Building Quality Thought Leadership

Businesses compete on a multitude of metrics; product/service quality, price, innovation, customer experience, etc. Our client was seeking to shift market perception in a different way – by enhancing their levels of credibility, influence, and expertise. Using survey fueled market statistics, we attempted to create a new set of best practices and ways of thinking to introduce this brand to an entirely new set of considered buyers.

We utilized a four-part, data-driven method for building quality thought leadership, which helped this client break through the inherent noise and distractions of their market space.

(1) Discovery – a mix of literature reviews to determine what was already being published on this topic, social media scraping (KS&R’s SIX engine) to understand the conversation and dialogue occurring online, and a framing workshop to assess and prioritize internal hypotheses.

(2) Market Sensing – data collection through an online survey to vet and quantify market expectations.

(3) Analysis – using a combination of descriptive and advanced statistics, we found patterns and correlations that would drive our client to specific actionable steps in their marketing and sales strategies.

(4) Deep Dives – a series of qualitative in-depth-interviews (IDIs) to better understand the trends and implications uncovered in the market sensing and analysis phases. We also created a source of quotes and verbatims for use in potential thought leadership publication.

From the results of this research, we were able to create over 20 individual reports for specific account teams to share with their specific market markets, multiple white papers delivered from the desk of our client’s CEO, a video summary to play at corporate events and conference environments, and literally dozens of articles, social media blogs, and tweets to keep the brand front of mind and topical to key buyer segments.