Stacey King Gordon, President, Suite Seven Inc., a brand communications and content strategy agency, will be one of the featured speakers during a session at the 7th Annual Loyalty Expo, presented by Loyalty360 – The Loyalty Marketer’s Association. The event will be held March 17-19, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Florida.
Gordon articipated in a thought-provoking Q&A with Loyalty360 on the topic of thought leadership.
Q: What is your definition of Thought Leadership?
I see the term “thought leadership” a lot these days—but people treat it as synonymous with “personal branding,” as in: blog a lot to become a thought leader! There’s so much more to it than that. I define thought leadership as looking forward at the next big questions and challenges facing an industry or profession, and offering insights and guidance in helping that industry prepare for what’s coming.
We often think of thought leadership in conjunction with speaking or writing— people like Seth Godin, who publish books that make so much sense and fundamentally change the way people approach marketing. But thought leadership is also integral to the way companies innovate in their product development or lead the way in new business models (Amazon.com).
I’m a content and communication strategist, so I talk about “thought leadership” in terms of content and publishing—how to bottle and share visionary thinking to benefit a community and build customer loyalty.
Q: What is the best way for brands to achieve this?
Thought leadership starts at the top: the company’s leaders must believe in it and be committed to it. It’s not just another way to market a product—it’s integral to the brand and everything it stands for.
But then, brands have to figure out how to communicate the thinking to the outside world, and that takes discipline and strategy. It’s a matter of figuring out exactly what the brand’s unique point of view is and where it can credibly provide expertise and leadership. Then, brands need to create a sustainable content program for sharing that expertise in a usable way for customers.
By regularly publishing provocative, thoughtful, relevant content in a way that’s easy for customers to use and share, brands can position themselves as thought leaders over time.
Q: What challenges are companies facing to achieve true thought leadership status?
Not everybody can be a leader. Truly becoming a thought leader takes commitment from the top and a pervasive belief across the entire company that your brand is the one who can elevate the current conversation. That’s the really hard part. A me-too attitude won’t cut it.
If that commitment to thought leadership is already part of the company culture, next it’s a matter of “bottling” it for public consumption. That’s the next hurdle. Companies struggle with all sorts of challenges here: what to write about, how to stay consistent in quality and voice, how frequently and where to publish, whether to showcase individual people vs. the brand as the thought leader, how to meet demand given limited resources, and how to measure success. A thought leadership content strategy is necessary to create a program that’s sustainable and successful in meeting business goals.
Q: Has thought leadership changed? If so, what did it look like five years ago and what will it look like in the next five years?
The current marketing environment is laser-focused on content: for social media, for lead generation, for search engine rankings. More companies are blogging, publishing white papers and publishing on social media. The noise level is at an all-time high, so it’s harder to stand out above the fray. Yet there are few brands doing this all really well, and that’s where the opportunity lies.
Q: What factors should drive company/brand content that will resonate with and engage customers?
There are two main factors. The first is that content must be authoritative and credible, coming from a brand that is clearly already taking a leadership role or is immersed in a field. We’re looking for that content to be original, unbiased (not a thinly veiled sales pitch) and based on research or real results.
The other factor is that the content must appeal to audiences. It should be easy to consume and relevant to their day-to-day reality, and packaged in a way they can relate to. If you’re communicating to small business owners, for example, you might want to steer clear of content that’s heavily academic or esoteric and package information in clear, short chunks for busy readers—with the ability to dig more deeply later if desired. Like any communication, thought leadership is only valuable if it can support, educate or inspire people, so your audience has to lead you in how you share your content.
http://loyalty360.org/companies/suite-seven