Thought leadership is how more of today’s brands get noticed and yield influence, but there’s no one recipe for success. Only by finding the right content mix for your brand will you be able to cook up something good that brings people in and keeps them coming back. Choosing which ingredients go into your content marketing calls for a look at your overall strategy. Taking a high-level overview can help you identify any gaps in your brand’s influence and create the thought leadership you need to go from line cook to head chef. To help you establish the right recipe, get a taste of three different types of thought leadership in the infographic below. Depending on your company’s size, industry, and business objectives, you might create content assets that display: - Industry thought leadership, including perspective on news and trends - Organizational thought leadership, embodied in the vision and ethos of your company - Product thought leadership, focused on being the best solution for your customers All companies share the need to build brand trust and credibility, but recipes for effective thought leadership vary. Striking the right thought leadership mix with your content marketing can allow you to influence people in evaluation or buying mode, helping ensure you are Zagat-rated in your industry.

1. Industry Thought
Leadership
By establishing thought leadership, you can better define ways for companies to
go about business; but it’s not just about highlighting the need for change, it’s also
about helping your audience get from point A to point B. Ideally your products
(or services) are the vehicle for taking them down this better path.
Standing out in your industry is
the aim of many thought leadership
programs. But what exactly does this
mean and how do you achieve this goal?
To serve a minimum audience, you need to
focus on the news, trends and forces shaping
the market(s) you serve
Develop and share innovative thoughts
and insights about those dynamics with
your audience
Just remember to keep your audience in
mind, whether prospects, customers, analysts,
or others
Three tablespoons of best practices
A dash of practical how-to’s
Some fresh strategic roadmaps
Sweeten with as much content as you see fit
Your thought leadership should pre-heat
your company’s vision, innovations and
uniqueness. In other words, it should
mirror you organization’s culture. We
could go a step further and say it should
drive your company’s culture. No matter
how you look at, your thought leadership
and culture need to be in sync for your
thought leadership to bake up to a nice
golden brown.
Once you’ve defined a new—and let’s
face it—best way for companies in a
certain industry to go about business,
you want to give them the means
to get where they need to be.
Give your thought leadership a little love.
Optimize your recipe for success with:
For more tips on building a successful thought leadership strategy
on LinkedIn, download our popular all-encompassing playbook
“The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to Thought Leadership.”
We recommend applying these different flavors of thought leadership based
on what you can do well and where the opportunity lies. Commit to all three if you
have the resources. That means you need to develop a point of view and produce
a variety of content on industry, product and organization. But if you’re running low
on all-purpose flour, choose one and do it very well. For example, is there a gaping
hole in your industry that you can fill? Maybe there’s an opportunity for a quick
win around culture and product, but high competition around the industry.
INDUSTRY THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
ORGANIZATIONAL
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
PRODUCT THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
(a point of view on news,
trends and the future)
(company culture, talent
development, etc.)
(how to’s, best
practices, strategy)
Creating the Perfect Mix of Content for your Brand
“Thought Leadership is authoritative,
yet authentic. When you find this
balance with your content, you are
truly optimized for influence.”
—Stephanie Sammons, Digital Entrepreneur and
Marketing Strategist, www.stephaniesammons.com
“If you’re just repeating what
everyone else is saying, you’re
not building authority.”
—Dougla Karr, CEO, DK New Media and
CMO, CircuPress
“Becoming known as a thought
leader shouldn't be your goal. It's
just the icing on the cake of creating
something truly innovative.”
—Lauren Hockenson, Editorial and Social Media
Manager, BitTorrent, Inc.
3 TYPES OF THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Bottom Line: Authenticity
should be the main ingredient.
Lay off on the artificial sweetner
—audiences can tell when your
content is artificial.
Organizational
Thought Leadership
Product
Thought Leadership
AThree-Tiered
Approach to
Thought Leadership