The Value of Thought Leadership Content - Anouk Pappers
Anouk Pappers, a personal branding agent and CEO and founder of Signitt.com specializes in content based marketing. She has deciphered the technique of using strategic thought leadership content to amplify brand engagement. The Edelman firm published statistics that prove this method to be effective.
Anouk reacted to this data and gave her insights on the topic.
The challenge of the attention economy
“As a business owner, you need a good content marketing strategy. Not to gain reach at low cost or to do something different, just as an alternative to advertising. Famous marketing authors like Seth Godin and Ron Tite have argued this for years: you can no longer rely on buying your audience’s attention just by paying to interrupt what they’re doing.
“People spend most of their day looking at computer screens. And they only pay attention to what they think is worth paying attention to. If you really want their attention, you need to deliver something of value in exchange for it: content that is entertaining, inspiring or informative. You have to matter.”
Thought leadership leads to buying decisions
“A content marketing strategy needs to start with a value proposition: But how do you offer honest value in exchange for your audience’s engagement and still make sure that their engagement is producing the needed value to your business?
“Interestingly enough, a recently survey by Edelman showed the impact of thought leadership content on business buying decisions. In this study, 52% of business decision-makers said that they use thought-leadership content to vet an organization before deciding to work with it. 37% said they had added a company to an RFP as a result of such content. And 45% said that it had led them directly to award a supplier a piece of business.
“Now that’s a powerful argument for the strategic value of thought leadership content — and the direct impact is the bottom line. But understanding the value of a content marketing strategy is not enough.”
Why content marketing strategy matters
“Edelman research also found that tracking the impact and effectiveness of the marketing strategy is necessary. This proves that the opposite approach, poor thought-leadership content, can easily damage your business’s prospects. In fact, 30% of decision-makers said they removed companies from consideration because of content that disappointed them.
So, which content does the trick? We believe that companies that focus on content that connects, impresses and creates value, are the companies that have truly invested in their content. They create value for their audience because they’ve carefully considered what their audience needs. They do not simply use content as an ad-hoc marketing tactic, but as a business asset and a revenue driver.”
How to spot a content marketing strategy
“You can easily identify which businesses implement this kind of strategy not only by the fact that their content is worth consuming — but by the fact that they are distributing it regularly. An article on LinkedIn and a compelling piece of video storytelling is far more captivating than a 30-second ad.
“We know that content marketing isn’t the only type of marketing strategy out there — but it’s the marketing strategy that’s best suited to the attention economy we live in.”
