The Thousand Solutions Blog

How to become a marketing thought-leader: A complete guide

Jun 2, 2022

If you're an upstart company, creator, or established business looking to expand your audience, thought leadership can be a fantastic method to sit at the table, share your expertise, and be heard and respected by professionals in the industry.

The great thing is that each company can benefit from a thought leadership content strategy -- and each company has the ability to develop a thought leadership strategy that is effective for their needs.

How can you begin? Read on to discover what the term "thought leadership" means, how to locate thought leaders who are relevant to your audience, and how to incorporate a thought leadership content plan in your marketing strategies.

In this article

What is thought leadership content

Thought leadership is a type of content strategy that requires identifying and working businesses and individuals who can share subject matter expertise in areas that your target customers are concerned about.

Content that is thought-leadership can to support both B2B and B2C firms and come in a myriad of forms, including the following:

  • Blog articles and blog posts
  • Speaker events and conferences
  • Social media content

Typically, thought-leadership content can be found in two kinds:

external thought leadership thought leadership by someone or a company that is not part of your organization and who is invited to address your target audience.

internal thought leadership The thought-leadership process is conducted within your own company where individuals have the chance to speak and share their experience with wider public.

When used effectively, thought leadership can be an effective way to leverage the talent within your company to support the overall goals of your business, align your brand with big companies in your field as well as help you lead your existing customers to join your brand and share your story and expertise to a broader market.

The best part is, virtually every kind of organization can benefit from content that promotes thought leadership. This is how you can best take it on.

Find an influential thought leader

Begin by taking a close glance at the goals of your business and who you wish to connect with. If you want to connect with a wider audience and elevate your brand awareness for new firms, then thought leadership content is a no-brainer.

The choice of a thought leader who will speak to your target audience is contingent on whether or not you want to go with external thought leadership or inside thought leadership.

Finding external thinkers

The process of thinking leadership generally begins by finding out the type of audience you're trying to capture and gaining knowledge about the things they are interested in. That's right: A lot of researching.

If you're looking for an external expert to speak at events and video clips, Julie Bergstein, events programming and content lead at , likes to start with topics that discuss both what products do and who they're the best for.

Then she goes to LinkedIn and trade publications like Adweek to source experts who are paving the way or talking about the issues that 's target audience are speaking about.

"Part of our method is to combine something that's directly something that your business does or offers, with topics and themes that have broader appeal," she says.

As an example, in a recent event which they held, where marketers were their key audience, enlisted C-level marketing experts from companies such as OKCupid or WeTransfer to discuss issues ranging from virtual events as well as marketing strategies and the Metaverse.

"We're not part of the Metaverse at the moment, and we don't offer products that place us in the Metaverse," she says. "But this is something every marketer is talking about. If you're able to marry what you can actually achieve with what your audience cares about and the more your business will be seen as a top resource or leader in marketing all around."

Finding internal thought leaders

When it comes to identifying and nurturing internal talent that can present your company's image to the general public, it's a slightly different process. You still want to think about company goals and are still searching for individuals who can convey what the customers want to know- but you have a much smaller selection of thought-leaders with a proven track record to choose from.

Instead of choosing the person with the best name- say, enlisting someone from your product team to speak on a specific use-case for a product Instead, Julie recommends contacting the individual most suited to represent the audiencethat you're catering to.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to identify the job titles of the people who would be most likely to use your product or consume your content (that could be Internal Communications specialists) and choose the person with that post title in your company to be your thought leader (for example, your Chief of People or Talent).

Not only is this person most familiar with the product's capabilities from a consumer perspective but they also have access to the larger trends happening within the field, having an understanding and experience that is matched with your target audience.

How to plan and produce thought-provoking content

Once you've identified your external as well as internal thought leaders, is the time to design content around them.

There's a wide variety of possible forms that your content can take. This could be a set of blog posts that helps inspire and inform your readers about a topic they are interested in and an article that is written by an eminent guest writer within your field. You could have a conference, hosted by your business that includes an array of the top experts within the field, or a third-party conference or an event in which an internal thought leader speaks with other specialists. This could be a podcast, webinar series produced by your organization, or being a guest on one or other productions that another person has made.

Whatever strategy you choose to go with the only thing is that it must be appropriate for the audience you are targeting the resources you have and your objectives for your business.

That means that the study doesn't cease once you've discovered your personal or external thought-leader. Julie usually begins by having a kick-off meeting with planned thinkers.

"I ask them a bunch of questions about what their expertise is and let them know what our objectives are and what it is we're trying to accomplish with being a thought-leader as well as have them pour into my mouth in a way that they're aligned" she says.

That way, she can begin to develop an outline in order to connect their expert's knowledge and the goals of their.

When it comes to finding ways to make use of external thought leaders, you should think about the people they'refollowers are, and whether or not they're the people you're targeting to create articles that appeal to an even larger audience by speaking to the topics that they care about in an engaging and relevant way.

Four tips for identifying internal thought leaders and help them make an impact

While every company will have distinct approaches to ideas-driven content, there's a handful of guidelines to make sure your that your content is authentic, relevant, and useful for the people you are targeting.

It's likely that the success of a thinking leadership approach doesn't just fall onto one's shoulders- it takes a village.

1. It's not just about the item

Thought leadership is least effective when it's primarily promoting the product or teaching others how to utilize it. Instead, thought leadership is more general in its focus on the creation of community and brand awareness.

Try stepping away from your business's products and services and engage in a larger discussion. Ask yourself some important questions like:

  • What's the latest trend in the industry in which your audience is?
  • What is it that people are having difficulty having trouble
  • What is it that you are uniquely positioned to offer?

2. Training in media is essential.

In the process of identifying and fostering any kind of thinker, it is helpful to get them ready for their time in the spotlight. This can help your thought-leader boost their conference and personal brand while also ensuring their ability to represent the company in an appropriate way.

turns to agencies who provide professional training for media and public speaking coaching to help support their internal thought leaders and C-suite managers.

3. Loop inside PR

In addition to making sure your thought leader is comfortable with public speaking and is able to clearly represent your business, you also want to ensure that your message adheres to the brand's guidelines.

If your business has an internal PR or communications manager make sure to bring them on board at a pre-determined time to update your internal leaders about what to discuss, what things to steer clear of as well as to verify that your content is line with your business' policies.

4. Hire the services of a copywriter

In order to help your internal thought leader on occasions for public speaking or any kind of scripted video, you might consider hiring a copywriter to examine the language and content, and ensure it's entertaining relevant, educational, and conforms to your brand guidelines.

3 examples of thought of leaders

Need some inspiration to help you think about your next campaign? Below are some of the biggest market players who are in the forefront of the field and also looking good while doing it.

Ryan Reynolds: He's a Hollywood actor and director, but that's only his day-time occupation. Not only does he run two marketing agencies, the actor has also turned his self-deprecating Canadian wit, charisma and household name into top marketing influencer-ship on platforms like social media, well-known publications, and elsewhere.

Zaria Parvez Zaria Parvez could be graduating from an advertising degree in 2020, but she has transformed her position as the social media director at Duolingo, a beloved application for learning languages, and has become a social media pioneer as well as a thought leader as a thought leader in her own right. All of this started by the iconic green owl the "GenZ" look to TikTok. She is now a marketing leader that other brands look up to, and has mainstream media mentions that extend beyond her own professional industry.

Jay Herratti-the thought-leader of thought leaders. Jay Herratti is the executive director of TED Talks. Under his leadership the world-renowned conference series has transitioned from in-person live events to the leaders of the world in video clips that highlight the most brilliant thinkers of the modern age, within industries that span STEM, education, philosophical, and more.