Thought Leadership Is Dead. Long Live Idea Marketing.

The term thought leadership has come to mean so many different things that it has become a throwaway. I’ve seen the term applied to anything that carries a marketing message. But thought leadership is supposed to be the antidote to the stuff that we (and, more important, customers) dismiss as collateral.

Thought leadership is a way to build a relationship with prospects based on knowledge—not on products and services. Especially in B2B, where the products and solutions are complex, developing the relationship through knowledge helps demonstrate to customers that providers can go beyond the product specification sheet and help them with their business needs.

We need a new term: idea marketing. This term describes what we’re really trying to do with thought leadership: sell a point of view that educates the audience. The education is the exchange of value that begins a relationship between the customer and the deliverer—whether that deliverer is a salesperson, a marketer, or a subject matter expert. That relationship is deepened through a coordinated, multistep campaign with successively more intimate communications over time.

Idea marketing isn’t easy. It presupposes that we have something to talk about besides our products and services. And the truth is that as marketers we don’t have anything else to talk about. Idea marketing means we need to do more. We need to do research. We need help from subject matter experts and salespeople with their ears to the ground in the market. The difficulty of lining up those other pieces is why we often wind up creating expensive brochures rather than ideas.

True idea marketing requires more than marketing. Here are the five important pieces:

Research the need for ideas. Idea marketing will be an expensive waste of time if your customers aren’t looking for it or don’t see you as an acceptable source for it. Doing research first allows you to set goals using reliable, objective data. Then when people start to question your strategy (and they will), you can show them the numbers. Survey internal sales and marketing staff, customers, target markets, and influencers to determine what they are looking for. Here are some questions to ask:

• Do customers view of you as a thought leader? If not, can they envision you moving into that role—i.e., give you permission to be a thought leader?
• What are customers’ areas of interest?
• What types of vehicles (councils, conferences, white papers, social media, etc.) are target customers most interested in?
• How can idea marketing influence customers’ buying behavior?

Answers to these questions will drive the structure of the program and its ROI goals.

Determine the readiness of the organization. Professional services firms expect their consultants to have new ideas, and that expectation flows through everything those firms do, from recruiting and training to marketing. Idea marketing requires a cultural commitment to creating an internal idea supply chain and strong executive support.

Build an idea network. There are two parts to idea marketing: idea development and content dissemination. Marketing is potentially great at the latter, but it needs help with the former. An idea network provides a reliable source of content for marketers to package and disseminate. The idea network focuses on identifying internal thought leaders and building alliances with external academics and customers who can help develop and test ideas. Primary and secondary research provide the inspiration for some ideas and the objective justification for others. Internal knowledge share sessions and reward-and-recognition programs provide the motivation for idea generators to step forward and help imbue the idea supply chain into the culture of the organization. (ITSMA clients can download a detailed example of a network here.)

Create a content development process. Marketing needs to develop vehicles for disseminating ideas to customers and salespeople. The key components of the program are:

• Develop a publishing process. Marketers must become publishers, with a process for refining and presenting content through various vehicles (such as conference presentations, white papers, social media, etc.).
• Create a calendar. A calendar helps marketing plan the frequency and focus of its output.

Align content with the buying process. Marketing needs to develop materials that are appropriate to each stage of the buying process so that customers and salespeople can get the right information at the right time. Marketing and sales need to agree on the alignment of content to the various buying stages so that sales will get the right signals about when and how to approach customers for a sale.

Install systems and metrics for supporting idea marketing. The goal of idea marketing is not simply to raise awareness of the company; it is to help move buyers through the sales funnel and to make a sale. For that reason, the program needs to be tightly integrated into the company’s IT systems—and particularly its CRM systems—so that the impact of thought leadership can be tracked all the way through to the sale. These are the key components:

• Install a lead tracking and nurturing system. Marketers can use the consumption of idea marketing to track the readiness of prospects to buy if they have a system for tracking a prospect’s activities. For example, if a prospect downloads a piece of content targeted to the interest phase of the buying process and reads it thoroughly, a lead tracking and nurturing system can track that activity and send a signal to salespeople that the prospect is most likely ready for a call. As the lead is passed over to sales for follow-through, the idea content is tagged as part of the sale. If a sale doesn’t result, the lead can be put back into the nurturing process while keeping track of the content he or she has already consumed. This lead tracking system should be integrated with the company’s CRM system (most traditional CRM systems are not set up to handle lead nurturing) so that leads can be handed back and forth between marketing and sales without losing anyone along the way.
• Agree with sales on the definition of a sales-ready lead. The benefits of the program will be lost if sales and marketing can’t agree on the point at which the consumption of the content provides a reliable signal of intent to buy. There needs to be a smooth handoff of prospects between marketing and sales for idea marketing to have the fullest possible impact on a sale.

5 Responses to “Thought Leadership Is Dead. Long Live Idea Marketing.”

1. Jim Pennypacker Says:
   October 9th, 2009 at 7:19 AM

   Chris,

   You’ve written a terrific article, clearly defining thought leadership marketing and offering invaluable advice to organizations on how to implement it. So I really hate that you argue to give up on the use of “thought leadership”. I’d rather we fight for the concept (after all, I have business cards already printed using the term). There needs to be more of us to write and speak about the concept so it’s clearly understood and becomes part of the marketing profession’s knowledgebase. As we both know, it’s a great way to position a company and a great way to engage customers and prospects.

2. Bob Scheier Says:
   October 15th, 2009 at 2:14 PM

   In my experience, when clients ask for “thought leadership” it’s usually as a one-off and is often closer to a soft sell of their usual marketing message than genuine thought leadership. In other words, “thought leadership” means you don’t mention the name of your product(s) or service(s) until the final paragraphs, but the rest of the white paper is clearly aimed at setting up the terms of the conversation to favor the vendor.

   True thought leadership, I would argue, requires going where no one has gone before and/or showing others the right direction to take. That’s a lot harder than reverse-engineering your marketing claims to develop a list of “top challenges facing customers.”

3. Paul Gladen Says:
   October 20th, 2009 at 4:19 PM

   Chris – I definitely agree that the term “thought leadership” has been used and abused, although I’m not willing to kill it off quite yet! You can read my detailed thoughts on my blog.

   http://www.thebigskyview.com/?p=354

   The rest of your article is excellent practical advice!

4. “Thought Leadership” Muddies the Water for Thought Leadership — Muzeview Says:
   October 25th, 2009 at 11:46 PM

   [...] Koch over at ITSMA (the IT Services Marketing Association) suggests that “Thought Leadership is Dead“. While I wouldn’t go that far (indeed many professional services firms are still [...]

5. Thanh Says:
   October 27th, 2009 at 6:40 PM

   Is changing the terminology just another marketing tool? Isn’t the aspect and usage of information driven marketing and sales still the same?

   A rose by any other name is still a rose?

   Why would changing thought leadership to idea marketing be better? Including “leadership” reminds people to be on their best behavior and to add value. The term “marketing” is more associated with bottom-line principles than value-principles.

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