The Ultimate Guide to Thought Leadership Publicity

Two years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a SaaS founder. She had come to me to generate publicity on how her scale up was helping people use real-time data to understand their sales cycle better. The founder was featured on a business podcast showcasing new ideas. Following the piece, she received inquiries from people referencing the interview. Even better, we transcribed the interview into an article. Until this day the article comes up when searching for building a business pipeline.

So, what is this all about? I’ve seen a lot of success from Thought Leadership Publicity in my many years of doing this, and I wanted to spill the beans on what this effective strategy can do for you.?

What is Thought Leadership?

Before we jump into the nitty gritty of everything thought leadership , let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what the term means.?

Let me start off by saying what it isn’t.?

Thought leadership isn’t about regurgitating what you read in the newspaper or commenting on toilet paper shortages when you work in the auto industry.?

Thought leadership requires you to have proven experience in your field, and most importantly an opinion.?

An informed one.?

I have a saying “Take your point of view and turn it into the point of YOU.”?

Unless you’re an astronaut or a nose for perfumes, there is likely an endless supply of people working in your field.?

Just like I’m not the only publicist in the world, cybersecurity specialists are plentiful and SaaS founders abound.?

What sets each person apart is multiple factors.

→ Experience.

→ Strategy.

→ Success.

And there’s one more essential ingredient.

It is YOUR point of view that builds the yellow brick road to effective thought leadership, which, in turn, attracts your potential clients.

But no one has the ability to know your point of view if you don’t share it.

Put simply, thought leadership is about sharing your expertise in public.?

And nothing gets you more in the public than the media.

The Kardashians taught us that.

Hence, Thought Leadership Publicity.

What adds value or provides further context to your target customer makes a lasting impression.?

Let’s say you have a consulting company that designs new organisational structures and plans for businesses. It’s the pandemic and many companies are in limbo on how to address work structures going forward.?

This provides a perfect opportunity to share your guidance and give your opinion on whether companies should go remote or hybrid. It’s a way to provide your expertise in the industry and help people make decisions while simultaneously getting them to seek out your advice further.?

Lead generation tactics work better with brand awareness

As CRM tools have been developed and refined to ever-increasing levels where you can measure down to the atom to understand ROI, more emphasis has been placed on lead generation campaigns.?

To run a profitable business, you need to put leads in your pipeline, regardless of whether you are a solo entrepreneur or leading a company to unicorn status.?

It makes complete sense that you want to measure in real-time what’s working and what isn’t.

But it’s critical to remember that any customer journey begins with visibility.?

Yes, I’m talking about brand awareness.?

This isn’t about drumming up a marketing campaign, throwing caution to the wind and justifying it as brand awareness.?

Brand awareness has received a bad rap with marketers going on a hunch and hoping for the best. Then wondering why the campaign didn’t return the leads they’d hoped for.?

You could have the most creative and engaging campaign out there. But unless customers truly believe in what you’re selling, it is money going down the drain.?

Whether it's a bottle of ketchup, a luxury holiday or a software solution, no one is jumping into your lead funnel unless they have a real sense of who you are and how you might help them.

Think about it as networking.?

You wouldn’t walk up to someone at a business event, tell them you develop healthcare software, flash your business card and walk away. You would introduce yourself, try to identify their need, tell them what you do and your experience doing it. This is building rapport.?

Despite all the technological advancements in the world, people still buy from people they trust, and this is where visibility comes in.

Visibility matters if you want leads

Visibility allows you to network with your customers and build trust on a mass scale.

It’s not something to leave until the end of the year with a leftover budget.?

Visibility is the cog in your well-oiled marketing machine that builds your reputation and shows people what you stand for.?

It sets your lead generation campaigns up for success and allows them to perform their actual role - which is to convert leads into sales. Someone is more likely to attend that webinar if they already have a sense of who you are.

Reputation has taken on a new phrase over recent years. “Personal brand” has become the buzzword.?

This term divides people like Marmite.?

Love it or hate it, your reputation, or “personal brand”, is everything in business.?

Thought Leadership Publicity is a powerful way to build your reputation and credibility.?

It’s the honey to your potential client bees. Consistent investment in your visibility and reputation is a powerful strategy.?

And Thought Leadership Publicity is your golden ticket to doing it.

Build credibility with the media

From online news providers to blogs, podcasts, LinkedIn, and even the use of influencers, these platforms and voices work together with one common goal – to attract and retain their audiences.?

They have already built strong relationships, so why go searching in the dark for your audience when there is a spotlight, ready for you to leverage, right over here.?

Journalists cover certain beats to ensure they remain experts in that topic, hence they have an established fan base at their fingertips.?

I have always had a special interest in the media. By special interest, I mean I am a zealot about it.?

I cannot over exaggerate how the media can skyrocket your visibility in ways your social feed never could, extend a helping hand for mass credibility, and provide a direct line of communication to your exact customer.?

Imagine if you owned a SaaS company that helps empower the travel industry with technology.?

You can either spend your time and money finding all the nooks and crannies where your travel decision-makers hide out. Or you can be featured in the go-to news source for all travel industry workers.?

By choosing the latter option, you are reaching an audience that is already engaged and interested in the information you have to offer.

Media teleports you to different audiences at once

With the popularity of social media sites and blogs, it has become easier to attract an audience to your own channels.?

These spaces give you an opportunity to communicate with your audiences and share your views on topics.

But while that Facebook post from your opinionated aunt on the price of petrol goes unchecked, the media still holds a level of credibility that can’t be compared to your social feed. (The Economist published in mid-2021 how trust in the media is increasing . I know. Plot twist.)

You can publish all you like on your social channels (in fact, I encourage it to connect with your audiences), but being featured on a platform that your audience engages with, and trusts, is invaluable.

Reading an expert’s opinion on the significance of data breaches in the Wall Street Journal carries a very different weight than being published on LinkedIn.?

Third-party publishers, especially ones with large readerships suddenly put you in many places at once.?

Not only that, but trusted media outlets are prioritised from a SEO point of view.?

This means that whenever someone searches for the topic you’ve commented on, search engines will keep returning credible results. Sometimes for years to come.?

Show how you’re the solution to your customer’s problem

Companies are built on solving people’s problems. And the extra special ones are built on solving problems before you knew you had one!

The key to great thought leadership is anticipating the needs and challenges your customer is facing, and showing them why your company will get the job done to solve them.?

You need to provide value to people by sharing insights or a fresh learning that people can take away.?

Your customers face a problem in staying up to date on everything that impacts them.?

With thousands of news sources each day to consume, it’s impossible to be on top of it.?

Enter you.

Establishing yourself as a thought leader is a real act of service for your ideal clients, as you become a funnel of information.?

Sharing forecasts and trends on where your industry is heading, highlighting how the movers and shakers are doing it, or going into detail about the best practices to lead a company are all examples of content people are looking for.?

Not everyone will always agree with you.

But that’s okay; not everyone is your client either.

Embarking on a Thought Leadership Publicity strategy will ensure the right people for your business find you.

Please contact me here if you would like to explore what a Thought Leadership Publicity strategy could do for you. I'd be delighted to chat.