Introduction
The objective of a Thought Leadership (TL) marketing communication strategy is to position the company as a leader in its respective industry and above its competitors, while simultaneously painting a positive light amongst its audience. Hence, this effort can result in a commercially successful outcome for the long term.

A company’s trusted Subject Matter Expert (SME) is identified as the professional, presenter of the content. According to LinkedIn: “Thought leaders are generally defined as industry experts that educate customers and clients, provide answers and solutions to challenges, influence trends, and share brilliant insights that drive growth and innovation.”

Over the years, throughout my marcom career, I have had the honour of working for companies that were industry front runners with intelligent, engaging leaders that delivered the message.

Content 
The underlying TL content needs to reflect the company’s mission (the future objective) and vision (how the company will achieve its objective)—not just about its product, or service offering. The content needs to capture the corporate head, heart and culture in order to present an authentic persona that will solidify the company as a trusted leader. It goes without saying that the product/service needs be of superior quality to complement that corporate mindset.

Overall, the content needs to be engaging and informative, which its provenance was researched and well thought out to clearly address the audience’s needs and pain points. Moreover, the content needs to reflect the company branding in all its imagery, colours, type, layout and writing style.

Audience
Who is the TL content directed to? Targeting existing customers will have a different message strategy compared to new, potential ones. Both audience differ on the buyer’s journey, where the former are currently sold on the product’s usage, the latter still need to buy in.

Deliverables
To further illustrate this blog, there are numerous ways to deliver the TL content, where each deliverable has its associated KPI to measure its effectiveness.

• Blog: This medium can deliver any topic related to the company’s product, service and/or vision/mission. The number of subscribers and length of read time are indicators of the blog’s viability.
  
  
• Case Study: This tactic usually focuses on a specific company product that has provided a solution for a customer. The SME can provide a quote on how the product operated that solved the issue for the customer, and the latter can also provide a testimonial. A case study can be offered as a gated content, where the reader can fill out a form to allow its download that’s measureable. Also, a drip campaign can be executed that sends the reader the study if they chose to receive more content during the automated eblasts process.
  
  
• Customer eNewsletter: With this medium, the SME can have a quarterly column outlining product-related topics. Some KPIs are delivery, open, and click-through rates.
  
  
• Guides: How-to and buyer’s guides have different approaches, where the former is more instructional in content, and the latter reflects an objective overview of the industry’s product landscape. Both guides can be measured like a case study as outlined above.
  
  
• Industry-Publication Article: Identify the industry’s key publications and contact the editor to determine if they would be interested in an article submission. Also, the editor can provide the annual editorial calendar regarding the topics. The publication will usually provide an electronic version on its website, this way readership metrics can be measured. Further, articles can be repurposed for blogs, social media, and even as a video.
  
  
• Social Media: Posts do not always have to revolve around the SME and their product; rather, posts can be about industry-related news, historical company milestones to show establishment, customer testimonial, blog excerpt, popular hashtags (e.g., #TechTuesday), and repost from others, for instance. Post delivery can be scheduled accordingly and not often to avoid audience fatigue. There are numerous KPIs, such as impressions, shares, and engagement.
  
  
• Speaking Engagements: Industry-related conferences usually search for speakers for their upcoming events. Determine what is the required submission outline, and when is the due date. Initial submissions are brief until it has been shortlisted as a finalist, which will require the full content. Number of people in attendance and post-presentation interest are telling KPIs.
  
  
• Trade Shows: The SME can be provided with a product to launch, discuss, or whatever that’s required of them. Emailers prior to the show date can outline a schedule as to what attendees can expect and when. Booth attendance and MQLs are ways to measure success.
  
  
• Video: This is a great medium for the SME to deliver a product launch or upgrade of the latest version release. The delivery can be in the form of a webinar, or on the company’s YouTube channel. The number of views is an indicator of how well the video was watched, or attendance size to reflect the seminar’s popularity.
  

Conclusion
In closing, Thought Leadership is both a science and an art—the former where your information needs to be logical and factual, and the latter can be artistic in its presentation. As explained, this marketing communications strategy can be effective in gaining new customers and reinforcing current relationships.