We all know best practice dictates that we should be building ongoing, iterative, educative and progressive dialogues with our customer and prospect base. In simple terms we need to find a reason and a means to keep our organisation or our message “out there” in front of our audience at all times.

What they mean of course is that they’re looking to raise their brand profile above all the noise in this crowded market by being regarded as innovative, forward thinkers.

It’s by no means a new idea, but it is refreshing to see some of the world’s largest and most successful companies actively organising themselves and their marketing messages around delivering real innovation and value to their customer base, rather than bashing out the same old product or service messages.

Clearly evidencing your knowledge and insight in a particular industry and becoming the recognised source of visionary information will stand you head and shoulders above your competitors. No one likes to be sold to, but most people are willing recipients of new ideas, innovative concepts and bold new approaches born out of experience and proven expertise.

So how can marketeers build their own Thought Leadership programmes and activities and what could they expect to deliver back to the business as a result?

Thought Leadership is about evidencing your knowledge and command of an issue, an industry or a technology. It’s about building the confidence in your customer base that your organisation is the place to come if they’re looking for insight and initiative over and above the simple delivery of a product or service. And it’s about being seen to own, steer and dominate the debate.

So, it’s not about pushing products or services, it’s about owning the solution to the problems your customers face today and the inside track on the challenges they’re likely to come up against tomorrow.

Building a Thought Leadership programme then should start with a solid understanding of your customers, the industry in which they operate and the issues on their agenda.

It’s then a process of working with and seeking input from complementary sources, such as analysts, academics, recognised authorities or industry gurus to give depth, breadth and credibility to the ideas and solutions you propose.

The next step is about communicating the ideas, perhaps via White Papers, Opinion Articles, Press Releases, Roundtables, Seminars etc.

Of course Thought Leadership is irrelevant if you never actually share it with anyone. If you can give your customers and prospects the edge by regularly giving them access to information, news, innovation and best practice ideas, you can be sure that you’ll be top of their list when they actually need to buy something.

But perhaps the most important step of all is gathering feedback, input and insight from the audience itself as part of the process. For your ideas and innovations to have currency and relevancy and in order for them to gain in weight, stature and appeal to your audience, it is vital that they are seen to be a collaboration with the audience they are seeking to address.

We all know that a collective idea is much more readily adopted and appropriated, than a marketing message dreamt up behind the closed doors of your agency’s “brainstorming room”, so if you can demonstrate this collective input across your communications, your opinion can readily become valued industry intelligence.

To talk more about building a Thought Leadership programme please call Think Smart Marketing on 01525 288828 or eMail colin.giggle@thinksmartmarketing.co.uk