Where and How Thought Leadership Fits into Content Marketing

Thought leadership and content marketing: two terms that are sure to spark an endless debate whenever mentioned. 

Thought leadership has become a bit of a buzzword in content marketing, with marketers from all over the globe dubbing their content as such. However, the truth is, not a whole lot of content meets the criteria for thought leadership. 

Thought leadership is more than just interesting or high-quality content. It's content that gets people to think outside the box and positions you as an industry leader. 

While people often use the terms nearly interchangeably, thought leadership is actually just one part of your broader B2B SaaS content strategy. 

So, where and how exactly does thought leadership fit into content marketing? Read on to find out. 

Thought leadership is one piece of a larger puzzle

Thought leadership is content that's designed — not to immediately power a conversion or a channel-specific action, but to build authority with your target audience. Essentially, it's a tactic that positions you as an expert in your industry. 

Standard content typically echoes what customers and peers already know (or at least have an idea about). But thought leadership introduces new insights that break the mold and get people thinking about alternate approaches to common problems. 

Thought leadership and conventional content also have varying goals. Regular content ultimately aims to drive conversions. Thought leadership, on the other hand, focuses on more long-term goals:

• Establishing authority: Positioning you as a go-to source of information in your niche
• Shaping industry trends: Getting peers and customers to break away from the norm
• Building brand awareness: Getting industry stakeholders to recognize your brand for its forward-thinking 
• Proving expertise: Becoming a brand customers and peers can count on for meaningful and useful content 

Now that you understand the goals of thought leadership content, let’s examine what it might look like. To put it simply, this type of content is all about originality and thought-provoking insights. It provides new perspectives on industry challenges to help stakeholders solve problems and think differently. 

Take our onboarding process piece, for instance. It doesn't detail the cookie-cutter onboarding process, where marketing teams focus on the Jobs-to-Be-Done framework. 

Instead, it highlights Ten Speed's unique approach to content optimization. It shows how we focus on understanding things like the vocabulary that resonates with your audience and creating content based on article-specific SME (subject matter expert) feedback. 

Thought leadership content can take many forms, including:

• Blog posts: Written content that explores new ways of thinking — like the article highlighted above
• Webinars: Interactive seminars that allow thought leaders to offer unique points of view and share ideas with their audiences
• Podcasts: In-depth discussions featuring industry experts who analyze current trends and problems and offer innovative solutions 
• White papers and ebooks: Original research-based reports that provide data-backed solutions to industry challenges

Content marketing is your overall strategy for putting the puzzle together

Content marketing is an overarching strategy that involves creating, publishing, and distributing digital assets to attract, engage, convert, and retain potential customers. 

The content itself is the fuel that powers your marketing engine. Basically, it gets your target audience to complete desired actions on your chosen channels. 

Content marketing weaves together different types of content to achieve goals like:

• Building brand awareness: Content marketing gets your name out there and can promote recognition. 
• Fostering trust: It can position you as a trustworthy source of information. 
• Building the marketing funnel: Content supports the buyer's journey by providing valuable information at every stage. 
• Demonstrating product value: It shows target audiences your value proposition and how your product or service can relieve pain points. 

Thought leadership is just one part of a comprehensive content marketing strategy. Other types of content marketing include:

• Top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU) blog posts to guide customers throughout their journeys with your brand
• Comparison guides to show potential customers how your offerings rank against competitors' and demonstrate product value
• Case studies and customer interviews to showcase product success stories
• Infographics to provide information in an easily digestible and visually pleasing format
• Social media       posts to reach the 5+ billion global users across different social media platforms
• Podcasts to provide valuable content in audio format
• Videos and graphics for potential customers who prefer visual content

High-quality, strategic content can elevate your marketing campaigns, build brand awareness, and increase conversions. And while thought leadership is just one part of that overall strategy, it can have an outsized impact on brand awareness, authority, and trust.

Where thought leadership fits in content marketing

Thought leadership is a valuable addition to your content, as it helps you drive authority, not just engagement or awareness. It builds trust and gives your content a point of view that competitors (and AI) can't replicate.

But at the same time, it shouldn’t be the primary focus of your strategy — just one aspect of it. The goal is to integrate thought leadership seamlessly into your overall approach.

To effectively add thought leadership to your content strategy, start by keeping up with industry trends and challenges to identify what to focus on in your content. Reports published by research firms like Edelman are a great place to begin. 

You can also partner with internal and external subject matter experts to come up with new ideas and share them with your audience. 

With thought leadership, you want to strive more for quality than quantity. So, instead of focusing on releasing #X pieces of content per week or month, pay more attention to the value said content offers customers and other industry players. 

And don’t forget to measure the impact of your thought leadership to determine its effectiveness. Some metrics to track include website traffic, content shares, downloads (if you publish whitepapers, podcasts, ebooks, etc.), invites to industry engagements, and media mentions. 

If you don't observe any changes to these metrics after implementing thought leadership, it may be time to rethink your approach. 

Follow your industry's challenges more closely, leverage industry leaders' know-how to develop practical, innovative solutions, and share your ideas across different distribution channels. Podcasts and social media platforms like LinkedIn are great mediums because they allow easy sharing. 

Learn how thought leadership can enhance your content marketing strategy

Content marketing is a key part of digital marketing campaigns, thanks to its effectiveness and cost efficiency. Adding thought leadership content to the cocktail can further enhance the impact of content marketing and position your brand as a reliable and trustworthy source of information. 

If you're ready to incorporate a thought leadership strategy into your overarching content marketing plan, Ten Speed has you covered. 

Our content creation team can support your efforts by helping you develop and execute effective content marketing strategies, including thought leadership. We've successfully helped many B2B SaaS businesses build their authority in this competitive space, so you can be confident you're in the right hands. 

Schedule a consultation with our team today to enhance your content marketing with great thought leadership!