Thought leadership content is one of the greatest things your business can generate in terms of value. Done correctly, you could drastically increase your brand’s reputation as a thought leader in your industry. But why is this content so important for your business?

Thought leadership content is a crucial part of your marketing funnel because it helps you to attract and retain the right customers. When I was creating my client’s LinkedIn ad strategy, thought leadership was the first step in the marketing funnel.

Your thought leadership content should be based around topics that are relevant for your target audience and should provide them with information that they can’t find anywhere else. Thought leadership:

• Helps build trust with your audience
• Improves your brand’s reputation
• Allows you to reach new audiences
• Helps you stand out from the crowd

How to create thought leadership

Here are three steps to create thought leadership in your niche:

• Create a persona for your ideal customer
• Create a list of questions they might have about you or your product/service
• Answer those questions using your expertise

Then, create the content by writing it down and publishing it, or recording a podcast. When you create thought leadership content, you’re essentially making yourself a resource. You have great ideas that no one has ever shared before. By sharing, you’ll be helping your ideal customers…which will make them more likely to buy from you.

You can use this content to demonstrate that you’re an authority on your topic, and it will also help you connect with potential customers by showing them that you understand their problems and can offer solutions.

Thought leadership content is one of the most important types of content you can create, because it helps you to stand out from your competitors and position yourself as the expert in your field.

Key characteristics of thought leadership

What makes content thought leadership, and not just generic content? Here’s differentiates thought leadership:

• It isn’t generic
• It has original insights and ideas
• It answers the audience’s needs
• It’s genuine
• It’s created with purpose (besides selling)

Here’s a checklist to follow to ensure you’re creating thought leadership:

• Is this content the first of it’s kind (not just repeated from hundreds of other blogs)?
• Is your viewpoint unique, and possibly even unexpected?
• Are you providing insights that others don’t have?
• Are you providing direct recommendations?

If you answered you’ve checked every question off as “yes,” then you’ve got yourself a great topic to create thought leadership.

Does thought leadership lead to conversions?

Is thought leadership really that important? I’m telling you, yes—but I get it. You want to see the statistics.

For business-to-business (B2B) marketing, thought leadership led 57% of decision makers to purchase. Especially for B2B businesses, thought leadership content is king. However, it can (and should) still be used by business-to-consumer (B2C) content marketers.

Thought leadership needs to be written well

38% of senior executives were turned off by thought leadership content because it was difficult or boring to read. Since thought leadership content is so essential to developing your brand, you need to invest in a great writer.

I love creating thought leadership pieces—in fact, it’s my favorite way to spend the day. If you have ideas you want me to turn into great content, I’d be ecstatic to learn your unique viewpoints and create the content.