The Role of Thought Leadership in B2B Branding

When you think of a business making waves in your industry, you’re likely thinking about a thought leader. These companies stand out as trustworthy authorities in their fields, producing ideas, research, and other helpful resources for prospects and industry professionals. Use this strategy in your B2B branding to position your company as a go-to source of expertise.

What is thought leadership in B2B branding?

Thought leadership in the B2B space is about providing expertise, insights, and guidance in a specific subject matter. The goal is to educate and improve the visibility of your brand. While your audience includes business prospects, it often expands to other readers, such as professionals from related industries and students.

Instead of advertising a product or service, thought leadership content is more informative and educational, including guides, research, insights, etc. American Express, for instance, has a small business resource center with information on starting a company. When those companies need funding, American Express has an advantage.

As a branding tool, B2B thought leadership content plays a vital role in a marketing strategy and helps you differentiate your company from the competition. It also helps by boosting your market influence and increasing trust.

The benefits of thought leadership marketing in B2B organizations

Adding thought leadership to your marketing strategy helps build your brand’s visibility and reputation. It positions you as an expert and innovator, accelerating market influence and strengthening your brand. You become a source of information and a prominent industry leader.

Achieving this status comes with other benefits like:

• Qualified prospects: Thought leadership often creates high-quality leads who already trust your company and know you have the expertise to help solve their problem.
• Organic growth: Pages with unique resources are great for meeting marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) goals. They help you expand your reach while targeting keywords and encouraging backlinks for your site, which are crucial for getting to the top of search results.
• Employee candidates: Learning and professional development is a top consideration for Millennial and Gen Z workers. Thought leadership content helps convey your commitment to learning and innovation and gives you some prestige, often attracting qualified candidates who help you grow.

While thought leadership might be time-consuming, many businesses find it well worth the effort.

Types of B2B thought leadership

B2B thought leadership comes in many styles and formats. Your expert writer could share opinions or tell a story to explore topics and data. Some experts like to explore new trends, challenge traditional ideas, or connect with other industry experts. In-depth analysis and straightforward education also work well.

The right approach for your business will depend on the information presented, your audience, and your goals.

Some types of B2B thought leadership content include:

• Research: Conducting research is a highly trusted form of thought leadership. Businesses and journalists often refer to research reports, expanding your reach. Add engaging visuals, like infographics or charts, to increase the appeal and sharability.
• Webinars and speaking engagements: Well-spoken experts display their knowledge and professionalism and engage audiences through webinars and speaking engagements.
• White papers and guides: These in-depth pieces offer targeted education on specific topics. They help industry professionals understand the field and improve their work.
• Blog posts: Blog posts are less in-depth but still valuable. They’re easy to share and use for SEO. Use blogs to answer questions, explore specific aspects of a topic, or share thought leadership from other formats, such as an excerpt from a white paper.
• Opinion pieces: Opinion pieces offer unique insights from an expert, sometimes challenging accepted industry practices or ideologies. Like many innovative ideas, they might get controversial, so be ready for some interesting debates.
• Courses: If you have a lot of knowledge to share, consider partnering with an educational institution or industry organization to offer training or professional development courses. This thought leadership is excellent for building credibility and engaging with students — who could eventually become prospects.
• Books: This rare method of thought leadership could be powerful, especially if it ranks well on bestseller lists. Consider “It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work,” a book written by the cofounders of Basecamp. It challenges the chaotic and stressful style of many workplaces while showing the expertise of the team behind the management software.

Building a B2B branding strategy with thought leadership

With many companies making thought leadership, this strategy demands attention. Don’t make it an afterthought or a casual side project. Build a strong campaign to break through the noise.

Start your B2B thought leadership strategy by identifying your goals, ideally through a niche. Find your target audience and create a plan to boost visibility, such as a social media sharing calendar. Then, keep these tips in mind as you produce your content.

1. Make it enjoyable

Talking about industry insights or complex topics doesn’t need to be stuffy or boring. Your audience is still human. Make your content enjoyable to read without sacrificing rigor.

2. Publish thought leadership content regularly

If you only publish your content once a year, you aren’t a go-to source for information. Create a content calendar and post regularly, at least once a month if possible.

3. Choose strong writers for the job

A strong thought leadership writer must do more than dump information and jargon on their audience. Look for someone who communicates well. If you need help polishing the writing, consider working with marketing professionals who maximize the value of your experts’ unique insights.

4. Establish your credentials

Show your readers why they should listen. Add an author biography to the page, list their credentials in an intro, or mention your company’s industry recognition on thought leadership content.

5. Reuse your content across channels

Thought leadership marketing is relatively resource-intensive. Maximize the value of this investment by sharing or reusing it wherever possible. Share a blog post on social media, include a quote in an email blast, or use paid advertising to promote a speaking engagement. On social channels, get involved with your audience and have a conversation to connect with readers.

Elevate your branding with a B2B thought leadership strategy

Thought leadership is a crucial part of gaining respect and prominence in any field. Try the tips we’ve discussed to take your branding to the next level or reach out to an expert at WebUp. We have extensive experience in thought leadership to help with your next campaign.

Meet WebUp, your award-winning SEO experts

WebUp has been focused on driving quality results for our clients through data-backed SEO services. As a result, we’ve help clients generate over 24 million qualified leads.

From sustainable digital marketing solutions to our in-house marketing technology, our team is well-equipped and ready to help new clients crush their SEO goals.

Are you ready to hire an award-winning SEO agency? Let’s get started! Contact us online to start boosting your rankings and generating high-quality traffic.