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Thought Leadership From the Inside Out
LoyaltyExpo 2014 Stacey King Gordon, Suite Seven @staceykgordon #loyaltyexpo #TLIO
1. Understand what thought leadership is, what it isn’t, and what it looks like when it’s right
2. Develop an action plan for how to start (or improve) your thought leadership communications efforts
3. Get tools to take back to your team to lay the groundwork for thought leadership communications
4. Exercise: DIY thought leadership content strategy for a !ctional software company
Goals for Today
Who we are
Suite Seven is a content strategy and brand consultancy in Oakland, California.
Thought leadership: ??????
60% consider their brands to be thought leaders
27% have some kind of thought leadership communication program in place
69% believe their company could do a better job at communicating their thought leadership in a way that earns long-term loyalty
What we heard from loyalty marketers
Efforts are fragmented. Different departments are doing different things.
Leaders and experts aren’t involved. Executives and subject matter experts don’t have time to participate or interest in participating.
No sense of what’s most important or impactful. Teams have dif!culty prioritizing projects.
What we heard from loyalty marketers
How do you define thought leadership?
My reasons for selecting the people who appear here were straightforward. In each instance, I was looking for an individual who was addressing the big questions with which today’s most senior executives are wrestling. These questions relate to issues of business strategy, growth, and human resources, as well as the new social contract that is taking shape among companies, employees, and shareholders, and the ways in which society itself is changing.
“Thought Leadership” c. 1994
Thought leadership is getting a bad rap.
“To become a thought leader, hire a virtual assistant to blog for you twice a week”
“Thought Leadership” c. 2013
The !rst rule of thought leadership is that you don’t talk about
“thought leadership.”
It’s time for cute kid pictures.
We listen to the people with the best ideas, and we follow them.
Address the big questions ?
Embrace change
Establish a point of view
Innovate to prepare for change
Guide their community to adapt & succeed
Things thought leaders do:
Why thought leadership matters
Long-term benefits of thought leadership
More inbound inquiries More short listing
Faster sales cycles Higher close rates Bigger deal sizes
Increased customer loyalty Higher lifetime value
Early stage Middle stage Later stage
Source: Laura Ramos, Forrester
Brand value and thought leadership
Apple: #1 in brand value
“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” - Steve Jobs
Google: #2 in brand value
“I think Google should be like a Swiss Army knife: clean, simple, the tool you want to take everywhere.” - Marissa Mayer
Coca-Cola: #3 in brand value
IBM: #4 in brand value
Microso: #5 in brand value
Defining thought leadership communication
• Starts at the top with a commitment and belief among leaders
• Becomes an integral part of the brand
• Permeates and becomes part of the discourse
Thought leadership is ingrained in the culture.
It shouldn’t be:
• Something that originates in the marketing or PR department (though it might ultimately live there)
• Another lead generation or PR tactic
• Invests in original, unbiased, research-driven content
• Offers authoritative insight based on experience and leadership
• Provides focused, provocative thinking on relevant issues
Thought leadership offers an unique, informed perspective.
It shouldn’t be:
• Exclusively repackaging ideas or information published by others
• Focuses on the success of the customer or community
• Strives for long-term loyalty, retention and brand af!nity
• Can be packaged to support sales conversations and marketing strategies, but should be pervasive part of brand communications
Thought leadership is a long-term commitment to delivering high-value thinking and guidance.
It shouldn’t be:
• Measured exclusively through page views or follows
• Dependent on short-term gains
• An occasional marketing or business development tactic
“With true thought leadership, there’s nothing in it for me. It’s public service. It’s doing something helpful for the client.”
• Packaged for both quick consumption and in-depth engagement
• Written/voiced in a way that speaks to audiences
• Delivered and organized in a user-focused way
• Practical enough to speak to audience’s day-to-day reality
Thought leadership should be useful, relevant and accessible for targeted audiences.
It shouldn’t be:
• Locked inside a dense publication
• Esoteric, inaccessible or too theoretical for busy audiences to care about
• Buried in an overstuffed resource library without a way to surface it
Layered Content DO: • Provide a succinct summary
with the ability to dig deeper
• Provide layers that people can extract, digest and share
• Get maximum mileage with complementary content
DON’T: • Publish a link to a dense,
40-page PDF report
• Publish the exact same content in umpteen different formats
Video commentary
Short summary article
Slide show
FOCUS
SUSTAINABILITY
STANDARDS
Focus
Themes and topics Channels
Frequency Curation
What you uniquely know
What your audience
cares about
Where You
Credibly Play
Themes and topics Channels
Curation
What you uniquely know
1. Define your point of view
• What does your brand stand for?
• What do you want to be known for?
• What do you and your people believe?
• What do you choose to care about?
• Where do your people have exceptional expertise?
• Where can you credibly lead the conversation?
• What perspective do you bring?
Your point of view creates a framework for focused content
“In the Networked Society, connec3vity will be the star3ng points for new ways of innova3ng, collabora3ng and socializing. It’s about crea3ng freedom, empowerment and opportunity, transforming industries and socie3es while helping find solu3ons to some of the greatest challenges facing our planet. We are on the brink of an extraordinary revolu3on. A world connected in real 3me will place many new requirements on all of us while opening up opportuni3es beyond our imagina3on.”
The implications on workplace culture
How communication technology can create more sustainable, affordable, innovative cities
The evolution of education and networked technology
Getting to the POV
• Brand positioning
• Existing content
• Company strategy
• Leaders’ vision for the future
• Competitive landscape
What your audience
cares about
2. Define your audience “personas”
• Demographics: age, gender, lifestyle, income
• Psychographics: beliefs, personality
• Motivations
• Challenges (what keeps them up at night)
• Goals
• Barriers
Sample Persona: IT Senior Leader
David Wu Age 52 B.S. in Computer Science and MBA CIO for large ($500M/year) enterprise software company
Motivation: Professional growth. He was recruited from his last company that went IPO, and was brought in to overhaul the architecture of his current company’s software platform. His day: He’s responsible for an established network of apps and may have to answer user questions. However, his strong suit is programming, not marketing or customer service. Challenges: Budget, resources, outdated infrastructure, relatively junior team, internal politics (including tension among departmental IT departments) Goals: Deliver on an aggressive plan to rewrite and deploy updated software to 10 pilot customer sites by end of fiscal year Barriers: Significant code challenges; winning support from senior leadership; finding the right vendor
Awareness Research Consideration Purchase Relationship
WHAT THE CUSTOMER IS DOING Deciding to buy; beginning to plan
Researching online; educating himself about the basics
Comparing products in store to what he saw online; narrowing down choices; consulting others
Making his final decision and deciding on a purchase
Implementation, thinking about growing the solution
CUSTOMER MINDSET Excited, anxious/nervous, overwhelmed with options, discouraged about cost
Interested, engaged, tentative
Hopeful, careful
Satisfied, relieved, happy, proud
Excited and relieved, then overwhelmed
CONTENT GOALS Help consumer overcome sense of being overwhelmed or discouraged; give him a logical starting point to understand options and decisions.
Help consumer explore options, understand tradeoffs and factors, embrace variety and choice
Answer more advanced questions and help consumer make his final decision
Help consumer make his final decision and feel good about it
Bring consumer back for “what’s next” and continue to serve him through the next stage
CONTENT THEMES, TOPICS, TYPES 101-level basics, answers to basic questions, checklists, primer videos, easy infographics and “maps”
Basic overviews, comparison charts, decision guides, answers to basic concerns that arise during early research
Answers to more advanced concerns that come up during research, tips for weighing choices
Emotion-driven content (testimonials, proposal stories), confidence-building content (post-purchase issues)
Guidance on processes, issues, getting most mileage out of product
3. Map your content for personas
The “status quo shift” — prospects begin to become aware that something needs to change. They become more aware of the challenges they have and begin to explore how they might go about solving those problems
Prospects begin to research their options for solving their issues. They talk to others, look for trusted guidance, read, compare directions, and put together an exploratory committee or RFP to begin investigating options.
Once they’ve narrowed down which path to take, prospects begin to weigh who to work with on their solution, how to design the solution they need, how much they want to spend, timing, requirements and other organizational considerations. They also make decisions about what not to do and who not to work with — so overcoming objections becomes a hurdle for sales at this stage.
Prospects decide on a solution, negotiate pricing, create schedules, design implementation plans, choose features, and make other purchase decisions. They may need to get committee buy-in and go through a careful consideration process. Once the deal is signed, they kick off the project or begin adopting, training on, implementing the solution. The vendor and customer begin putting the structure in place for a long-term, successful relationship.
The vendor and customer engage in a relationship through marketing communications, sales representatives or account managers. The relationship is focused on retaining the customer, maintaining satisfaction, and promoting incremental sales over time.
The customer relationship lifecycle
Content can support the customer relationship from the very first moment prospects become aware of your brand, through long-term retention and loyalty. We like to think about what our target personas need at different stages in this lifecycle. The stages include:
Confiden3al-‐For Internal Use Only 63
What you uniquely know
What your audience
cares about
Where You
Credibly Play
Our playground for today: Digher Straights Tech
About the company
• Digher Straights Tech (DST) is a software company, established in 2003, that creates products for wealth management professionals.
• Still run by one of the two original founders, Matt Knowles; the other founder left to start a competing company, which was later acquired by a large enterprise company.
• Matt is well-known in the industry, mostly because he has aligned himself with regional associations and conferences for independent wealth managers. He speaks frequently at conferences, mostly about business practices, business ethics, and new standards for technology in the industry. He is good friends with many other industry leaders and a visible personality at industry conferences.
• The company is on the NASDAQ and is growing steadily year over year, but is focused on driving new revenue by moving into new markets
About the products
• Products are geared toward the wealth management profession. Their two best-known products include:
• Money4Nothing: Financial planning software
• Swing Sultan: Hedge fund software
• They also offer an integrated suite of software packages that are newer on the market and not as well known.
• They’ve pioneered moving wealth management software into the cloud, and believe their products are the easiest to use and most accessible for self-employed wealth management professionals and small !rms.
• They want to extend into being able to serve larger !rms as they grow or get acquired, and to cater to more mid-market customers.
About the market
DST’s biggest competitors have always been two other software !rms focused on small wealth management customers:
• WealthSoft is a long-established company that got acquired by a large enterprise company but still operates as a subsidiary. They are more corporate in their communications, and have a big presence at trade shows and conferences, but don’t publish much beyond some occasional white papers about their products.
• FutureMind is a more recent startup. They are a SaaS product; they have a blog and use social media a lot, and are trying to reach out to a new generation of wealth managers who want something fun to use and easy. They tend to publish commentary on news stories about what’s happening in the !nancial world and trends in the market.
DST persona: Decision-maker at mid-sized wealth management firm Sheila Jones Age 50 B.S. in Economics, Certified Financial Planner (CFP) COO for $10M wealth management/investment firm in Hartford, CT
Motivation: Watching the company grow; solving clients’ problems; work-life balance; running a streamlined practice with good people Her day: She spends about 30% of her day on client service and account management, and the rest on HR, systems and processes, operational infrastructure, and growth strategy for the firm Challenges: Finding good people; working efficiently; profitability; staying abreast of technology and the latest practices in the field Goals: Grow the firm 10% year over year; become a visible and reputable brand for wealth management in the Hartford region Barriers: Outdated and cumbersome technology; poor recordkeeping; legacy staff with low productivity
Exercise: 1. Write a point of view statement for Digher
Straights Tech’s thought leadership efforts
2. Map the kinds of content DST’s target persona might want and need as she aims to solve for goals and challenges
Standards
Relevance
Structure
Credibility
Accuracy & Timeliness
Clarity, Readability & Focus
Findability & Organization
Tone & Style
Overall Experience & Effectiveness
The quality umbrella
Relevance
Structure
Credibility
Accuracy & Timeliness
Clarity, Readability & Focus
Findability & Organization
Tone & Style
Overall Experience & Effectiveness
The quality umbrella
• Image
• Professionalism
• Clarity
• Effectiveness
Setting standards helps you meet your goals
• Set business goals for what your thought leadership content should help you accomplish
• De!nes what quality means to your brand
• Gives you a set of guidelines to use as your efforts expand and more people get involved
• Provides a benchmark for evaluating and measuring success
Sample content goals
Build loyalty and trust Give consumers an informative, accessible, pressure-free way to learn about your product, helping to reduce anxiety and build confidence in a way that will support customer loyalty to your brand. Provide information in the way customers want to consume it Create a mix of written, visual and video content, and package information in a clear way, with the right balance of emotion and detail. Give consumers an easy place to start — and the ability to go deeper Content will be architected in a way that allows users to start with basic questions and information, then will lead them to more in-depth information as they move deeper into the sales funnel.
Sample voice guidelines
Trusted We’re here to help, not sell; give advice, not a pitch.
Human Language is conversational, friendly and encouraging. We speak in the second person (“you”) and use plain English. Business and industry jargon is OUT.
Genuine We don’t use unauthentic slang to sound trendy. Smart We’re informal but informed, intelligent but not overly clever.
Empathetic We know this purchase is a big deal. Our positive, descriptive language shows it.
Sample content quality standards
Credible Accurate, impartial, high-quality and authoritative Valuable Supports customers’ decision-making: educates, inspires,
enhances their shopping experience User-Friendly
Clear, easy to find, easy to consume
Relevant Matters to jewelry consumers, gives them the right amount of information relevant to what they need to make decisions
Checklists
Style Guides
Sustainability
Thought leadership publishing is a commitment.
You have to prepare for it to be hard. It takes awhile to settle into the groove. There’s a lot of trial and error involved. If you stick with it, you’ll start to see results.
Boiling the ocean
Hamster’s nest
Content graveyards
Lean teams
Limited time
Little to no budget
Sustaining thought leadership success
Ownership & Communication
Publishing Strategy & Prioritization
Processes & Planning
Organization & Lifecycle
Ownership & communication
• Roles
• Responsibilities
• Ownership
• How we communicate
Roles in a sample governance model
Editorial management Who owns the process and makes the !nal call
Content owners Who own the content or topic
Contributors Subject matter experts, writers, interviewees
Reviewers Who needs to weigh in or sign off (including Legal)
Editorial/steering committee
Who can guide the strategic direction of the efforts
Publishing strategy & prioritization
• What goes where and when
• Frequency
• Resource allocation
• Responsibilities
Sample: Three Tiers of Content
Premium/Proprietary Content
Best Practices/Solution Content
Current Awareness/Expertise
Sample: content priorities/production guidelines
Tier 1: Premium/ Proprietary Content
Criteria: Original research, first-time publication, data-driven but with a narrative, fostering external credibility Tone: Educational, more formal, smart and incisive, upbeat Frequency: Quarterly/semi-annual Creators: Professional writers/marketing, or subject matter experts with support of professional editors Extending the Value: Complementary content to support sharing at every level: social content, video, PPT decks, infographics, blog posts
Tier 2: Current Events / Awareness Content
Criteria: Smaller bites of thought-provoking content, highlighting individual expertise, conveys unique POV, timely Tone: Smart, conversational, upbeat, succinct, humorous (when appropriate) Frequency: Regularly (a few times a week) Creators: Subject matter experts, salespeople, marketing Extending the Value: Sharing on social channels, curating and packaging “best of” content into more premium publications
Sample: content guidelines by channel BLOG EBOOKS/GUIDES WHITE PAPERS /
BRIEFING PAPERS VIDEOS WEBINARS INFOGRAPHICS EMAIL NEWSLETTER
PURPOSE Become central repository for all content relevant to our audiences
Add value with credible, relevant content
Add value with credible, relevant content that's more specific and educates about product
Engage and entertain, add credibility
Engage, educate, add credibility
Engage, educate, entertain, add credibility
Engage Engage, educate
GOALS Become a customer-focused small business resource melding business, technology and culture relevant to personas; serve both customers and prospects
Generate and nurture leads and add value for existing customers by offering valuable, helpful, educational content packaged for a specific audience. Help prospects feel confident.
Generate and nurture leads and add value by offering specific, timely and detailed information. Help prospects and customers feel confident. Show how software works with other experts on the pulse.
Generate and nurture leads and add value to existing customers with inspirational, informative, thought-provoking videos
Generate and nurture leads and add value to existing customers with informative, educational webinars that offer different voices/points of view on specific topics
Distill key insights or more complex subjects in a visual format for social sharing
Generate and nurture leads and add value to existing customers
Generate and nurture leads and add value to existing customers
CONTENT Good mix of product vs. business, basic (making the case, 101 education) vs. advanced (playbooks and detailed advice from experts and peers.
Focused on a topic that personas really care about; answers common questions; should be issue-focused instead of product-focused; writing at basic to intermediate level.
Like a issue paper or longer article vs. an ebook; topics can be more specific and written for more targeted audiences. Technical product information more appropriate here. Briefs showcasing data, research, case studies by external experts. Writing at intermediate to advanced level.
Interviews with customers, panels, use cases (how Desk is used to solve for specific issues), meet the team/internal expertise (helps with community-building)
Customer panels, guest speakers, Desk experts speaking on customer service and experience topics, some product-specific content
Quantifiable information, e.g., results from studies, surveys; insights from white papers; presented in a way that makes people say “I never thought about it like that before”
Topic specific (not sure what this means)
DISTRIBUTION AND PROMOTION
Open; ability to sign up for RSS and email updates; promoted through email newsletter, Twitter, Facebook
Sent with offer (lead gen/nurture), form required to download; later posted in online library as free (no sign-up) content and promoted through email/social media.
Sent with offer (lead gen/nurture), form required to download; later posted in online library as free (no sign-up) content and promoted through email/social media.
On the blog and on YouTube (need a tagging system for SEO); could be sent with offers / short form for access.
Sent with offer (lead gen/nurture), form required to register; later posted in online library but form required to access recording
On the blog, FB, Twitter; could be sent with offers / short form for access.
Emailed 1x/month
Processes & planning a.k.a. how to get ’er done
• Setting expectations
• Accountability
• Regular cadence
• Planning the content mix
• Getting the most mileage out of efforts
Sample: editorial calendar
Sample: process definition eBook: 5 week process
Topic genera3on
Vet with content
review board (op3onal)
Research and wri3ng
First review
Second draS
Director review
Final draS
Design and
publish
Blog: 2 week process
Managing editor assigns
topics Write draS
posts
First round edits/back to
writer if needed
Editor edits/finalizes
Director approval Publish
3 days 2 weeks 2 days 3 days 2 days 2 days 1 week
1 week 3 days 2 days 2 days 1 day
Sample: content mileage decision tree
ebook
blog posts, white paper
Webinar Video Email offer Infographic
Twitter, FB
Create other content if:
• Appeals to multiple audiences • Can be useful at different levels of expertise • Can be broken down into multiple topics
• Can create a case study • Can create a video interview • Can create slides • Can get an expert to speak
Organization & lifecycle
• Where content is stored
• How content is categorized and tagged
• How content is made search-ready
• How content can be leveraged across departments/roles
• Cross-referencing related content
• Regularly auditing content for freshness and accuracy
• Archiving policy, processes and timing
Measuring success
Benchmark where you are today Engagement • Website visits, bounce rate, time on site, user paths • Email opens and click-through rate • Downloads (of documents) or views (of videos) • Social engagement Relevance • Feedback from customers (surveys, sales conversations, etc.) • Syndication, shares, inbound links Quality • Evaluate existing content against goals and standards • Use scorecards to quantify the quality of content against these standards
Brand Perception • Voice of the Customer (VOC) research • Surveys • Social listening, media coverage
Define goals
S M A R T
pecific easurable
ttainable
elevant
ime-bound
NO:
We want to foster 30% more repeat business among existing customers in the next 2 years.
YES:
NO:
YES:
S M A R T
We want to grow brand awareness.
We want to grow our online followers by 50% this year.
We want to increase sales.
Start small and stay focused
• Choose 3-5 KPIs related to goals • Focus on long-term, brand-level results • Software and processes in place to measure regularly • Make a commitment for the long haul
Resources Thought leadership tools, templates, articles and more: http://info.suiteseven.com/TLIO Slides at: http://www.slideshare.net/staceykinggordon
