[How-To]: Anatomy of a thought leadership asset
Most of our customers are fast-growth B2B organisations that want to be noticed by the right economic buyers and decision makers in mid or large enterprise. The most effective way to achieve this is by sharing ideas and insights on how you can be a solution to your customer's problem through inspiring and engaging content.
Why invest in 'big rock' assets?
Thought leadership or big rock assets provide foundations to your content strategy. Where most emerging or growth brands have success is sharing exclusive access or a strong POV on industry trends, best-practice and customer success.
As we're operating in a content landscape that is close to saturation, there are a few principles that we, at Content Unicorn, follow for content planning or creation, particularly thought leadership or 'big rock' assets that are intended for impact. If you are early in the content cycle you want to focus on building your reputation and trust quickly, therefore:
+ Identify where you can be a true authority and create unique content based on research and evidence.
+ Build radically engaging and/or exceptional content, don't add to the noise.
+ Identify niches or networks where content is still gaining traction (LinkedIn and industry associations)
+ Amplify to the people who matter consistently
Where do I start?
As part of any content strategy, one of the critical first steps is a deep dive into your buyer persona profile/s - challenges, opportunities and aspirations - and their content consumption patterns (format and channels) so any thought leadership assets produced are tightly aligned.
Given lean resourcing within most organisations, fewer more impactful content assets should be the mantra. Identify which content themes strike a happy balance between your buyer's drivers, market or industry trends and your value proposition. Choose a theme per quarter or 6 months and build a defining piece of 'big rock' content around that, promote it and watch your funnel, well, fill up!
A few considerations:
1. Make it repeatable by investing in a differentiated asset that is easily templated and, if successful, could be re-launched YoY, or version on version. LinkedIn's Sophisticated Marketing Guide is a fantastic example of this, as are Gartner's CXO annual reports.
2. Challenge yourself to produce 5-6 pieces of ’social first’, snackable content from the big rock piece, i.e infographics, videos, blogs or checklists. It's not simply, build the stadium and they will come, you need to hook and nurture visitors to share their details/ download the asset.
3. Use social content to tease or preview the gated content or final destination, i.e. pullout quotes, data visuals, lists, highlights/best practice.
Anatomy of a 'big rock' asset
When it's time to start putting pen to paper, here's a relatively easy format to follow for insights reports, whitepapers, eBooks or best practice guides.
1. Opening chapter which describes why topic [x] at hand matters.
2. Chapter 2 covers how your company thinks about the problem – typically at odds with the way that the broader market does – and your POV + potential highlights on how to solve [x]
3. The middle chapters typically outline – one idea/point per chapter – the blueprint required for a prospect or customer to get from where they are today to [x].
4. Subsequent middle chapters can last for as many ideas as necessary – typically at least three, or potentially more.
5. The final chapter – the conclusion – closes by reiterating why [x] is important, how to implement the blueprint and some compelling event or urgency as to why they should consider/start now.
6. At the end of each chapter or at closure of the content, provide evidence in the form of expert Q&A or case study, which can be localised or industry-led based on intended audience – let your previous work and customers do the selling for you.
Complement with always-on blog content
Can the 'big rock' asset chapters be produced as separate blogs? Great longevity of content here. If yes, phase these out over 3-6 months so you can slow-release the content to your audience and gain maximum reach and engagement. It may or may not be exactly the same headline as your thought leadership content – however it should echo a similar message or one of the key take-aways and provide a clear CTA to download the 'big rock' asset.
Need help building out your content strategy or first 'big rock' asset? Content Unicorn can shortcut the planning and development process for you by over 50%.