Businesses no longer equate thought leadership marketing with just content marketing. Public relations, influencer engagement, and developing flagship programmes, are among other important aspects of thought leadership marketing. Developing flagship programmes to showcase thought leadership is an important way forward for ThoughtStarters, a thought leadership marketing company.
In conversation with exchange4media, Karthik Nagendra, Founder & Director, ThoughtStarters talks about thought leadership marketing, influencer engagement, and what goes behind making a leader and more…
What is thought leadership marketing?
Thought leadership marketing is a new approach to branding, driven by sound research, domain expertise, innovative thinking and key stakeholder engagement that helps establish a brand as an expert advisor or a trusted partner.
It actively positions you and your organisation as an authority, a resource and a trusted leader on issues of importance to your audience. This positioning is accomplished using a targeted marketing mix of executive communication, influence engagement, content formats such as bylines, whitepapers, journals, research reports, digital media and flagship programmes such as workshops, awards, competition, etc. It allows you to earn their trust and build credibility and recognition differentiating yourself as the one who clearly understands their business.
We are seeing a positive trend in this area. A lot of companies are beginning to understand the importance of this function and committing to make the necessary investments towards it.
What goes into the making of a leader and how does ThoughtStarters contribute to building thought leaders?
Trust, credibility and expertise are the traits of a thought leader. ThoughtStarters is the first thought leadership marketing company in Asia. Our approach is driven by research, domain expertise, and key stakeholder engagement. We leverage innovative media, including content marketing, flagship platforms and collaborations, to establish our clients as experts in their field.
Adoption of thought leadership marketing is still at a nascent stage in India. Research-based programmes, successful engagements and clear strategy are required to deliver results for clients. Our research clearly shows that there will be an increasing adoption of thought leadership marketing in knowledge intensive industries in the coming decades.
How is thought leadership marketing different from traditional marketing?
Thought leadership marketing is long-term and driven by research, expertise and innovative thinking, whereas traditional marketing is short-term and driven by targets and lead generation. Traditional marketing help sales meet it’s quarterly or annual targets and the mode comprises of catchy messages and striking visuals. For leadership marketing, the medium of communication includes content marketing and influencer engagement, which is more effective, collaborations and flagship platforms.
What are the various services that ThoughtStarters provides? How does Influencer Engagement work?
The services encompass branding positioning, influencer engagement, content development & marketing, executive communication, research and publishing.
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that has emerged as a recent practice in marketing, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals rather than the target market as a whole. Key influencers include academia, analysts, scholars, authors, industry association heads, expert panel members, consultants.
According to a recent research done by ThoughtStarters, over 74 per cent marketers reported they would use influencer marketing as part of their marketing strategy over the next 12 months. Over 68 per cent surveyed said they would spend significant budgets on influencer marketing over the next 12 months.
ThoughtStarters helps its clients in understand the client’s brand promise and map the key influencers to be engaged. We define the influencer engagement strategy encompassing the channels/ platforms to consider for communication, frequency of touch points along with the content to be shared with them. We also identify opportunities and create flagship properties/ programmes where the client can involve the identified influencer as part of the entire programme lifecycle.
Please highlight some trends that you have witnessed while working in ThoughtStarters.
According to our research, in 2014 the top prediction for B2B marketers is that thought leadership will win business. Nine out of 10 B2B buyers place high emphasis on trust worthiness in closing any deal. However, currently, only 5 per cent of the B2B buyers believe that marketers (from the solution provider’s side) showcase their thought leadership effectively. Which means though on the seller side they are making higher investments into thought leadership marketing, their strategy, platforms and approach are not getting the bang for the buck. Hence, there is need for experts like ThoughtStarters to help clients achieve this objective and create more successful thought leader brands.
What are your focus areas for 2014 and what is the scope of thought leadership marketing in India?
We believe that the Indian IT, healthcare & life sciences sectors have good potential to showcase thought leadership. All they need is awareness on the do’s and don’ts for an effective thought leadership strategy.
We are planning focused workshops at the client location, where we can map their existing scenario and suggest how they can formulate an effective thought leadership strategy. We are focusing on identifying more niche companies where we can showcase thought leadership effectively. We are also helping senior leaders from client companies become the face for their thought leadership initiatives, as we strongly believe that thought leadership can become a part of the organisation’s culture only if it is driven from the top in a consistent manner.