Creating B2B Thought Leadership that Drives Demand
Draft.dev
15 min read
b2b-marketing
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.
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:
Now with these common misconceptions out of the way, we can talk about what B2B thought leadership really is:
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.
Every successful B2B thought leadership strategy should include three elements:
Let’s take a closer look at how these work in practice.
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…
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
This, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Learn more about how to write technical 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:
| Platform Type | Example Platforms | Cost | Time Commitment | Best For | Best Practices | Measurement Tactics |
| Publishing | Medium, LinkedIn Articles, Substack, company blog | $ | 2 – 4 hours per article | SEO and organic reach | Write with a clear POV; optimize for search; include CTAs | Views, time on page, backlinks, and conversions |
| Social Media | LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram (Threads), YouTube | $ – $$ | 3 – 6 hours per week | Visibility and audience growth | Post consistently; use hooks/headlines; engage in comments; repurpose content across platforms | Engagement rate, shares, follower growth, impressions |
| PR/Media | HARO, podcast guest spots, contributed articles, news features | $$ – $$$ | 1 – 3 hours per week (plus prep) | Credibility | Pitch relevant stories; build journalist relationships; create a media kit | Earned mentions, backlinks, domain authority |
| Mailchimp, ConvertKit, HubSpot, etc | $ – $$ | 2 – 3 hours per week | Nurturing audiences | Offer value (not just announcements); segment lists; track opens & clicks | Open rate, CTR, unsubscribes, reply volume |
💡Related: Syndicating Developer Content
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:
Want more tips on how to measure your thought leadership content? Check out our guide to maximizing your content marketing ROI.
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.
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:
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.
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:
So that you can prevent or fix them with:
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:
This can help you avoid ‘echoing’ content to an audience that’s already engaged, or inadvertently repeating yourself without providing additional value.
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:
Thought leadership is a subset of content marketing that requires deep expertise, data-backed insights, and forward-looking perspectives.
Long-form articles, whitepapers, industry studies, speaking engagements, webinars, podcasts, and video content are all effective formats. You can repurpose content across multiple formats for maximum impact.
Use quantitative metrics (engagement rates, backlinks, domain authority, lead generation) and qualitative measures (brand perception studies, sales team feedback, social proof).
While not mandatory, first-party data and original research have much greater impact on your audience and SEO. You can also cite credible third-party sources.