Thought Leadership Content Fails to Make the Grade Despite Importance to Decision Makers
Business-to-business decision makers reward companies with high-quality thought leadership and punish those whose thought leadership is derivative, lacks insights or doesn’t speak to the decision maker’s concerns. This should be intuitively obvious. Yet in study after study, many B2B companies are failing to make the grade with the thought leadership content they create.
Earlier this month, LinkedIn and Edelman released the results of their most recent Thought Leadership Impact Study, which surveyed more than 3,000 business decision makers worldwide, and those results were, well, a bit shocking.
89% of respondents said thought leadership is effective in enhancing their perceptions of an organization, while nearly half said such content influenced their purchase decisions. Yet, only 15% of B2B decision makers surveyed found current thought leadership content to be “very good or excellent.”
The study also found fully 59% of B2B decision makers agree thought leadership is a more trustworthy basis for evaluating an organization’s capabilities than its marketing materials or product sales sheets. Even more important, 61% of decision makers said they were willing to pay a premium for services from organizations whose thought leadership content demonstrates deep thinking and insights valuable to them.
Directing marcom resources to creating insightful and engaging thought leadership content is among the most effective ways to gain premium status among B2B decision makers and drive purchase decisions, according to the study.
Creating that high-quality content requires more than just excellence in writing and thinking; it requires data and associated insights that reveal what’s on the minds of your customers and prospects. Using our data-driven approach, Bold Marketing & Communications can help your organization create thought leadership content that will engage your stakeholders, build your brand and drive sales. Contact us today, and join the 15% of organizations that achieve premium status with their customers.