Table of Contents
‘Thought Leaders’, and ‘Thought Leadership’, there’s so much in the air these days, isn’t it? Well, here we’ll attempt to throw some light on a topic that has taken the Digital marketing space by storm.
Precisely we shall go on to describe it as, ‘A strategy that represents individuals’ or brands’ unique perspective on a key issue and the steps taken to identify themselves as experts among stakeholder groups.’ Thought Leadership should be an entry point to a relationship. It should intrigue, challenge and inspire even people already familiar with a Company.
Moving ahead with Thought Leadership
As Daniel Rasmus says, “Thought leadership should help start a relationship where none exists, and it should enhance existing relationships.” Additionally, thought leadership content has to be conveyed in the right way and via the right platform. The communication medium must befit the message. Otherwise, it runs the risk of falling on deaf ears or worse, creating a negative backlash.
Leveraging Thought Leadership Strategy
There are a few questions to ask yourself before you step forward to strategize thought leadership content. Do you think the message that you’re conveying will benefit existing users/ followers or is it perhaps more suited to the stakeholders of an organization? Does it influence opinions or does it create solutions to vexing issues? Can the topic be kept in continuum or is it a restricted one time addressal. These are just some of the points that need to be mulled over before the content goes out on the www.
To elucidate the above points, we comprehend here, that thought leadership is the perceived advantage a Company achieves in the minds of its stakeholders in relation to a theme or topic that is of central importance. It is a key component of content marketing.
You can only compete if your content is differentiated. You also have to define all of your customer’s challenges and define the best ways to overcome them. Thought leadership content can help anyone involved in the business decision to gain alignment among their peers, which is often no small task.
And for digital marketers, Thought Leadership allows to define the category of a solution or brand purpose in customer terms. Hence, all consumer companies can use thought leadership effectively to support their overall mission and to define authority in their space.
Our Manifesto
We take the Thought leadership path by discovering, defining and engaging audiences! We, at Open Designs, truly believe to have acquired a capability to not only learn new things, to not only discover them for the first time, but to educate others, selflessly.
As a Company that exemplifies and communicates thought leadership, we expose our thought leaders to become part of the conversation, early in the consumer journey. At Open Designs, our Project Coordinators, Client servicing executives, Digital Marketers, Bloggers, Content Strategists, Social Media geeks (to name a few) exhibit thought leadership at every stage of the buying cycle and we strongly believe to have begun the process of becoming a social business- real people with real faces talking to real customers and buyers.
Our marketers and client servicing executives formulate insightful points of view on the issues faced by prospects and customers and interact to enlighten them creating an exchange of value and positioning the company as a trusted resource. This helps to establish the affinity, authenticity and trust that they desire for our brand’s relationship with customers.
Thought leadership is about perception
If you’re the most helpful, smart, nice and empathic person within your area of expertise you’re not per se a thought leader. Times have changed. Great people-oriented subject matter experts need to be visible and speak out in a more or less public way to be perceived as thought leaders. Like it or not: personal branding plays a huge role now and sadly it’s often about creating popular content, even if perceived thought leaders sometimes have zilch practice experience in the topics they write or talk about. That’s not always a must: don’t think the best analysts, subject matter experts or journalists on any given subject always have practice experience. We can’t all become presidents or senators but we can be brilliant political analysts. In marketing, practice and experience obviously are more important.
A Quick Takeaway
The benefits of Thought leadership start with brand affinity. To successfully engage B2B buyers, thought leadership marketing must check off some key attributes that go beyond content and solution marketing. True thought leadership should be a gift to the market that is given without any expectation of immediate commercial return. Some of the frame works are listed below for thought leadership marketing.
- Identify the audience members you want to engage, understand the issues they face, and determine what impression you want that audience to have of your firm.
- Develop a thought leadership platform consisting of one big idea about the trends affecting your industry and a hierarchy of supporting points of view on the major issues your audience faces.
- Engage the audience previously identified in a true dialogue by developing a communication plan that distributes your thought leadership ideas across all own, earned, and paid channels.
- Assess the outreach in terms of leads, sales, and market influence.
A hallmark of true thought leadership is the confidence to take the route that 99.9 percent of industry experts don’t even see. Will you?
FAQ
What is ROI?
Return on Investment is a measurement that is used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of your investment. To put it in simpler words, it is used to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment. It is one of the most popular metrics used by businesses worldwide to measure the performance of an investment. More people prefer Return on Investment as a reliable metric because of its simplicity and versatility. The calculation will not be complicated and it can also be an efficient rudimentary gauge of an investment’s profitability. It can be used to calculate returns from other investments, thereby allowing on to measure all types of investments involved in business and transactions involved in it.
Is Digital marketing the future?
Digital marketing is one of the ways in which you can boost the business sales like never before. Having said that, considering how reliant everyone has become on digital marketing, it is all set to rule the future. Here is why –
- The extent to which people these days are using the internet throws light on how increased internet usage would be in the days to come.
- Digital marketing is an excellent way of building brand awareness among people.
- All the digital marketing strategies put forth by the companies can be monitored as well. The expectation vs. reality picture becomes way clearer now. This further helps in opening up doors for improvement, if any.
Is digital branding the same as digital marketing?
No. Digital Marketing and Digital Branding are different from each other. Digital Marketing focusses on promoting a particular product or service, highlighting its benefits and how useful it would be to the consumers. Digital branding on the other hand is much more subtle and highlights the personality of the company or brand as a whole. Products and services will come and go. Digital marketing strategies will change to suit the seasonal needs or are tailor made for the product in question. However Digital branding is like a long tern digital marketing strategy to bolster the reputation of the company. It communicates what are the core values of the company and what they do to upkeep those values to give the best customer experience.
What would be the E-Commerce future in India?
By the end of 2021 there will be over 600 million internet users in India. On account of the users, the E-Commerce sector is expected to hit a whopping 200 billion USD by 2026. There are several E-Commerce trends that are making their way online, including smart devices that use voice activated commands to do your shopping on. There has been increased personalization in ads and promotions that has significantly boosted conversions. Much of online marketing will soon be automated, freeing precious human resource from mundane marketing tasks. There is widespread use of AI and VR to enhance customer experience. In 10 years, India’s E-Commerce industry is expected to become the second largest E-Commerce market in the world.
What are the most important principles of web design?
By now a lot of businesses have realised the importance of good web design. However there are some important principles that need to be followed to ensure that your website turns out perfect.
- Ensure the website loads fast, as this reduces website abandonment.
- Show your intent on every page so customers landing on any page are aware of what your business does.
- Keep it simple so you don’t distract visitors from their purpose, with too many elements.
- Make the navigation as easy as possible, with any part of the website accessible in 3 clicks.
- Maintain the hierarchy in the layout. You don’t want your customers to keep scrolling back up each time they want to refer something.
- Use simple, attractive and value adding content that can convince visitors into becoming customers.
- The site must be mobile friendly for customers to access it on the go.
What is the purpose of website design?
Your website is the first impression that an online customer gets of your business. It is important to make a positive impact on your clients. The website design has the potential to convert a random visitor to a customer and boost organic sales. A great web design will keep customers loyal to your brand as they find the platform comfortable and convenient to use. It provides a good UI/UX to your clients and nurtures your leads. Better the website design, more the engagement with it, bringing in more traffic. It improves the accessibility of your website to a wider audience. It has a significant influence on the brand image and it is important that you get professionals to design your website.
What are the benefits of having a website to your business?
It has come to a point that a business is only considered successful if they have a strong online presence. This is evidently done by creating a dedicated website to the brand. The benefits of owning a website for your business are,
- A credible repository of information on your business
- 24 x 7 customer access to your business
- Boosts interaction with the brand
- It helps expand your market reach
- It improve brand awareness to a global scale
- Provides you with valuable consumer insights
- Helps you beat other competitors with online presence
- Access to all digital modes of advertising
- Makes information exchange easier
Why Digital marketing is important for marketing?
Digital Marketing has become an essential part of today’s business world. It has become so competitive that traditional marketing methods are no longer as effective as before. Digital marketing can improve your conversion rate, boost traffic to the site, keep your customers engaged, helps you understand the market and customers with valuable insights, increases your reputation, and is generally cost effective. Most of your online customers are using their mobile phones to access your site. Digital marketing helps make your business more accessible to mobile users, who make up nearly 60% of the clientele. It makes the entire customer journey more interactive and memorable, bringing you loyal customers, who come just for a good user experience. Digital marketing can also be automated, freeing you from the hassle of keeping track of the campaigns.
