For B2B businesses, thought leadership is a crucial contributor to marketing effectiveness, especially demand generation. It's important not to confuse thought leadership with content marketing, as the two are not the same. During economic downturns, thought leadership is even more valuable.
Executives estimate their thought leadership ROI to be 14:1, but only 20% say they're successful at it. To ensure thought leadership initiatives are also effective demand-gen engines, companies should set a long-term strategy, help audiences navigate complexity, bring their own POV, be specific, and establish an internal 'idea bank'.
Thought leadership should help solve customer and marketplace pain points, be highly differentiated from other forms of content, and provide value to audiences. To uncover ideas, companies can mine their metadata, ask questions, poll people, and do original research.
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How to Make Thought Leadership a B2B Demand-Gen Dynamo
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