You’re making progress, but you need to push more to be a true thought leadership trailblazer.

Thought leaders aren’t afraid to buck conventional wisdom with their own brand of fresh, innovative thinking. At least one of your competitors is already leading the charge with quarterly trend reports, atomized across video, social and their podcast. So now’s your time to come in with a future-focused take on issues—putting a new spin on long-held assumptions and exploring uncharted territory.

Identify the issues that matter most to your audience right now—and where you have something distinct to say. Is it AI? Is it responsible sourcing? Then do the heavy lifting: interviewing the sources, writing, editing, fact-checking.

Action items

• Identify 4-5 big rocks to integrate into your editorial calendar.
• Define your distinct POV and how to infuse it into each piece of content.
• Recruit SMEs who can substantively make your case.
• Identify opportunities to conduct proprietary research to back up your arguments.
• Develop a detailed atomization plan, so you can slice and dice the content while still maintaining a cohesive brand message.

Even the most elevated thought leadership content won’t move the needle if people can’t find, interact and engage with it. And a large part of that is the experience on your site. Simplify content discovery with better navigation, intuitive filtering options and personalized recommendations. 

Action items:

• Rethink your content hub to improve the user’s ability to find the content they’re looking for—and stick around to explore more.
• Consider content clusters to organize content around a core theme.
• Make it personal, like serving up content recommendations based on past behavior.

While you’re maintaining an excellent cadence of new thought leadership content, don’t overlook the value of your archive. Regularly update older posts with recent data, strategic keywords and internal links to maximize their relevance and rankings.

To make all content more likely to be surfaced as rich snippets or cited by AI search models, structure it to answer specific questions directly, using concise, well-organized sections with clear headings and schema markup.

Action items:

• Do a deep dive into your metrics to see what’s resonating—and what’s not.
• Develop or revisit the keyword matrix for your focus topics.
• Identify the pieces to be updated—with prioritized deadlines.
• Make it personal by serving up content recommendations based on past behavior.

Position your experts as industry authorities in your own content as appropriate—and in third-party content, securing speaking opportunities at conferences and contributing to respected publications. Your top rival is already excelling at this. Don’t let them hog the spotlight.

Action items:

• Recruit a willing and eager army of SME colleagues with not just deep knowledge but their own authentic voice.
• Provide your experts with the guidance they need to share their insights effectively, including writing support, media training or public speaking coaching.
• Create a dedicated slot for them on your own content calendar—on social, a webinar or blog post.
• Connect with journalists who work in media related to your industry or topic, and hit them up regularly with newsworthy, tailored pitches.
• Partner your SMEs with folks from other like-minded organizations for joint event appearances.

It’s a simple fact: You’ll reach more people by putting out your thought leadership message across multiple platforms. You’re off to a fine start with an enewsletter and social. But that’s not enough. Use bite-sized content to drive traffic back to the original content asset and encourage visits to your content hub with email subscriptions. Mix it up on social, folding in long-form storytelling posts. And it’s time to double down on YouTube. It may also be time to look at investing in paid media to bolster awareness.

Action items:

• Map out your distribution channels to identify strengths and weaknesses.
• On social, move away from overtly promotional content and explore formats like social storytelling, LinkedIn carousels and zero-click posts that provide immediate value.
• Develop a YouTube strategy that lets you maximize your video reach.
• Explore paid media options to bolster your organic distribution.

You have your core on lockdown—they’re regular consumers of your thought leadership. But now it’s time to make some new friends and spread your influence. That means tackling new, emerging subjects. Focus on the areas where you can build topic authority by highlighting a distinct take in content that could only come from your brand.

Action items:

• Identify audiences you haven’t reached and map them to 3-4 subjects they care about.
• Think about unexplored channels, like Reddit.
• Develop a collaboration plan with strategic partners that can give you greater visibility and exposure to new audiences.