What Can Thought Leadership Do For Me — Or My Business?
From heightened perceptions to RFP inclusions — thought leadership’s tangible benefits
If you’re looking at rolling out a thought leadership campaign for yourself or your business, then you may already be familiar with some of its top-level benefits.
The Edelman / LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study, which I previously dissected in a podcast and white paper, did a good job at summing up the proven effectiveness of thought leadership.
The study assessed the perceptions of thought leadership among a sample size of more than 3,000 global business executives. 55% of these worked at organizations with more than 200 employees and 71% of respondents were at the Manager or Director level.
Number by number, here are some of its key insights.
Thought Leadership Can Enhance Your Reputation
Key stat: 89% Said Thought Leadership Can Enhance Organizational Perception
If you’re like most organizations and business leaders, then part of the reason you engage in marketing campaigns is lightly to shift perceptions around you or your organization. After all, marketing lays the ground for sales — and people want to buy from those that they trust.
The good news on this front is that a massive majority — almost nine out of ten respondents — said that thought leadership can be effective in enhancing their perception of an organization.
Thought Leadership Can Win You Business — And RFP Inclusions
Key stat: 49% Said That Thought Leadership Generates RFP Inclusion Opportunities
Thought leadership’s benefits are not limited to increasing intangible metrics such as “perception” and “trust.” Thought leadership can just as well create tangible gains for the authoring party.
Overall, LinkedIn and Edelman found that 49% of decision-makers said that thought leadership had influenced their purchasing decisions. That figure was the result of an average which they called the Sales Impact Index.
Specifically:
- 49% said that thought leadership had led to inclusion in an RFP opportunity.
- 48% said that thought leadership had led to the direct awarding of business
- 53% and 54% of respondents said that thought leadership could enhance an organization’s ability to up-sell and cross-sell (respectively)
Thought Leadership Can Make You Money
Key Stat: 42% of respondents said that they would be willing to pay a premium for an organization that disseminated thought leadership
Given that thought leadership can position the authoring party as more authoritative, influential, and trustworthy it’s no surprise that good thought leadership can translate directly into a higher ticket value.
Specifically, 42% of respondents said that they would be willing to pay a premium for an organization that produces thought leadership versus one that does not.
Thought Leadership Can Be More Influential Than Marketing Collateral
Key stat: 59% Place More Emphasis On Thought Leadership Than Marketing Collateral
If thought leadership is currently playing a distant second fiddle to your content marketing efforts, then it might be time to rethink your organizational priorities.
LinkedIn and Edelman found that a full 59% of decision-makers affirmed that thought leadership was a more trustworthy barometer for gauging the quality of an organization’s thinking than its marketing collateral and product sheets.
Almost 7 out of 10 decision-makers said that they considered thought leadership to be one of the best ways to gauge the caliber of an organization’s thinking.
Thought Leadership Can Have Many Benefits For You Or Your Organization
To recap:
- Thought leadership can enhance your organization’s public perception
- Thought leadership can win you RFP inclusion opportunities and business
- Thought leadership can allow you to command a premium for what you sell
- Thought leadership can be more influential than marketing collateral in shifting how the public perceives your organization
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