How thought leadership can give you a competitive edge

It’s rare for a business to have no competitors, so getting the edge on your rivals is vital for success. Thought leadership can give you that competitive edge; highlighting your expertise, making you more relatable to customers and boosting your revenue. Here’s our brief guide to thought leadership and how you can harness it in your marketing strategy.

What is thought leadership?

Thought leadership helps you build a reputation that will set you apart from your competitors, giving you an edge that will boost your sales.

Importantly it’s not about your personal brand, although that is important in business too. It’s about the value you give your customers though information that is useful to them. You need to recognise their pain points and provide solutions.

If you help your audience achieve their goals, you are a thought leader.

Your strategy

Thought leadership will help you connect better with customers, differentiate yourself from your competitors, stand out in media and marketing channels, and increase the return on investment of your marketing content.

Start your strategy by listening and understanding your audience. Work out answers to their issues that align with your sales goals. This will involve research to set your ideas apart from those being shared by other thought leaders in your industry. Original ideas and approaches add the most value.

Next, create your content and share it across the right mix of media and marketing channels.

But what content works in thought leadership?

Types of thought leadership content

There’s a wealth of different content you can create to increase the reach of your thought leadership strategy.

This might include a combination of:

• Writing white papers and case studies
• Creating videos for your social media, website, YouTube or Vimeo
• Publishing expert blogs on your own website, guest blogging for other sites and sharing articles on LinkedIn
• Proactive and reactive media relations to harness headlines talking about your industry
• Speaking at events and organising virtual events online
• Creating infographics for your social media and website.

If you want to find out more about becoming a thought leader and using this in your business’ sales and marketing strategies we can help. Amplify PR works with clients to develop bespoke marketing strategies and content that meets the needs of their business and customers.

Get in touch to find out more about our marketing consultancy services.