Showing off Your Expertise

The most powerful emotion that a brand can elicit is trust.

Your audience wants to have peace of mind that the organizations they associate with and purchase products or services from are experts in their respective fields.

This goes beyond spreading awareness through various marketing activities (social media, news releases, email campaigns, etc.).

Gaining your audience’s trust that your organization is a leading expert in any industry requires “third party validation.”

There are several strategies to achieve this, but few are as effective as having a respected media outlet publish a thought leadership article written by a subject matter expert at your company.

Thought leadership articles provide the opportunity for organizations to flex their knowledge and offer a unique point-of-view on a specific and relevant subject. These points of view have been proven to resonate with key decision makers among a target audience – much more than that of an advertisement.

The bottom line is that advertisements are paid placements, and the reader knows this. They can be effective tools in spreading awareness and promoting initiatives, but they do not move the needle in establishing trust like a contributed thought leadership article does.

In fact, according to a study performed by Edelman and LinkedIn, 89 percent of decision-makers agree thought leadership is effective at enhancing their perceptions of an organization. Furthermore, in that same study, 59 percent of decision-makers say that quality thought leadership articles are more trustworthy for accessing an organization’s capability than marketing materials and 49 percent of decision-makers say thought leadership articles significantly influence their purchasing decisions.

A quality article with your organization’s name on it leads to broader recognition and more sales consideration. Not to mention sharing published articles is great content for those awareness-spreading social media and e-campaigns.

The biggest hurdle we see with organizations is determining what exactly to write about. Many people don’t often recognize that they have something valuable to contribute. The best way to settle in on a topic that will be valuable to the industry is ask yourself a few key questions:

1. Do I see a pattern in customer problems that we solve on a regular basis?
2. Are there pitfalls that a newcomer to the industry may not be aware of?
3. Has there been a recent project where we developed a solution for a customer’s challenge?
4. What does our ideal prospect not know about the industry we’re in that they should?
5. The real goal is for a prospect to read your article and think to themselves, “Wow, this person really gets it. They really speak my language. I wonder if they could help me with my challenge?”

For the last 16 years, Black Twig has been securing and developing thought leadership articles for our clients in a wide variety of industries. We’ve helped publish countless effective thought leadership articles for our clients, including IWR North America, Oculus Inc., Valin and Wellington Environmental, among many others.

If you have industry expertise you’re looking to share, we’d love to help you tell your story. To learn more, contact us at 314-536-8906.