7 Steps for Brands to Become Thought Leaders

Every day, your company’s target audience is bombarded with dozens of messages from competing brands—all vying for their attention. 

In fact, nearly 7.5 million blog posts are published every day, and a staggering 2.7 million businesses post at least once per week on LinkedIn. 

It’s clear to see the digital world is a crowded place. To thrive in the jostling and tumultuous space of online marketing, businesses need an effective way to cut through the noise. 

Thought leadership offers one powerful way to do just this. It enables brands to reach new audiences, build trust, and establish themselves as an authority in their industry. 

And brands that establish themselves as thought leaders see many benefits, including increased customer engagement, better brand awareness, and long-term growth and success.

In this guide, we share seven steps your brand can take to become an effective thought leader. We also share helpful resources and insights from two of our own clients who have successfully established themselves as thought leaders in their industries.

What Is Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership is the process of establishing your brand as an authority in its niche through insightful, original content. 

By consistently sharing valuable and unique information, you can build trust with your target audience and become a go-to resource within your industry. 

When done effectively, thought leadership leads to increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, and sales.

Good thought leadership takes time and a careful and considered approach, but the benefits and return on investment is significant. So let’s dive into the seven steps your brand can take to become a thought leader.

7 Steps To Achieving Thought Leadership for Your Brand

Here are seven key steps to become a thought leader. We explore each in detail below.

1. Start by identifying your goals, objectives, and timelines. This will ensure your content plan stays on track and that everything you produce is relevant to your goals.
2. Create a repeatable process that anyone on your team can use by establishing a clear tone of voice, deciding what topics to cover, and assembling a set of proven thought- leadership tactics or strategies. ‍
3. Don’t restrict yourself to a single content outlet or format. This approach can make your content seem formulated and prevent you from taking advantage of potential opportunities on other channels.
4. Avoid reproducing or reworking existing content where possible—whether yours or your competitors’. Instead, offer creative and unique solutions that benefit and intrigue your audience.
5. Publish your own studies. Original research is a sure-fire way to grab your audience’s attention,increase your brand reputation, and establish your brand as a leading authority.
6. Rub shoulders with other industry giants. Associating yourself with other industry leaders is another way to increase your reputation.
7. Network in person. Attending or even speaking at relevant events and conferences helps grow your network and reputation, furthering your brand’s thought leadership status.

1. Define your goals

The first step is to clearly map out your goals.

Of course, the most obvious answer here is, “to have my brand become a thought leader.” But you’ll need to dive a little deeper than that.

Why do you want your brand to become a thought leader? How do you believe it will benefit your brand?

Here are four common examples of thought leadership goals:

• Establish your company as an industry expert. By creating high-quality, informative content, you can show your audience you know what you're talking about and are passionate about sharing your knowledge.
  
  
• Increase brand awareness. When you create valuable content, people are more likely to share it with others. This can help you increase brand awareness and visibility, which can lead to more leads and sales.
  
  
• Generate leads and sales. Becoming a thought leader can help you attract potential customers to your website. The more people who read and share your thought leadership content, the more eyes will be on your product, and the more potential customers you can convert or speak to in the future.
  
  
• Build trust and credibility. As a thought leader, you show your audience that you’re a reliable source of information. This trust and credibility can lead to stronger relationships with your customers and clients.

How to identify (and stick to) your goals

There’s a simple process you can follow to identify, refine, and execute your goals. We call it the “WARM UP” technique.

• W - Write down your initial ideas. This is all about brainstorming. Document your ideas, either in a basic list or a more structured format, such as a mindmap.
  
  For example, to become a thought leader on generative AI, you might create a mind map that highlights key messaging, marketing plans, audience personas, and marketing channels.
  
  This approach allows you to flesh out your idea, see if it’s plausible, and determine how you can achieve it.

• A - Ask your colleagues. Chat with coworkers to see if your initial ideas resonate with them or whether they have others you haven’t yet considered. Also, brainstorm with key stakeholders about current issues you believe are holding back your marketing strategy and how thought leadership content can elevate it.
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• R - Research competitors. Study your competitors’ thought leadership content (if they have any) to establish what goals they seem to be working toward — and what goals they aren’t that you could be. (This research will help you in Step 2 as well.)
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• M - Make a plan. Once you have your goals, set tasks to help you achieve them. For example, if your goal is to become a brand leader in the cryptocurrency space, tasks can include networking with relevant brands in the crypto space and mapping out blog content you’ll write and when and where it will be published.
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• U - Update your objectives. Create smaller objectives for your tasks to keep you on track and motivated. For example, if one task is to achieve 10,000 newsletter subscribers on LinkedIn by the end of 2025, you might aim for 750 new subscribers each month between now and then.
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• P - Persevere. Thought leadership takes time, so stay consistent and persevere with your process. As Trish Seidel, Head of Content at DJUST, told us, “I think a lot of it is about determination versus motivation. For me, it’s like exercising. You’re not going to see results after every workout, but cumulatively, you will see an improvement over time.”

2. Identify your tone, topics, and tactics

Once your goals are in place, it’s time to focus on what we call the Three Ts of Thought Leadership: tone, topics, and tactics.

Tone

As with any marketing materials your brand creates, it’s important to have a clear and defined tone of voice for your thought leadership content.

Ultimately, this will be determined by a few key factors:

• Your brand’s current overall voice. Your brand has an established voice, but it probably needs some tweaking for thought leadership. For example, you might want to make it more authoritative, compassionate, or provocative, depending on your goals.
  
  
• Your target audience. When defining your thought leadership content tone, factor in your audience demographic and what type of tone resonates most with them.
  
  For example, if you’re targeting C-suite members and executives, you might use a more formal tone. Or, if you’re aiming your content at busy Millennials, your tone could be more conversational.
  
  
• Where the content will be published. Audiences engage differently on different platforms, so consider where you plan to post your thought leadership content. If you’re crafting content for your brand’s blog, for instance, your tone might be more casual than content created for posts on LinkedIn or other social media platforms.
  
  
• Brands you admire. Check out writing from brands whose thought leadership you enjoy and find impactful. What’s their tone like? What would you like to emulate? What would you like to do differently? You can use this to map out how you want to approach your thought leadership content.
  
  
• Your goals. It’s also important to remind yourself of the goals you’ve set. Say, for example, your goal is to improve brand authority. In many industries, a more formal and authoritative tone is required for goals like this, while a conversational tone is better suited to improving relationships between potential customers and your brand.
  
  As Alice Keeling, Content Writer and Strategist for talent assessment platform TestGorilla, explained to Eleven:
  
  “Our objectives for thought leadership content at TestGorilla go beyond driving website traffic and brand awareness. We want to change the way that people think about hiring because, ultimately, they won't change the way they hire unless they start thinking differently. We’re quite scrupulous about the tone of our content for exactly this reason. Keeping things bold and clear is crucial for us because we want readers to stop and question the way things are. If this ruffles some feathers, then so be it.”  (Emphasis added.)

Pro Tip

Consider testing out different tones of voice to see which have the greatest impact on your target audience. Different levels of interaction (page views, social media shares, newsletter sign-ups, etc.) can help you understand what works best.

Topics

After you’ve settled on a tone of voice, it’s time to consider what topics to cover as part of your thought leadership strategy.

Let’s explore some strategies below.

Keyword research

Keyword research is the easiest way to see what topics people are searching for in your industry. 

There are some excellent paid tools, such as Ahrefs, that help you find relevant keywords while also identifying their search volumes. But there are great free alternatives, too—like Ubersuggest, which is a tool operated by SEO expert Neil Patel.

For example, if your brand niche is pet food, simply:

1. Search that phrase on Ubersuggest.

2. From there, you will see 400 suggestions appear, all related to your keyword phrase. They are graded based on SEO difficulty as well, allowing you to focus on topics that have plenty of search volume but aren’t too competitive to start getting your brand seen in the pet food space.

Keep up with industry news and trends

Another great way to identify topics for thought leadership content is to stay current on the latest news in your industry. Here are a few ways to do that: 

1. LinkedIn. Start by heading to LinkedIn, going to “My Network” and then “Grow.” You’ll find plenty of pages relevant to your industry that you can follow, alongside industry leaders (and underdogs!) who regularly create topical and timely posts on news in your industry.
   
   Does your company have something new to bring to the conversation? Look for topics where you feel the conversation would benefit from your brand’s expertise. 

2. Newsletters and news sites. Of course, LinkedIn isn’t the only place to get the latest news. You can also subscribe to email newsletters or read reputable news websites centered on your industry.
   
   For example, if you want to stay updated on the latest news in influencer marketing, a free newsletter like Net Influencer’s is a great resource.
   
   
3. Google Alerts. Set up daily Google Alerts for keywords relevant to your brand and industry. Google Alerts tracks your search terms on the web and sends you email notifications whenever it finds new results. In other words, it’s like a custom news service for your specific interests.
   
   For example, TestGorilla’s Alice Keeling has a Google Alert for the phrase “skills-based hiring” to help her craft ideas for the company’s thought leadership topics.
   
   “It gives me a quick way to pulse-check the discourse and see what people are saying,” she told Eleven. “At the moment, for example, there’s a lot of talk about degree requirements and skills-based hiring, and so we've been writing about that and giving our take.”
   
   Here’s how you can set up a Google Alert:
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   1. Head to Google Alerts.
   2. At the top, type a phrase or topic you want to follow, such as “personal finance.”
   3. Click “Create Alert.” You'll start receiving emails whenever Google finds a matching search result.

Have internal discussions

Talk to your C-suite and other team members to identify potential topics for thought leadership content. 

For example, say your company is in B2B eCommerce. Chat with your social media manager to see what audiences are talking about — such as issues they experience with B2B sales software or struggling to turn leads into customers. 

You could also speak with your email marketing manager to find out what topics your audience engages with the most, such as upselling to existing B2B customers.

Pro Tip

Just as important as settling on your topics is sticking to a consistent schedule. Your rate of output will depend on your company's resources (including time, budget, etc.) — some may post thought leadership content every week while others post just once per month.

Once you've set your output goal, you can either map out a plan with topics to cover weeks — or even months — in advance or simply go with the flow and let trends and developments inform the topics of your content.

Tactics

Now that you have your tone and topics, you’ll turn your attention to tactics. By tactics, we mean the elements that go into a piece of content or the approaches you’ll take to a topic to have it be deemed “thought leadership.”

Here are a few examples of tactics:

• Focus on something seen as the status quo and argue against it. 
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• Take a bold statement that’s doing the rounds online and conduct your own research to prove or disprove it.
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• Take a subject you know requires a more in-depth perspective, and provide your own experience and expertise.
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• Create content based on your own opinions and beliefs, using research, case studies, and other studies to support your statement.

As TestGorilla’s Alice Keeling explained to Eleven, “Choose a topic you’re passionate about and have strong opinions on. This way, you’ll naturally have a reaction when you see other opinions on the topic that you don't agree with, and this becomes a launchpad for crafting a piece that conveys your angle instead.”

3. Explore different content channels

You don’t want to box yourself into just one type of content. Other types can be fantastic complements to blog articles!

For example, podcasts and webinars featuring discussions with industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and internal experts are great options for thought leadership content. In these, brands can explore new trends, share success stories, and offer practical advice on navigating the ups and downs of business.

Swedish-based CRM company Upsales does a fantastic job of creating high-quality video content that the brand then breaks down into articles and LinkedIn posts.

Other companies, such as TestGorilla, have become thought leaders by producing high-quality, innovative social media content alongside thought leadership pieces published on their blogs. 

TestGorilla also implements a very effective approach to recycling thought leadership content for another audience on another platform: For its LinkedIn newsletter Cut the BS, the company shortens and repackages its blog articles!

Pro Tip

Create a tracking sheet to identify which forms of content perform well for their budget and which don’t. Continue to use that tracking sheet to test and learn with every piece of content, maximizing the efficiency of your thought leadership strategy.

SmartSheet has many free marketing templates, each of which seamlessly integrates with Google Sheets, Excel, and other software.

4. Innovate, don’t replicate

Thought leadership content needs to be truly original. After all, you’re trying to be a thought leader, not a thought follower!

This means moving the conversation forward — not simply regurgitating what can easily be found online. 

That doesn’t mean you need  to post an endless stream of innovative case studies and research papers, though.

It isn’t so much about what you do but how you think.

Let’s take a look at an example.

Imagine you’re writing about the importance of testing email subject lines. You explain how personalization can help you truly stand out from the crowd, along with the many benefits of doing so and how to get started. You then highlight some examples of how other brands have mastered subject line testing.

Sounds great, right?

For a piece of top-of-the-funnel content, it certainly could be. But to be considered a true thought leader on subject line testing, you’ll need to go deeper with this piece of content.

Using the above example, here are some elements that could take the content to “thought leadership level”:

1. What’s the context? What will testing email subject line testing help you do?
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2. What type of testing should readers be doing and why? 
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3. What results have you seen from your own experiences?
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4. What should the reader do with the information?

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These are all questions a brand must answer to start being considered a thought leader in its space.

So, let’s approach this subject with the mindset and approach of a thought leader:

• To answer question 1: “We firmly believe that testing email subject lines is essential for increasing conversion rate.” 
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• To answer question 2: “To prove this, here are a series of studies from reputable sources, backing up our opinion on what testing you should be doing.” 
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• To answer question 3: “In our own experiences, we identified three key elements that had a major impact on open rates. These were X, Y, and Z. This is clearly demonstrated by the following open rates from our testing.”
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• To answer question 4: “As a result, it’s clear to see you should be doing this with your subject lines to succeed.”

Now, you have a solid structure for a piece of content that can showcase your brand as a thought leader.

5. Conduct original research

Conducting and publishing your own research is one of the best ways to grab your target audience’s attention and increase your brand reputation — both of which are key to being seen as a thought leader. 

Jon Gilham, founder and CEO of Originality.ai, does a great job of this. Take, for example, his response to a statement by OpenAI that AI Content Detectors don’t really work.

Originality.ai approached the situation head-on by launching a thought leadership campaign that asked users to prove the statement is false for charity. 

This bold approach to big talking points in the AI detection community is just one way that Originality.ai has become a thought leader. The company also conducted several independent studies (such as Up to 37% of Upwork Writers Use AI, Are AI Checkers Biased Against Non-Native English Speakers?, and AI Content In Finance Websites) to establish itself as a leading voice in the industry — willing and able to offer a clear, educated opinion on many subjects surrounding AI.

As a result, the Originality.ai website soon became a respected location for content with Google, and Jon and other colleagues have often been asked to speak on podcasts and at events.

One of the best ways to go about planning your first-hand research is to think like your target audience. Consider what questions they want answered, and don’t be afraid to use email marketing and social media to get direct input on what research your audience wants to see conducted. For example, you can run surveys via email or polls on your social media accounts to get responses from your audience.

Conducting research can feel daunting, so below, we’ve listed a few recommended resources to help you along. 

6. Network with other thought leaders

Another way to demonstrate thought leadership is to interact with other high-profile brands and individuals in your niche. 

This can be as straightforward as commenting on their social media or LinkedIn posts, which can open up doors for collaboration that expand your industry connections and boost your brand’s visibility. 

“There’s an unspoken rule that if someone comments on your posts, you should be commenting on theirs,” DJUST’s Trish Seidel explained to Eleven. “The more you see these people appearing in your comments, the more likely one of them is going to offer to have a virtual coffee chat or invite you on their podcast.”

Start doing this when brands you want to connect with post content, and then use it as your opportunity to strike up a conversation about working together on thought leadership content.

Upsales frequently collaborates with other thought leaders to create content for its Revenue Journal, which combines its Executive Stories series (blog posts) and the Meet the CEOs series (video interviews). 

The Revenue Journal is a pay-walled service that offers C-suite executives access to unique video and written content, plus interviews conducted by Daniel Wikberg, the CEO of Upsales.

These pieces of content showcase Upsales as an industry leader — and one that’s closely aligned with other thought leaders. The Meet the CEOs series, for example, allows Daniel to chat with other CEOs to learn their secrets to success and share them on Upsale’s site.

Another excellent example is British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett’s podcast The Diary of a CEO. Bartlett created the podcast to speak with some of the world’s most successful CEOs and give his audience a chance to gain insights and advice from them. 

In turn, Bartlett has further established himself as a thought leader in the entrepreneurship space. The podcast has rapidly grown to become one of the largest in the UK, and as a result, Bartlett and his business, Flight Group, have seen significant growth and success.

7. Take your thoughts offline

Don’t underestimate the power of speaking at events. This can help grow your brand’s reputation and build your confidence as a spokesperson for your brand — which, in turn, can improve your content going forward.

Public events are also a great way to get stakeholders, such as C-suite executives, involved in your thought leadership efforts—especially if they would be taking the stage. You can provide them with a subject to discuss and the opportunity to do so in front of their peers.

Below, we outline a few ways to find relevant events to speak at.

Research industry conferences and trade shows

With a bit of googling, you can identify some of the major conferences within your industry. Note the ones that specifically align with your expertise, as they should be priority number one.

For marketing, for example, Online.Marketing breaks down events by location, date, and category for marketing, making it easy to find the perfect niche to attend or contact.

Join networking groups

Joining professional networking groups is another excellent way to identify speaking opportunities. People within these groups often host events where you can share your knowledge.

Unsure where to find relevant groups? LinkedIn’s “Your Network” section is a good place to start. There, you can find many groups and events related to your brand, allowing you to expand your professional network.

Search online platforms

You can also use websites like Meetup and Eventbrite to find and follow events. These platforms list numerous speaking opportunities in various fields. 

Eventbrite is our go-to. It breaks down speaking opportunities and events into clear categories, the search feature is super easy to use, and tons of events are advertised on the website.

Event organizers try to secure speakers well in advance, so be sure to reach out ASAP for any events you’re interested in speaking at.

When you do, provide information about your brand’s thought leadership content (including links) to showcase your authenticity and the value you can bring. Also, be ready to answer any questions and share previous experience of your public speaking skills if possible.

Final Thoughts

There are many reasons brands work to become thought leaders — from increasing brand awareness and trust to attracting and converting new customers.

It's no easy feat, but with this guide as your assistant, you can follow the necessary steps to turn your brand into a thought leader and start reaping the rewards.

But remember, achieving thought leadership as a brand doesn’t happen overnight. So, stick with it and trust the processes you have put in place.

FAQs

What are the three types of thought leaders?

The three types of thought leaders are industry thought leaders, product thought leaders, and organizational thought leaders. 

In industry thought leadership, you would:

• Become an expert in your field by sharing insights, analysis, and predictions on industry trends.
• Discuss new technologies, analyze current events, and showcase your research to build trust and establish yourself as a go-to source of information.

As a product thought leader, you would:

• Educate potential customers about the value of your product and how it solves their problems.
• Create tutorials, case studies, and competitor comparisons to position yourself as a thought leader in your product category and attract new customers.

And as an organizational thought leader, you would:

• Share your company's perspective on industry issues and its contribution to the larger conversation.
• Discuss your company's values, culture, and team expertise to enhance your brand reputation and attract top talent.

How does thought leadership help a company?

Thought leadership can help a company by contributing to brand awareness, customer loyalty, industry reputation, and sales conversions.

Can a company be a thought leader?

Yes, a company can be a thought leader. Thought leadership content from businesses can come from individuals at the company via carefully crafted, insightful, well-thought-out content creation.

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