Guidelines for Thought Leadership Content

Written by Nick Stamoulis

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One of the standout purposes of content market is its ability to position you, your business, or your brand, as an authority on your topic. This is done through a writing style often referred to as “thought leadership”. This is a style of content that you can write in order to establish yourself as a true authority in your chosen topic.

But what does this really mean? Here are some nuances that will showcase the nuances of thought leadership content, versus content that is simply designed to deliver information.

Understands the Nuances of the Audience

Much of our understanding of how thought leadership content should be written originates with the audience. Thought leaders understand the subtle nuances of the audience, and as an after effect, this makes the content perfectly poised to resonate with them. After all, it is the audience itself that has to embrace you as a thought leader in order to accept it as fact.

This isn’t the case for other types of content. For example, if you are a company that has a business blog, thought leadership writing shouldn’t be the majority. The reason for this is that you will want to use that space to engage with your audience at different phases of the sales cycle. Thought leadership content serves the purpose in the sales cycle as establishing the expertise of your company, but it won’t help the prospect at different parts of the sales cycle.

You need to understand the nuances of your audience before you can understand the real subtly in the writing between the two – content designed for the sales cycle, and content designed for thought leadership. There are similarities but they are two different concepts, and the writing is slightly different.

Dives Deeper Into a Topic

In general, thought leadership content takes a deeper dive into the nuances of a topic. Here’s an illustration of the differences between regular articles that may be posted on a blog and thought leadership style topics.

Regular article topics:

  • Best Content Marketing Strategies
  • Leveraging Social Media Advertising for Maximum ROI
  • Utilizing Data Analytics to Drive Success

Thought leadership topics:

  • Innovative Content Marketing Strategies for Small Business Growth
  • Is Social Media Advertising Better at Maximizing ROI over PPC?
  • How Data Analytics Drives Success for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Just by looking at the first group of targets, you can tell that they are pretty general. This type of general content has its place depending on the nature of your blog or your business. However, notice how the second group is more specific and may even have the hints at an opinion that will be covered in the article? This means it is likely a thought leadership piece.

In general, the thought leadership pieces are designed to establish expertise, connect with the audience, and maybe even offer some opinions. They are usually focused on something more specific than other pieces of content. People should walk away from these pieces with a new perspective, and happy that you gave them something to think about.

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