Thought leadership helps your company stand out from the crowd. But how do you create trustworthy content that resonates with the market? And what benefits can you expect from a thought leadership campaign?
Find out in this informative recorded webinar conversation. This episode is part of the ongoing State of the Industry series of webinars brought to you by the marketing experts at ViB.
Get tips for strategic content
In today’s conversation, Tom Riddle, Director of Survey and Research Solutions at ViB, is joined by top customer Jaye Ling. Jaye is a Senior Marketing Manager at Illumio, a leader in security segmentation.
Tom details the powerful results of the Edelman-LinkedIn 2020 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study. And Jaye shares her experience putting thought leadership content to work for lead generation. She describes the results as “the gift that keeps giving.”
Listen in as Tom and Jaye explain how and why to develop strategic thought leadership material. They also discuss the benefits of creating this type of content, including:
- Improved brand perception
- Increased pipeline
- Increased demand and revenue
- Reusable and valuable content
Understand the Edelman-LinkedIn study
Why is the Edelman-LinkedIn 2020 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study so important? “Edelman is considered the preeminent PR firm worldwide,” says Tom. The study includes responses from thousands of global business leaders. He highlights this stat: “88% of decision makers said thought leadership can be effective in enhancing perceptions of an organization.”
This enhanced perception extends to a company’s capabilities. And that remained true even if no capabilities were mentioned in the thought leadership content. “This is a really important point,” says Tom. “And the trust in an organization increased as well.”
Use third-party research
Tom explains that “thought leadership is the number one criteria” customers use when deciding to consider a company’s services. So where do you start?
For the most trusted form of thought leadership content, find a firm that can deliver solid industry research.
Tom says that according to the marketing and sales analyst SiriusDecisions,“vendor-neutral, third-party, end-user-based research is the number one most trusted basis of content.”
Create strategic market-facing content
Jaye put third-party research to work for her lead generation program. “I’m always looking for ways to identify our market, engage with them, and position Illumio to partner with them on their journey to better security,” she says.
Jaye wanted to better understand the challenges her prospects face day-to-day. She also sought to establish a thought leadership campaign. So she started off by conducting a third-party survey with help from ViB. Jaye’s goal? To discover “how IT security professionals are addressing security segmentation in their organizations.”
Jaye turned the results of that survey into valuable thought leadership content that she expertly promotes. She and her team created “Illumio’s first state of security segmentation report,” she says, “and enough stackable content to repurpose in social email content syndication and other demand generation channels.”
Grow your pipeline
The content generated from the third-party research continues to grow Jaye’s pipeline. “To date,” she explains, the security report “is the second most visited piece of content on our website.”
And because her team uses the content in different ways, “it’s pretty much the gift that keeps giving for us.” Jaye’s thought leadership campaign will continue to power Illumio’s pipeline. She recently identified another topic and has a new survey lined up.
Convert content to revenue
Find out more by listening to the entire episode, “State of the Industry with Jaye Link of Illumio.” Learn why conducting third-party research helps you develop meaningful content and drive revenue.
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