Sharing expertise in the evaluation stage

In addition, writing content that positions you as an expert in your field is a valuable tool for the evaluation stage of the sales funnel. At this point, potential customers are actively evaluating different companies in order to make an informed choice on which product, service or supplier is best for them. Content that clearly positions you as authoritative on your subject can be extremely powerful in swaying decisions. In fact, a study by Forbes found that 63% of decision makers use white papers to evaluate prospective products and services.

Case study: Mailchimp

Email provider Mailchimp cement their position as a leader in the email marketing space by providing a range of white papers full of valuable information for email marketers. Mailchimp openly share internal data on areas such as subject lines for the benefit of customers and other visitors to their website, helping them to be front of mind at the crucial evaluation stage.

Post-purchase advocacy

Thought leadership pieces can also continue to bring you benefits after purchase. Happy purchasers are more likely to share your content with others on social media, so creating highly-shareable pieces of business writing can help your advocates to spread the word about your expertise. You could use any format – a blog post, white paper or guide – as long as it is easy to share with others.

Case study: Seth Godin

Marketing thought leader Seth Godin has written 12 bestselling books, but he also shares new ideas in short, super shareable blog posts to enable his supporters to easily spread the word.

Conclusion: Use thought leadership to build trust

Internally, there can be some resistance to creating content that shares your most innovative thinking, as traditionally companies would keep their best knowledge and expertise in house. In the age of social media, this kind of attitude is outdated. Now, the more you share the more credible you appear. Sharing what you know positions you as an authoritative expert, making it more likely that people will trust your brand. It is one thing to say that you know what you are talking about but demonstrating that you do through helpful content increases customer engagement. As you become known as a useful source of information, customers, prospects and others in your industry are likely to come back to you, over a competitor who is unwilling to share their knowledge.

There can also be other, less measurable benefits to being transparent with your knowledge and best thinking – in addition to customer engagement and hopefully increased business as a result, other people in your industry will think more highly of you, helping you to attract better employees and better partnership opportunities.