You didn’t get to where you are by accident. You worked hard, you put in the time, and you gained experience to be in the position you’re in today. And along the way, you’ve become an expert, a thought leader. As Thought Leadership Lab says, you are “the informed opinion leaders and go-to people in your field of expertise” and “trusted sources who move and inspire people with innovative ideas; turn ideas into reality; and know and show how to replicate their success.”
Thought leadership offers you a solid opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and reach your target audience. Other benefits include:
- Establishing your brand or your organization
- Creating more opportunities for PR
- Building relationships
Now is the time to consider your company’s thought leadership strategy. And, you don’t have to be the CEO to be a thought leader. Neil Patel outlines how anyone can begin their thought leadership journey.
The centerpiece of your strategy should be a blog. It will not only be a place where you can offer quality content that is in line with your expertise, but your blog posts will position you to be the informed pro in your field. Here’s what your thought leadership strategy may look like:
- Utilize your content marketing key messaging to create a thought leadership content calendar.
- Craft blog posts that are relevant to your field of expertise. Connect with an audience and showcase innovation. Focus on the content that you’re trying to establish yourself as a thought leader on. Think about what’s new, what’s changing and offer up your analysis. If possible, include quotes from other industry experts that support your stance to increase your credibility. Your key content should always be in the first paragraph. And, load up your blog post with keywords. It will help your search engine optimization (SEO).
- Send your message to your audience via email newsletter. OptinMonster explains how you can build your email list.
- Share your blog posts via social media. Find the important takeaways from your blog post and highlight those on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Don’t forget to use keywords as hashtags.
- Use your blog post to get media attention. Thoughtful and strategic media outreach will elicit requests for interviews and / or byline article submissions. Reminder: TSN not only reaches out to the media on your behalf, we can prepare you for interviews and write your byline articles.
In today’s world of marketing, blogging can foster your role as a thought leader and help you get noticed.