Thought leadership content continues to prove its value, especially in an uncertain global environment where sales cycles are becoming more protracted and purchasing decisions are being deferred.

The impact of thought leadership on decision-making

Brands that are not producing industry-leading insights are often unsure about its business benefits. In 2024, global communications firm Edelman partnered with LinkedIn to understand how thought leadership can influence the purchasing behaviour of B2B decision makers and top executives. In a study that surveyed around 3,500 executives working across the world in various industries and company sizes, the researchers found that the vast majority (7/10) said they trusted thought leadership content more than marketing material and product data sheets for evaluating a company’s expertise. A similar proportion said they tended to think highly of brands that consistently produced high-quality thought leadership content.

Insight: 52% of decision makers and 54% of C-suite executives spend an hour or more on average each week reading thought leadership content.

Influencing B2B decision-makers, even when they’re not actively buying

The Edelman-LinkedIn survey report found that at any given time, the vast majority of B2B decision makers (95%) aren’t actively looking for new goods, services or suppliers. Despite that, compelling industry insights that inspire business leaders to re-examine or reconsider their key challenges from a new perspective, can also encourage them to take a closer look at how your products or services can help them address those challenges.

Insight: 60% of the decision makers interviewed said that a thought leadership piece had made them realize their organisation was missing out on a significant business opportunity.

Content that challenges and guides

This insight speaks to three key aspects of thought leadership that help it make a compelling business case to hard sell buyers: it’s based on strong research and data, helps buyers understand their business challenges and it offers concrete solutions or guidance. Ticking any of these boxes will gain the attention of decision makers, but stacking them will put you way ahead of standard marketing content and will also provide an unexpectedly strong advantage when it comes to sales and pricing for your offering. When you prove your expertise by effectively identifying and articulating a business executive’s pain points, while offering solid remedies for them, they will be more likely to pay your price.

Insight: 60% of decision makers said that good thought leadership makes them willing to pay a premium to work with that organisation.

A tool for client retention and protection

Establishing thought leadership is therefore critical, not only for pursuing new clients, but for protecting your existing client base. In the same way that other savvy providers might be looking to help your customers recast their challenges in new ways while helping to solve them, you should continually be using expert insights to prove your value to your current clients.

Insight: 70% of C-suite leaders said that a piece of thought leadership had at least occasionally led them to question whether they should continue working with an existing supplier.

Breaking barriers to effective strategy

Despite the compelling arguments in favour of thought leadership, the Edelman-LinkedIn study found that 30% of B2B businesses said they didn’t really know how to use it as a sales and marketing tool. Just 29% said they said they could link sales leads back to specific thought leadership content pieces. Overall a lack of resources and limited internal interaction with senior leaders were cited as major barriers to creating effective thought leadership.

The study concluded that in addition to strong content that featured research, data and case studies, the most impactful thought leadership programmes had executive buy-in and ownership, was an integral part of a brand’s communications strategy, and combined relevance, timeliness and a clear call to action by the target audience.

By Aspidistra

Source: 2024 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report