Elements of a Thought Leadership Program Original Research Demonstrate the depth and quality of your unique insights, ideas and solutions with advisory publications such as research reports, white papers, or eBooks. The most effective marketers create advisory publications are based on original primary research with peer executives, respected influencers, and subject matter experts that offer clients, prospects and influencers insights that validate risks and opportunities and provide best practices for solving problems and creating value. Many organizations leverage third party partners as a source of validation. Selling Events Translate your thought leadership into tangible selling events using speaking engagements, client education events, event panel programming, or online webinars and videos. Best-in-class selling events leverage internal subject matter experts, external authorities, or client case examples to introduce issues, ideas, opportunities and relevant solutions to target clients, influencers and partners. Using original thought leadership to create selling events drive measurable sales outcomes by generating response, profiles, face to face meeting, and referrals. Sales Playbooks Get your salespeople engaged in the conversation with clients, influencers and partners and support solution selling, targeting, training, and cross sell objectives. Sales playbooks leverage your thought leadership and translate it into sales opportunities because they make if fast and easy for salespeople to access the best content assets needed to support all aspects of a specific sales interaction. Best-in-class sales plays will specify calling scripts, discovery guides, the right advice, most relevant solutions recommendations, and appropriate expert to follow-up. Sales Enablement Tools Put your thought leadership research and insights to work during the client engagement, lead generation, and validation stages of the go-to-market process. Best-in-class sales enablement tools include return on investment models, data visualization tools, and benchmarking assessments that leverage research insights to validate risks and opportunities and quantify the business benefits of an idea or solution to a client. The best tools allow clients to educate themselves about the value of an idea, or proposal in a self-directed or collaborative manner. Digital Marketing Assets Maximize the sales impact of your thought leadership investment by repackaging your content into compelling and “channel ready” elements that allow you to better leverage social, digital, and mobile channels. Best-in-class marketers are repackaging their thought leadership into “bite sized” digital marketing assets that are easy to consume and reuse across channels, programs and devices. The most effective assets include: video case studies, animated infographics, data visualization tools, special featured research videos, and image based mobile content streams. Subject Matter Experts Leverage the people within your enterprise who demonstrate your unique expertise using web sites, blogs, videos and landing pages that deliver your organizational “know how” in digital, social, mobile and face-to-face channels. Best practices include using digital contributor networks that allow subject matter experts to attract and engage more clients, prospects and influencers in an ongoing dialogue on the thought leadership agenda Digital Media Amplify your thought leadership investment with a larger audience by leveraging the digital media platforms. Best -in-class marketers are leveraging their unique expertise and original thought leadership research in new forms of digital media including: native advertising, special feature stories, targeted publishing platforms, and topic specific executive newsletters to maximize reach, objectivity and impact. Fueled by thought leadership content these new digital media platforms can deliver significantly greater earned media rankings, social media shares, report downloads, viewership, and mindshare than traditional advertising. Social Media Help your marketing team, salespeople, resellers, and media partners to amplify the reach of your ideas and insights by delivering your thought leadership assets using top social networks including Twitter, Linked-in as well as client sales, marketing. Best practices include leveraging partners that can provide objectivity and leverage using subject matter expert accounts to broadcast your message and expand your organic search engine rankings and reach. Thought Leadership Selling Page 14 © Revenue Enablement Institute 2022