LinkedIn Shares New Research Into B2B Thought Leadership Content Performance
I’m a huge advocate of thought leadership content but don’t just take my word for it. Recently, LinkedIn published new research looking into the performance of B2B content aimed at decision-makers and executives with partial or complete control.
Wait, what is thought leadership content?
Thought leadership refers to content that does not primarily focus on the companies products or services. For example, this could be topical news or research related to your area of expertise, product or service.
I run a social media and podcast agency; I am sharing these exciting insights to build credibility for my expertise and become a recognised resource in my industry.
Tip: It’s a good idea for your thought leadership to include your personality, humour and opinion to build trust and rapport with your audience
So back to Linkedin’s research, many businesses aren’t sure what type of content they should be sharing with their audience. Content pillars are valuable for choosing the topics to capture your audience’s attention while also hitting your business goals (read my guide to content pillars here). One of your content pillars should be thought leadership, and here’s why.
The audience in this report were 3,600 B2B desicion-makers and C-Suite executives.
54% of decision-makers –and 48% of the C-Suite said they spend more than 1 hour per week reading and consuming thought leadership.
71% of Decision-Makers say that less than half of the thought leadership they consume gives them valuable insights.
42% of decision-makers asked invited the organisation to bid on a project when that firm was not in their original consideration set.
53% increased the amount of business they did with the organisation based on their thought leadership.
57% of buyers say that thought leadership builds awareness for a new or little-known brand.
53% of buyers say it’s important for new and small companies to produce thought leadership if they want buyers to consider working with them.
47% of buyers say thought leadership led them to discover and ultimately purchase from a company that was not considered to be among the leaders in a particular category.
64% of buyers say that an organisation’s thought leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competency than its marketing materials and product sheets.
54% say this is important for drawing attention to topics that news media rarely cover but are meaningful within their industry.
87% of buyers say that thought leadership content can be both intellectually rigorous and fun to consume at the same time.
Read the full insights here.
Are you ready to start sharing thought leadership content for your business?
The good news is that it can be pretty easy to get started. Although you may want to (and should!) publish full blog posts, whitepapers, webinars and live streams for your business, you can start with simply re-sharing topical news with a comment. So, for example, on Linkedin and Twitter, these spaces offer an easy place to start before you build up to creating longer-form content.
