Thought leadership: how do you know it’s worth the investment?
You’re certainly told it’s worth the investment by headlines like Why Thought Leadership Is Your Most Valuable Asset and The Importance Of Being An Industry Thought Leader. There are studies that demonstrate its value too, like the oft-quoted (by me) B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study.
But how do you know it’s worth the investment FOR YOU? What can you REALLY expect from investing in thought leadership?
I’m GLAD you asked! 😉
Thought Leadership Outcomes in Three Parts
Everyone and their uncle on the Internet has opinions about thought leadership. Their opinions don’t matter: your opinion does. So you ask yourself, is this worth the investment for me? How do I know?
The question I hear beneath those questions is, what outcomes can I expect from investing in thought leadership? You need to know what you can expect before assessing if the outcomes are valuable to you, (and know that not all outcomes are easily measurable).
Return on investment (ROI) on thought leadership falls into three categories: You can expect:
- Business outcomes
- Professional and personal outcomes
- Influence and impact
Let’s get into detail about each one.
1. Business Outcomes: Short-term and Long-term Growth
The first thing you probably imagine when you think thought leadership ROI is MORE: more followers, more engagement, more opportunities, more sales.
You CAN expect more when you invest in thought leadership, short-term and long-term. Here’s the important thing to remember, though: thought leadership is a lifestyle. As with your finances, you must invest in it over time to get the greatest results. You’ll see a return on your investment right away, but a great deal of the value is in the assets you’re building over time.
When it comes to short-term business outcomes (within the first few years), here’s the kind of growth you might experience:
- Audience: more email list subscribers; more replies; higher open- and click-through rates.
- Exposure: more media inquiries; invitations to speak; podcast interviews.
- Sales: more leads, referrals, conversions.
- Social media: more views on your content; engagement with your content i.e. clicks, shares, comments; followers/connection requests; DMs (direct messages).
- Traffic: more traffic to your website; time spent on your website; contact form messages; client inquiries; job applications; purchases.
As for long-term business outcomes, the B2B Thought Leadership Impact study shows that you will experience the following:
- Preeminent reputation: Over 80% of decision-makers say excellent thought leadership increases their respect, perception of capabilities, and trust in an organization. And 71% of decision-makers agree that reading thought leadership is one of the best ways to get a sense of the type and caliber of an organization’s thinking.
- Premium pricing: 60% of decision-makers who are willing to pay a premium for services say it’s because the thought leadership of the organization demonstrates deep thinking and other virtues that they value. And over 40% of decision-makers are more willing to pay a premium to work with an organization that produces thought leadership over one that does not.
- Swift sales cycles: 48% of decision-makers say that thought-leadership can be effective in influencing their purchasing decisions. It shortens the sales cycle by giving them ample material to get to know you, which builds trust and primes them to want to work with you.
These may be difficult to link directly to your thought leadership because multiple factors support these outcomes. But it’s clear that thought leadership has a profound influence on your reputation, revenue and sales cycle. The study put it this way: “brands that cultivate a culture of thought leadership reap greater reputation and sales impact than those that do not.”
Now, can you expect to see increases across ALL these metrics? And do all those measurements matter equally?
The answer is everyone’s (least) favorite: it depends. It depends on your business goals and strategy. It depends on what actions you and your team take. It boils down to what matters to YOU.
Before you invest in thought leadership, talk with a strategist (like me) about your goals and expectations. Business outcomes from the list above will be among them.
But another important and meaningful outcome of thought leadership often goes unacknowledged: professional and personal development.
2. Professional and Personal Outcomes: How Thought Leadership Makes You Feel
It’s more difficult to quantify than business metrics but equally important to consider: how will investing in thought leadership make you feel? How will it impact your evolution as a person and a professional?
The benefits for you are enormous, and they’re often overlooked compared to easy-to-count business or marketing metrics. But no one I’ve worked with invests in thought leadership solely to increase social media engagement or email list subscribers. In fact, when I ask women leaders what they hope to get out of investing in thought leadership, I hear words like clarity, focus, confidence, relationships, and more.
How thought leadership makes you feel matters. And investing in thought leadership leads to GOOD feels:
- There’s the release, relief and pride that what you have to offer the world doesn’t just reside between your ears — it’s out there in ways that many people can access.
- The clarity, focus and confidence you build by continually developing your thinking. It’s knowing exactly what to say on podcast interviews, panels, and media appearances. You confidently articulate what you stand for in every situation.
- The relationships and community and opportunities you build: friendships, allies, supporters, evangelists. Relationships are the stuff of life, and investing in thought leadership draws rich relationships to you.
It’s important to know that it’s not rainbows and butterflies all the time. There will be uncomfortable feelings too, and those are a GOOD sign. Feeling twinges of imposter syndrome because you submitted your book proposal? That book proposal wouldn’t exist if you weren’t investing in your thought leadership. That you feel uncomfortable means you’re stepping outside your comfort zone, i.e. the only place where big, bold magic truly happens.
3. Influence and Impact Outcomes: This is Why You’re HERE
You can measure tangible growth and you can assess emotional results. Great. But you’re here to enact change. To defy the status quo. To leave your thumbprint on this world, making it a better place than it was before you entered it.
When you invest in thought leadership you are building influence and impact. You are creating something that wouldn’t exist if not for you. Take that in. I find it profoundly moving.
Through your thought leadership you are educating, opening dialogue, building skills, community, and giving numerous other valuable gifts that will keep giving beyond your tenure here on earth. I’m getting existential because nothing excites me more than our creative capacity to make change through our work.
That’s why you’re here. That’s why I’m here. And by steadily investing in your thought leadership, whether that’s a podcast, articles, workshop series, books, etc., you are creating change.
The Legacy of Your Thought Leadership
My grandfather had a favorite poem. He loved it so much that its opening two words were his email address! The first full line of the Latin version goes,
Ars longa, vita brevis.
‘Life is short, but art is long.’
The earth is over a billion years old. Our lives are an incomprehensibly small fraction of that. But we have the power to leave a legacy that will reverberate for decades, for centuries. Our life’s work can impact people we will never meet, now and in the future, if we let it out.
Investing in thought leadership is investing in that art. It’s leaving an indelible mark, a gift that keeps giving, far beyond what we can do as individuals.
Not everyone feels called to make such a mark, and that’s fine. But I suspect that YOU have work to do to leave your mark.
How to Start Investing in Thought Leadership
If you feel as fired up reading this as I felt writing it, I invite you to take my free email course, the 5 Pillars of Magnetic Thought Leadership. You’ll discover what your thought leadership needs to make a mark, now and in the future. It’s data-driven, informative, full of examples, and it’ll give your thought leadership the extra verve that attracts the people who are ready for you.
Click here to get the 5 Pillars of Magnetic Thought Leadership.
It’s free, 5 lessons, and it has exercises, examples, and insights to make your thought leadership as magnetic as you are.
Get the free email course here: 5magneticpillars.com.
PS not sure if you’re READY to invest in thought leadership? I wrote about how to figure that out here.
Special thanks to Amy Wright for edits.
