Apr 19, 21 | 13 min read
thought leadership content
Reading time: 10 minutes
Are you on the hunt for a clear and practical thought leadership content guide and after reading many blogs, your mind is unable to come up with a concrete definition?
Can we guess? It's not that we're psychic, it's that we know that place because we've been there too. It was an effort from our entire team, as it was a huge challenge to reach common ground.
We were always getting confused between quality content , editorial content, ABM strategies, case studies. Each one had their own work to prioritize or results to achieve and even other concepts about work that simply made it harder to co-create something new and, at the same time, tailored to our brand.
Now that we've finally made it, we sri lanka email list want to share with you the process that helped us arrive at our own definition. And remember, the focus here is on the process (this long and detailed path) and not the final product .
We say this because what fits Rock Content may not fit your business exactly the same way.
Keep reading and you'll understand why!
What does thought leadership mean?
What is thought leadership content?
What is the purpose of thought leadership content?
How to define agendas?
Common Types of Thought Leadership Content
How to present thought leadership content to the world?
How to promote your thought leadership content?
Conclusion
What does thought leadership mean?
A Thought Leader brand is one that recognizes its individuality and from this perception creates original content with valuable knowledge for its audience .
This means standing out through a strong, almost personal perspective on reality, a vision that is at the core of the narrative and that represents the brand.
This insight generates specific opinions and points of view (knowledge) that are unique. If that is valuable to the audience and the market itself, then your brand becomes a pioneer, an authority, a thought leader.
We came to this conclusion after reading a lot on the topic, but also by combining it with brand building lessons (many thanks to Giuseppe Caltabiano) and this spectacular Jam Session we had with him and Andy Raskin , on strategic storytelling: it was truly transformational .
With that in mind, it is now easier to understand the role of content within this completely new concept.
What is thought leadership content?
Thought Leadership content is used by brands in strategies that share valuable knowledge (again: a product of the brand's individuality ) with the world.
Our own case study on how to generate leads without using paid ads is thought leadership content.
It speaks to our own experience, is data-driven, and supports our vision that Content Experience is the go-to strategy for generating sustainable growth – a view we have had since day one and have always applied to our business.
thought leadership content
This is our truth that speaks to how we were able to succeed in staying consistent . Thought leadership content should present that vision, even when we are not talking specifically about ourselves.
Remember: our narrative is beyond us, it is about what is best for our audience and we are the ones who can help them achieve it.
While the case study is a great example, it is important to understand that thought leadership content does not stand alone .
In order for the idea to gain traction and attention, we must make an effort to promote it and create memories related to it over time, as part of a long-term strategy, just as brand building should be, otherwise it will just be an activation piece.
In this way, each and every piece of thought leadership content should have a plan for its promotion and we should give it a reasonable time frame. A good starting point for larger projects is periodic releases.
We did this for many years for our Portuguese and Spanish speaking audiences by publishing comprehensive research on Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Freelance Work and even with our magazine Rock Content.
This regular feature, combined with quality content and data, kept people engaged and excited about future releases. It works like magic, but it takes time and a lot of commitment.
This excellent LinkedIn article on thought leadership content uses Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report as an example . And it’s very hard to find someone in this industry who has never seen or heard of it before.
Another approach is to connect different smaller pieces of thought leadership content to the same central theme and use them as the same campaign, or even just launch the content and continue to promote it frequently.
That's also very common, but you and your team will need to be very aligned for it to be effective.
Bottom line: Thought leadership content is valuable knowledge, a product of brand individuality, and should be strategically shared with the industry.
Based on this definition, thought leadership content cannot be defined as "a type of content" because we cannot limit it to its shape or size.
