Are you an innovator or leader in your industry? Then you should be sharing your many powerful insights and ideas about your field, as it can enhance your business’s or brand’s authority in the marketplace. At ATRIUM, we understand that getting the good message out to the right people can be a challenge for many thought leaders and innovators. That’s why we have a digital content marketing program designed to promote your unique insights and ideas about your industry. Below we’ll break down the concept of thought leadership, the types of content you can use for your thought leadership, and how you can utilize email marketing to drive value to your business or brand. Continue reading to find out more!

Understanding Thought Leadership

Simply put, thought leadership is the expression of ideas demonstrating that an individual, business, or brand has expertise in a particular area and is an authoritative source others can trust. Often you’ll see many executives and business leaders strive to become thought leaders in their respective fields as it positively impacts their business and the markets they serve.

Thought leadership comes in many forms, from speeches and events to social media posts (especially LinkedIn), blogs, videos, and more. However, thought leadership takes dedication, patience, strategy, and education to establish yourself or your business as a trustworthy and reliable leader in a particular industry. Establishing yourself as an authority on a subject is not only a way to outshine your competition but also a great way to ensure your audience feels comfortable with the accuracy of the information they are receiving from you.

Types of Thought Leadership Content

Choosing the medium by which you send your thought leadership ideas into the world will significantly depend on the type of business you are promoting and your target audience. Some of the most common types of thought leadership content you will come across includes:

• Inspirational Content: This type of content includes inspirational images, stories, or interviews which can incentivize your target audience to take action and enact changes.
• Educational Content: This type of content is some of the most important and common thought leadership content you’ll find, as it’s the easiest way to showcase your education and expertise on any subject. Educating your audience can add value to your business or brand and may lead them to become loyal customers.
• Opinion-Based Content: This content is commonly found on social media platforms like Linkedin. Opinion-based content can be valuable as it’s an excellent opportunity to show off your expertise and can help humanize your brand or business.
• Upcoming/ Current Industry Trends: This type of content explores current or upcoming industry trends and communicates to your target audience that your brand or business is on the ball concerning the newest developments in your industry. Industry trend-based content also adds value to your thought leadership as it aids in establishing your business as an authoritative voice.
• Latest Industry Research: This type of content positions your business or brand as an industry leader who is up to date with the newest information and research from your field. It adds value to your business by garnering a larger audience (sometimes including competitors) looking for up-to-date and accurate information regarding the industry.

Depending on your industry, goals, and target audience, some of the above thought leadership content may not be relevant to your business. However, your thought leadership can take your business to the next level with the right content marketing strategy.

How to Use Email Marketing to Push Your Thought Leadership Further

When pushing your thought leadership to the masses, you need a content marketing strategy that will generate engagement, conversions, and leads. ATRIUM’s content marketing program facilitates email marketing as tried and tested means of promoting your brand or business’s thought leadership content. Email marketing is a reliable content marketing strategy as its relatively straightforward. Simply put, when using email marketing to promote your thought leadership, you send out an email or newsletter that links subscribers to your think pieces, delivering it directly into their inboxes. However, getting your ideas in front of people won’t immediately garner your desired results. But with a few optimization strategies, your email and content marketing can take off. Below are a few ways to generate greater value for your readers and business with email content marketing and thought leadership.

Provide Consistent Value

Your target audience will opt into your email list because they consistently receive something valuable from your email content. To bolster this approach, ensure that each email you send contains insightful, original, well-crafted and helpful content on a routine schedule. As a thought leader, you want to reinforce your expertise by providing industry updates, personal insights, or actionable advice regularly. That way, your brand or business is top of mind for your audience when they think about your industry.

Short and Sweet is Best

Today’s average consumer is flooded with information, making it challenging to grab their attention. However, by crafting thought leadership content that gets to the point concisely and is easily digestible, you can hook your audience in and hold their attention. So keep your emails short and sweet, and don’t hesitate to use bullet points, subheadings and short paragraphs to break up the wall of text and make your emails more skimmable.

Use Compelling Subject Lines

Your email’s subject line is the first thing your audience sees in their inbox. An attention-grabbing and intriguing subject line can significantly enhance your open rates. So make sure your subject line is captivating, but be sure that it accurately reflects the content of your email. Misleading subject lines can damage your audience’s perception of your trustworthiness which is the opposite of your thought leadership and content marketing goals.

Segment Your Audience

Just as you would segment your business or brand’s various target customers, so should you segment your email audience. Segmentation enables you to tailor your thought leadership to different groups within your entire audience, enhancing your message’s relevance and improving overall engagement. For instance, new subscribers will likely appreciate a welcome message and beginner or layman-friendly content. In contrast, long-time subscribers will likely prefer thought leadership content that goes further in-depth.

Regularly Review and Refine

One of the most significant advantages of email content marketing with ATRIUM is that we collect a wealth of information regarding the performance of your program. From tracking open and click-through rates to utilizing A/B testing, user experience (UX), and more, our team tracks these insights to continuously refine your email marketing strategy. ATRIUM understands what is and isn’t working for your business by utilizing an engineered approach to content marketing and thought leadership. Moreover, this data-driven approach informs and guides our future digital marketing strategies with your brand or business.

Enhance Your Content Marketing with Thought Leadership & Email Marketing Today!

Whether you intend to incentive engagement and drive sales or are simply interested in spreading valuable information, utilizing thought leadership through email and content marketing can positively impact your business or brand. If you need assistance crafting effective thought leadership content or email marketing strategies, ATRIUM is here to help! With over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, ATRIUM is here to guide you through the many facets of crafting an effective thought leadership email marketing strategy. Contact us today to learn more about our content marketing program or to get started on your thought leadership journey!