How a Thought Leadership Strategy Helps Your Entire Business

Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored the impact a thought leadership strategy can have on an individual’s career and reputation.  Today, I’d like to explore some of the benefits that can be enjoyed by a thought leader’s entire company.

From a brand standpoint, having an established industry thought leader at the helm of your company is hugely important.  Not only does it highlight your business’ emphasis on innovation and progress, but also it provides a “face” customers will associate with your company.  If your company is in an industry known for websites and products that “lack personality,” this can be an effective means of differentiation.  As I’ve mentioned before, branding is hugely helpful in the sales cycle, as it helps potential buyers create heuristics, psychologically putting your company at the forefront of consideration.

Thought leadership content will not only help with “soft,” more difficult to measure, results such as these, but will also have a concrete impact on your web traffic. Google continues to reevaluate its ranking formula, rewarding companies who consistently distribute quality content.  If you’ve found your business is stuck on the second or third page for key terms, a renewed commitment to content development could be just what the doctor ordered.

A thought leadership strategy will have internal benefits as well.  It will not only attract top-level talent towards your business, but will help retain the individuals who are helping make your company an industry leader to begin with! A business that puts emphasis on its forward-thinking culture and promoting innovation sounds like a much more appealing place to work than a “solutions provider.”

Establishing yourself as a thought leader will increase your lead pipeline and help you make more money per sale.  As this article from the Bloom Group notes (emphasis mine), “If your clients fall in love with your unique approach to solving their problem, you aren’t competing on price anymore. A unique and compelling offering can command a high price.”

With all of these potential benefits, questions surrounding thought leader strategy development shouldn’t be “Why should I…” they should be “How could I not?”  Your company is already providing customers unique and innovative solutions; don’t be shy about them!