Your audience isn’t just scrolling to exercise their thumbs; they’re actively searching for voices that resonate with their mission and business needs (whether they know it or not). There’s always value you can deliver as a business leader and when it comes from a real human, people trust you and your business much more.
LinkedIn and Edelman 2024 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report Statistic
So many business opportunities have found their way to my inbox just from the content I share that helps business leaders like you grow their personal brands.
That’s why I encourage every executive at an organization and success-driven business owners to craft content that speaks directly to the heart of their target audience and positions them as thought leaders (a.k.a. go-to experts) in their field.
Thought Leadership Drives Opportunities
According to LinkedIn and Edelman 2024 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, a staggering 95% of business clients are not actively seeking goods or services AND the economic uncertainty is extending sales cycles. This is not fun for us marketers and is why a thought leadership strategy is more important than ever before.
Why? It builds brand trust, humanizes your organization, and gets potential customers interested in your product or service.
Thought Leadership can Prompt B2B Buyers to Question the Status Quo
Using Thought Leadership to Grow Your Business and Career
At the heart of every successful company, effective storytelling through thought leaders can build meaningful conversations within the organization and with ideal customers. Don’t believe me? Trust these stats:
73% of decision-makers say that an organization’s thought leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competencies than its marketing materials and product sheets.
🔵 70% of C-suite leaders say that a piece of thought leadership had at least occasionally led them to question whether they should continue working with an existing supplier.
🔵 9 out of 10 decision-makers and C-suite executives say they are more likely to be receptive to sales or marketing outreach from a company that consistently produces high-quality thought leadership.
Thought Leadership in Action: Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Let’s look at how Arianna Huffington used her expertise and business success as the Co-Founder of Huffington Post to build her new company Thrive Global. Thrive is a behavior change technology company that started out of her personal stories around burnout. To launch Thrive, the company leaned on Arianna’s background and credibility, and through her book, social presence, connections to influencers and more, Thrive has become a major tech company in the health space with a $700M+ valuation as of 2021.
Great example of a post from her company and how well it did
What works?
🔵 Strategy: Her tone, voice, and content were consistent throughout her career. She focused on corporate wellness, women in leadership, and political reform topics, which positioned her as a thought leader. And the quality of the discussions she ignited turned her into a go-to expert in this space.
🔵 Execution: As her personal brand grew, Ariana diversified it by getting closer and closer to her target audience, speaking at events, sharing more personal stories, and opening up about hardships and challenges across social media platforms and even launched Medium. Her active presence and participation in crucial conversations amplified her voice across different channels.
Another great example of how Arianna uses her personal platform to also tie into her company platform
🔵 Impact: The Huffington Post flipped from a digital publication to a global media powerhouse bought by Buzzfeed in 2020. By acquiring HuffPost, BuzzFeed gained access to a well-established brand with a broad reach, allowing it to expand its audience and scale. As a LinkedIn Influencer and Top Voice, she’s dedicated to sparking authentic dialogue on complex issues, earning her reputation as a trusted thought leader who drives attention, engagement, and informed decision-making through her credibility.
6 Steps to Implement Thought Leadership into Your Marketing Strategy
If you’re an executive or work with them in your organization, here’s what you can do to strengthen your company’s communication strategy and new customer opportunities through thought leadership content:
🔵 Define your marketing goals and which audiences would be best served through the voice of a thought leader and online, particularly on social media.
🔵 Identify which voices in the organization will lead certain marketing objectives and how to approach their voice internally vs externally.
🔵 Define 3-5 core content themes for these voices based on their target audience and decide which platform is best to serve them.
🔵 Develop thought leadership content that is research, data and insight driven speaking to customer needs and the unique perspective the leader has.
🔵 Share content consistently across optimal social media and marketing channels. Use LinkedIn as one place to get that message out there.
🔵 Encourage your teams to like, comment, and share from these key voices.
Want proof that it works? Here’s what John “GUCCI” Foley had to say.
Build Your Thought Leadership Strategy and Stand Out Online
Real people buy from REAL PEOPLE. Think about it. You buy from people. You hire people. You do business with P-E-O-P-L-E. So yes, genuine connection is THE golden ticket when it comes to building trust and authority online. To keep up, you need to focus on one thing that never changes–building your personal brand and creating genuine connections. That’s why it’s my vision to humanize marketing by empowering key voices to become thought leaders.
Here are some ways we can work together.
Dive into our Standout Authority Experience
If you want to learn more about how you or your organization can become a thought leader online, take a look at our Standout Authority Experience Course.
If you would like support to grow your online authority and find your personal brand voice, choose a service and get in touch with us here.
🔴 Check out my LinkedIn LIVE with Lauren Johnson, High Performance Coach
I’m thrilled to share my inspiring conversation with Lauren Johnson, a renowned high-performance coach, advisor, and keynote speaker. Her insights on what sets elite leaders apart were truly eye-opening.
Check out my LinkedIn LIVE with Lauren Johnson, High Performance Coach
Lauren’s perspective on how love is the key to creating a valued and empowered work environment was particularly compelling, and her expertise on the core principles that distinguish top performers from those who aren’t is invaluable.
Tune in and get ready to learn from Lauren’s valuable insights 💥