Should you write your own thought leadership or hire a ghostwriter for the job?
Should you thought leadership be ghostwritten or is it best to go for the DIY approach?
Thought leadership is a powerful marketing strategy. For those that manage to leverage it well, thought leadership can:
- Allow the authoring party to charge a premium for their goods or services
- Allow the authoring party to realize “soft” benefits like enhanced reputation
- Allow the authoring party to realize “hard” benefits such as RFP inclusion and greater sales volumes
There is also evidence — from research carried out by LinkedIn and Edelman — that thought leadership gets better when organizations commit to it over the long term.
At a minimum, internal cultures that support thought leadership tend to develop when organizations become long-term thought leadership producers. And when people are on-board with the idea of producing quality thought leadership, corralling up the enthusiasm to do it well becomes relatively easy.
When it comes to ghostwriting thought leadership, like any form of writing, there are pros and cons around outsourcing it to a ghostwriter.
Using A Ghostwriter Can Help You Scale Up Your Thought Leadership
The main advantage to using a ghostwriter to help you write thought leadership is that it becomes easier to scale up your production of thought leadership.
Of course, it’s worth pointing out that more isn’t always better. True thought leadership is both original and leading (hence the name!).
Nevertheless, if you really do have a lot of quality thinking to share with your industry and the world, hiring a ghostwriter to help produce your thought leadership is one effective way to get more done more easily.
Ghostwriters are effectively specialized freelance writers. Many can also lend a hand with helping you craft a strategy that will guide your thought leadership effort in order to make it more effective.
When Using A Ghostwriter, You’re Not Writing The Content Yourself
The main disadvantage to working with a ghostwriter to produce thought leadership content is that — to state the obvious — it won’t actually be you producing the writing.
If the thought leadership you’re looking to get out is very wrapped up in your personal story, then this might be a significant disadvantage — perhaps even a “deal breaker.”
Working with a ghostwriter doesn’t mean forfeiting the right to lend your personal touch to the thought leadership you create. After all, good ghostwriters are proficient in capturing the voice of their clients and crafting the writing according to their clients’ desires.
Authoring an excellent brief is one good way to make sure that your ghostwriter writes something that you’re proud to lend your byline to.
https://www.business2community.com/marketing/how-to-brief-freelance-writers-like-a-pro-02366261
Whether you wish to hire a ghostwriter to help produce your thought leadership or go it alone is very much a personal choice.
If you’re comfortable with the idea of outsourcing writing — and don’t mind the thought of publishing something that was written by another person — working with a ghostwriter can be an effective means of quickly scaling up your thought leadership marketing output.
On the flip side, for those who want to maintain a personal touch throughout the writing process and have the time and writing skills necessary to make it “work”, writing one’s own thought leadership might be the better way to go.
DSR Ghostwriting is a writing service and marketing consultancy specializing in helping plan and execute thought leadership campaigns. For more information, click here.
