Whether you’re a big corporation, a SME, or a startup, crafting excellent thought leadership content on your site is a must for a number of reasons. But what is thought leadership? Essentially, it’s writing that is innovative, intelligent, and helpful, built squarely upon what you know already and what you’re noticing on your professional or personal path.

Share What You’ve Learned From Experience

Sure, industry trends are important to be aware of, but if that’s not where you feel you can add value, leave it to the professionals. Your knowledge as a thought leader is based on your own experience, and that intel is unique and can be used to educate your audience. Showing how you are practicing what you are preaching is a key factor in proving that your voice is one steeped in experience.

You will be able to better capture a larger audience, and keep it growing by adding valuable tips and campaigns to your site. Readers and prospective clients come to you because they want to grow their knowledge, so make your digital space the perfect place to do just that. 

Be Yourself

Authenticity helps clients identify with your brand on a more personal level — It’s the next step up after brand recognition. Thus, sticking to your personal core belief system can be a great foundation on which to build your brand identity, as there’s rarely any doubt as to the right or wrong approach to take, or what tone to use to your audience. Play to your strengths. Use your humor. Remember, you have something unique to share.

Identifying with your community is a key factor in showcasing products, underscoring important research, and following the advancements in your field with interest. Content should be used not only to entertain and instruct, but to sell your services as a trusted personality in the field to the consumer you are targeting most.

Experiment to Find Your Niche

You can engage with your audience through blog posts, infographics, webinar series, informative videos, live streaming, and more right on your site. Experimenting with different types of content will not only help you find the area that is most engaging for you to create, but also what your audience values most. Incorporating a strong to call-to-action, you can turn engaging content to sales, if that’s your goal.

Don’t forget to continuously engage with your audience before, during, and after you’ve created your content. This could be as simple as maintaining a comments section or as complex as live streaming on social media.

Develop a Manageable Structure

Thought leadership is not about forcefully selling products and services. It’s about gaining clout as an unspoken invitation to clients to browse what else you have to offer. Clients are more likely to spend their money if they have a good feel for your company culture and that takes time. That’s why constantly adding to your site in a valuable way is key. 

It may seem like a lot of work, so set small, achievable goals for yourself. Coming up with a time/action calendar for posting on the web, social media, and making comments in appropriate forums is an easy way to keep yourself on track and your site/brand looking fresh. Don’t feel compelled to tick every box right away, that will come with practice or a decision to outsource the work to an employee or outsourced marketing service—like Apricot. 

Remember, practice makes perfect, so becoming a thought leader takes time and effort, but the rewards can be staggering. These tips can help get you started off on the right foot to the delight of your audience and ultimately, to profit over the long term.