Reach Beyond The Ready: B2B Thought Leadership Research From LinkedIn and Edelman

How Advocacy Drives B2B Growth, Trust, and Buyer Influence

If you find out that they’re already making content on a topic you were planning to address, don’t let that stop you! If the answer’s yes, head right over to their socials and blog and see what they’re doing. Are your competitors creating thought leadership content too? They can often help with anything from B2B brand strategy to conducting interviews with SMEs and ghostwriting content for you. Of course, the chief executive officer is the primary thought leader in your company, but it’s also important to ensure that other employees’ voices are heard too.

They learn to redistribute weight, reduce drag, and create lift inside the system. But gravity is not the enemy — it’s a force to design with. When the enterprise focuses, the enterprise moves. Enterprise marketers have built b2b thought leadership extraordinary machines — AI-powered tools, sophisticated martech stacks, personalized content engines, and global content operations. The very structures that make enterprise organizations strong also make them slow. In large organizations, the gravitational pull of process often outweighs the need for perspective.

AI can accelerate production, but it can’t resolve strategic misalignment or stakeholder noise that slows large organizations. But it’s exponentially harder to execute in a larger organization. In other words, it’s just as easy (or hard) to set a strategy in a big company as it is in a smaller company. Enterprises can step back, reorganize, and retool in ways smaller organizations can’t. If one myth refuses to die in enterprise marketing, it’s that big companies drown because they produce too much content. If there’s one place where the gravity of scale works in enterprise marketers’ favor, it’s the opportunity for effectiveness.

It Generates Leads & Nurtures Relationships

This poorly-executed thought leadership content can actually lead people to remove a potential vendor or partner from consideration. As we noted above, only 17% of decision makers at businesses rate the quality of most of the thought leadership they read as very good or excellent. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for the majority of thought leadership content that is currently being released. Being the expert that helps to educate customers along their buying journey helps companies to establish themselves as a resource that can go beyond an initial sale. Thought leadership also helps to build a longer-term relationship with customers that can provide even more value and ROI over time.

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A solid content calendar helps you stay consistent, relevant, and ahead of the game. You need a B2B thought leadership strategy that actually works. But to do it well, you need more than smart ideas. Case studies, ROI breakdowns, executive points of view (POVs)

But to truly make an impact, your content needs to be data-driven, practical, and focused on solving real challenges. So when you're sharing insights, back them up with data, case studies, or industry reports that make your ideas credible. When you consistently share useful insights, you build credibility with your audience. Executives want to co-create insights, and incorporating client perspectives ensures that thought leadership reflects real-world challenges.

• Thought leadership is the practice of expressing new ideas or ways of thinking that can benefit others.
• Canto is a leader in digital asset management (DAM), helping global brands maximize the value of their digital content with an intuitive, AI-powered platform.
• As we noted above, only 17% of decision makers at businesses rate the quality of most of the thought leadership they read as very good or excellent.
• It’s about recognizing experiences as the connective tissue between digital and physical — the moments that build trust and loyalty.
• Great thought leadership focuses on solving real problems.
• For example, a thought leadership piece that focuses on how to implement a new technology would be geared mainly toward a technical audience.

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Thought leadership isn’t about being louder; it’s about being authentic, consistent, and trustworthy—qualities that turn knowledge into influence and influence into opportunity. When a brand consistently provides valuable insights, actionable advice, and honest perspectives, it earns a reputation as a reliable partner rather than just another vendor. For instance, a cybersecurity firm sharing practical threat-prevention strategies earns credibility long before a proposal is even discussed.

One easy way to expand your reach and help establish credibility is to partner with industry influencers, guest bloggers, and other thought leaders. Tap into the knowledge and experience of your executive and managerial teams, as well as those on the front lines with your customers. Key metrics for top-of-funnel might include website traffic, social media interactions, new social media followers, and content shares.

By removing fear (of failure, censure and so on) and listening to clients and others in their field, brands can do more to pursue difficult subject matters and bring to light the important human factors that affect us all. Additionally, companies can enrich their content marketing by focusing on the human side of their work, as opposed to spreadsheets and bottom lines. By following these foundational principles, executives and corporations can use their own online platforms to spread positive and accurate information that actively seeks to help others and provide useful industry practices and success stories.

Valuable Types of B2B Thought Leadership

It involves creating and sharing content, engaging with business decision-makers, and building professional relationships that lead to deals and partnerships. The strategies below are built for that reality — what actually works when your content needs to earn credibility with buyers and justify itself to leadership at the same time. With more than three decades of media and event experience, I love helping shape new multimedia content and event experiences. Thanks to the survey participants who made this research possible and everyone who helps disseminate these findings throughout the marketing industry. To be remarkable, you must create space for the possibility of creating something remarkable.

“After the purchase, we have to continue telling that story through the product, the experience and the service. As Redman shares, that sense of relatability can bolster your B2B brand storytelling strategy. With that said, it’s not enough to simply share a PDF or regurgitate statistics.

Databox enables users to create customizable marketing dashboards that combine data from multiple sources, helping them track the most important social media KPIs alongside other marketing metrics. The platform is focused mainly on content planning and distribution, though it offers some analytics features as well. The platform makes it easy to plan, review, and schedule content across multiple social media platforms. The main drawback is its B2C-centric approach, though the platform is moving more and more towards B2B and adapting to include more specific metrics and features. It helps verify authentic industry experts and measure collaboration results. The depth of social media insights, coupled with its ease of use, make it a must-have for B2B brands looking to have a successful online presence.

41% are more willing to pay a premium to work with organizations that publish thought leadership content. Recent research has shown that 49% of B2B decision makers said they have awarded business to a supplier as a direct result of their thought leadership content. By sponsoring authentic member posts, brands can tap into higher engagement rates, strengthen trust, and reach audiences more likely to take action. Even small adjustments to employee-shared content can boost reach dramatically.

Common goals include raising awareness, share of voice, engagement with thought leadership content, and even sales leads generated. When those employees share their perspectives and experiences, they become some of the most credible voices your brand has — especially when they’re speaking as practitioners first, and “brand representatives” second. This “inside-out” approach creates thought-leadership content that feels lived-in, not parachuted in. Engage consistently with your audience, share thought leadership content, and use analytics to refine your strategy. When your employees share their experiences, they create believable human connections that traditional marketing can't match. Reach is important, but for B2B brands, the real story is found in how that reach translates into business interest.

Consider doing the same with your business, always looking to refine and adapt your B2B thought leadership strategy when necessary. Hood then discussed how this openness to new ideas is put into practice. We take smart chances, but we’re constantly testing different ideas.” A 2019 blog-style interview with Devon Hood, Cisco’s director of digital marketing, revealed insights into how the company reacts to changes in the marketing landscape.