1. BLOGGING TO BECOME
A THOUGHT LEADER
TAKING THE HIGH ROAD TO MARKET LEADERSHIP
Rockford Social Media Bootcamp – 7/25/09

2. Dana VanDen Heuvel
Dana is the founder of The
MarketingSavant Group and a widely
recognized specialist in thought
leadership and emerging marketing
technologies such as blogging, social
media, RSS, Internet communities
and interactive marketing trends and
best practices and speaks regularly
on these topics at industry events.
Dana is the creator of the American
Marketing Association
“TechnoMarketing” training series
and the author of the AMA
Marketech ’08 guide to marketing
technology.
Need help after the event? Email -
dana@marketingsavant.com

3. After-Event Slides & Resources
 The slides and resource links are available
electronically after the event:
clients.marketingsavant.com/socialmediabc

4. What is Thought Leadership?
“Thought leadership centers on earning trust and
credibility. Thought leaders get noticed by offering
something different—information, insights, and
ideas, for instance. Thought leadership positions
you and your company as an industry authority and
resource and trusted advisor by establishing your
reputation as a generous contributor to your
industry.”
RainToday.com

5. Thought Leadership Marketing
Thought Leadership Marketing provides a sustainable
go-to-market strategy based on your competence and
point of view by developing intellectual capital
Thought Leadership
Marketing employing elements of insurgent marketing principles
and creating clarity in the marketplace through a
balanced digital and traditional channel approach to
achieve market share and demand generation.
 Thought Leadership Marketing turns organizational activity into
Insurgent/Under Social Media & intellectual capital that supports relevant advocacy positions, tacit domain
dog Marketing Digital Marketing
expertise and point-of-view platforms to shape and influence market
perceptions and establish your organization a thought leader, knowledge
resource, subject matter expert and ultimately, a trusted client advisor
 Social media and digital marketing combine with trusted, classical
marketing tools to form a foundation for sharing and relevant dialogue with
clients and markets that builds market capital and provides the insights,
access, and influence required to create demand generation
 Effective Thought Leadership Marketing employs insurgent marketing
principles that deliver immediate and measurable lead and prospect
opportunity improvements and drives demand generation by focusing on
delivering wins and competing on higher ideals, not lower prices, in the age of
the empowered buyer.

6. Insurgent Marketing

7. The Thought Leadership
Marketing Equation
Competence, purpose and Strategic use of TLM Thought leaders and trusted
core market understanding tools and channels with advisors occupy the
inform the point of view & media collaboration greatest share of mind
thought leadership garner your share voice in among business buyers.
platform. Thought leaders the industry and spark the Share of mind predicts
outshine their competitors industry dialogue around share of market. Thought
who compete on price and your ideas. Leadership Marketing
advertising. As buyers seek out more steadily increases your SOM
real market dialogue, SOV with buyers, growing your
is an increasingly important
share of market.
factor contributing to
marketplace success.

8. Thought Leaders
Have a Point of
View
Too often, firms
capture their ‘thought
leadership’ expertise -
articles, speeches,
newsletters, books,
press pitches and so
on—without a point
of view.
Source: The Bloom Group‟s 2006 survey “Attaining Thought
Leadership”

9. Thought Leadership Delivers
 Coherency out of marketplace chaos
 Diminished price resistance
 Valid and credible value proposition
 Self-qualified leads & opportunities
 Shortened sales cycles
 Value-forward marketing & selling platform
 Ongoing market dialogue
 Prospects experience your value before buying
 Buyers invested in your ideas before purchasing
 Growth in media placements & requests
 Search engine find-ability

10. Thought Leadership is Attained
“Thought leadership is the recognition from the outside
world that the company deeply understands its business,
the needs of its customers and the broader marketplace in
which it operates.”
Elise Bauer
 Your customers grant you TL status
 You can influence using TLM tools & tactics
 It’s not about budget – it’s about Intellectual Capital
and Content
 Set yourself apart through mandatory TLM attributes

11. Thought Leadership Marketing Mindset
1) They love what they do – energy & motivation
2) They have the drive to teach – no strings attached
3) They reach out and communicate – to everyone
4) They take risks with messaging – on the edge
5) They balance confidence with curiosity & learning –
learn from everyone
6) They put in the time today (TLM activities) for
tomorrow’s benefit
7) They never stop working, connecting and
communicating – not drip marketing, but constant
education

12. Mapping the Thought Leadership Marketing Toolkit

14. Blogging for Thought Leaders

15. Get Blogging (Transparency)
 STILL a hot topic for marketers
 16% of Fortune 500 on board
 Metaphor for:
 Transparent communication
 Authenticity
 Responsibility
 Reputation
 Blogosphere doubles: 5-7mos

17. Thought Leader Blogging Process

18. Tune In! (It‟s NOT ABOUT YOU!)
 Subscribe to content  Share content right from reader
 Consume feeds  Form a reader-based social
network

19. Build Your “Blog Hub”
 One place where your
content is housed
 Contains real substance,
not just links
 “Connectable platform”
(Wordpress, Typepad)
 You online home base

20. Create Thought Leading Content
 Instructional - Instructional posts tell  Lists - One of the easiest ways to write a post
people how to do something. I find that Tips is to make a list. Posts with content like „The Top
posts are generally the ones that are Ten ways to….‟, „7 Reasons why….‟ „ 5 Favorite
among my most popular both in the short ….‟, are not only easy to write but are usually
term very popular with readers and with getting
 Informational - This is one of the more links from other bloggers.
common blog post types where you simply  Interviews - Sometimes when you‟ve run out of
give information on a topic. It could be a insightful things to say it might be a good idea
definition post or a longer explanation of to let someone else do the talking in an
some aspect of the niche that you‟re writing interview (or a guest post). This is a great way
on. This is the crux of successful sites like to not only give your readers a relevant
Wikipedia. expert‟s opinion but to perhaps even learn
 Reviews - Another highly searched for something about the topic you‟re writing
term on the web is „review‟ - I know every yourself.
time I‟m considering buying a new product  Case Studies - Another popular type of post is
that I head to Google and search for a the case study where you profile a client, a
review on it first. Reviews come in all peer, an organization or person that you
shapes and sizes and on virtually every admire either through direct contact or an
product or service you can think of. interview with them or by doing some of your
own benchmarking activity.

21. Create Thought Leading Content
 Link Posts - The good old „link post‟ is a  Research – Due some serious due diligence on
favorite of many bloggers and is simply a your industry, create a benchmarking report, or
matter of finding a quality post on another compile data that your readers would find
site or blog and linking up to it either with value in. Research posts can take a lot of time
an explanation of why you‟re linking up, a but they can also be well worth it if you come
comment on your take on the topic and/or up with interesting conclusions that inspire
a quote from the post. You can also people to link up to you.
automate this process.  Memes and Projects - write a post that
 Contrasting two options - Write a post somehow involves your readers and gets them
contrasting two products, services or to replicate it in someway. Start a poll, an
approaches that outlines the positives and award, ask your readers to submit a post/link
negatives of each choice. or run a survey or quiz.
 Rant - get passionate, stir yourself up, say  Hypothetical Posts – Write a „what if‟ or
what‟s on your mind and tell it like it is. hypothetical post by picking on something that
Rants are great for starting discussion and „could‟ happen down the track in your industry
causing a little controversy. and begin to unpack what the implications of it
would be. „What if….Google and Yahoo
merged?‟ „What if…

22. Hubspot says…
“Each thoughtful post on your blog is a public
demonstration of your thought leadership, personal
integrity, humor, and professional insights. You don’t have
to refute one of Einstein’s theories to get respect.”

23. Share, Link and Guide
 What will your audience
find useful?
 Share competitors info –
it drives them nuts, and
gets them to link to you!
 Easy, time-conscious way
to stay relevant without
creating original content

24. Make Your Content Work (Harder) For You

25. Syndicate & Synchronize

26. What is Thought Leadership Blogging?
“Thought Leadership is exploiting your unique
position in your markets to generate valuable
insight and advice on issues your customers and
prospects care most about.”
Velocity (UK)

27. Thought Leadership Marketer
Indium Corporation
 25% reduction in marketing spend
 Major account wins
 Entire organization involved
in the „community‟

28. Thought Leadership Marketer
Indium Corporation
“[Being a Thought Leader] is
being considered the best, most
authoritative, trusted source. It
means being the “go to” people.
It means being given the first
look, being invited into a
development project and asked
for advice. It means being the
organization that others MUST
HAVE involved with a project.
And it all leads to increased sales,
profits, and image or it simply
didn’t matter..”
Rick Short, Indium

29. The 4 A‟s of
Thought Leadership Marketing
Assets – Attitude – Acceptance – Alignment
Read the entire article: http://www.marketingsavant.com/articles/four-as-thought-leadership-marketing/

30. Are You Ready for Thought Leadership?
1) Do you love what you do?
1) Passionate enough to push TL
2) Sustain interest in years to come
2) Are you willing to teach?
1) “Educate the market” mentality
2) Do you “enjoy helping your customers & prospects”?
3) Are you comfortable with “reaching outside”?
1) Expand beyond your existing network
4) Are you will to take a stand with your message?
1) Do you have a unique position on industry issues?
2) Can you frame & express those views?
3) Can you get people to notice?

31. Are You Ready for Thought Leadership?
5) Are you a “confident learner”?
1) Balance your positions with listening
2) Ears to the ground for trend shifts & opportunities
6) Do you have a “long-term” perspective?
1) Spend time today for reward tomorrow
2) “Faith in the future”
7) Are you comfortable with “no end point” to TL?
1) Willing to work a long time toward this goal
2) Stay motivated!

32. Five Keys to Successful TLM
 Be Generous With Your Knowledge
 Share beyond the marketing speak
 Be Consistent
 Calendar your activities – daily, weekly, monthly
routine
 Always Deliver Value
 Listen, think, revise, teach, repeat
 Take A Stand
 Take your strong positions to market
 Focus On The Long-term Benefits
 Track your results in months & years

33. Altruism Before Capitalism
“In short, this is simply an organization putting the
needs of its constituents ahead of its own needs. Or,
aligning itself with advancing the welfare of its
customers before (and while) advancing its own. “
Dana VanDen Heuvel

34. Success Metrics
 Reach
 How many hear your message?
 Acquisition
 Who’s attention did you get?
 Conversion
 What information did you gather?
 Who can you contact as a “lead”?
 Retention
 Who follows you after the acquisition?

36. Blogging for Thought Leaders
Thank You!
Need help after the presentation? Email dana@marketingsavant.com