Thought Leadership for B2B Marketing
This document summarises summarizes key insights on thought leadership in B2B marketing shared by guests Jennifer Johnson, Head of Marketing at Deel, James Alliband, Head of Marketing at Carbon Black , and Tom Gatten, CEO at Adzact. The discussion centered around principles of effective thought leadership such as bravery to express opinions, importance of credibility, simplicity in communication, and the power of storytelling. Challenges around adapting thought leadership strategy to shifts in target audience and perceptions of thought leadership lacking value were also addressed. Key takeaways included the need to utilize internal company data to create compelling content, learning from B2C trends, and providing a forum for fostering new ideas within organizations. The guests emphasized that impactful thought leadership leaves a memorable impression by conveying insights through captivating stories.
Hosts
Joaquin Dominguez and Tom Gatten, were joined by two marketing experts to discuss the topic.
Guests
Jennifer Johnson, UK/I Marketing Manager at Deel. Responsible for brand building and lead generation in the region.
James Alliband Head of Marketing across EMEA for cybersecurity company Carbon Black. He aims to elevate the brand and share its perspective to differentiate it in the market.
Key themes that emerged include:
Impactful thought leadership conveys courageous opinions through compelling stories
Interactive engagement enriches thought leadership experiences
Utilize data from operations to provide tailored insights
Adapt strategy for evolving audiences while avoiding cliches
Air new ideas internally to create vibrant innovation pipelines
The Foundations of Thought Leadership
Thought leadership comes in all different shapes and sizes," said James Alliband, underlining that the key is to provide insights that solve problems and empower better decisions.
Jennifer Johnson shared an example where a thought leadership piece offering tips to develop high-performing teams enabled a client to implement those and thrive. "That first piece of thought leadership and the story behind it was actually transformed into a case study to help other people expand and grow their businesses," she said.
Expressing opinion courageously is central to thought leadership according to James: "I think thought leaders are the trendsetters, the trailblazers, the people who are willing to put their neck on the line, have opinions and ultimately want to make change."
He explained that thought leaders gain following through their willingness to "elevate, change, say that maybe something we're doing right now needs to be done differently in a certain way to accelerate growth or reduce risk."
Jennifer highlighted how data from within the organisation can provide insights to craft thought leadership content in multiple formats: "At Deel, we have a lot of hiring trend information... I'll be able to go back into the database and really distil it for the UK and Ireland audience, and then be able to share that in a number of different formats," she said, underlining how such data can be presented in ways tailored for diverse audiences.
"Thought leaders gain following through their willingness to elevate, change, say that maybe something we're doing right now needs to be done differently in a certain way to accelerate growth or reduce risk." - James Alliband.
Adapting for Evolving Audiences
As solutions become more advanced, target users often expand beyond initial segments. "Over time, as the solution grew, obviously the strategy behind the thought leadership needs to change because the buyer journey changes," Jennifer explained.
She compared the difference between selling to SMB founders versus enterprises with thousands of employees and highlighted the importance of mapping content to their distinct needs.
Observing Deel's transition, Joaquin asked about effective strategies to engage the new enterprise audience. Jennifer emphasized short-form content, sharing "We've seen definitely a shift within B2B from being kind of a stuffy brand to really shifting and learning from B2C consumer trends...we use more video...data from within our company."
"We've seen definitely a shift within B2B from being kind of a stuffy brand to really shifting and learning from B2C consumer trends...we use more video...data from within our company." Jennifer Johnson
The Art of Storytelling
Jennifer explained great thought leadership solves real problems for the target customer community. Tom agreed interactivity enriches experiences, "What makes people believe an idea is not the quality of the evidence but the quality of the story. From that perspective, thought leadership is often about creating stories people really engage with at an emotional level."
James underscored the need for a distinct viewpoint and the significance of communication: "I look at something that's opinionated and different...we were fortunate a few weeks ago to sit around a table with 20 different CISOs through the day in the life of a ransomware attack and it was really interesting to see different responses."
The panel addressed surveyed insight that most thought leadership fails to provide value, lacks fresh ideas, and is created by non-experts. Tom highlighted this entropy can set in as conversations get self- referential. "Past a point, if you’re writing about a topic, everything refers back...There’s very little new. Large language models likely mimic stale conversations," he said.
The antidote is airing new, passionate viewpoints internally to drive innovation, James advised: "There's two kinds of buyers - those that follow the status quo and those that want to take a journey. Many people want to figure it out together, they're thought leaders for you," he observed, advocating interactive ideation.
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Tom Gatten - CEO and Founder, Adzact
