At PReturn, we talk a lot about building “thought leadership” with and for our clients – after all, it’s one of the core components we recommend for any full scale public relations program. Addie Reed, account supervisor for PReturn, wrote this useful blog post for explaining the multi-tiered approach to thought leadership (which I highly recommend you read). Bylined articles and columns still serve as one of the most effective methods for boosting visibility of executives and their brands, positioning executives as thought leaders within their industry and the business world at large and helping brands establish a trail of credibility that can mean the difference between closing or losing a sale.
While it’s tempting to craft any number of self-serving advertorials promoting company products and services, that defeats the purpose by removing credibility. Valuable contributed content should focus on trends impacting the industry, how-tos for solving common problems, and forward-thinking perspectives on the direction of the industry at large. Here’s a quick refresher on some of the key components to building authoritative content:
- Provide use cases and real life examples; it’s always better to show how (or how well) something works rather than simply stating that it does.
- Avoid statements that include “I think …” Instead, cite research, customer comments and case studies whenever possible.
- Speaking of research, citing company data and reports affords an opportunity to talk about why a company is qualified to speak to various trends; you dominate the industry, you have a lot of powerful customers using your product, you manage a huge amount of spend within a particular industry, etc.
With all of this in mind, here are a handful of examples of PReturn clients effectively building thought leadership through bylined articles:
Kenshoo’s Tiffany Miller, director of product, SMB agencies, offered her expertise in issues affecting local marketing with her latest contribution to LSA Insider focused on client churn:
“So how and what are agencies doing to reduce client churn? Churn control strategies were among one of the questions Kenshoo posed in a recent TechValidate survey of agencies who manage campaigns with Kenshoo.”
“Agencies are increasingly using automation technology to sail past the avoidable issues of client churn. In fact, more than three out of four (78%) of the surveyed respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that campaign management technology has helped their organization scale, grow and be more competitive due to automation.”
Viji Davis, CMO of Resolution Media, provided her unique take on mentoring marketing talent in Chief Marketer:
“CMOs should embrace mentoring not only to develop talented staff on their own teams but to build relationships and talent throughout their organizations.
Mentoring is a way to give back professionally and pay forward the support and guidance shown to you throughout your career. It can be a great experience for both ends of the mentor-mentee relationship.
To keep the effort on track and improve your odds of success, keep an open mind.
Be flexible, and aim to help mentees succeed on their own terms, according to their own value set and goals. These terms can and likely will be different than your own definition of success, and your mentees may even be headed in an altogether different direction than you. Rest assured, you can still help tremendously.”
SilkRoad’s Amber Hyatt, director of product marketing, shared thoughts on an oft-overlooked, yet critical component of the company/employee relationship called offboarding in TLNT:
“… companies must understand that offboarding means more than just the logistics of returning keys, badges and computers. It means seizing the opportunity to tap into the power of departing employees and making sure they remain a positive voice for the company.
Know this: gone are the days when former employees vanish after their last day. Today, they are free to speak their minds on Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Facebook and any number of other social networks. While there’s no way to absolutely guarantee they won’t post scathing thoughts, it’s far less likely to happen to companies with strong and strategic offboarding programs in place.
Though no two offboarding programs can – or should – be exactly alike, SilkRoad has observed that the most successful ones are defined by three key characteristics …”
Each of these examples provides valuable lessons on building thought leadership via bylined articles:
- They examine issues critical to their respective industries
- They offer thoughtful insights and potential solutions to those problems
- Tiffany Miller and Amber Hyatt both cite research from their respective companies to validate their points, but aren’t overly self-promotional while doing so
- Viji Davis speaks to her peers (CMOs) on a one-to-one level regarding her experience, while acknowledging others might be different – a nice way to share ideas and encourage discussion
- They provide original thoughts and ideas, rather than regurgitating over-discussed industry topics
We encourage PR pros and potential thought leaders (no matter the industry) to read each of these examples closely to understand the strengths of each piece and to see what they may be able to adopt in their own writing. Feel free to share any other lessons for leveraging bylined articles to enhance thought leadership in the comments below.
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