Thought Leadership Missing the Mark? 5 Tips to Get It Right & Drive Real Impact

Thought leadership is vital for most PR and marketing strategies. Positioning a business and its decision makers as experts within their field is one of the best ways to demonstrate your industry knowledge and expertise while communicating with target audiences about crucial issues that impact their decision making. But so much of what marketers call ‘thought leadership’ misses the mark. Getting AI to write you a bland LinkedIn post or feature simply isn’t going to cut it.

So in this blog, I’ve broken down why it’s so effective and shared five ways to create genuine, expertise-led thought leadership that delivers.

As a leader and decision maker, you’re the expert. You have knowledge on issues affecting your industry at your fingertips. With that, comes all the tools you need to share your own unique perspective and have a real influence on how people within your sector think and act.

And other decision makers want thought leadership content. They want to read expert insights and be inspired. A research report from Insights Media revealed that 77% of buyers are more likely to work with providers that produce strong thought leadership, 74% want thought leadership that challenges assumptions and 63% want guidance for the next three to 12 months.

But creating thought leadership is more than just securing an opportunity for you and your business to feature in a media title, website or blog and then just writing whatever comes to mind.

A thought leadership piece is by its nature thoughtful. It offers value, insights and authority to readers through a well-thought-out, structured approach. Without that, thought leadership often fails before it’s even published – it can’t, and won’t, cut through the noise to engage and reach intended audiences.

So, here are five key things to keep in mind to help you craft top-notch thought leadership…

Thought leadership is about having an opinion on a particular topic or issue and offering value to the reader through that authority. While you need to be considered and offer a balanced argument, your thought leadership should always have a clear point. Being unfocused (and not actually making your point) means it just won’t have the impact you need.

By offering your expert opinion, you’re being useful to the reader and offering them a unique perspective – both of which can influence their decision making in a way that benefits your business.

Let’s face it – AI tools are so useful for many aspects of work and everyday life.

But what it’s not good at is being you. AI-generated content strips out your personality, opinion and nuance, neutralising it and making it just like all the other content out there.

People would much rather hear what you have to say (warts and all!), and value insights that come from your voice. By offering real, genuine opinions you create content that connects with your audiences on a real level. And that’s exactly the content that search rewards too.

Even the best, most well crafted thought leadership won’t land well if it’s not put in front of the right audiences, at the right time.

Think about what you want to achieve from your thought leadership, and who you want to reach, Undertake audience analysis to find out where your audience spends their time. What platforms are they using? What publications are they reading? Then target the media that are right for your audience, your business and your sector, rather than adopting a scattergun approach.

Want to be seen as a thought leader in the health and safety sector? Then target health and safety publications, media, forums, blogs and websites, or dedicated specific spaces in wider titles. You’ll know then that you’re speaking to the right people who want to hear your valuable insights.

You can be the best communicator in the world, but thought leadership still takes time and effort. You can’t simply dash something off and expect it to be perfect first time.

Giving a piece of content the time it deserves is crucial. Write a first draft, then put it down, and pick it up again, and edit, and edit again, until you feel it’s right. It’s important to give yourself enough time and space to execute it properly.

It’s always worth getting someone to proofread the content before it goes public too, it’s surprising what a fresh pair of eyes will pick up.

Being a thought leader, and creating thought leadership, isn’t just a one-time thing. You can’t just do it once and then expect people to see you as an authority on the subject or in the sector.

It’s about showing up again and again, offering your perceptions on key issues that are affecting people now, and in the future, and providing actionable guidance for those around you. A thought leader is someone who has earned that title.

Here at Energy PR, we believe that thought leadership, done properly, is a fantastic way to position your business, and the expertise within it, as a driving force within your sector and beyond. We know what it takes to craft impactful and authoritative thought leadership content where your personality shines through.

Get in contact with us to learn how thought leadership can deliver exceptional results for your business.