Thought Leadership – what is it all about and why should you consider it
When we are surrounded every minute of every day with content and information about different products and services, it can be difficult to disseminate the information into the answers to our questions. Let’s look at a simple example of how thought leadership can resolve this predicament for consumers.
Imagine you have a specific question regarding spring gardening and planting for which you need to find a quick answer. You begin to search the internet, within a short time you have viewed multiple sites and resources from all over the world for all types of problems. But your problem is related to both the climate where you are, the type of soil in your garden and is altogether more specific. Websites, books, gardeners, landscapers and suppliers all have a vast amount of information but nothing is really answering your specific question as they are touching on so many topics. Then you land on a supplier who has put together video vignettes- they are presented by experts, each from a different area of knowledge and answering a specific question asked by consumers. Most importantly they are relevant to the time of year, climate and your type of garden.
The supplier compiled their video vignettes based on answers to real questions they had been asked by customers in their store making it highly relevant to their consumer base.
Such content doesn't just solve your immediate problem but it will also solve future problems and maybe teach you a thing or two along the way. So you'll now be more likely to use it as my go-to resource. And yes you'll probably now drop into that store and by your supplies there as on a level you feel you trust them, you know they are willing to provide advice for free and you have an early stage relationship with them.
Thought leadership marketing is about sharing your expertise, we all can’t be experts in everything but if we can share our expertise to build relationships with existing and potential customers we will build trust and loyalty which will promote sales in the long term. But the most relevant content published by thought leaders is the content that answers questions from the audience.