How much do your customers, colleagues and peers trust you and your brand? If you haven’t thought about this question, then you should because it matters and impacts if they buy from you.<\/p>\n
One of the best ways to gain trust and credibility<\/a> is through thought leadership<\/strong><\/em>. By executing a thought leadership strategy, you can gain credibility and showcase your expertise.<\/p>\n That said, few terms raise the ire of the buzzword police more than thought leadership<\/em>.<\/p>\n Let’s start by getting on the same page on what it is, when should you consider using it, and how it helps balance the talent and experience of your team with the authenticity today’s audiences demand.<\/p>\n Quick Takeaways:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \ud83e\udd2b<\/strong>\u00a0PS \u2013 I put together these 10 tips for optimizing your content marketing.\u00a0Watch Now!<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Thought leadership is a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience, and passion inside your business, or from your community, to consistently answer the biggest questions in the minds of your target audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n And you do this in the formats your audience likes to consume, consistently.<\/p>\n It’s not dependent on having a certain pedigree. You cannot call yourself a “thought leader” (or an “influencer,” for that matter). That’s a term you have to earn from others. And that comes from developing content that answers the questions your audience is asking.<\/p>\n So a viral video is not thought leadership. Your byline in Forbes is not thought leadership. An annual research report (by itself) is not thought leadership. One way to measure this: do you rank for the top keywords<\/a> in your industry? Does your website attract a growing number of new traffic, leads, and sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here’s a quick explainer of what thought leadership content marketing includes.<\/p>\n\n
What Is Thought Leadership?<\/h2>\n