Tackling Thought Leadership

The who, what and why video must be a part of your mix

Marketing is about telling stories to the masses. But how marketing teams do this can take so many different forms that it can be challenging to know where to focus, what to prioritize and what will meaningfully move the needle. This was beautifully illustrated in this slide I saw from Insight Partners which they encourage CMOs to use to communicate ALL the shit they’re responsible for thinking through to their CEO.

I could write a piece on every bullet here, but today, I’m focused on the “Thought Leadership” bullet under Brand. Let’s dive in.?

What is Thought Leadership?

The terms “Thought Leadership” or “Evangelism” get thrown around a lot in B2B and often they can feel like bullshit. Yet, when done right, Thought Leadership is about effectively communicating ideas to mass audiences. In my favorite book on the topic, The Thought Leaders Practice by Matt Church, the term is described as, “A subject-matter expert with unique insights or perspectives to share in their area of expertise.”

The important point here that I often (almost absurdly so) see overlooked is the singularity required. Said another way, in order to have thought leadership, you need a leader. You need an expert with an opinion. A company cannot have an opinion that people will trust; ideas come from human brains and therefore, you need a human to say them.

Let’s look at some examples:

• Salesforce - End of Software. Epitomized by Saasy, the little white circle with “Software” crossed out, Salesforce aimed to destroy on-prem software with cloud-based technology, software-as-a-service or SaaS. But if you read any early articles or attended any early events when Salesforce (then Salesforce.com) was creating this movement away from on-prem applications, Salesforce the company wasn’t evangelizing, Marc Benioff was.?
• Drift - Conversational Marketing. Drift wasn’t the first to market in chatbots, but they took over with a brand fresh, emoji-filled brand voice and an approach to democratizing their thought leaders. The late 2010s, LinkedIn was filled with “walk and talk” videos and an iconic “takeover ” that drove incredible results and built Dave Gerhardt’s personal brand to the point where he was able to parlay his expertise into a business in and of itself.

So your first step then, is your who. Often a CEO is a good first choice, but sometimes, especially if you’re selling into marketers, you might be the best choice. You see this with thought leaders like Nick Bennett at Alyce or my guy, Josh Wagner at Shift Paradigm.?It's also what I've used at Toolio. We're selling to merch planners, so our ex-planners are authorities on the pain points and can speak their language in an authentic way.

This idea of taking someone in your buyers' shoes who is now in seat at your company is how I became a thought leader. I was personally frustrated by G2 reviews, because our prospects were trying to decide between Marketo and Pardot or trying to understand why they should upgrade from Hubspot to Marketo and couldn’t get an easy-to-understand comparison anywhere. I thought that we should create those comparisons, but no one on my consulting team was passionate about it like I was. So, on the encouragement of our CEO, Justin Gray , I decided to just do them myself and created a YouTube series called, The Tea . The series had eight episodes and thousands of views.?

A Structure to Create Thought Leadership

Even if you have the perfect evangelist with the sickest idea, not all thought leadership is created equal. Having an idea and identifying the person willing to go out and evangelize that idea are pieces of the puzzle, but there are so many additional elements to consider when formulating an effective thought leadership approach.?

To illustrate, I’ll reference two of my favorite visuals from Church’s book.?

The My, It, We Steps

The first is this level-set on all the elements to consider to make a thought sticky.?

To recap, this is the process of figuring out your voice, what you know, then contextualizing it in the real world. Next you share about you, then your idea, and adapt that delivery based on audience response. Finally, you continue pushing out your idea in various ways, seeing what generates engagement and ultimately build a movement.

The Intersection of YOUR Brand and the COMPANY Brand

Note that the above framework starts with “My Uniqueness.” Although it might sound easy, it’s critical that thought leaders understand themselves really, really well. For me, I’ve wrestled with my potty mouth my entire career. I’m more myself when I feel like I can drop an f-bomb now and again. Despite recommendations from a few managers that I shouldn’t swear, the reality is I feel most like my authentic self when I speak like I want to (within reason). It also make my voice unique in the marketplace. How many other people would’ve swore in their opening paragraph of an article like this??

But despite how awesome I think my swearing makes me, it does mean I am a terrible fit for certain types of organizations, namely religious ones. There’s a large private university here in Phoenix … I should not work there. People talk a lot about culture fit and this is just an extension of that.?

When I was looking for my next adventure after LeadMD, it was important for me to find a place where my own brand would compliment the company brand.?

The Pink Sheet

The other visual is a framework for how to adjust the message. Meet the Pink Sheet.

Most ideas I hear as I help thought leaders through this process start in the concept state. They have the BIG IDEA. But often the context and/or the detail around the idea isn’t fully fleshed out. The power of the Pink Sheet is that it helps you as a thought leader, or as a marketer helping a thought leader, create content that will resonate with different kinds of learners at different stages of understanding.?

In the context row, you’re challenged to consider a model for the idea - a framework or visual guide - like the Pink Sheet itself. Or the good ole Nutrition Pyramid is a good example of a model. Models help analytical thinkers contextualize your concept. On the other side, to help creative minds contextualize, stories or metaphors are helpful. “Our company is the Uber of X-industry” is a good example of this.?

Then, for content, again, you have study content types: research, analyst reports, checklists. These help the logical arguments. Then stories aren’t meant to be fluffy, but rather ways of communicating the idea that connect to different kinds of minds, the kind that relate to stories. So, instead of saying “customers save 32 hours,” in a story piece of content, you might include a visual of a week, where four of the 5 days are shaded.

Video & Thought Leadership

As you can imagine, once you have your idea contextualized and detailed, the vehicle you use to communicate the idea can take many forms: presentations at conferences, blogs, reports, landing pages, advertisements, emails. And although there are many options, in B2B the most opportunity exists in video.?

In the Drift blog linked above, Gerhardt mentions that video is so effective because you can’t fake it. Let’s be honest, anyone can craft a customer quote or make up a stat and pop it on a website, but the video testimonial is a totally different beast. It’s really meaningful. For proof, please see the ~5000 views of my simple 6sense testimonial that has literally never been promoted - anywhere. 6sense can tell you in a case study that I saw success, but hearing directly from me in my own words is totally different.

So, if video in B2B is such a wide-open opportunity, why don’t more B2B organizations leverage it??

1. It’s expensive. From time to equipment to editing skills and software, writing a blog is far less investment.?
2. It’s hard to do well. Our experience as consumers has set the bar pretty high when it comes to video consumption.?

Ways to Get Around Issues with Video Thought Leadership

Despite how intimidating video can seem in B2B, there are a few key ways to make it more effective.?

1. Ensure your “on air” talent is authentic. Whoever they are, they probably are not a hidden Tom Hanks talent - i.e. they suck at acting. I made “The Intersection of YOUR Brand and the COMPANY Brand” a whole section, because it’s critical. If someone who swears like a sailor pretends to be a formal, smarmy analyst, it’ll crash and burn. There’s nothing worse than watching bad acting.?
2. EDIT! Although I used my 6sense testimonial as an example, it’s not even that good. It’d probably have twice the views if I’d scripted it because it would’ve forced editing, which would’ve made it shorter and better.?
3. You MUST entertain. Not every topic is “fun” - but that doesn’t mean you have to be boring. Take a series of videos I ideated for Toolio which are essentially mini-product demos. We took the demo, wrote a script around it and then had someone with the same work experience (authority) as our prospects deliver the content.
4. Expense. Latané Conant (she/her) , CMO of 6sense, said that when she had to choose whether to hire a video production person or a content writer, she chose video. I agree. Hiring someone isn’t that expensive and you could get thriftier with Upwork talent in other countries, or, hell I’ll promote my own favorite guy, Rustin L Odom at StudioMighty . Also, YOU, yes, YOU could learn to edit video. I spent a weekend doing it and started creating my own videos. Basically, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Okay, but What About If My Thought Leader Leaves?!

Frankly, who cares? If the thought leadership originated from authenticity, it really shouldn’t matter. Want proof? Gerhardt left Drift; I just hit their website to get the link above. I left LeadMD and stopped using 6sense, but people continue to subscribe to the now Shift Paradigm YouTube even after I’m gone and 6sense can still use my testimonial (I’m no less of a fan, just don’t have the need for it currently). Bobbie doesn’t work for Toolio anymore, but it doesn’t make her explanation in our Toolio video any less accurate or even timely.?

Now, there is a big insinuation here, these are all digital channels. If your thought leader is booked for in-person events, you’re in more trouble. So, as much as possible try to ensure your thought leader is in it for the long-haul. It’s what makes CEOs or other heavily equity-incentivized individuals good for the job. And wherever possible, try to transition content to digital so it has a longer shelf-life.

Considerations for Your Personal Brand if YOU Want to Leave

I created a bit of a reputation for myself with my Tea videos. I even still sometimes clap back on the haters.

And many people associated The Tea with LeadMD, which made me consider the question, what does my brand look like if I’m no longer with LeadMD? Moving to Toolio, a SaaS company selling merchandise planning software into retailers, it no longer makes sense to talk about marketing automation tools or even marketing in general.

It took me a while to come to the answer. I had to think long and hard about where the intersection of my passions could impact or help Toolio’s customers. Ultimately, I came up with the “Discipline Evolution Framework ”. Now that you know my approach, the model I created for the idea should show how this all comes to life in a real, actionable way.??

In Conclusion

Again, marketers have so much to market. Thought leadership is just one bullet point on a laundry list of potential ways to move the needle, but I believe it’s critical, works, and suggest following the highlights I’ve pulled from Church’s book, but also grabbing your own copy and digging into more of his suggestions in the book.?

Sometimes, as marketers, it’s our job to facilitate the message, to maneuver it and encourage our designated evangelist, but other times, it’s best to do the shining ourselves.