Become a Thought Leader

Step 1 - Discovery.

Let's clarify and understand your uniqueness. We'll dive into your brand and cover questions that may or may not be obvious to you. This initial exploration will provide future focus and make sure your audiences will be clear on what you're doing. For example:

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• What’s your topic?

• What's your expertise?

• What is it that you want to impart?

• What’s your angle?

• What are your goals? Your mission?

• What stories do you love to tell?

• How can you add to the conversation?

• Who are your audiences? How do you connect with them?

• Who are your competitors?

• Do you have a content or communication strategy?

• What’s your current digital footprint?

• What content assets do you have in your archives?

• Do you have an email list?

• What metrics do you track?

• What have you tried before?

 

These are some of the questions we’ll tackle as part of a strategy-first strategy.

 

Step 2 - Planning.

Take these next two steps in a single, simultaneous bound, with your planning foot forward. Here’s where we start to capture everything in one place, including goals, audiences, content types and channels. Here's what else we may do:

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• Explore what content types make sense, like blogs, social, video, etc.

• Create an editorial calendar

• Draft a thought leadership roadmap

• Determine KPIs

• Define high level branding and style guidelines

• Capture topics to discuss

• Develop content creation workflows

• Identify your voice

• Review your assets for new or repurposed content

• Determine what tech you may need

• Determine how marketing/PR will be accomplished and if there is an advertising budget

 

There are many choices, but a thought-out content strategy that makes you comfortable puts us on a Golden Path* to generate high quality, useful content.

 

Step 3 - Practical Research & Decisions.

Plan as you research. Research as you plan. In conjunction with Step 2, the time has come to delve into more details and lock down plans.

 

• Which content types have the best ROI potential?

  • For example, webinars vs. how-to videos vs. podcast hosting vs. podcast guesting vs. YouTube vs. LinkedIn vs. your blog vs. email marketing…

• How will the content get written, recorded, distributed, tracked?

• Where do your images come from?

• What are the publications or podcasts you might contribute to?

• What themes will we cover?

• Which social media platform(s) will we focus on?

• Which organizations or upcoming events could be a good match?

• What does the reporting look like?

• What keywords should we write to?

• What does your audience search for?

• What are your competitors doing?

• Do paid ads make sense?

• What software tools or vendors need to be vetted?

 

By the end of this phase, we know what resources we have and how to apply them. We’ll know what kind of content we want to create, action points for how it will get done, and any third parties we plan to work with.

 

Step 4 - Content Production & Distribution.

We’re ready for the fun stuff! Outputs like blogs, newsletters, webinars, social activity, even a book topic have been identified, and now it’s time to create, then keep creating.

 

I’ll constantly be there as a storytelling partner, as a writer, an editor, a buddy, and a project manager keeping the work moving. Like the mail and laundry, content production must keep coming! If we do a monthly webinar, for example, that webinar is content, but so are the articles that can be repurposed from it, or the social media posts related to it, or an original infographic we might make based on it, month after month.

 

You’ll meet new people. Have more zoom calls. Get press. Get more LinkedIn contacts. Perhaps even travel a bit. All because you’ve decided to impart your knowledge and elevate your business.

 

Step 5 - Ongoing Engagement, Production & Iteration.

While the content development is ongoing, so should the tracking, data analysis, iteration, and relationship-building.

 

Getting ten thousand followers after a single blog post is like hitting the lottery. There’s always going to be a story about it, but don’t bet on it happening to you. These things take time. So if you start, whether by writing a blog, appearing on podcasts, launching a website, having a monthly webinar series, sending emails, or even writing that awesome (but short) book, think of it as a marathon, not a sprint.

 

How many live events do you think you can realistically speak at over a year? How many seasons of a podcast series are you prepared to produce? 

 

We make, we learn, we make again, we delight our stakeholders and grow the business. Think about the old sales funnel image, then bend into a ring -- a flywheel, spinning with your content and expanding all the time.

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