Differentiate + Dominate with Thought Leadership Marketing

Granite Leadership Day 2013

May 21

Agenda

• What is thought leadership?

• Marketing ecosystem

• Forms of thought leadership

• Creation + distribution + measurement

• Technologies + systems + processes

• How do you differentiate?

Thought leadership marketing

• Strategic positioning as industry expert, sharing original insight into topics of interest to business community.

– Beyond problem-solving, thought leadership promotes high-level vision.

– Differentiates your company and its approach to solving customer issues.

– A way to gain buyers’ trust before they ever enter the sales cycle.

What it takes

• Unique insight into issue or topic

• Experience solving the problem

• A history of results

The average sales cycle has increased 22% over the past 5 years due

to more decision makers being involved in the buying process. (Source: Sirius Decisions)

Goals

• Build brand awareness and reputation

• Drive engagement with brand/community

• Influence perception of your company

• Influence purchase decisions

• Enhance customer relationships

• Promote brand loyalty

Offline Digital

Campaigns

Public Relations

Social Media

Marketing ecosystem

Mobile Apps

Email Podcasts

Research Community

Outreach

Seminars

Cause Marketing

Interviews

Lead Nurture

Tradeshows

SEO/SEM

Conferences Speaking Engagements

Media Relations

Bylined Articles

Analyst Relations

Broadcast Appearances

Advisory Boards

Website

Partner/Industry Websites

Blog

Webinars

Marketing

Strategy

Forms of thought leadership content

• White papers

• Case studies

• Blog posts

• E-newsletters

• Nurture emails

• Webinars

• Research/survey

• Video

• Podcasts

Content aligned with decision cycle

Awareness

Research

Evaluation

Purchase

Blog posts

Nurture emails

PR

White papers eBooks Guides + Tip sheets Video

Case studies

Webinars

Technical content

Consultation

Demonstrations

Implementation plans

• Differentiation

• Credibility

• Be genuine

• Be relevant

• Supported by evidence

• Useful

• Big-picture

• Customer focus

Thought leadership is not…

About your company.

About your products and services.

About your latest campaign.

Content creation

- SME as thought leader

- Identify sources of intellectual capital

- Listen to other industry thought leaders

- Develop content calendar by segment

- Align content with buying process and/or PR objectives

- Allocate resources for content development

- Create/fine-tune relevant social media profiles

- Build thought leadership positioning into company culture

Measurement

REACH ENGAGEMENT PUBLIC RELATIONS SALES IMPACT*

Monthly website views Click-through Rates (CTR)

Interviews + expertise requests

Lead volume

Monthly blog views # of forwards Publications + citations Lead quality

# of social media followers

# of downloads External website referral traffic

Cost per Lead (CPL)

Marketing database growth

# of likes + shares + RTs + mentions

Speaking events Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

*Sales metrics tracked on a per-channel/per-asset basis in addition to overall efforts.

Examples – Thought leadership content

Process + technology

Marketing automation + Deliver, track, and manage content and campaigns

that attract new customers and build brand.

+ Segment, target, and engage prospects and customers based on their profile data and behavior.

+ Get insight into the ROI of each marketing campaign and content channel.

Marketing automation process

Lead capture

Lead generation

Targeted lists

Nurture campaigns

Score + route leads

Optimize

Analyze sales

Sales process integration

• CRM + Monitor your sales pipeline and performance.

+ Prioritize hot leads and route those that need to be nurtured.

+ Measure return on marketing investment and better forecast incoming revenue.

How do you differentiate?

Questions?

We can be reached @ www.hatlingflint.com billh@hatlingflint.com