Demystifying the daunting topic of thought leadership

After studying marketing at university, Luke Quilter took time off to travel before landing a role at Holiday Extras. “I quite fortunately fell into a role where I was dealing with around £5m of advertising budget in the very early days of the paid advertising space”, he recalls. “The problem was, we were working with agencies who were never very good at combining the mix of customer service and technical capabilities you need to deliver good digital marketing.”

Luke set up Sleeping Giant Media to do just that: running paid search campaigns in the evenings and at weekends until he and his business partner took the leap to do it full time in the summer of 2009. 

Since then, Sleeping Giant Media has grown to become a company that hires around 70 people and turns over about £4m a year. “While it started as paid search, we quickly added other strings to our bow”, he says. Luke’s business offers paid search, SEO, data analytics and content – which includes thought leadership. 

Thought leadership is the subject of Luke’s April 30th Vistage webinar. We caught up with him to find out what attendees can expect on the day. 

The information gap

In a typical B2B purchasing decision, 83% of a buyer’s research has already happened before they walk through the door. “If you’re not educating people, if you’re not showing them your expertise via thought leadership before they come to your site, you’ll be losing out to your competitors who are”, stresses Luke. “Buyers today want to be educated. They want to know what they’re doing so they’re not so vulnerable when they walk through that door. This is where thought leadership is important: it’s a chance for you to talk about the expertise that your business delivers”. 

Some are starting to embrace this opportunity, but are using shortcuts to do so. “AI is a large part of our world right now, particularly within marketing and content marketing”, explains Luke. “We’re seeing some businesses using AI to create content – but the downside is that the search algorithms don’t really benefit from fully AI-generated content because it’s not a unique story.”

This, he says, creates a situation where the internet is full of homogeneous information. “Thought leadership is different”, he continues. “It’s about bringing in that unique story, that unique value, that expertise, authority and trust that set you apart – and that AI can’t fulfil.”

Maximum content, minimum time

If you’re thinking, “I’d love to create more thought leadership pieces, but I don’t have the time”, you’re not alone. “Time is one of the biggest constraints when it comes to thought leadership”, confirms Luke, “but in my webinar, I introduce the concept of content pyramids.”

“CEOs and business leaders are busy people”, he continues. “Our focus is on prioritising thought leadership, but doing so whereby setting aside a single hour can create multiple pieces of content.”

Luke explains how they can spend 15 minutes filming an interview with an expert in their studio. “We’ll then transcribe that content to create a blog post”, he says. “We can turn it into some GIFs. We can turn it into some photos. From that one piece of video, we can create over 100 pieces of content. And when we approach it that way, it removes the daunting feeling that many leaders get when faced with the prospect of creating content.”

Avoiding imposter syndrome

Time is not the only challenge that business leaders face when developing thought leadership content. “Coming up with ideas in the first place is often a struggle”, says Luke, “but ideation is one area where AI can actually be a good solution.”

Imposter syndrome is another challenge. “People feel like they’re not really good enough: they wonder why others would listen to them”, he explains. “Often, people are reluctant to share much – if any – of their personality on a business platform. However, they’re more than happy to talk about themselves at a networking event – it softens the conversation and helps people get to know each other on a more personal level.”

Thought leadership is now part of that networking process – a new forum for networking and increasing your business’ reach. One way that Luke recommends business owners fight imposter syndrome is to work on their company culture, encouraging the entire business to embrace thought leadership as an integral part of the marketing mix. 

“Leaders should lead from the front and demonstrate just how important thought leadership is”, stresses Luke. “Talk about ways you can incentivise thought leadership. Make it part of your company narrative and culture, and offer rewards and gamification. All of this will help to instill and embed a culture of thought leadership throughout the business: a collective impact will result in a much bigger shift in content output and reach.”

“Demystify a daunting topic”

Luke’s Vistage webinar is divided into three parts: what thought leadership is and why it is important; how to do it and gain organisational buy-in; and how to ensure maximum output for minimum input. 

“This session is about gaining a better understanding of thought leadership”, he says. “It’s about understanding the opportunity within the marketplace and the influence thought leadership can have on your business, combining your audience and your services to build an opportunity to create more compelling and interesting content that will resonate with your users.”

Those who attend Luke’s session will leave with more confidence in themselves to be able to create thought leadership content, as well as a better understanding, allowing them to demystify a daunting topic. 
Sign up for your place here.

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