6 Thought Leadership Strategies

Consumers today have become highly adept at ignoring advertising in all its forms—they skip TV commercials with TiVo, stream commercial-free radio with Pandora and are virtually blind to banner ads online. To reach these buyers, you need to attract them with valuable content that establishes you as a thought leader. This will help you influence buyers in a way that advertising never can.

Thought leadership is a critical component of an effective, modern marketing strategy. And yet, most small businesses choose to ignore it because it requires a time investment. Integrating thought leadership into your marketing strategy will give you an edge over your competition. Here are six ideas to get you started.

1. Share your expertise at events.

Identify events that are relevant to your prospective customers and find a way to participate in them by speaking on a panel or moderating a discussion. A great place to start is by contacting your local chamber of commerce or small business association. Once you’ve gained a bit of experience, you can graduate to keynoting. Remember, conferences typically book speakers six months to a year in advance, so plan ahead.

2. Host educational webinars.

Webinars are an excellent way to establish thought leadership and attract new leads. Start by selecting a topic that is hot on people’s minds. Then assemble a presentation that is packed with valuable information, best practices and useful tips. If you don’t feel like you can pull it off yourself, interview a customer or industry expert. Don’t forget to make sure that your presentation looks professional. Afterward, post it to slideshare and your website.

3. Blog regularly.

Starting a blog is easy; keeping it updated with fresh content is much more difficult. Luckily, the benefits outweigh the costs. By blogging on a consistent basis, you provide incentives for your followers to become more engaged with you and your brand. If the idea of writing this much is daunting, check out these tips from a leading social media expert, Jay Baer: 11 Must-Dos for the Serious Blogger. Implement just some of them and you will be well on your way.

4. Strengthen your brand on Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter and Facebook are valuable tools for sharing information and getting feedback from followers and fans. They become even more valuable when you use them to engage with customers, prospects, influencers and influential bloggers. Read their content and respond with thoughtful feedback, when appropriate. It’s a great way to develop relationships and make new contacts.

5. Publish a book.

Once you’ve flexed your writing muscle in blogging, the next natural (but perhaps more Herculean effort) is to write a book. Certainly it’s no easy feat, but it’s well worth it. Whether self-published or produced by a publisher, books are an amazing way to share your expertise. Just make sure your topic is interesting to the reader and is something you have expertise in.

6. Issue a study.

A lot of people can write about trends, but it takes a special businessperson to go the extra mile to get the data to identify new trends. You can do exactly that by polling your customers and prospects about topics that press and peers in your industry would be interested in. Then share your findings via press releases, blog posts, webinars, reports, Facebook, Twitter and your website.

If all this seems too overwhelming, just remember that you don’t need to do everything on your list at once. Tackle one thing at a time, then add new content on a regular basis. Before you know it, you’ll have a body of work that people actually share and retweet with one another. Only then will you really be a thought leader.