Thought leadership marketing broadcasts your business’ position at the forefront of your field, sharing your knowledge, insights and opinions to your target audience.
This can be accomplished through a wide range of content, from in-depth white papers to podcasts, social posts, e-books and infographics.
By investing in valuable and high-quality thought leadership content, you can demonstrate to your peers, your clients and your key stakeholders that your organisation is the go-to for insights and knowledge in your sector.
Whatever you choose to include in your thought leadership strategy, our skilled copywriting team will focus on the details to ensure your content makes the impact you need.
Talk to us about thought leadership content
We’ll chat to you about your business’ objectives and your audience. From this, we’ll craft your thought leadership strategy, suggesting how you can best showcase your insights, opinions and expertise with white papers, e-books, social media and in-depth case studies.
Once your strategy is defined, we can set about creating your thought leadership content plan. This will include a scope of work and timelines for content research, creation and signoff. If your strategy includes large pieces of work, we’ll also put together a flatplan.
Creating thought leadership content involves careful and accurate research. We’ll organise and analyse your data and research, carry out our own desk research and interview key people to really get to grips with your business’ knowledge.
Once we have all the insights we need, we’ll begin to craft you engaging, informative and in-depth content that fulfils your business objectives.
We’ll submit your thought leadership content to your team for review, taking in any amends to ensure your content meets your exact needs.
Your content will then be thoroughly proofread to make sure it is accurate and error-free before being sent to you for your final approval.
Lucy and her team at Method Marketing have really helped us capture our varied projects in a structured format. The case studies she has written are so valuable for our business, to attract new clients and showcase our offering and services. Lucy also helped us design and write a white paper, which was a first for us. The purpose was to help educate the general public about retrofitting their homes. She interviewed our engineers gathering complex processes translating it so members of the public could easily understand the processes themselves. We've had a great response to both out case studies and the white paper and will continue using Method Marketing going forward.
Thought leadership is the process by which you establish yourself or your business as an authority within your industry.
This means you do more than simply sell your products or services. Instead, you share your expertise, informed opinions and insights to provide value to your peers, customers or stakeholders.
Your thought leadership content will therefore need to demonstrate your grasp of industry trends, challenges and opportunities, and use this knowledge to drive meaningful conversations.
Thought leadership content can include all kinds of content, provided it showcases your knowledge and expertise. Long-form content, such as whitepapers and e-books, are very popular vehicles for doing this because they give you room to show the depth and range of your insights.
However, shorter blog posts and social media posts can also be effective parts of your thought leadership strategy when used in combination with more detailed pieces.
Thought leadership marketing can encompass a wide range of content, including:
At Method Marketing, we have partnered with all kinds of businesses to produce thought leadership pieces. Here are just a few thought leadership examples.
Aston Group: Greenleaf whitepaper
When building services company Aston Group wanted to showcase the amazing results of their whole-house retrofit project, they called on us to create an in-depth business white paper.
To do this, we carried out extensive interviews with engineers and management at Aston Group, which gave us a deep understanding of the retrofitting process. As a result, we were able to craft a whitepaper that was full of engaging content about climate change and the modern building practices that are needed to reduce global carbon emissions.
This whitepaper has subsequently been used to encourage other local authorities and landlords to implement similar measures.
Lignacite: The building blocks of sustainability
In this detailed case study, we worked closely with concrete block manufacturer Lignacite to demonstrate their journey towards net zero emissions.
In addition to breaking down and analysing extensive data on energy consumption, fuel efficiency and renewable energy production, we interviewed key members of the Lignacite team and carried out extensive desk research on the wider construction industry’s emissions and sustainability challenges.
The result is an informative case study that has been used to show customers and stakeholders that Lignacite is committed to achieving its sustainable aims.
Thought leadership is the process by which you identify you or your business as an authority in a particular field or subject matter. It involves actively sharing insights, perspectives and innovative ideas that provide value to others. A thought leader can therefore be seen as setting trends or influencing decision-making or opinions.
General content marketing and thought leadership certainly have crossovers, but their purposes are slightly different.
Content marketing involves the creation of informative, entertaining and consistent content to attract and keep customers. It does this by identifying an audience’s needs and then demonstrating how a business can solve them. This process gradually builds trust and awareness, which supports a customer through the sales process.
On the other hand, thought leadership specifically establishes a person or brand as an authority in a particular sector. Although content marketing can include thought leadership content, thought leadership itself focuses directly on sharing insights, original thoughts and new ideas. It therefore usually involves demonstrating expertise, contributing to industry-wide discussions and gaining acceptance as a trusted source of knowledge.
There are a huge number of benefits to thought leadership content.
Firstly, it can provide the perfect platform for establishing your organisation’s credibility and authority within your sector. Demonstrating your knowledge can be a fantastic way to build trust with your target audience, which in turn can lead to stronger professional relationships and new opportunities.
Thought leadership content also gives you a vehicle for sharing innovative ideas and insights, sparking discussion and driving change. In addition, it can enhance awareness of your brand and build your reputation.
Lastly, thought leadership content can ‘work hard’ for you, in that one longer, more detailed piece can then be fed into other forms of content, such as infographics, social media posts and press releases. This can help you to build online engagement and even more brand awareness.
When Aston Group wanted to showcase the amazing results of its whole-house retrofit project, they called on Method Marketing to create an in-depth business white paper.
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Find out moreIf you’d like to set up your business as a thought leader, get in touch with our experienced team. Together, we can create a thought leadership strategy that builds your credibility and voice within your sector.
Contact our team