Thought Leadership and Its Importance in Marketing

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MARKETING

UNDERSTAND IT, BUILD IT, BENEFIT FROM IT

JULY 18, 2012

Today’s 5 Topics

1 | Defining Thought Leadership & Its Growth in Marketing

Thought leadership is fast becoming the most widely used and desired B2B marketing practice...

2 | Attaining Thought Leader Status –The Thought Leader’s Mindset

Thought leaders set themselves apart using eight mandatory attributes.

3 | Thought Leadership @ Global Impact

4 | The Thought Leadership Marketing Toolkit

The tools of the trade for thought leadership marketers.

5 | Building & Measuring the Thought Leadership Marketing Plan

How to, pitfalls and how to know if you’re succeeding with thought leadership marketing.

Defining Thought Leadership & Its

Growth in Marketing

What is Thought Leadership

Marketing?

“Thought leadership centers on earning trust and credibility. Thought leaders get noticed by offering something different—information,

insights, and ideas, for instance. Thought leadership positions you and your company as an industry authority and resource and trusted

advisor by establishing your reputation as a generous contributor to your industry.”

www.raintoday.com

Why Thought Leadership?

“Traditional approaches to B2B marketing are losing their impact. Today, B2B marketers are turning

towards thought leadership as a way to differentiate their products and services in an increasingly competitive market.”

Economist Intelligence Unit, 2008

Why Thought Leadership?

Benefits of Thought Leadership

 Change the pattern & terms of how people interact with you

(buying or investing)

 Diminish resistance

 Prospects experience your value before buying/investing  Buyers/Investors invested in you before purchasing

 Put yourself themselves further into the development cycle  Shorten the development cycle

 Growth in media placements & requests  Search Marketing find-ability

 Great content is good for search engines and customers

Attaining Thought Leader Status –

The Thought Leader’s Mindset

Thought Leadership is Attained

“Thought leadership is the recognition from the outside world that the

company deeply understands its business, the needs of its customers and the broader marketplace in which it operates.”

Elise Bauer

 You can influence using TL tools & tactics  Your customers grant you TL status

 It’s not about budget –it’s about Intellectual Capital and Content  Set yourself apart through mandatory TL attributes

Thought Leadership Marketing Mindset

 They love what they do –energy & motivation

 They have the drive to teach –no strings attached  They reach out and communicate –to everyone  They take risks with messaging –on the edge

 They balance confidence with curiosity & learning –learn

from everyone

 They put in the time today (TL activities) for tomorrow’s benefit  They never stop working, connecting and communicating –

not drip marketing, but constant education

Thought Leadership Marketing

Attributes

 Qualified

 Body of Work (Activity Leadership)

 Body of Knowledge (Intellectual Capital)  Continuous Improvement

 The Network

 The Physical Plant (staying fit – as a company)  Self-Management

Thought Leadership Case Studies

The Plan

 Thought Leadership is integrated into the strategic plan and

outlined as a “Critical Success Factor”

 Entire senior management buys into the goal of promoting Global

Impact as a thought leader in the international philanthropy and workplace giving field

 Marketing team supports the Global Impact executive team but

they each have to own their own reputation development process.

“The credibility we are establishing is only achieved by taking risks and demonstrating, consistently and through variable channels, our expertise.”

Renee S. Acosta President, Global Impact

The Plan

The Plan

 Entire senior management team is organized around the goal of

promoting Cisco as a thought leader in the technology industry

 Earning credibility by creating information that places company

objectives second to the goal of educating prospects

 Every Cisco executive must establish and nurture his or her own

reputation for thought leadership, through blogging/engaging in social media, public speaking, and writing articles

“When you look at thought leadership you can break it out into a number of different areas. It must be visionary. It looks at the future. It must be provocative, and it must put the our customer’s needs first.”

Mark Peshoff, Senior Director of Cisco’s Executive Thought Leadership

The Outcome

The Thought Leadership Marketing

Toolkit

Mapping the Thought Leadership

Toolkit

Building & Measuring the Thought

Leadership Marketing Plan

Questions to Ask Before You Begin

 Do you love what you do?

 Passionate enough to push TL  Sustain interest in years to come

 Are you willing to teach?

 “Educate the market” mentality

 Do you “enjoy helping your customers & prospects”?

 Are you comfortable with “reaching outside”?

 Expand beyond your existing network

 Are you will to take a stand with your message?

 Do you have a unique position on industry issues?  Can you frame & express those views?

 Can you get people to notice? 20

Questions to Ask Before You Begin

 Are you a “confident learner”?

 Balance your positions with listening

 Ears to the ground for trend shifts & opportunities

 Do you have a “long-term” perspective?

 Spend time today for reward tomorrow  “Faith in the future”

 Are you comfortable with “no end point” to TL?

 Willing to work a long time toward this goal

 Stay motivated!

Your Process

Maintenance

Action

Intellectual Capital



Industry Dialogue

Plan

TL Mindset

Keys to Success

 Be Generous With Your Knowledge

 Share beyond the marketing speak

 Be Consistent

 Calendar your activities –daily, weekly, monthly routine

 Always Deliver Value

 Listen, think, revise, teach, repeat

 Take A Stand

 Take your strong positions to market

 Focus On The Long-term Benefits

 Track your results in months & years

Keys to Success

 Reach

 How many hear your message?

 Acquisition

 Who’s attention did you get?

 Conversion

 What information did you gather?  Who can you contact as a “lead”?

 Retention

 Who follows you after the acquisition?

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Presentation Credits

 This presentation was delivered by Christina B. Johnson. Christina has committed her

life to serving others and for more than ten years has worked in the nonprofit sector, building brands and fundraising for some of the nation’s most well respected NGOs. She’s currently a Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications at Global

Impact and her prior experience includes leadership positions with the United Way the University of Dallas and the Washington, D.C. Marketing Center.

 www.linkedin.com/in/christinabjohnson  faithcbj@aol.com

 Most of this content was provided by Dana VanDen Heuvel. Dana is the founder of

The MarketingSavant Group and a widely recognized specialist in thought leadership and emerging marketing technologies such as blogging, social media, RSS, Internet communities and interactive marketing trends and best practices and speaks

regularly on these topics at industry events. Dana is the creator of the American Marketing Association “TechnoMarketing” training series and the author of the AMA Marketech ’08 guide to marketing technology.