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21 Apr 2011
Thought leadership creates an emotional connection
“What return on investment can I expect?”
This is typically the first question I receive when speaking to companies about their thought leadership program. While I can talk passionately about this and rattle off numerous benefits, there is one sentence I read the other day which I think absolutely captures it. It is from well-known blogger Gary Vaynerchuk , who said: “You will not catch up with money, because the people who have the emotional relationship will stay ahead.”
In this one sentence, Gary sums up the very essence of why thought leadership or valuable content is so important to a company’s marketing efforts.
It’s about the emotional connection!
How powerful is that – we all know what happens when we have an emotionally rewarding experience with a brand. Not only do we consciously say to ourselves: “These guys really get me/make me feel special…” but we tell other people about our experience – we become brand ambassadors.
Thought leadership is the extra mile
We hear ad nauseum about going the extra mile for the client, adding that magical quality ‘value’, and the need to differentiate ourselves. Well I’ve got news for you – the right thought leadership content aimed at the right audience and preferably information that addresses that audiences’ major business issues and challenges delivers all three in spades.
What better way to engage with your clients, imbue loyalty and position yourself and your company as the ‘go to’ expert in your field.
I have a list of 70+ thought leadership benefits in an earlier post but the stand out return is the emotional connection it creates.
It’s amazing how much easier the sale is once an emotional connection has been established.
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13 Aug 2010
Thought leadership delivers huge internal organisational benefits
Anyone who thinks that thought leadership is purely an external function aimed at influencing various target audiences would be seriously limiting its potential impacts.
In fact, used properly, it can also be a very powerful vehicle to motivate and inspire an organisation’s employees.
I have written before in this blog that thought leadership is not and should not be a marketing or PR tactic – rather it should be part of the culture of an organisation the same way that sales or innovation are part of the culture of some organisations.
Thought leadership should be “a way of doing things around here” and from my experience, true, long-term, thought leadership campaigns typically closely aligns with the values of an organisation. In order to do this it needs the buy-in and ownership of senior management.
And herein lies the rub. If it is part of the culture, if it is aligned to the values of the organisation and if it has the buy-in and ownership of management then the rest of the organisation’s employees should be part of the thought leadership campaign.
Employees will become a thought leadership campaign’s best ambassadors
If an organisation does plan strategically to take its employees on the thought leadership journey, it will find that they in fact will become its best thought leadership ambassadors. Communicated properly, this will become one of the most effective ways to get your thought leadership material out there. It will also be one of the best forms of word of mouth you can hope to get.
It gives employees something to talk about over and above the products or services you sell while at the same time delivers to them a deeper sense of pride about where they work, what they do and the difference the brand makes to other people’s lives.
It also has the habit of instilling longer-term behavioural changes that come as a result of the organisation being viewed as ahead of the game. This has a whole heap of benefits from increased morale, a magnet for top talent, increased sales to mention a few.
All powerful stuff.
Furthermore, not only is the business benefitting externally but internally it further entrenches thought leadership as a way of doing business – it becomes a habit. This in turn can foster the emergence of other thought leaders thus creating a virtuous circle.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and whether any of you have seen this in practice?
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17 Feb 2010
When I speak to people about thought leadership for the first time, one of the first questions they ask is: “What can it deliver to my business?”
It’s a great question and one that has had me thinking for a while. The more I think about it the more complex and multi-faceted I realise the answer is which is why I have developed a listof 70 thought leadership outcomes/benefits in a table.
But to all those thought leaders and writers on thought leadership out there, I need your help please. While I may already have 70 benefits, I’m sure there are many more. I would really welcome any further inputs either via e mail to cbadings@cannings.net.au or in the comments section at the end of this blog:
Thought Leadership outcomes/benefits table www.thoughtleadershipstrategy.net/
External
Clients/’customers and other targeted stakeholders:
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· Illustrates your deep expertise and knowledge
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· Enables you to deliver insights to your clients’ businesses which in turn can help drive their growth
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· Positions you as a trusted advisor
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· Results in increased credibility
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· Increases your relevance
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· Aligns your interests with your clients’ issues and interests
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· You become one of their most valuable suppliers
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· Deliver useable, quality content across the organisation
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· Creates the perception that you are interesting and innovative
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· Drives goodwill
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· Differentiates you from your competitors
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· Positions you as an influencer in their lives
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· Underpins and supports your sales process with your clients
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· Creates less resistance to price
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· Helps vindicate their purchasing decision
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· Clients perceive that you care and as a result they feel important
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· Positions you as being proactive in your sector
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· Positions you as innovative
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· Builds closer relationships across all spectrums of client contact resulting in better engagement
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· Provides a great platform for discussion above and beyond your products or services
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· Increases positive word of mouth
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· Results in brand evangelists from within your customer ranks
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· Positions you as an employer of choice in the market
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· Increases brand loyalty
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Internal
Staff
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· Positions your people as the experts and ‘go to’ people in their field
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· Delivers a sense that this is a forward thinking, innovative place to work
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· Creates pride in the brand
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· Promotes relevant, topical discussions without the need for ‘hard sell’
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· Creates ambassadors from within for your brand
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· Is a powerful motivator, mobilising management and staff alike
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· Enables staff to see where the market is going, what the issues are and positions them at the forefront
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· Delivers organisational confidence
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· Focuses staff on the big picture and what matters to clients/ customers
The brand
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· Moves your brand from product and sales leadership to market leadership
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· Delivers long-term, sustainable advantage over competitors because it has a longer life-span than product or sales leadership
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· Puts the business out front in terms of sector leadership
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· Delivers a broader client value spectrum to the brand
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· Increases relevance to clients/customers and therefore increases the value of the brand
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· Positions the people who represent the brand as trusted advisors
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· Gives the brand’s added authenticity
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· Positions the brand and thus the business and its people ahead of the curve
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· Displays a focus by the brand on the big picture
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· Creates a commitment to a grander goal than sales generation
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· Recognition by the media that the brand is the leader in its field
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· Creates openings or invites for brand representatives to speak at conferences and seminars
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· Delivers great content for marketing collateral, your website, press releases, presentations, etc
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· Results in higher search engine rankings
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· The brand and its people are viewed as authorities in their field
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· Increases your brand’s share of mind with your target audiences
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· Acts as a good reputation shield in a crisis or when an issue flares
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· Builds goodwill
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· Further solidifies your ‘social license’ to operate
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· Adds long-term sustainability to your brand’s marketing campaigns whether it be advertising, PR, social media, etc
Sales
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· Helps you develop a greater understanding of your clients likes, needs, fears and wants
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· Positions the business top of mind with prospects
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· Differentiates your products and services from the competition
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· Shortens the sales cycle because buyers have invested psychologically into your service/product before they buy
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· Underpins and supports your sales process with your clients
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· Creates less resistance to price
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· Vindicates their purchasing decision
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· Delivers a conversation platform for the sales team to use beyond the product or service you offer
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· Helps initiate conversations with existing and potential clients/customers
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· Underpins increased sales conversion
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· Differentiates you from the competition
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· Mobilises your clients to think and act
Innovation
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· Promotes innovation internally because of the insights thought leadership delivers
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· Empowers people to think, examine the changes and how to stay ahead of the curve
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· Imbues a culture of questioning and looking ahead at how best to address the clients’ needs
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· Creates an outward looking culture – focusing on client issues and trends rather than your own
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· Promotes and rewards breakthrough thinking
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