Why this should be the year you invest in thought leadership

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By Dorothy Pomerantz | Fitch Ink Managing Editor

While worries about the Delta variant persist, the business community has signaled that happy days are here again.

According to a recent poll from Chief Executive magazine, CEO optimism is back to July 2018 levels, with CEOs rating their confidence in business conditions for the year ahead at 7.27 out of 10.

That’s great news for business leaders who, in many cases, are working hard to ramp their businesses back up as the pandemic recedes. When looking for ways to stand out, more executives should consider thought leadership.

Thought leadership is different from regular public relations. Instead of promoting the company’s products or services, thought leadership promotes ideas. Its starting point is an executive’s unique experiences and skills. Those are the basis for insights that should be useful (or at least interesting) to a wide range of readers. A bank executive writing about their institution’s new digital banking app is PR. That same executive writing about how digital banking can lower fees and make banking more inclusive is thought leadership.

This might seem like a clear distinction, but it can be complicated to execute. Corporate marketing departments (where communications often resides) are accustomed to more straightforward marketing devices such as press releases, events and self-promotional stories.

Thought leadership requires a different tact. Most companies are sitting on a treasure trove of natural thought leadership in their top executives. These people have often overcome hurdles (professionally and personally), and they are positioned to see the bigger picture. They are experts in their fields with ideas that others will find valuable.

The trick is getting those thoughts out of their heads and into publication. These are people with limited time and, often, high standards for what their words look like in print. Striking a balance of creating an engaging, interesting, non-self-promotional article that the executive approves can be tiring work.

But I would argue it’s worth it. Over the past several years, Edelman has partnered with LinkedIn to measure the value of thought leadership. In their most recent study, they found that 48% of decision-makers spend an hour or more per week engaging with thought leadership; 89% say thought leadership enhances their perception of an organization, and almost half (49%) say thought leadership influences their purchasing decisions.

But only 15% of decision-makers surveyed said that the thought leadership they read was good or excellent. That’s a gap worth filling. Companies have the potential to build their reputations and earn more business with good thought leadership.

If this is the year you decide your company should take the plunge, here are some hints for creating great thought leadership.

Avoid self-promotion

This can be incredibly difficult. But nothing takes the air out of a good thought leadership piece like a plug. If you have to mention the company, do it as far toward the bottom of the piece as possible.

Offer valuable insights

The best thought leadership gives the reader something to take away with them. This may be a new idea or a surprising statistic or just a different way of looking at things.

Don’t obsess over brevity

Most marketing types will tell you shorter is better, and in many cases they’re right. Readers often tune out after the first few hundred words. But if you structure your article thoughtfully and include useful, interesting information, readers will stay engaged. Consider adding subheads if a story goes over 800 words.

Capture the executive’s voice

Executives are almost always too busy to do their own writing, but it’s important the story doesn’t sound like it was written by a ghost writer. Make sure the writer is really capturing the uniqueness of the executive’s voice. Watching videos of the executive speaking at events can help.

If you want to talk more about thought leadership, please feel free to email me at dorothy@fitchink.com! I’ll be writing more about how and where to publish stories for real impact.