Establishing your company as a thought leader provides benefits that no marketing or advertising program can deliver on its own. As a thought leader, your company will gain credibility in the market and become a trusted advisor and partner—not just another vendor. Potential customers will gravitate toward your products and services. Journalists will seek you out for quotes. Analysts will call you. Industry Web sites will link to you.

That’s a compelling list of benefits, but what exactly does it mean to be a thought leader? And how does your company gain a thought leadership position?

Granted, thought leadership is a buzzword. But like many buzzwords, there is relevance behind it. Thought leadership means having a reputation in the market as a company with unique, innovative, and important ideas about your industry, the forces shaping it, the challenges facing it, and the future awaiting it. Any sized company can become a thought leader; you don’t need to be big.

While thought leadership is not a strategic objective on its own, it supports and fulfills other objectives such as lead generation, growth of market share, or increase of share price—or all of these simultaneously.

Thought leadership starts with point of view

To earn the mantle of thought leadership, your company must have a unique point of view on your industry. You can’t simply parrot what others are saying about your industry and market; there’s nothing special or worth paying attention to in that.

Therefore, your first task is to understand your point of view by answering questions such as:

• What does your company believe about your industry that other companies may not?
• What’s your company’s position on how the industry is changing? What new challenges customers will face?
• How is technological innovation shaping your industry? What innovations do you see coming?
• What’s your company’s approach to helping the market understand and overcome the challenges? What differentiates your company’s position from others?

The thing about having a point of view is that it’s yours. Your view may not be unassailable; in fact, it can’t be, otherwise you’re saying the same thing as everyone else. You need an edge, but not an “out there” edge. Your point of view must be respected and you must back it up.

Offer value, spread the word

Once your company understands its point of view, you should articulate it by developing valuable content. This is where your library of articles, white papers, Webcasts, podcasts, blogs, and videos take over to demonstrate your expertise and experience.

This content should be educational in nature—not promotional or sales-like in any way—and should be freely available. For example, white papers or articles whose objective is to establish thought leadership should not be hiding behind Web site registration forms. You want to get this content into as many hands as possible, get as many people reading and viewing as possible. Save the registration forms for lead generation activities.

As far as spreading the word, put your marketing acumen to work. It’s important to use the right media to reach your audience.Start by identifying and getting to know the important editors, blogs, e-newsletters, and Web sites in your industry. Offer to provide articles and other content. Seek out industry events that may offer speaking opportunities and pitch a compelling idea for a presentation. Make your executives available for media interviews. Host executive seminars. Sponsor industry events.

Finally, stick with it and track your progress. Positioning your company as a thought leader requires a long term commitment. It takes time for the word to spread and your reputation to grow. Discover what type of content your audience finds most relevant by tracking downloads and views, and then use this data to help guide future content creation and media choices.