing characteristic of a thought leader is "the recognition from the outside world that the company deeply understands its business, the needs of its customers, and the broader marketplace in which it operates.”

So where do you start?  The foundation behind thought leadership is that original ideas are powerful and in high demand, so update your website to enable circular communication, promote white papers, videos and other specialized content.  Actively comment and submit your work on industry blogs.  Then promote it.

Here are a few basic guidelines: 

• Be original – tell people something they don’t already know
• Know your audience – speak in their voice to address their challenges
• Cultivate your brand – make thought leadership a company goal and weave it through all marketing communications
• Prompt readers to take action – make them want to learn more about what your company can offer
• Measure the results – monitor your effort to reinforce your overall marketing goals

“A thought leader has passion PLUS market relevance and reach.”
- How to Become a Thought Leader
RainToday.com Research Team

Your biggest challenge may be motivating your team of experts, who already have a heavy workload, to take the time to generate compelling content.  The hope is that once you convince them of the value and show them successful results, it will become second nature for your company and a key component of your marketing strategy and culture. It’s not enough to think about or talk about thought leadership – invest the time and resources to make it an active element of your branding efforts.