Comments on: What Is Thought Leadership? And When You Should Use It?

By: Michael Brenner

Michael Brenner — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 19:42:47 +0000

In reply to Muhammad Awais. Your welcome. Our pleasure.

By: Muhammad Awais

Muhammad Awais — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 10:47:48 +0000

Michael Brenner thanks a lot for creating and sharing this data, it’s very helpful for me and more people like me, actually my boss gave me an assignment to research about thought leadership and I found this article on the internet really helpful for me to understand about thought leadership,

Thanks Again….

By: Michael Brenner

Michael Brenner — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 13:48:51 +0000

In reply to Manmay Mehta. Thanks Manmay, this is one of my favorite posts and ideas. You don't have to present something unique, but you can be uniquely helpful!

By: Manmay Mehta

Manmay Mehta — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 14:15:42 +0000

Wow!! What a post.
You really break all the misconceptions with sheer logic. Thought leadership is not putting your unique point of view. But convincing and resolving your customers’ doubts in the best way like No one else does.

By: Michael Brenner

Michael Brenner — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:35:31 +0000

In reply to Lorraine Shearing.

Thanks Lorraine,

It’a a great question! And pretty tough to answer because I think most people see thought leadership as a type of content. It’s a piece of content like a research study white paper. And content marketing is most certainly not an asset or even a series of assets. I have to laugh when I hear people say, “we do content marketing. Here is a link to an ebook.” That is not content marketing. That is an asset. A piece of content.

Content marketing is a customer-focused mindset where you consistently create content that helps your audience. And your brand gains authority in the process. So in many ways (and I think I said this in the post) thought leadership is something you achieve by successfully implementing content marketing.

Now having said that, I do think thought leadership content should be a component of successful content marketing. Those ebooks and whitepapers and webinars and slideshare decks from the executives and “thought leaders” inside the business should all be part of the content marketing mix. But so should listicles and short explainer videos and maybe even silly gifs. But those probably wouldn’t count as “thought leadership.” 😉

By: Lorraine Shearing

Lorraine Shearing — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 17:50:45 +0000

Great article – thanks! You mentioned Thought Leadership as a component of Content Marketing. I’d be curious to know how you see the two as differing?

By: Michael Brenner

Michael Brenner — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 17:41:04 +0000

In reply to Dave Brock. Thanks Dave, I completely agree. One of the things we see with the most successful brands doing thought leadership is that they create content for each stage of the buyer journey. Answering all the questions as they progress down the funnel is the only way to increase speed of conversion.

By: Dave Brock

Dave Brock — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 14:44:11 +0000

Michael: Outstanding post. I think there is a broader context to the “use” of thought leadership in complex B2B markets. It’s the, “….and this is what it means to you….” piece that’s delivered by sales people as they engage prospects and customers.
We don’t necessarily need to be so differentiated or distinct (but that helps), or even provocative. But if we can help the sales person translate content pieces that may capture interest, generating a conversation specifically about what it means to the customer now.(specific persona at a specific point in their buying journey)
But this puts an additional burden on content developers to be able to provide the tools to help the sales person bridge that gap and maximize the impact/specificity of that thought leadership with the customer.
Thanks for a great article.

By: Michael Brenner

Michael Brenner — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 13:14:37 +0000

In reply to Pontus Staunstrup. Doh! Thanks Pontus. I was bleary-eyed by the time I finished this one and missed that. Thanks so much for letting me know.

By: Pontus Staunstrup

Pontus Staunstrup — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 08:10:07 +0000

Great read, Michael, and very good arguments.

Something seems to be missing at the end of this section: “We also have to be careful with thought leadership. Wikipedia actually calls it “business jargon.” And defines it as content that is recognized by others as innovative, covering trends and topics that influence an industry. Others have pointed”

Thanks again