Breaking Free from the Commodity Box
So many thought leadership efforts get stuck in the commodity box. So how can they break out and keep out? First, focus on insight. Make sure you’re not just creating safe or informational content. It’s easy, but low value. Instead, help people rethink an issue. Next, make your POV personal. The best thought leadership shares […]
Prepping for Thought Leadership Success in 2024
Now is a great time to take inventory of your thought leadership capabilities ahead of detailed 2024 planning. Here are several core questions you should be asking yourself now:
Beyond Metrics, Embracing Conversations
Here’s my challenge to you as you think about how to measure thought leadership outcomes in 2024. Stop focusing on metrics like views, clicks, likes, and leads. Stop worrying about SEO. Instead, start having conversations. Ask your sales team, “Did you use this in a meeting? How did it help you? What else would help […]
A Strategic Roadmap for Marketers
Marketers can take a practical step towards building 2024 thought leadership TODAY with one simple action. Schedule a 30-minute call with client-facing subject-matter experts. If you don’t have names, find them out. The agenda is to ask them about what questions clients have started asking lately and what trends they see emerging. Develop and share […]
The Power of High-Value Thought Leadership in B2B
If you think about spending $200K to develop one major anchor piece of thought leadership, your immediate reaction might be that it’s far too expensive. On the surface, it may sound egregious. Who has budgets like that? Very few. On the other hand, in certain B2B categories and segments (high-trust, high-ticket products and services), if […]
2024 Thought Leadership Strategy
Here we are in September, and yes, it is time to start planning your approach to thought leadership in 2024. I’ve noticed companies that don’t have a plan in place before the start of the year tend to get stuck and not produce anything until much later in the year. Companies with a plan in […]
Unpacking the Implications of the ‘Fill the Container’ Mentality
We call it “content” because we inhabit a world where we fill the databases and filesystems that were designed for us. And at some point, it became our job as “content creators” to fill those containers. It seems as natural as calling one of those several things that hold up a table a leg. The […]
AI Content Creation: Good Enough vs. Crafted Communication
Using AI to create is just fine for creating content that only needs to be “good enough.” I recently used a tool that automatically assembles stock video clips based on keywords in a given script. Clips are well-rendered, transitions are smooth, the background music and automated voiceover are fine. A videographer or professional editor would […]
AI’s Self-Inflicted Quandary
“Researchers warn of ‘model collapse’ as AI trains on AI-generated content.” It’s funny—I talked about this risk a few months ago, but I didn’t come up with an attention-worthy phrase for it. The lesson is not about my (limited) prophetic abilities. It’s about the power of memorably naming core concepts as a way to drive […]
The Power of AI in Pitch Decks
“GPT-4-generated pitch decks are 3x more likely to secure funding than human ones.” (according to Clarify Capital) Do you think the takeaway from this finding is that you should use ChatGPT or other tools to create your pitch deck? Think again—it’s actually telling us three things: