Through Ideas. Thought Leadership Marketing: How to Build Relationships and Revenue. Six Pillars of the Idea Organization. thought leadership.

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1 SPECIAL REPORT

2 Thought Leadership Marketing: How to Build Relationships and Revenue Through Ideas To be found, providers must churn out highquality original thinking that is based on hard data rather than opinion and is leavened with proof points from real-world experience with customers what s commonly known as thought leadership. Thought leaderships success requires a deep commitment not just from marketing but from the entire company. This led us to explore the concept of the idea organization and we developed a model the Six Pillars of the Idea Organization.

3 Pillar 1. Create an idea culture that values ideas as much as revenue Marketing can t create thought leadership on its own. If it does, the output will be promotion, not thought leadership. Marketing must get the buy-in, support, and commitment of executives and subject matter experts to become part of the idea-generating and dissemination process. A few ideas from some companies we talked to are: Have the CEO declare thought leadership a strategic priority Make idea creation a part of career advancement Educate executives and SMEs about the importance of thought leadership Use an internal collaboration platform to develop ideas Make it competitive

4 Pillar 2. Use business themes to provide a flexible blueprint for thought leadership Marketers have a crucial role to play in making sure that thought leadership relates to what customers need and what the company does. Business themes are clear, succinct expressions of issues that are relevant to customers and prospects and link back to a company s strategy. ITSMA research has found that business themes give thought leadership programs a deeper level of connection to target audiences needs and goals and give employees a clear, simple way to understand the strategy and goals of the company.

5 Pillar 3. Validate your ideas with research With research, ideas become fact based, and therefore much more credible. Research has particularly long mileage online, where people are hungry for facts and stats that cut through the haze of uninformed opinion. There are three broad ways that B2B companies are making research part of their thought leadership programs: In-house research External partnering Secondary research

6 Pillar 4. Create an idea development and dissemination engine We must become as good at developing ideas as we are at disseminating them. With a stable of willing and able contributors, marketers can create a thought leadership supply chain that balances idea development ITSMA research shows that marketers are putting more effort and budget into the development side of the supply chain. When we surveyed marketers in 2007, 70% of the thought leadership budget went to dissemination; when we surveyed them again in 2010, the proportion was roughly split. with dissemination.

7 Pillar 5. Set up a thought leadership center of expertise Thought leadership and social media both require internal experts who may not come from marketing. Both groups also must coordinate they cannot exist as silos within the organization. ITSMA research shows that B2B companies are creating marketing centers of expertise for thought leadership (social media, too). In our survey, 56% said they have a central group or center of expertise for packaging thought leadership. Though specialty strategy consulting firms like McKinsey and Bain have had these groups for decades, more mainstream B2B companies are now stirring the same kind of thought leadership marketing transformation.

8 Pillar 6. Use metrics to show how thought leadership influenced the buyer Thought leadership creates an arm s-length relationship with buyers through content. The trick is to be able to track that relationship all the way through to a sale. Influencing the buyer is everything in thought leadership. But influence is a murky term when it comes to metrics. We need to break it down into more concrete terms. At ITSMA, we categorize thought leadership influence in three ways: Reputation Relationships Revenue

9 It s time for a strategic approach to thought leadership, led by marketing We see many B2B companies launching thought leadership marketing for the same reason they launched social media: because everyone else was doing it. As many companies have already discovered, that s a prelude to failure. Thought leadership is more than a marketing tactic, it s a strategy that requires the buy-in and support of SMEs and top executives in the company. Thought leadership forces marketing to get out of its silo and begin working and leading across the organization. Marketers must convince their companies to turn out relevant, customer-focused ideas with the same passion and commitment that they turn out products and services.

10 Learn More For the full story of the six pillars of the idea organization and to learn how B2B Services Marketers can influence the buyer and make an impact on revenue, buy the ITSMA Special Report