Are thought leadership efforts seperate from buying cycle driven content?

I agree with Jim on thought leadership being part of the content process and carrying it throughout the buying cycle. I believe that thought leadership is more important now with the B2B buyer than ever before and can be delivered through an array of channels (web, social, traditional - email/direct mail, etc.).

Buyers are looking for vendor matches once they identify their need and need to know that their is a vendor/partner they can work with that has a very good understanding of their issues, the market and how to address challenges. If suppliers focused more on education and thought leadership they would often find their customer relationships would be stronger. I would counsel any company that is looking to develop a content map to fill it with thought leadership and educational content versus content on their service or solution.

Carlos Hidalgo
The Annuitas Group

I would take this even further and say "thought leadership" goes beyond the buyer lifecycle and should continue well beyond PURCHASE. In today's world, thought leadership is how you build your brand, build trust, and create real relationships with b2b buyers. Take OracleWorld, VMWorld, Dreamforce as post-purchase forums/platforms to help customers and position their respective organizations as thought leaders.

Hi all,
I'm late to this discussion, but I've found it great to read. I'd like to go back to Jim's original question regarding using thought leadership throughout the buy cycle. I believe it's not only possible but also necessary. We all know about using thought leadership content to generate awareness of a business pain and the potential for solving it.

But then the client needs help as they RESEARCH the solution - now your content should guide them into functionality that they should consider. This does not need to be product focused. For example, if you're selling marketing automation, you could talk about how important progressive profiling is.

Next stage is EVALUATION. Now it's time to provide guidance on functionality that should be a minimum expectation. This is your opportunity to contribute to their RFP. Great sales people do this on every deal, there is no reason why marketers can't facilitate. Again - the content should focus on needs and capabilities - NOT your product features.

Next stage is VENDOR SELECTION. Think about content you could offer like case studies or videos done by your clients about how they approached the selection process. You can also get your technology visionaries to talk about why they took a certain approach that is critical to product functionality (e.g., the underlying architecture or data structure).

Next stage is RISK MANAGEMENT. Here you can educate the prospect on implementation strategies, what preparation steps they need to take, problems other clients have encountered and how they overcame the issues. Provide implementation guides.

I hope that this is helpful. You can get more helpful info on our blog http://www.propelgrowth.com/category/blog/

All great answers. I would like to add a few points for debate/consideration.
1) Thought leadership has to be client or prospect centric
2) Thought leadership is a lead generator but should not include overt product or sales content
3) Great thought leaders whether they be individuals or companies make thought leadership part of their culture much the same way innovation or sales is part of the culture of some companies, and finally for the conentious one
4) People in general are sick of being marketed and sold to - thought leadership should become the new sales culture. It offers far more value to customers, it builds loyalty and trust before and after the sale and it truly engages your employees in conversations that are far more exciting than the typical product or service centric conversations.

Hi Ardath,

I agree, starting with "why" quickly exposes the intent or mission of you/your business. The answer should build a story based on values that align to your buyer audience/followers. With a common vision, there's a better chance for a mutually beneficial business relationship. And the more critical the the considered purchase to the buyer, the more important all of this becomes.

Chris

Sarah,

I treat thought leadership marketing as a type of content marketing. You demonstrate thought leadership through content, whether that content is delivered as a white paper, a book, a presentation, website content, etc. And although much thought leadership content is focused on the front end of the buying cycle, in building awareness, a well-balanced thought leadership marketing program will offer thought leadership content for each of the buying-cycle phases.

+1 guys. Who defines what thought leadership is? Your customer. You've got to forget about what YOU think thought leadership is and write to what your audience thinks it is.

Marcus,

You're absolutely right that the prospect and/or customer should be the driving force of your thought leadership content. You won't be considered a thought leader if your content doesn't meet the information needs of your audience. That said, your audience has different information needs at different phases of the buying cycle, and it's to your advantage to have different types of thought leadership content that addresses those needs as they change.

My background is in the world of web marketing, so I've always considered thought leadership to be something akin to what a good blog does, regardless of the actual medium used.
'A good blog' (or what ever means of interaction used) is an education tool and might be inspirational, entertaining, or just plain helpful. Through disseminating helpful content, one builds trust within the market/industry/community and builds awareness of themselves as an expert.
In this way, one can build relationships with people before a buying cycle begins. Once a buying cycle starts, people turn first to those they know and trust. The first seller to engage a prospect once a buying cycle starts has a distinct advantage against the competition who come in and start their sales cycles later on in the buying cycle.

Jim,

Agreed again. Need to understand the customer maturation process or the "customer lifecycle". Thought leadership that works for awareness may not for conversion and vice versa.

Slight expansion of my first point. Write to the customer at a specific point in time. Don't talk calculus when they don't know arithmetic.

Craig B,

I agree whole-heartedly with points 1, 3, and 4. Point 2 has an issue that I'm not sure about (and would love to hear from others)--I think you can have thought leadership content that is overtly product content (but not sales-focused). Education is often a key goal to thought leadership, and you can use descriptive product information to educate. I agree that product content is often not focused on thought leadership, but it could be. Other opinions?

Hi Jim,

I think the problem marketers have with the concept of product content that's not sales focused is a lack of understanding of what that means. I agree that products can be discussed, but in order for that content to be "thought leadership" it needs to focus on what the product enables beyond the basic things that people may know, not the features, feeds and speeds.

I was having a Twitter conversation recently with @jcousineau, discussing Simon Sinek's book, Start with Why?, and the gist was that companies need to offer buyers fresh ideas that help them think bigger and smarter. That could be the litmus test for any content we think should be considered thought leadership.

Thoughts?

Thanks Ardath,
I think you hit the mark, right on. And for those of you following this discussion I highly recommend that you read Ardath's book on eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale. It's one of the best marketing books out there -- http://www.amazon.com/eMarketing-Strategies-Complex-Ardath-Albee/dp/007162864...

Wow! Thanks, Jim. And Christopher, thanks for expanding on the idea.

Late to the party, but agree with the general sentiments expressed here - Thought Leadership and the content to support it should all be applicable to your content marketing strategy.

Beyond that point, marketers who become thought leaders within their market space should also look to use their thought leadership platform to build out community and become a "community leader". Thought leadership as practiced by some tends to sound a lot like a monologue. The goal should be dialog, learning, and participation that drives yourself and your brand to a place of high respect within the community. Late last year, I wrote a bit on the Connected Marketer blog about this topic. If you're interested, please read more at http://gurl.genius.com/f0e4iX

We recently published a white paper on the topic of using thought leadership in every stage of the buying process to support and educate the customer. You can download it here: http://landing.propelgrowth.com/thought-leadership-to-support-the-entire-buyi...