Effective Thought Leadership boosts the bottom line and enables faster growth. This presentation sets out Good Relations' seven step process for developing and running business boosting Thought Leadership programmes.

1. Seven Steps to Effective
Thought Leadership
© Good Relations 2018

2. Contents
Introduction
Why bother?
The seven steps model
Prioritise long term effects
Develop a point of view
Create a compelling platform
Touch all buyers
Maintain campaign currency
Activate advocates
Measure impacts
Thought leaders you need to know
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5
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3. Introduction - the battle for
effective engagement
“Thought leaders’ grow faster than their competitive set.
They get more sales enquiries, can charge higher prices
and develop more advantageous corporate relationships
with their key stakeholders groups.
But what constitutes effective thought leadership? Over
the past five years, the use of the term “thought
leadership” has increased by a third. Of 6,500 ‘thought
leading’ press releases issued - just one percent saw
coverage. Most sat undisturbed on company websites or
were turned into unopened white papers and email clutter.
At Good Relations, we believe B2B and Corporate Brands
have a simple challenge - engagement. For a ‘thought
leadership’ campaign to be effective, it must obviously
‘lead’ rather than ‘follow’, but most critically it must
engage. Xerox may have brought together the computer
mouse and graphical user interface, but it took Steve Jobs
to make it engaging to the market.
So how do the most effective ‘thought leaders’ do it? How
did IBM give birth to “ebusiness” in 1996, McKinsey develop
the “war for talent” and The World Economic Forum
establish the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. What is the most
effective process for developing and distributing ‘thought
leadership’ and how can every business do it better?
Good Relations, set up the Thought Leadership Project to
help answer some of these questions. Our aim is to create
a community of senior communicators to share insight, ideas
and best practice to increase the effectiveness of their
thought leadership programmes worldwide.
We hope you share our ambition. If you do, we look forward
to welcoming you into our community, meeting you at our
events and demonstrating together, the results that effective
thought leadership can deliver.
Richard Moss, CEO, Good Relations

4. 88% of
buyers said
thought leadership
was important in
shortlisting
vendors4
Why bother?
A fifth of firms believe they’re poor at
thought leadership,¹ while half of B2B
buyers are disappointed with the
quality of it.² If it is so tough, then why
bother?
Well the fact is when you stack
thought leadership up against other
marketing channels it emerges as far
more persuasive than you might
believe, particularly amongst senior
business audiences. Just 17 percent
of those developing thought
leadership believed it brought sales
leads, yet more than twice as many
C-level executives (41 percent) said it
led to them inviting a previously
unconsidered company to pitch.³
1. ITSMA 2. LinkedIn 3. LinkedIn 4. ITSMA

5. Correctly applied thought leadership delivers real
business results. With so many firms failing to deliver
effective thought leadership there is an open goal for
those confident and capable enough to step forward.
At Good Relations we have a seven step approach to
the delivery of thought leadership, from looking to the
horizon to assessing the impact of your programme.
Seven steps to
effective
thought
leadership

6. Prioritise Long
Term Effects1
Business buying decisions tend to be made at both an
emotional and rational level. Thought Leadership, works
predominantly at an emotional one. It demonstrates expertise
and takes the risk out of decision making (“you won’t get fired
for appointing IBM”). It drives long-term brand building effects
such as shaping preference and reducing price elasticity.
Much B2B & Corporate communications is short-term and
myopic, focusing on product or value features rather than long
term benefits. Peak performing businesses decouple product
and corporate brand stories. Research indicates that a 60:40
split between long and short term communications is the
optimum mix to drive profitability and growth.
Thought leadership, like brands, is built over the long-term.
Authenticity and realism must sit at its heart to be effective.
Technology analyst firm Gartner was the first to define the
concept of the hype cycle. It highlights the highs and lows that
accompany most innovation. Effective thought leadership
needs to reflect not only the leading edge possibilities, but the
practical journey to be followed.
The cost of being wrong
is less than the cost of
doing nothing.”
Seth Godin
“

7. Develop a
point of view2
A Thought Leadership Programme should
be based on a strong Point of View that
integrates with the overall business strategy
and goals. It should align with your sales
and marketing processes and your branding
and communications objectives. It should
be unique to you but act as a rallying point
for your stakeholders.
A strong compelling Point of View comes at
the intersection of Customer/Stakeholder
truths, Market/Category truths and your
Brand/Product truths.
A Point of View is built on a BELIEF,
recommended BEHAVIOURS, the
BENEFITS that derive from these and the
ACTIONS you encourage as a result. It is
the blueprint for your programme.
Belief
The things you
believe about the
world, based on
your unique
perspective and
experience
Behaviour
The things you
do as a result of
those beliefs
Benefits
The benefits your
stakeholders get
from your
behaviours
Actions
The things you’d
like stakeholders
to do as a result

8. Back in 1997, just two years after Amazon was founded,
IBM was in trouble. it had recently posted the biggest
loss in US history as it struggled to adapt to how the
internet had fragmented the marketplace.
Thankfully the new CEO Louis Gerstner had a plan, he
recognised that big businesses, not just web start ups
could benefit from web commerce. Now what could he
call the concept? His marketing team proposed e-
business, and recognised by not copyrighting it, their
competitors would unwittingly help spread the concept.
By the end of the year 25% of IBM’s target audience had
heard of the term, crucially it swung IBM from a loss to a
profit and boosted revenues.
Platform for
success
Create a
compelling platform3
The growing importance of digital channels has
encouraged many organisations to produce
streams of unconnected content and self-
serving news. This does not have long-term
brand building effects.
Byron Sharpe in his book ‘How Brands Grow’
talks about the concepts of Standout,
Consistency and Refreshment. Get noticed,
communicated consistently across platforms
and stay focussed (to refresh the memory
structures of customers).
Build a compelling and distinctive creative
platform from your Point of View that frames all
of your content streams and that can be
executed consistently and creatively across all
relevant channels and audiences..

9. In its guide to monetizing thought leadership
content, LinkedIN highlights the benefits of
thinking like Disney.
Rather than shaping fresh insights for each
channel, build a Blockbuster franchise. The
2018/19 release schedule for Disney has only
one new story, with all the others drawn from
previously successful franchises.
Following the same approach with thought
leadership allows the same core content to
play out across multiple channels. Such an
approach raises the overall return on insight,
and encourages higher quality thought
leadership.
Learn from the
House of Mouse
Touch
all buyers4
Years of B2C market studies suggest that most brands in
category compete as near lookalikes in buyers minds. That
brand share is driven by increasingly popularity (positive
feelings towards a brand). In the B2B and Corporate
environment this is also often true, with many mixing up
news and insight.
Hyper targeting is often inefficient. Reach remains key. It is
not the newest, but rather the strongest ideas that survive
and thrive. If you want to secure an effective Return on
Insight, then make sure your content is being marketed in
an integrated fashion.
Use your Compelling Platform to tailor content to each
channel and audience.

10. Maintain
campaign currency5
Integration is important, but that doesn’t mean recycling the same
content. Effective thought leadership finds new ways to express the
same concept. In our time and attention poor age, content must be
Meaningful, Accessible, Topical, Authentic and Relevant (MATAR).
Data led insight can support the development of a more highly
engaged content calendar. This can be built by looking at:
• Media trends (Seasonal or trending topics),
• Search insights (Organic keyword or search trends),
• Web analytics (Current traffic drivers)
• and social trends (what are key influencers saying and what’s
gaining traction).

11. Activate
advocates6
Many campaigns today still rely primarily on their own
experts for content. Most buyers and corporate
stakeholders will value the opinion of peers, end customers
and independent industry experts more.
Much ‘Thought Leadership’ is delivered through ‘owned’
channels such as websites, events and literature/direct
mail. Thought Leadership campaigns endorsed by
independent advocates such the Media or Industry Bodies,
carry more weight.
Thought Leadership delivered through ‘broadcast’ channels
is just the start. The agenda should be adopted by sales
teams and the wider business to maximise returns.
The strongest thought leadership campaigns are those
that maintain currency through citations. Learning from
McKinsey’s “War for Talent”, a seminal article published
in Harvard Business Review in 1997 and heavily
referenced since, BSI engaged the services of Cranfield
School of Management to establish its concept of
Organizational Resilience in the academic landscape. By
putting its fresh thought leadership approach in context
of prior academic thinking BSI unlocked a valuable
source of advocacy. This worked not externally, but
internally too, helping unite its global sales and marketing
force behind a common goal. Internal advocates are too
often forgotten, thought leadership needs to come from
every level of an organization, not just the top.
The difference
is academic

12. Advocacy channels
Customer
advocacy
LinkedIn groups
Speaker platforms
SlideShare
Company
pages
Academic debate Sales literature
SocialMedia Advertising
Sponsored
content
Colleague
engagement
Shared
Earned
Owned
Bought

13. Outputs Outtakes Outcomes
Primary research
paper
White paper, events
Downloads of
paper, third party
references
Sales leads tracked
through UTM
Earned social
content
Posts Engagement /reach
Sales leads tracked
through UTM
Earned media
coverage
Media coverage /
third party
endorsement
Share of voice /
sentiment
Incoming sales
leads
Owned channels
Microsite, news
letters, mailings
Site traffic,
Downloads
Sales leads tracked
through UTM
Bought social
content
Promoted content Engagement /reach
Sales leads tracked
through UTM
Bought
advertorials
Promoted media
plan
Reach/engagement
Sales leads tracked
through UTM
Shared debate
Third party
references/partner-
ships
Third party citations
/ endorsement
Incoming sales
leads
TOTAL
Rich content -
measured by
breadth of
channels
Exposure to target
audience -
measured by total
reach
Brand reputation /
market leadership
- measured by
third party
tracking
Measure
Impacts7
Gaining C-suite support for a long-term thought leadership
approach requires evidence and constant reinforcement.
Sales and programme targets bring with them a natural
pressure to return to short-term thinking.
Measurement sits at the heart of an effective programme.
Three areas should be measured to demonstrate success
and refine future programme design
Outcomes - contribution to business performance and
overall strategy.
Outtakes - engagement and returns from every channel.
Outputs - activity and numbers of connections made

14. Time to get effective?
Effective ‘Thought Leadership requires insight, creativity
and commitment. It is not a marketing short cut but a
longer-term approach to building the reputation and
success of your business. Implemented correctly it is the
most powerful tool a B2B and Corporate communicator has
to enhance the performance of their business.
More customer enquiries, more RFI’s, more sales, more
pricing flexibility, more productive partnerships and
stakeholder relationships….is it time to get effective?
The Good Relations Thought
Leadership process and products
Prioritise long-
term effects
Futures mapping
Maintain campaign
currency
Brand newsrooms
Measure
impact
The Return on
Insight process
Develop a
point of view
The Point of View
Process.
Create a compelling
platform
The Triangle of Truth
Touch all
buyers
Contagious
Campaigning
Activate
advocates
Stakeholder
programmes
©goodrelations2018

15. About us
Good Relations is an award winning communications
agency based in London and is part of the VCCP
Group. It has a strong heritage of developing highly
effective ‘Thought Leadership’ campaigns in the UK
and internationally for clients including Airbus,
FEDEX and Bosch.
The Thought Leadership Project was set up by Good
Relations in 2018 to champion effective thought
leadership and best practice amongst B2B and
Corporate brand practitioners. The Project consists
of a Blog, a Linkedin Community and a series of free
breakfast briefings.
If you would like to join the community, sign up on
any of the sites or simply learn more, please contact
Holly Dedman at hdedman@goodrelations.co.uk
www.thoughtleadershipproject.org
Good Relations
Greencoat House, Francis Street, Victoria SW1P 1DH
Telephone: Holly Dedman +44 20 7932 3622