Blogging or Thought Leadership as its more commonly know, can be very difficult for businesses to get right. Think of thought leadership for business as being the hub for your industry, it's not about flogging your product or services, that's what your website is for.
Effective thought leadership informs, influences and educates your readers on your industry as a whole, not just what your business sells. Creating content purely on your product or service is a very short sighted approach and will be difficult to encourage readership and create engagement.
Hubspot is spot on
HubSpot and Salesforce are industry leaders in thought leadership, producing content on various topics, which all sit within their industry. I regularly read these blogs when looking for content on sales, marketing, technology, social media, digital and innovation.
Even though salesforce.com core product is a CRM and HubSpot is a marketing automation, they are my go-to sites for inspiration and knowledge.
Think outside the box of your product or service and generate content which is insightful, funny and clever. Here are a few tips to get you started to create blog topics.
Think Tank
Host a think tank session for all employees to help create content topics and use this to shape your content calendar. Making this an informal session over coffee, lunch or a glass of wine will get those ideas flowing!
Front Line Staff
Have a chat with or Ask your sales and customer service teams what is trending, find out what content they are reading and FAQ's from customers.
Competitors
Check out the competition and review their content, perhaps you could do a better job!
Social Media
Have a look at LinkedIn and Twitter and check out the trending topics in your industry, there is always plenty of content being shared. These tips should help you start to plan your overall thought leadership plan, but remember thought leadership should be part of your marketing strategy, you should want to make your business the go to place for your customers to find out insight, tips, views and ideas on your industry.
