1.
How Thought Leadership
Impacts Demand Generation
Jeff Weiner
Chief Executive Officer
Phil Gomes
Sr. VP of U.S. B2B Digital,
Edelman
Kelly Kyer
Global Director, Technology Vertical Marketing
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

2.
Housekeeping

3.
How Thought Leadership
Impacts Demand Generation
Jeff Weiner
Chief Executive Officer
Phil Gomes
Sr. VP of U.S. B2B Digital,
Edelman
Kelly Kyer
Global Director, Technology Vertical Marketing
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

4.
Today’s
agenda
04 The True Value of Thought Leadership
06 About the Study
10 Key Findings
17 What Makes for great Thought Leadership
21 Examples of Thought Leadership
23 Recommendations for B2B Marketers
24 Q&A
EDELMAN + LINKEDIN

5.
The True Value of Thought Leadership
The business value of thought leadership is often assumed but rarely
measured
So what role does
thought leadership
play in the complete
buying process?
More Questions
For B2B companies,
complex sales cycles
and multiple deal
influencers
complicate
attribution.
Complexities
Beyond driving
awareness, the ROI
of thought leadership
has long been hard
to evaluate.
Uncertain ROI

6.
About the Study

7.
What is Thought Leadership?
About the Study
“Free deliverables that organizations or individuals
produce on a topic that they know a lot about, and
they feel others can benefit from having their
perspective on. Thought leadership, in this context,
does not include content primarily focused on
describing an organization’s products or services.”

8.
What is Thought Leadership?
About the Study
Formats of thought leadership include, but are not limited to:
• Research reports
• Thought pieces
• Essays
• Videos
• Webinars
• Presentations (live or published online)
• Similar such items that organizations make freely
available (or in return for submitting contact information)

9.
Understanding the Attribution Gap
How Thought Leadership Works Across the Purchase Funnel
AWARENESS
CONSIDERATION
PREFERENCE
PURCHASE
We Surveyed:
• 1,300 business decision
makers
This included:
• 680+ producers of thought
leadership
• 180+ CXOs

10.
Key
Findings

11.
Thought Leadership Opens The Conversation
Decision makers take commercial action after reading thought leadership
Creators of thought leadership believe:
33
%
It generates incoming
calls from potential
clients
42% It helps with lead
generation
What Decision Makers actually do after engaging with thought
leadership:
Gave the organization
your contact information
Reached out to the
organization to follow
up
44%
55%
Business decision makers
C-Suite executives
31%
42%
Business decision makers
C-Suite executives

12.
Generates RFP Opportunities
Opportunities for which your firm was not previously considered
Creators of thought leadership believe:
17%
“Thought leadership gets us more RFPs”
Decision makers said:
37%
41%
Business decision makers
C-Suite executives
“After seeing its thought leadership: invited the
organization to propose on a project”

13.
Increase Respect and Admiration
The trust necessary to feel comfortable buying from your firm
Creators of thought leadership believe:
“It enhances our brand reputation”
What Decision Makers think after engaging with thought
leadership:
88%
89%
Business decision makers
C-Suite executives
“My respect and admiration for the
organization increased”
59% Much higher
trust-building
effectiveness
than creators
realize

14.
Builds Decision Maker Trust
De-risks the sales cycle
Creators of thought leadership believe:
49%
“It (thought leadership) builds trust in our
organization among potential clients”
Decision makers said:
82%
81%
Business decision makers
C-Suite executives
“It (thought leadership) increased my trust
in the organization”

15.
Helps Close Business
Thought leadership is key to a win—more than most realize
Creators of thought leadership believe:
20%
“It helps us close and win”
Decision makers said:
45%
48%
Business decision makers
C-Suite executives
“Directly led you to decide to give business
to a company”

16.
Commands Premium Prices
Driving not just more revenue, but more profitability
Creators of thought leadership believe:
10%
“It allows us to charge more than our
competitors who produce lower quality thought
leadership”
Decision makers said:
49%
47%
Business decision makers
C-Suite executives
“I am more willing to pay a premium to work
with an organization that has publicly
articulated a clear vision for the future”

17.
What Makes for Great
Thought Leadership

18.
What Makes Prospects Engage with Thought
Leadership?
Some surprises in terms of what prospects value
Business decision makers (total sample)
C-Suite executives
70
48
86
67
68
84
Comes from a source that I have opted into
Forwarded by my boss
Forwarded by someone I know and respect
Sources
36
50
63
34
53
63
Ideas are completely new and original
It is short and easily absorbed
Topic is something I am currently working on
Content
Timeliness and
relevance more
important than
pure originality

19.
Thought Leaders Need to Deliver Facts, Insights
and Substance… Quickly.
Business decision makers (total sample)
C-Suite executives
49
%
50%
67
%
45
%
53
%
71 % 78%
79
%
66%
63
%
63
%
64%
Facts and
Insight
Lengt
h
Short-form 3-4
page documents
Short-form 3-4
minute videos
Snackable media
that can be digested
in 1 -2 minutes
Identification of new
trends or issues that I
should know about
The analysis of the causes and
drivers underlying important
current events and issues
The data (e.g., charts,
infographics, key facts or figures)
Percent who rate each factor as important in getting them to engage with thought leadership (top 3 shown)

20.
Thought Leadership can also be a Double-Edged
Sword
Nearly 1 In 2 BDMs Are Disappointed With The Quality
44% 51%
Percentage of the time I gain valuable
insight from thought leadership
Percentage of survey respondents who are
disappointed by this

21.
Highly Engaged Thought Leadership on LinkedIn

22.
Key
Takeaways

23.
Align thought leadership
with demand generation
efforts
Convene all relevant parties to explore where the two workstreams might intersect.
Recommendations for B2B Marketers
Educate rather than sell No one wants to be sold to, but (almost) everyone wants to learn more.
Know your customer
Explore where the customer “pain points” are by function to help make thought
leadership more relevant and strategic.
Be timely and brief Understand not only what you customer needs to see, but when and in what form.
Harness the power of
employees
Thought leadership should not only be about what the customer needs to see, but
what your employees will be inspired to share.
Close the attribution gap
Align with sales KPIs and plan your analytics and measurement approach early to
help judge content performance and effectiveness.

24.
Q&A

25.
Thank you