Thought Leadership
Helping the people in your organisation who genuinely know something publish it, in their own voice, with enough substance to be worth reading.
Überblick
Most thought leadership is neither. It is marketing content with a senior name attached, saying things nobody would disagree with, produced because a content calendar required something that quarter. Readers recognise it immediately and the byline is worth slightly less afterwards.
The version that works starts from someone who actually knows something and has a position worth defending. The job is extracting it, shaping it, and getting it published, without sanding off the specificity that made it worth reading in the first place.
Für wen das gedacht ist
- Companies with genuine expertise that nobody outside knows about
- Executives who should be visible in their market and are not
- Businesses whose published articles could have been written by anyone
Unser Vorgehen bei Thought Leadership
Die konkreten Arbeitspakete eines typischen Projekts. Der Umfang steht vorab fest, nichts davon taucht später als Überraschung auf der Rechnung auf.
Finding the position
What this person genuinely believes that others in the field would argue with. A position nobody would dispute is not one.
Extraction interviews
Getting the substance out through conversation, which is far more productive than asking a busy expert to write.
Writing in their voice
Drafted to sound like the person rather than like a communications department, then corrected by them.
Publication strategy
Where it should appear: owned, trade press, or a platform where the audience already is. Not everything belongs on your blog.
Speaking programme
Conference proposals, panel placement and preparation, which reaches a different audience from anything written.
Sustainable cadence
A rhythm the person can sustain. A strong piece each quarter beats a monthly commitment abandoned in March.
Vom ersten Gespräch zum gemessenen Ergebnis
Immer dieselbe Reihenfolge, damit Sie wissen, was als Nächstes kommt.
Find the substance
Interview to establish what this person knows that is genuinely uncommon and defensible.
Shape
Turn it into a position with an argument, including the objections it has to survive.
Produce
Draft in their voice, have them correct it, and publish where the right audience is.
Sustain
Keep a cadence the person can maintain, building on the position rather than starting fresh each time.
Ergebnisse statt Aktenordner
Ein Stapel Dokumente ist kein Fortschritt. Das hier sind die Veränderungen, die die Arbeit bewirken soll.
Credibility that attaches to a person
Individual expertise is more believable than corporate claims and travels further.
Inbound from the right people
A specific, defensible position attracts enquiries from people who already agree with the premise.
Very little of their time
Interviewing and correcting takes an hour or two per piece rather than the days writing would.
Recruitment as a side effect
Visible expertise attracts people who want to work with it, which is often worth as much as the leads.
Häufige Fragen zu Thought Leadership
Was Kundinnen und Kunden fragen, bevor sie sich melden. Fehlt Ihre Frage, stellen Sie sie uns direkt.
Is this ghostwriting?
The substance and the position have to be genuinely theirs; we do the drafting and structuring. If the ideas are ours with their name attached, readers detect it and the byline loses value. That distinction matters more than the label.
How much of the executive's time does it take?
An hour or so of interview per piece plus reviewing the draft. That is the arrangement that makes this sustainable, because asking a busy person to write is the version that never produces anything.
How often should someone publish?
Whatever they can sustain with something genuinely worth saying. Once a quarter with real substance beats monthly filler, and the cadence should follow the ideas rather than the calendar.
What if they do not want to take a position?
Then this is not the right programme, and we would say so. Thought leadership without a defensible position is content marketing with a senior byline, which is a legitimate thing to want and a different piece of work.
Thought Leadership im Kopf?
Sagen Sie uns, was sich ändern soll. Passen wir nicht, sagen wir das und nennen Ihnen eine bessere Adresse.
Interessiert Sie das grössere Bild?
Thought Leadership steht meist neben weiteren Themen aus Training, Enablement & Knowledge. Sehen Sie sich den ganzen Bereich an.