The concepts of thought leadership and content marketing have become more recognised in recent years, thanks largely to the Internet. A thought leader is a person who is seen as futurist and or is recognised by his peers or mentors to be a source of innovative ideas. A thought leader demonstrates his confidence to promote and share ideas in a way that shows he, or the company he represents, understand about the business and the needs of its clients or customers, as well as the market’s needs. Companies using a thought leadership strategy believe that value added service is something that often starts long before any transaction.

Thought leadership encourages potential clients to ”follow” the company until they decide it is right to buy. This strategy introduces the concept of the marketing funnel, while enabling the company to obtain information about their potential customers. Social media and a good website can raise awareness of the company, not just with clients but also with the traditional media, investors and prospects. Thought leadership performs a community service as well and a thought leadership-driven company is seen as a “good citizen”. For companies selling big ticket items, thought leadership is a way of getting customers to engage with them way before a full commercial relationship is established, such as through the sale of white papers.

The key to implementing a good thought leadership strategy is to always remember that it is not about “us”; it is about the business’s customers and prospects. A thought leadership strategy is built primarily on research into clients’ goals, problems, challenges, opportunities, and the obstacles to achieving these goals. “The story” is the crux of getting a good thought leadership strategy up and running and a good strong story supported by proper data that can be tested means that thought leadership driven businesses cease to argue their case and instead prove their case.

Ultimately, a thought leadership strategy is all about credibility. It is all about knowing the business’ markets and proving that it has the means to solve the problem while respecting its target audience by being open and honest. Its not a question of pretending that the business is not selling anything; it is about putting the business in a position where it is able to attract prospects and encourage them to take buying action without the effort of having to go sell them.

How does a business convey its thought leadership? This is where the new social media comes in. Sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Ecademy, as well as applications available for smart phones, can all provide a platform to help get the message across.

It is easy to build a low cost, broadcast communication infrastructure out of websites, social media and internet-based applications. The key point, however, is that thought leadership provides the content. Good content gets circulated and builds up contacts. This is the dream of thought leadership: communication, content, clients.