Building a thought leadership strategy isn't about posting more content on LinkedIn. It's about systematically positioning yourself or your company as the go-to authority in your industry when prospects are ready to buy.
Here's the reality: 95% of your potential buyers aren't currently in buying mode. They're not actively looking for your solution right now. But when they do move into market, you want to be the first name that comes to mind.
That's where a strategic thought leadership plan becomes your competitive advantage.
What is a thought leadership strategy anyway?
A thought leadership strategy is a systematic approach to building authority and trust through content that positions you as the expert prospects turn to for insights, advice, and solutions in your industry.
But here's what most companies get wrong: they confuse thought leadership with content marketing. Content marketing is about driving traffic and conversions. Thought leadership is about building mental availability for when prospects move into buying mode.
The difference matters because buyers today make decisions very differently than they did even five years ago.
Why thought leadership matters more than ever
Products are more replaceable than ever. If you look at the MarTech landscape from 2011 compared to 2024, the explosion of competitive alternatives is staggering. We live in an era where products have become easier to build, developers are more available, and technology has become more interchangeable.
Features just aren't the differentiator they used to be. Fifteen years ago, if you had a certain feature or benefit, you might have gotten away with selling your product based on that alone. Now there's pretty much the potential for feature parity in every sector.
This is where brand becomes your competitive moat. Brands are less interchangeable than products. You can't easily replace the trust, associations, and relationships people have with a brand. This trust becomes even more important when you move to enterprise sales.
The Dark Funnel Reality
Customers don't buy in funnels. B2B buying is messy, especially in enterprise sales where you have sales cycles of 18, 24, or even 36 months.
Most of the buyer journey happens in what some call the "dark funnel". Touchpoints like LinkedIn posts, peer recommendations, events, and conversations that aren't trackable in any CRM. We often only learn about these influences much later in the process.
This creates a fundamental challenge: we have very limited capacity to actually create demand. The whole concept of "demand generation" is a bit misleading because we can only really measure when prospects convert at the end of the day.
The 95/5 Rule
Here's a critical framework for understanding buyer behavior: only 5% of buyers are currently in buying mode at any given time. That means only 5% actually have a problem you can solve right now.
The other 95% don't have a problem. They're out of market. You can't nudge them, convince them, or make them aware of a problem they don't have.
So what does this mean for your thought leadership strategy?
For the 95% who aren't currently in market, you need to build mental availability for when they do move into market. When a problem arises naturally (maybe a strategic company initiative or budget allocation), you want to already be there in their consideration set.
For the 5% who are ready to buy, you need physical availability. When they're looking for a solution, you need to be findable through search, in their consideration set, and positioned as a trusted option.
Thought leadership plays a crucial role across this entire spectrum, but particularly for the 95% not currently in market. If you're already a trusted advisor in the industry, that's a huge advantage over competitors who only focus on the 5% actively buying.
The Consideration Set Challenge
Major buying decisions happen before the demo. Most buyers go into demos with a predefined consideration set of two to three vendors. Research shows this happens 70-80% of the time.
This is critical because we often think the goal is getting more demos. But by the time the demo happens, it might already be too late. Prospects are often just comparing vendors they've already decided to consider.
You need to be in that predefined set through brand reputation and thought leadership, not just performance marketing.
The Three Pillars of thought leadership strategy
A strong thought leadership strategy consists of three core elements:
1. Category Definition
You need to clearly define what category customers put you in. Are you a CRM? An email marketing solution? A consulting firm?
Understanding your category is crucial because it determines how prospects mentally bucket your solution. Don't try to create your own weird category unless you have massive funding. Use the mental categories that already exist in your customers' minds.
2. Differentiation
How are you different from everyone else in your category? What's your key focus or unique approach?
Take the CRM market as an example:
- HubSpot: "We're the all-in-one solution covering marketing, sales, customer support, and success"
- Salesforce: "We're the category leader and enterprise solution"
- Newer players: "We're not HubSpot - we're leaner, faster, and more affordable"
3. Perspective (Point of View)
This is the most underestimated element. What's the strategic shift you stand for? What's the story you're telling about the future of your industry?
Your perspective is what makes your thought leadership content compelling. You can't constantly talk about being "a cheaper CRM with better features." That doesn't translate well to content.
But with a strong perspective, you can create content that educates, challenges conventional thinking, and positions you as a forward-thinking authority.
How to Create a thought leadership strategy
Step 1: Define Your Focus Area
Your focus area is the domain you'll build authority around. Think of it as the lens through which you'll view and comment on industry trends, challenges, and opportunities.
The breadth of your focus area impacts your content strategy:
Broad Focus Areas:
- Economy, business, technology
- Larger potential audience
- More competition and budget required
- Harder to differentiate
Narrow Focus Areas:
- Specific industry challenges or methodologies
- Smaller but more engaged audience
- Less competition
- Easier to become the recognized expert
For example, you could focus on:
- B2B marketing (broad)
- Account-based marketing (narrower)
- ABM for manufacturing companies (very specific)
The key is being intentional about your choice. Going too broad means competing with well-funded experts. Going too narrow might limit your addressable market.
Step 2: Develop Your Point of View
Your point of view is your unique perspective on your focus area. It's the opinion that sets you apart and gives your content a consistent thread.
A strong point of view framework: Stop [current common practice] and start [your recommended approach]
This format helps you take a clear stanc, position yourself against something specific and gives prospects a reason to change their current approach.
For example:
- "Stop treating marketing as a cost center and start treating it as a revenue driver"
- "Stop building content for SEO and start building content for buyers"
- "Stop hiring full-time marketing teams and start using fractional experts"
Your point of view should be:
- Something others can disagree with
- Rooted in evidence and experience
- Centered around helping your customers
- Requiring conviction, not controversy for its own sake
Step 3: Build Your Content Engine (The LEAP Framework)
Once you have your focus area and point of view, you need a systematic approach to creating content. We call this the LEAP framework:
L - Listen E - Extract A - Articulate P - Promote
Listen: Build Your Listening Engine
Thought leadership can't come from keywords. Keywords are backward-looking - they represent what people have already searched for. Leadership means looking forward and inspiring others.
You need to systematically listen to your market to source insights and ideas:
Customer Conversations Regular calls with customers, prospects, and industry contacts. What challenges are they facing? What trends are they seeing?
Competitive Intelligence What are competitors talking about? Where are they investing? What messaging seems to be working?
Industry Research Reports, surveys, and studies that reveal market trends and shifts.
Internal Expertise Subject matter experts in your organization who work directly with customers and see patterns.
Social Listening Monitoring industry conversations on LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, and other platforms.
The key is creating a systematic process. For example, one consulting firm we work with has 15-minute monthly calls with each of their six divisions to gather insights and customer stories. That's 90 minutes per month that generates dozens of content ideas.
Extract: Turn Insights into Content Ideas
Extraction means taking the insights you've gathered and structuring them into content ideas. This process depends on your chosen channels, but here's a framework that works across platforms:
Content Matrix Approach Create a two-dimensional matrix:
- X-axis: Your key opinions/perspectives
- Y-axis: Content formats (how-to, observation, case study, prediction, etc.)
By filtering your insights through this matrix, you can quickly generate multiple content ideas from a single insight.
For example, if your insight is "companies are spreading their marketing efforts too thin," you could create:
- Observation: "I see too many B2B companies trying to be everywhere at once"
- How-to: "How to choose the right marketing channels for your stage of growth"
- Case study: "How we helped a client 3x their pipeline by focusing on just two channels"
- Prediction: "The companies that win in 2024 will be those that go deep, not wide"
Articulate: Create the Content
This is where you turn ideas into actual content pieces. The key is finding formats that work for you and your audience.
Different formats work for different people:
- Some excel at long-form written content
- Others are natural video creators
- Some prefer data-driven infographics
- Others shine in live speaking or podcasting
Start with what you can execute easily and consistently. Quality matters, but so does consistency. You can optimize for higher production value over time.
Promote: Distribute Strategically
Distribution is how you get your content in front of your target audience. This includes:
- Native platform posting (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)
- Email newsletters and sequences
- Speaking at industry events
- Guest appearances on podcasts
- Partnerships with other thought leaders
- Paid promotion of your best content
Common thought leadership strategy Mistakes
Focusing Only on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a channel, not a strategy. While it's an excellent platform for reaching B2B buyers, thought leadership can be deployed across any channel: events, PR, partnerships, product experience, and more.
Salesforce built thought leadership with their "No Software" campaign 25 years ago, long before LinkedIn existed. They did it through offline events and strong positioning.
Treating It Like Performance Marketing
Thought leadership operates on a different timeline than performance marketing. You're building long-term brand equity and mental availability, not driving immediate conversions.
The research suggests a 60/40 split: 60% long-term brand building, 40% short-term activation. Think of brand as the gear on a bicycle - you can pedal as fast as you want, but if you're in a low gear, you won't go very fast.
Not Having a Clear Enemy
Strong thought leaders position themselves against something specific. This doesn't mean insulting competitors, but it does mean taking clear stances on industry practices, conventional wisdom, or market trends.
Examples:
- Adam Robinson positioned himself against Six Sense in the intent data space
- Elon Musk positions X AI against OpenAI's "filtered" approach
- Many fractional experts position themselves against the traditional agency model
Using AI to Replace Human Insight
AI can help with data analysis, transcription, and content structuring, but it shouldn't replace original thinking. The most valuable thought leadership comes from unique insights and perspectives that only come from real experience.
Use AI for:
- Analyzing customer conversation transcripts
- Structuring research and data
- Creating content outlines
- Generating hook variations
Don't use AI for:
- Original insights and opinions
- Strategic thinking
- Personal experiences and stories
- Industry predictions based on proprietary knowledge
Measuring thought leadership Success
Thought leadership metrics are different from traditional marketing metrics:
Leading Indicators
- Brand mention volume and sentiment
- Inbound speaking requests
- Media coverage and citations
- Social media engagement and followers
- Email list growth and engagement
Lagging Indicators
- Inbound lead quality and volume
- Sales cycle length and close rates
- Customer acquisition costs
- Market share and competitive wins
- Revenue growth and retention
Long-term Brand Metrics
- Unaided brand awareness in your category
- Share of voice in industry conversations
- Employee retention and recruitment success
- Partnership and collaboration opportunities
Building Your thought leadership Plan
Phase 1: Foundation (Months 1-2)
- Define your focus area and target audience
- Develop your core point of view and key opinions
- Set up your listening engine and content systems
- Create your first pillar content pieces
Phase 2: Consistency (Months 3-6)
- Publish content consistently on your chosen channels
- Engage actively in industry conversations
- Start speaking at events or appearing on podcasts
- Build relationships with other industry experts
Phase 3: Scale (Months 6-12)
- Expand to additional content formats and channels
- Launch bigger initiatives (research reports, events, etc.)
- Collaborate with other thought leaders
- Measure and optimize based on performance data
Phase 4: Authority (Year 2+)
- Become a go-to source for industry commentary
- Influence industry conversations and trends
- Drive significant inbound interest and opportunities
- Potentially write books, launch courses, or start speaking circuits
Advanced thought leadership Tactics
Category Entry Points
Think of these as "SEO for the brain." You want to associate your brand with specific triggers or contexts that prospects experience.
When someone in your target market faces a specific challenge or situation, you want them to immediately think of your brand as the solution.
Examples:
- "When you need enterprise email infrastructure" → Bird (MessageBird)
- "When you're ready to scale your marketing" → The Growth Syndicate
- "When you need sales training" → Sandler Training
Content Superpowers by Business Model
Different business models have different content advantages:
Consulting/Agency:
- Access to multiple client situations
- Strategic insights from working across industries
- Qualitative insights from executive conversations
- Examples: McKinsey research, Chris Walker's content
Software/SaaS:
- Product usage data and user behavior insights
- User-generated content and case studies
- Product education and best practices
- Examples: Clay's workflow sharing, HubSpot's educational content
Data Companies:
- First-party research and industry reports
- Trend analysis and benchmarking
- Market insights and predictions
- Examples: Salesforce State of Sales reports, Gartner research
Marketplaces:
- Buyer and seller behavior data
- Network effects and community insights
- Early trend spotting through platform activity
- Examples: Upwork's Future of Work research
The Content Matrix in Practice
Here's how to use the content matrix for systematic idea generation:
- List your core opinions (3-5 key perspectives)
- Choose content formats (observation, how-to, case study, prediction, etc.)
- Filter insights through the matrix to generate multiple angles
- Prioritize based on audience interest and your expertise
- Create content calendar with consistent publishing schedule
This approach can generate 50-60 content ideas in a single session, with 20+ being genuinely valuable pieces.
Thought Leadership strategy for Different Company Sizes
Individual/Personal Brand
- Focus on one clear area of expertise
- Share personal experiences and lessons learned
- Build relationships with other experts in your field
- Consistent content creation on 1-2 main channels
Small Companies (1-50 employees)
- Founder-led thought leadership with team support
- Focus on specific industry or methodology expertise
- Leverage customer stories and case studies
- Partner with other experts for expanded reach
Medium Companies (50-500 employees)
- Multiple thought leaders across different expertise areas
- More sophisticated content production capabilities
- Original research and data-driven insights
- Speaking circuit and event participation
Large Companies (500+ employees)
- Enterprise thought leadership across multiple topics
- Significant content production and distribution resources
- Industry research and trend-setting initiatives
- Global speaking and media presence
The future of thought leadership
Several trends are shaping the future of thought leadership strategy:
AI and Content Creation
While AI can assist with content production, authentic human insight becomes more valuable as AI-generated content proliferates. The companies that win will be those that use AI as a tool while maintaining genuine expertise and perspective.
Multi-Channel Distribution
Thought leadership will increasingly span multiple channels and formats. Video, audio, written content, and interactive experiences will all play roles in comprehensive strategies.
Community Building
The most successful thought leaders will build communities around their expertise, creating ongoing dialogue rather than just broadcasting content.
Measurement and Attribution
Better tools for measuring thought leadership impact will emerge, helping companies understand the ROI of their authority-building efforts.
Getting Started with your thought leadership strategy
The key to successful thought leadership is starting with clear foundations and building systematically over time.
Don't try to become an overnight expert or cover every topic in your industry. Choose your focus area deliberately, develop a clear point of view, and commit to consistent execution.
Remember: the goal isn't to create perfect content immediately. It's to systematically build authority and trust with your target audience so that when they're ready to buy, you're the obvious choice.
The companies that consistently outgrow their competitors are those that invest in long-term brand building alongside short-term performance marketing. Thought leadership is one of the highest-ROI investments you can make in your business growth.
A well-executed thought leadership strategy doesn't just generate leads. It creates a sustainable competitive advantage that compounds over time, making everything else in your marketing and sales process more effective.
Ready to build your thought leadership strategy? Start by defining your focus area and developing your unique point of view. The market is waiting for your expertise - the question is whether you'll systematically share it or let competitors fill that void.
Looking to take your thought leadership to the next level? Check out how we combine account-based marketing with thought leadership to drive upwards of 40 qualified meetings per month for B2B companies in complex industries.
