Stop Borrowing Other People’s Content!

Content produced in the name of thought leadership is rarely one’s own thought – and frequently fails to assert leadership.

It’s time to do something different. Gartner research suggests a way forward.

While we’re all busy enhancing the customer experience, let’s take a moment to harness the experience we acquire across our customer interactions and assert that experience as expertise.

Sure, publish the update to your corporate narrative.

Absolutely, let the world know about your new product.

And if you received a client testimonial (awesome), publish it.

With all that done,, you now likely have what each of your competitors has: undifferentiated content.

Yes, I know, some products practically sell themselves. But when status quo starts to dampen your demand curve, what is your play to shape that demand?

Please don’t say ‘add a feature’ or ‘add a benefit’.

I know you are pursuing growth: get someone to buy; continue to buy; buy more; make a more ambitious purchase. But these are behavioral changes rooted in how a client perceives their own needs. Will reaching them one more time with an ad impression about you really change their behavior?

It’s time to make room for content that helps customers and prospects learn something about themselves.

Gartner’s recent research brings to light the impact true thought leadership has when it fosters self-reflection (or a learning path in Gartner-speak). It’s what you can do when you garner insight into how your own customers convinced themselves that they could attain their business goals by doing more with you.

Deepening a customer’s understanding of how to accomplish their own goals increases the likelihood of buying more by 38% in B2C customers, and a whopping 147% for B2B customers.

Framing how other clients or prospects anchor their behavioral change decisions shapes demand  – and drives their commitment (or propensity) to finally be receptive to learning more ‘about you’.