Thought-leadership, an invincible force to build positive customer mindshare & trust

Trust towards a particular Brand plays a critical role in an overall decision making journey and it doesn’t build overnight. And there is no short cut to build Thought Leadership which is considered to be an integral part in customer acquisition process.

Today B2B marketers are under tremendous pressure to acquire New Customers and help building pipeline but there is no magic wand for that . Each and every B2B Customers go thought a specific journey before they decide to buy a particular product or solution for their organisation.

Role of a B2B Marketers are to influence each phases of this journey and finally convert them into a business .

And building Thought Leadership in initial phase of customer journey can play a crucial role to influence customers’ final buying decision ..

Why should you care about Thought Leadership?

According to Edelman’s study, in collaboration with Linkedin, thought leadership content can help shorten the sales cycle and increase your brand’s credibility.

As per the survey, 89% of the decision-makers believe that thought leadership is effective in enhancing their perception of an organization.

49% of the people in the survey think that the thought leadership content is effective at influencing their purchase decision.

Still not convinced?

Do you know, Neil Patel, Gary Vaynerchuk, Set Godin and companies like Hubspot, Ahrefs?

You do, right!

What do they all have in common?

They all are thought leaders.

All of them have insane amounts of the following and people are crazy about them. They are the top names in their industry. This is the power of thought leadership.

How to Become a Thought Leader?

Thought leaders aren’t born overnight. It takes a lot of patience and years of hard work to become a thought leader.

And if you are ready to get your hands dirty and test your patience, then let’s dive deep to uncover the process of establishing yourself as a thought leader.

1. Decide your expertise, target audience, and message – If you are an organization then you must have identified all of these. It is the first step towards becoming a thought leader.

First, you need to decide your expertise or strength, then comes the audience that is going to listen and follow you. And then comes our message. Deciding your message is important because it makes you stand out from the other thought leaders in your industry.

2. Provide a lot of value  – When you are trying to become a thought leader, you need to keep aside all your business agendas. Don’t think how you are going to make money out of it.

The more you give the more will come back to you like a boomerang. Focus on giving as much as you, be helpful.

3. Create amazing content – The only way to give away a lot of value to your readers is by producing a hell lot of content. Fresh and unique content to benefit your readers.

Include as much type of content as you can. Videos, blogs, podcasts, webinars, infographics, ebooks, newsletter, etc. A wide variety of content will help you to connect with each persona of your reader. It also helps you to be more engaging and your message never becomes boring. 

It’s needless to say that to deliver this content of high value you need to have a strong social media presence.

4. Add your personal touch – You cannot become a thought leader just by copying someone’s content, you need to have your personal touch in it. People love stories, they want to know yours as well. Your stories are proof that you are not an overnight success.

You need to share your failures, successes, setbacks, and everything about you. Your personal stories will help your readers to relate and connect with you. As we share a stronger bond with the people we know.

5. Listen to your audience – You cannot become people’s favourite only by saying, you need to be a good listener as well. Listening to your audience’s problems, needs, and wants is a crucial part to become a thought leader of the industry.

Polls and surveys on your social media platforms are an amazing way to listen to your audience. Make your followers feel special by showing them that their opinion matters.

6. Become a problem solver – Listen to the problems of your audience and provide them suitable solutions. Q&A sessions on social media is an amazing way to directly listen and solve the problems of your followers. It also gives you a chance to get personal with your followers.

If you are starting, you need to build your followers, You can do this by solving people’s problems. Join several Q&A forums like Quora and solve their problems, answer their questions, advise them to establish your thought leadership.

7. Build your Credibility – To build your credibility as a thought leader, you can showcase your achievements, the impact you have created in the industry, publications, testimonials, and a lot of things to let people know why you are talking about a particular thing.

Providing valuable insights and future trends is the foremost thing that people expect from thought leaders. It is because they are not only the industry experts but also they are the drivers of the industry.

How to boost your credibility by increasing Industry presence – 

1. Leverage PR opportunities – Start by writing guest posts on popular blog platforms to build your reader base. Keep an eye for every opportunity to get your articles, work and your story to get published on as many platforms as possible.

Always keep sending your studies, reports stories to media outlets to grab any opportunity of featuring. Don’t miss out on any opportunity to speak as a speaker. 

2. Infuse Content Personalisation through ABM – Content personalization is a strategy that relies on visitor data to deliver relevant content based on audience interests and motivations. It ranges from a highly targeted call to action to a revolving landing page based on geographic or industry-specific segments.

3. Collaborate with influencers – Collaborate with other influencers and leaders to get the opportunity to influence their audience. Doing live webinars, Q&A sessions in collaborations with these industry leaders helps to boost your credibility as a thought leader to build your reader base.

You are all set to become the next thought leader of your industry. Did I miss any crucial tip? I would love to know.

Don’t forget to add your 2 cents in the comments.