Creating B2B Thought Leadership that Drives Demand

There’s content marketing, and then there’s thought leadership. Thought leadership is arguably one of the easiest ways to build trust with B2B audiences. Do this well, and you might drive hundreds of leads to your business. Do this poorly, and it might have the opposite effect.

Thankfully, B2B thought leadership isn’t as tough as it sounds (confusing and vague as the term might be). You can use this guide to learn the right approach for your B2B brand, plus tools, tricks, and examples to help you create your own campaign.

Let’s get started.

• The Strategic Value of Thought Leadership
• How to Develop a B2B Thought Leadership Strategy
  • Identify Your Unique Perspectives
  • Fold in the Right Numbers
  • Find Subject Matter Experts
• Content Formats for Effective Thought Leadership
  • Follow a Content Planning Framework
• How to Distribute and Amplify Your Thought Leadership
• Measuring Thought Leadership Impact
  • Quantitative Thought Leadership Metrics
  • Qualitative Thought Leadership Metrics
• Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
  • Promotional Versus Valuable Content
  • Inconsistent Opinions and Abandonment
  • Echo Chamber Content
• Where to Find Examples of B2B Thought Leadership

The Strategic Value of Thought Leadership

So what exactly is thought leadership? Frankly, it depends on who you ask. There are many different ways of defining this term, especially for B2B brands compared to B2C.

So it may help to begin with what thought leadership is not:

• Content marketing. Thought leadership could be a part of a content marketing strategy, but not all content marketing can be classified as thought leadership.
• Hot takes. This is certainly part of the equation, but a contrarian opinion on its own isn’t thought leadership; it’s just surprising or countercultural.
• Pure conjecture.  Opinions without data are just that: opinions. They’re also unlikely to resonate with somewhat more sceptical B2B buyers.

Now with these common misconceptions out of the way, we can talk about what B2B thought leadership really is:

• Ideas shared by people who have deep experience in a given topic. Case in point, you’re much more likely to read an article about the future of edge hosting from someone who works with them all the time (and not necessarily the average freelancer).
• A sentiment backed by statistics. In other words, thoughts and musings with numbers to back them up. You can think of this like economists predicting the stock market. They look at the data and research available, then lay out their thoughts with numbers and percentages to back them up. 
• Sharing what’s in your ‘crystal ball.’ Maybe you believe that developers will go extinct, or maybe you believe that AI isn’t capable of improving coding workflows. On either side of the equation, there will certainly be strong opinions. Sharing your thoughts about the future (and how to fix, avoid, or resolve problems) gives readers an idea about where your core values lie.

So how does thought leadership connect to demand generation? Possibly more than you realize. 

In fact, more than 90% of executive decision makers are more receptive to sales outreach from companies with a history of thought leadership. Plus, studies show that 70% of C-suite leaders say they’ve questioned a partnership based on a piece of thought leadership they’ve read.

This could lead to significant financial gains. According to The ROI of Thought Leadership: Calculating the Value that Sets Organizations Apart, this could lead to an ROI of 156% (16 times more than the average marketing campaign). 

TL;DR: if you’re not engaging in thought leadership (or not executing it correctly), you may want to consider ways to better integrate with demand generation.

How to Develop a B2B Thought Leadership Strategy

Every successful B2B thought leadership strategy should include three elements:

• A unique perspective
• Subject matter experts
• Numbers, statistics, and figures/data

Let’s take a closer look at how these work in practice.

Identify Your Unique Perspectives

What’s something you do, know, or see that other people may find value in? You can answer this question by looking at your audience, then identifying gaps in what perspectives they might like to hear.

For example, maybe your customers are newer software developers wondering how much AI will affect their careers. Or maybe incoming prospects want to know more about the state of the commercial real estate industry. Either way, you can compile a list of company insights, values, and data that may draw their interest to your thought leadership campaigns. 

Speaking of data…

Fold in the Right Numbers

Everyone has an opinion to share — but what makes thought leadership valuable is that it has data to back it up. This could be tables, charts, figures, or survey data, which reinforces your claims and helps underline the story you’re telling.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be first-party data, but any information you source yourself will have a much greater impact on your audience and SEO. 

And keep in mind you don’t have to stick with numbers here: you can also source data like expert quotes and subject matter experts. 

Which leads into our final point:

Find Subject Matter Experts

Subject matter experts (or SMEs) are typically practicing professionals with hands-on experience in a particular field. They can speak with authority from multiple years (if not decades) of engaging with a topic, and likely have up-to-date knowledge within an area of focus. 

In other words, they haven’t been ‘out of the game’ long. They can also help back up your claims with a quote, much like hard data and numbers.

You can find SMEs in all sorts of places, including public databases, social media, sites like HARO, and even your own business. If you’re a founder or CEO, you likely want to position yourself as a thought leader. Just keep in mind you shouldn’t use your own quote to back up your own thought leadership content.

Content Formats for Effective Thought Leadership

Thought leadership can take many different forms, from speaking engagements to published content to videos, whitepapers, and podcast episodes. 

Some of the most effective content types for thought leadership may include:

• Long-form articles and whitepapers: These are more than just blogs — think research pieces, roundups, comparisons, and reviews. Whitepapers offer a more technical perspective and typically accompany longer pieces of primary research or actionable strategies readers can’t find anywhere else. 
• Industry studies and original research: Surveys and studies position you as an authority in a certain subject, such as VoIP technology or AI adoption. Pieces like this can also serve as a ‘backlink magnet’ and boost your SEO for demand generation.
• Speaking engagements and panels: Keynotes, panels, conferences, and webinars are all excellent options to share expert opinions in your industry. It’s also an opportunity to network with others and build strong connections that may result in a sale.
• Video and podcast content: You could try hosting or speaking on business-related podcasts, or publishing video content on platforms like LinkedIn or YouTube. This is one of the easiest ways to develop a network of listeners who are engaged with your content.  If you’re in tech B2B and not sure where to start networking, check out our ultimate list of developer podcasts.

Keep in mind you can often create evergreen content by recycling your thought leadership into different content types. For example, you could turn a podcast episode into social media posts or a long-form article. You could also host a keynote or webinar covering original research more in depth.

Follow a Content Planning Framework

Good thought leadership follows a three-point format, but great thought leadership has both consistency and commitment. Planning a steady drip of content will make it easier to plan for the future, plus help to build an audience who now expects high-quality content from your brand. 

You may wish to create a content planning framework by:

• Create a document where you write down personal experiences and stories. Then, you can draw them back to opinions, perspectives, and data that best suit your audience.
• Set up content buckets in a content calendar. This will make it easier to plan several weeks (if not months) in advance.
• Use tools like Google Trends, Reddit, and Answer to Public to look at trending events and think of ways to get involved in the conversation. 

This, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Learn more about how to write technical thought leadership.

How to Distribute and Amplify Your Thought Leadership

Nearly three in four decision-makers believe a company’s thought leadership content is more trustworthy for assessing competency than marketing materials and product sheets. 

But this only works if they can actually find your content. You need ways of reaching more audience members so you can level the playing field with competitors. 

Below are some options for displaying and amplifying your thought leadership:

💡Related: Syndicating Developer Content

Measuring Thought Leadership Impact

It’s no secret that thought leadership is difficult to measure. The good news is, you have several options available.

Let’s break it down by quantitative and qualitative metrics:

Quantitative Thought Leadership Metrics

• Content engagement metrics. Audience engagement is one of the most common thought leadership tools. To measure this, you can track views, average time on page, scroll depth, and click-through rates for your articles, videos, or podcasts. Hosting an in-person event, podcast, or webinar? You might look at attendance numbers, ratings and reviews, or even conversion rates (if there’s a link or newsletter opportunity involved).
• Backlink growth and domain authority. If other websites start referencing or linking to your thought leadership, you can safely assume your credibility is rising, too. You can keep tabs on this number by monitoring backlink quantity, referring domains, and your Moz or Ahrefs Domain Rating/Authority score.
• Lead generation and assisted conversions. Not all thought leadership content is meant to drive direct conversions, but you can still track how often it contributes to lead forms, demo requests, or contact page visits. For example, you might use UTM parameters or attribution software (like HubSpot or Dreamdata) to connect the dots between content exposure and pipeline movement.

Qualitative Thought Leadership Metrics

• Brand perception studies. These are designed to measure customer sentiment about your business. For example, they might respond to multiple-choice questions regarding their feelings around your logo, or answer open questions with freeform typing. Findings might be presented in a CSAT or net promoter score, or something akin to a world cloud (which expresses common themes and ideas in terms of frequency or size).
• Sales team feedback loops. Your sales reps are on the front lines with prospects, which means they hear what people really think about your brand and expertise. Gather anecdotal feedback about how often your thought leadership content is referenced in calls, or whether it’s improving trust during early-stage conversations.
• Social proof and direct messages. Unsolicited feedback like DMs, email replies, or positive social comments can prove deeper engagement than hard numbers alone. You can also use screenshots, ratings, and comments as compelling qualitative evidence to show a direct impact between your content and your brand’s performance. 

Want more tips on how to measure your thought leadership content? Check out our guide to maximizing your content marketing ROI.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Like many other aspects of demand generation, great content marketing doesn’t depend on luck. It’s easy to get lost in the forest with B2B marketing, so if you’re not familiar with thought leadership, you might find yourself sliding into common faux pas that ultimately weaken the impact of your work.

With this in mind, here are three of the most common pitfalls for thought leadership, including how to identify them quickly and course correct for your audience.

Promotional Versus Valuable Content

Maybe you’ve just finished writing a long-form article, or you’re preparing for an interview on a podcast or keynote. Either way, you need to ask yourself: does this article serve others, or just my business?

It’s not hard for technical audiences to spot superficial promotional content — and if you create a marketing spiel, you might wind up creating less effective content (or unintentionally turn your audience away).

You can typically spot the unwanted shift from ‘valuable’ to ‘promotional’ content by:

• Its concreteness. How much will the reader take away from your leadership experience? Are they learning something new, tangible, and practical? Or is it dangerously close to ‘word salad’ with mostly theoretical opinions?
• How much ‘talking’ there is. If you’re writing or talking a lot about something, but not necessarily getting to the point (or offering real insight), you might inadvertently leave a bad impression of your brand.
• The thickness. Are you letting your experience and unique insights shine? Or are you mostly adding information other people can find online?

The fix is simply adding more depth and character to your thought leadership. What are some ideas, examples, or templates that audience members can’t find anywhere else? For example, you might add more statistics and personal stories, or offer resources they can use at a later time.

Remember: you don’t have to end every blog, post, or podcast with a call to action. Sometimes you might end your thought leadership with a musing takeaway, or ask audience members for their opinions with a poll, question, or suggestion.

Inconsistent Opinions and Abandonment

Nobody likes a hypocrite in business, and an inconsistent opinion isn’t likely to net you any favors. This issue is compounded by slow or inconsistent publishing schedules, which could make your business look less reliable than more consistent competitors. 

These issues might be hard to identify if you’re creating content on your own. If you’re handing off content production to a third-party (think a freelancer or a ghostwriter), you may need to establish some guardrails for safekeeping.

Keep an eye out for problems like:

• Confusing verbiage
• Extremely inconsistent scheduling (one post one month, none the next, etc)
• Changing a stance or opinion without explaining the reasoning

So that you can prevent or fix them with:

• A brand guidebook explaining the ‘Dos’ and ‘Don’ts’ of your thought leadership positions
• An Excel sheet detailing publication timelines and assignments (aka, who’s doing what)
• A trained editor who can look for context errors or continuity problems in a piece

Echo Chamber Content

By ‘echo chamber,’ we mean any type of thought leadership that immediately denounces other viewpoints and only champions a single perspective as the ‘right’ way to go about things. You’re probably most familiar with the term on social media platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook, where the algorithm customizes content so people only see what they engage in most.

You can avoid echo chamber content by exploring new ideas or expressing contrary opinions whenever it makes sense. Another option is to branch out into different types of content distribution platforms like:

• Threads
• Conferences
• Whitepapers
• Landing pages

This can help you avoid ‘echoing’ content to an audience that’s already engaged, or inadvertently repeating yourself without providing additional value.

Where to Find Examples of B2B Thought Leadership

B2B thought leadership is essential for businesses looking to build engaged audiences, reach new prospects, and expand their lead generation activities. 

All that’s left is to build some content for yourself.

Here are some examples to get you started:

• Draft.dev Webinars
• Draft.dev Newsletter
• Blog Posts
• Tutorials
• Video Tutorials