Thought Leadership: Your Ford Model T in a world of Edsels

06-Feb-2022

"Thought Leadership Content"

Almost a buzzword now.

Sadly, too many uninspired umbrella technique blogs claim to be one.

Of course, such content pieces don't help you convert existing prospects or fulfill future pipeline.

So, What is it?- Well, Your Ford Model T

One of the most iconic cars ever created.

At it's very least, Ford's most famous creation, selling over 15 million models. Making Ford a household name and skyrocketing its stock prices.

At it's best?

A car that gave rise to the American Middle Class.

Of course, all of it was a result of a revolutionary idea: Ford's Assembly Line.

In other words:- Thought Leadership.

Your thought leadership content is supposed to do exactly what Model T did for Ford.

  • Establish your credibility

  • Line up your pipeline

  • Differentiate you from your competitor and more

  • Influence how the public approaches your concept

Anything less than that- is NOT thought leadership.

Or at least thought leadership done right.

Here's what is: CEB (Now Gartner) coined the concept of Challenger Sale in 2011. The book helped them generate upwards of $10 Million in revenue. The firm trained 80k sales professional in the challenger methodology and today- its pretty much a standard terminology.

What It Isn't- Your Ford Edsel

Launched almost 50 years after Model T was Ford Edsel.

This was a big bust.

Launched in 1957 with much fanfare and anticipation, the Edsel was supposed to be a revolutionary car that would capture a significant share of the market.

In reality it had design flaws, high pricing, and a public perception of being 'overhyped'. It was discontinued just 3 yrs after its launch, significantly hurting Ford's perception and market share.

So here's the deal:

Unoriginal, follower-mentality content touted as "thought leadership" isn't just wasted effort.

Far from it- it hurts your brand.

(in pretty much every way possible)

Now that we have that clear;

Let me unveil how I approach thought leadership. And how it has helped the orgs I worked with.

Differentiating Thought Leadership and Content Marketing

Before I go on, there's one important differentiation we need to clear up.

Content Marketing is mostly about optimizing your content for search. If that's what you're looking for; head over to my blog on SEO optimized content (with proven frameworks).

Thought leadership is a subset of content marketing. It is usually not seo-optimised as it may completely avoid the keyword strategy. It seeks to carve out a point of view on those complex issues shaping the future of society or the markets and clients a firm serves. Ideally it brings forth a more elegant and simple solution than the ones that already exist.

It changes how your readers approaches a concept.

It supposed to be groundbreaking at its best.

How Do I Go About Creating Thought Leadership?

Here is a step by step guide.

Defining Your Objective

First things first-

Your content needs to align with your firm’s objectives.

What kind of growth are you looking at? Which market do you need to make most impact on?

Try to create SMART goals for your thought leadership content. Then, allocate resources likewise. If possible-try to create a limited member team that only focuses on creating thought leadership. Ensure your content marketing KPIs (Traffic, SERP Ranking, Conversion to Sign Up don't apply to them)

Instead focus on more tailored KPIs like depending on the kind of content you're creating.

What Will Be Your Thought Leadership Content?

This is the most important part of your strategy.

What topic do you choose?

How do you ensure it actually helps you ICP?

Here are top ways that have worked best for me:

1. Digest and Present Information They Can't Access Otherwise

One way of going about it is accumulating information your readers can't.

Or simply don't have the time for.

Ensure you have a trusted Subject Matter Expert working with you.

We did something similar at Cashfree through Policy Radar.


We understood that our readers don't have time to keep tabs on rapidly changing financial regulations. We also knew that regulatory circulars (RBI,NPCI) are not easy to decode.

What was the Outcome?

Cashfree was able to garner a loyal readership- most of whom consisted of Founders, MD, COO and CFOs. Due to absence of proper attribution models- not sure how many of them found themselves in our pipeline. Nevertheless, Policy Digest acted as a source of truth for all those looking to learn about new financial regulations

And that's a job well done, IMO. :)

2. Create Original Framework and Models

A little harder than the previous option.

Try to create original models and frameworks that lets your customers:

A. Judge their position in the market
Interactivity helps here. Use this kind of content to optimise your user journey.
After a customer signs up- use this insightful content to engage them. You will see a significant spike in your conversion rate.
Here's example of one framework-assessment we created for Keka:

B. Access Alternative Models- Reject Prevailing Wisdom

The most difficult route of all.

You need a very clear idea of what your customers need +will find insightful

I recently created a Proprietary Pulse Survey Framework. This models allows HRs to measure their employee engagement index according to Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.

Will be linking it here soon.

3. Create Opinion Pieces and Editorial Takes

You can also choose to create editorial takes.

Give your opinion on existing conversation/trends/market environment.

Ensure you are coming from the place of an expert. Your arguments needs to be insightful and authoratative.

Understand- in this age of AI- its easier to seperate the truly novel from the rest.

Here are some opinion pieces I created for Money Control, G2, HubSpot, Jeff Bullas during my time at Outgrow.

Ticking Your Thought Leadership Checklist

If you're reading this far, I am betting you have your concept and its objectives clear.

Next step- is to make you narrative compelling.

For that- I'd recommend you go through this checklist.

I'd suggest you tick off every checkpoint. Ensure you content:

  1. Goes beyond traditional wisdom

  2. Goes Against existing concepts- not people

  3. Has an emotional perpective to your target audience

  4. Solves Actual customer pain points- ADDS VALUE

  5. Is Backed by Evidence (quantitative)

Copywriting and Distribution

Lots of business forget this part.

It doesn't matter how relevant or value-driven your content is.

If it is not presented and distributed well- it will not reach your TG quite as you would have hoped.

Here are some tips that have worked for me, personally:

1. Copywrite- and edit ruthlessly

2. Have a design vision. Try to convey as much as you can through graphical representation (it has higher readability and shareability) For instance- have a look at this framework explaining strategic HR:

3. Distribute Efficiently
Personally, I would always recommend self publishing.
In case your social reach and Domain Authority is less (I am assuming you have tried the SEO optimizing route)~

Try to boost your posts or run ads. Ads on Meta and LinkedIn usually work better than Google Search. Ensure you are including insightful graphics+copy in your ads as well.

Measure Outcome

This ties back to our 1st pointer.

If you objective was to:

  1. Increase ARR- check the thought leadership content's impact on your pipeline.

  2. Increase Brand Visibility- Check increase in social reach (followers, engagement) and number of brand mentions

  3. Increase Domain Authority- Keep an eye on incoming backlinks from trusted sources

The list will go on. I bet you must have some Demand Gen KPIs ready and mapped to organisational objective. Ensure your Thought Leadership collaterals have a role to play there.

Here are some I would personally recommend:

Objective:

- Position the organization as an authority in its field.

- Build credibility and trust among stakeholders.

- Drive engagement and interaction with target audience.

- Foster innovation and drive conversation within the industry.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

-Number of product updates/ launches attributed to thought leadership findings.

- Improvement in brand sentiment and perception surveys.

- Increase in partnerships or collaborations with other industry leaders.

- Overall impact on organizational revenue or market share.

- Number of speaking invitations or media appearances for organization representatives.

- Number of downloads or views of thought leadership content. Growth in social media followers and engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments).

- Increase in mentions and citations in industry publications or by industry influencers.

- Growth in subscriber base for newsletters or other thought leadership communication channels.

- Conversion rates for leads generated through thought leadership content.

Find Your Revolutionary Idea

This blog was filled with some turbo charged insight so I'd prefer to not add more.

But I will leave you with this:

Model T and Edsel were both created by the same company. Both under Henry Ford. both showed huge promise.

The only thing differentiating them was a revolutionary idea.

And the rest is history.

If there's one thing I hope you take from this blog~

its the fire to find your revolutionary idea. Thought leadership is a cake afterwards.