How to become a successful thought leader
PR takes many forms and approaches and will vary hugely according to your objectives. If your goal is to build credibility and trust with your audience, then thought leadership is the single most effective tactic. It’s also the tactic that more people get wrong than any other. This is how to do it well.
What is thought leadership?
Thought leadership can be misunderstood. It’s not just sharing your opinion on an issue within your sector, although that is part of it. It is using a media platform to share that expertise, tapping into the tacit endorsement of that media while ensuring it remains completely non-promotional. Thought leadership is about establishing credibility, expertise and trust and this is not achieved by using a sales pitch. People could argue that all marketing and PR activity to an extent comes back to sales, but for thought leadership to work a clear line must be drawn between demonstrating knowledge without saying ‘by the way – we can help you with that.’ Therein lies the challenge. You need to offer genuine and original insight, (avoiding generic vagueness and this is where AI slop is at its most obvious), and not being self-serving. And this is essential in matching how customers operate. The way that buyers – in both B2C and B2B – research products and services has changed, looking much more at who they trust rather than simply where they can get the best deal. A personal voice will nearly always resonate more than a brand account, so getting thought leadership content right is essential. This can vary from sector to sector but for founders across a range of industries there are fundamentals to consider.Getting thought leadership content right
- Start from a genuine opinion – nothing in life should be half-baked or phoned-in and good thought leadership should always begin from an opinion you actually hold. If you are doing it for clicks and giggles, then it’s obvious. It helps too if that opinion is not one that everyone else holds, a position that people could potentially disagree with.
- Be as specific as possible – platitudes and generalities won’t cut it. Your expertise and know-how is based on real-life experience so call on that by using real numbers and examples wherever possible.
- Show your reasoning, not just your conclusion – bringing your opinion together in a coherent form is vital, but showing your workings out, your ‘how I got here’ is what gives you the credibility and demonstrates your expertise.
- Consistency > one-off pieces – thought leadership is a body of work, not a single post. If you do a one-off article in a quality publication then that is no bad thing, but the real value lies in developing a consistent body of credible and insightful opinion. But don’t chase every trending topic unless you have something genuine to say, you don’t have to have an opinion on everything.
- Maintain separate channels for POV vs promotion – this is so important that it’s a point worth reiterating – thought leadership should be promotion-free. There’s nothing wrong with a strong POV but keep that on other channels to ensure the thought leadership stays credible.
If you can get all of this right, then thought leadership can become one of your most valuable and effective PR tactics. Credibility and trust are not quick wins when you are building a brand in your PR armoury. But in a market in which buyers are actively looking for reasons to trust someone before they’ll buy from them, a genuine, insightful and consistent point of view can really deliver.
