Thought leadership helps build and drive relationships, new and established.

Thought leadership can be immensely valuable in building long-term client relationships. It can offer account executives and teams a shortcut to getting in front of target executives by providing a reason to open a door. For example, they might take a pertinent data point from a report about a particular business challenge they know is relevant to their client and use that as an excuse to fire off an email to someone they haven’t spoken to in a while. “Once that door is open, it’s a lot easier to walk through and have a much longer conversation that will inevitably lead to a conversation around solutions,” commented Cindy Anderson, Chief Marketing Officer and Global Lead for Engagement & Eminence, IBM Institute for Business Value.

Thought leadership hits the mark with the C-suite in particular.

Interestingly, CxOs appear to be the most eager consumers of thought leadership, with 90% of C-suite level buyers of consulting services saying that they read thought leadership “often” or “sometimes.” “When we start talking about thought leadership with CEOs—especially when we share content they would not otherwise have access to,” said Anthony Marshall, Senior Research Director of Business Thought Leadership, IBM Institute for Business Value. “CEOs express an immense desire to understand what other organisations are doing. Not necessarily within their industry, because they know their industry well, but outside their industry. There is great interest in that.”

Embed content EVERYWHERE.

While thought leadership is primarily a top-of-the-buyer funnel tactic because it raises awareness and builds demand for a brand rather than specific services and solutions, different target audiences get different benefits from thought leadership. And arguably, some may start to push the role of thought leadership deeper into the buyer funnel. For example, senior and middle managers might use it to gain knowledge and a deeper understanding of a particular topic or C-suite challenge. Meanwhile, CEOs may use it to validate a course of action or “vet” a potential supplier.

Given this “malleability”, it’s key for research and insights teams to work across firms with their campaign teams to ensure that thought leadership content is embedded in relevant campaigns to support broader campaigns. It’s not to say that by simply pushing thought leadership in its current format into marketing and business development, teams can move their buyers from awareness to consideration per se. For that to happen, new content needs to be created by those teams that are more akin to what buyers need at specific points in time, such as case studies or how-to guides.

Thought leadership and the “machine.”

Is GenAI thought leadership’s friend or foe? This much is certain: GenAI will play a fundamental role in creating content. It’s just unlikely to be anytime soon. Whatever the roadmap, it will be an augmented journey with humans and GenAI working collaboratively to shape the creation and activation of thought leadership. “We’re leaning into the power of Gen to test and refine our ideas, while ensuring we steer clear from the danger of homogeneous, mass-produced content,” said Tom Bovingdon, Head of Thought Leadership, PA Consulting.

If you’re a White Space subscriber, you can register to attend our upcoming webinars.