Why Your B2B Company Needs Strategic Thought Leadership Content

The B2B buying process has moved online. Two-thirds of B2B buyers now prefer to purchase products and services digitally rather than interact with a salesperson face to face. ¹

Decision-makers also conduct research online to narrow their options—and thought leadership content guides an increasing number of their purchases.

In a study of 1,200 business
decision-makers, almost 60% said²

thought leadership content directly led them to a buying decision.

This data underscores the importance of thought leadership content. Without a thought leadership strategy, B2B companies leave money on the table for their competitors.

What is Thought Leadership Content?

Each industry has titans others turn to for new perspectives and expert advice on their challenges. Those insights can be communicated in a white paper, byline, brand journalism article, podcast, research report, and many other content types. Often, the titan provides the wisdom, but their company’s marketing team or an outside contractor ghostwrites the content itself.

Thought leadership content is writing or media that markets the expertise of individual subject matter experts (SMEs) within a company, establishing their credibility and authority. Rather than directly pitching a company’s products or services, thought leadership content boosts its signal in the marketplace, establishing its reputation as a leader in the sector.

In a survey by Edelman and LinkedIn³

60% of buyers

said that thought leadership content made a lesser-known brand more credible,

and 65%

said it improved their
perception of a company

These awareness and perception benefits boost sales holistically over the B2B buying cycle, which is 6 to 12 months long. Effective thought leadership content ensures that your company remains at the top of prospects’ minds when they are finally ready to pull the trigger.

Is your company recognized as a force to reckon with in its sector, known for its ground-breaking ideas and perspectives? Is your organization known for its brilliant thinkers at the cutting edge of your industry? This is the essence of thought leadership.

Quality Matters

Consumption of thought leadership is on the rise, according to Edelman. But thought leadership only benefits a company if it’s relevant, original, coherent, and strategic. Ineffective thought leadership has the opposite effect. Encountering poor-quality thought leadership content decreased 38% of buyers’ respect and admiration for an organization.⁴

And the percentage of thought leadership that fails to deliver valuable insights? According to the majority of decision-makers, it’s more than half of what’s out there.⁵

The flip side, however, is bright: Business leaders are willing to pay more for premium services from companies that present a clear vision in their thought leadership.⁶

Quality thought leadership content, according to decision-makers:⁷

• Offers a new perspective: Decision-makers crave substantive content that explores ideas they have not previously considered, introducing ways of thinking about a challenge or solution they may have overlooked. They dislike when content merely repeats what everyone else is saying, offering superficial or elementary insights (here’s looking at you, ChatGPT).
• Is timely and relevant: 87% of decision-makers say thought leadership content is more compelling when it addresses a topic they are currently working on or thinking about.
• Is written clear and concise: Keep the dictionary at home. Most decision-makers prefer thought leadership written with clear and concise language that is easy to absorb. Think of an article in a national magazine instead of an academic journal.

Where to Start

To develop a thought leadership content strategy, you must first identify your company’s thought leaders. Make a list of SMEs within your company and their areas of expertise. (These should be internal company experts. You can supplement the list with external experts such as industry influencers or consultants your company has a direct relationship with once your internal efforts are well established.)

One of the most straightforward ways to discover internal SMEs is to ask around. Reach out to different departments within your organization or create a survey. If your company has a public relations (PR) team or agency, they can be a great resource. The PR team prepares company spokespeople for interviews, so they will likely know the topics in each SME’s strike zone. PR teams also likely track stakeholder bylines and articles that quote SMEs.

This leads to the next point: audit every recent press appearance, as well as existing content marketing assets, to identify potential SMEs.

If your company has created thought leadership content in the past, look at the pieces that have performed well and note the SMEs involved. If you don’t have data, ask each SME if anyone reached out to them as a result of the content. Often, these anecdotes are the strongest KPIs for thought leadership content; because B2B buyer journeys can take 12 months, a buyer rarely clicks directly from a research report to a purchase, making superficial KPIs moot.

Once you have identified your company’s SMEs, schedule interviews with them. These will form the foundation of your initial thought leadership strategy.

Often, SMEs have insights that can help your audience, but they aren’t used to communicating them and may not think of themselves as thought leaders or speak in soundbites. The job of the marketer or contract writer is to use journalistic interview techniques to draw the most compelling and relevant insights out of each SME and then package them in a way that resonates with the target audience.

As a thought leadership strategist/writer and former business journalist, I’ve interviewed countless SMEs. I’ve found the following questions help to extract timely insights that are relevant to both the audience’s pain points and internal business goals:

• What are you seeing in your line of work that directly contradicts what people in your industry see as common knowledge or what news headlines say? (Spicy takes, when executed thoughtfully, make for excellent thought leadership, and this question can push the conversation in that direction.)
• What has changed in your business in the past six months?
• How is X regulation or news event impacting your customers?
• Our business goal is XYZ. What trends or customer pain points are you seeing play out in this area that most people don’t know about?

After interviewing the SMEs, organize the insights you’ve gathered and sort them into topics. Are there any patterns, trends, or unique perspectives that will resonate with your target audience? Which of the categories aligns with your overall business objectives and the specific needs of your customers?

This exploration will give you the building blocks needed for a thought leadership content strategy, whether you develop and execute it in-house or hire an outside expert.

In summation, thought leadership is a powerful and necessary tool in the age of online buying. Recognize the value of your internal experts, and don’t shy away from challenging industry norms. Keep your audience’s needs and your business goals at the heart of your strategy to ensure relevance and impact. Remember, the ultimate goal is to provide insights that resonate with your audience, foster trust, and position your business as an authority.

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