More and more financial advisors, as well as other professionals, are making concerted efforts to become thought leaders. Why? Because thought leaders are able to garner a disproportionate share of new business. The opportunities come from their current clients, as well as the ability to effectively source new clients.
There are a number of essential elements to becoming a thought leader. One of them is the ability to create or curate powerful content. The content should be thoughtful and meaningful to your audiences, enabling them to achieve the best results.
The following three criteria provide a helpful blueprint on producing content:
1. Concentrate on high value topics: Content should address the issues and concerns of your audience. It should include meaningful insights and introductions to important ideals and concepts. Make sure to tell the audience how they can benefit from this information.
Some of your thought leadership content should probably result in clear, workable solutions. You must deliver results-based answers that will make a difference in the lives of targeted audiences, including entrepreneurs and other professionals they are working, such as accountants and attorneys.
2. The content must be tightly constructed: The solutions and viable information you are providing must be firmly connected to the needs of your target audiences. For example, your conclusions must build on and proceed systematically from previous arguments and defensible assumptions.
It is also very worthwhile to not presume that the value of your thought leadership content will be implicitly recognized. You must take steps to ensure that the target audiences are aware of the value you are providing and how it can be leveraged most effectively.
3. There needs to be a “call to action:” If you want wealthy clients, there has to be something in your thought leadership content that attracts them and their inner circle of advisors. In essence, the combination of your thought leadership content and the method and style of communicating to select audiences is highly sophisticated "advice-ertising."
The decisive element of a thought leadership campaign is making sure that your target audience members understand how they can work with you to achieve their goals. They should clearly understand your expertise, accessibility and role so that no other options or professionals are considered.
Given the substantial time and resources needed to develop high-caliber thought leadership initiatives, it only makes good sense to do it extremely well. Thought leadership campaigns build reputations in the near term that allow for the pursuit of business growth in the long term. Implementing the methodology can take months, even years, so it needs to be planned and executed with precision. Where possible, include metrics for critical responses and behavior.
The desire to generate thought leadership content is flourishing across industries. The three steps described, along with ensuring topics and components support well-defined overarching goals, will help you develop or curate powerful content that enables you to stand apart from your competitors.
Russ Alan Prince, president of R.A. Prince & Associates, is a consultant to family offices, the ultra-wealthy and select professionals.
