Thought leadership is a phrase that gets dangled about on LinkedIn and in big businesses.

A thought leader is a go-to person in their field of expertise. In the areas of mortgages brokering, and buying and selling property, there is plenty of scope to show your expertise.

Writing a business blog is one way.

Content ideas

You could come up with ideas about answering customer questions (here’s a tip I learned from attending The Marketer’s Club Super Conference last week: try using ‘Answer the Public’ to bring up commonly searched questions).

You could comment on a news item that is either positive or negative. The Banking and Financial Royal Commission could be one area. Or bank interest rates. Or market conditions. And how this might affect your customers.

You could also write an opinion piece. This could be something that is contrary to the industry or market’s general consensus. A well-written opinion blog can create engagement.

Here’s a couple of examples.

Accounting firm CHN Partners are creating a series of educational articles and content about common accounting and business tax-related concerns.

Conqurve helped them put together this one on using live reporting technology:

VIEW EXAMPLE HERE

Sanyin Siang, a leadership coach, routinely shares thoughtful articles on how to create “your inner champion.” She’s had excellent engagement on LinkedIn.

VIEW EXAMPLE HERE

Our key tips on writing an engaging thought leadership piece are as follows.

• Be authentic. Don’t try and copy someone else’s writing style. I’d suggest reading lots of different writers, particularly business writers, to get inspiration. But try and write as if you’d speak.
• Be bold. Thought leadership isn’t about sitting on the fence. If you have a strong view on a particular topic, then now is the time to say what you think. We’ve been working with an IT consultancy who have produced some confidently-written blogs about topics in their industry – with genuine interest and leads coming back as a result.
• Go long. If you are using LinkedIn (and we recommend you do for any blog postings, as well as on your website), write at least 300, but ideally 500 + words. Here’s LinkedIn’s guide to writing excellent long-form articles on their platform.

Have fun with it. Cultivating a brand of expertise starts with your content.

If you are motivated to start your thought leadership journey, then contact Conqurve to get started.