Its Time to Rethink Thought Leadership

Thought leadership is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone has his or her own idea of what constitutes new and innovative. And frankly, few of our companies have much new to say on a regular basis.

To compensate, we focus on trying to make everything we do sound new and innovative. But that just leads to jargon and fluff. Worse, it alienates our customers, who consistently implore us to speak clearly and focus on business issues.

They want us to offer insights about things that matter to them. This is the essence of good thought leadership marketing. It doesn’t need to be particularly new or innovative (a controversial view, I know), but it does require a strong point of view, supported by research and case studies, that mobilizes the audience to think and act.

All too often, we fail to put all these pieces together. At the top, we have broad research surveys; at the bottom, we have case studies of customers implementing particular solutions. But what’s missing is the point of view to take the customer from that broad research down to the case studies, the proof points. There needs to be a link. In a complex world, people are looking for clarity. Having a strong point of view is what provides that clarity.

Marketing Needs Help

But developing a strong point of view takes work, and we can’t do it on our own. Thought leadership should be managed by marketing, but it can’t be sourced from marketing. We need an internal thought leadership content development network to generate ideas and to test and validate points of view. (ITSMA program clients can read about how to create a thought leadership content development network here.)

Out of that content engine comes the raw fodder marketers need to develop thought leadership marketing—the white papers, Webinars, and events that will stand out in the minds of customers and prospects. Done right, thought leadership will have these four characteristics:

1. Relevant business issue
2. Strong point of view
3. Research support
4. Case examples

I recently gave a brief presentation that goes into more depth on these issues, which you can view for free here.

For more discussion about what constitutes good thought leadership—and to read some dissenting views and add your own—please visit my blog.

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ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA annual program clients include business leaders such as AT&T, Cisco, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing℠, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.