We see the impact from B2B content overwhelm increasing…everywhere. There’s never been so many options for information at everyone’s fingertips. Gen AI has become the megaphone for content that flattens your buyers’ attention spans.
There’s nothing wrong with most of it. Gen AI writes complete sentences and is ok stringing words together to write an article. It has a decent structure, in that it creates a clear beginning, middle, and end.
But it’s flat. It lacks nuance. It lacks flavor. It lacks emotion. Most of all, it lacks context and perspective, resonance, and anything original. There’s nothing curiosity-inducing. There’s nothing that gets you beyond the impression that you’ve read it somewhere before.
Probably because you have.
Now that marketers can churn out content at the click of a prompt, we need to rethink what we can do to break through the noise, capture our buyers’ attention, and actively engage them. This brings me to thought leadership content.
Thought Leadership Content Needs…Original Thoughts
I’ve been around long enough to remember when thought leadership meant something special. People clamored for it because it sparked curiosity with original thinking. Thought leadership used to be about taking a stand, having a clear point of view, and persuasion. Thought leadership content not only drew engagement, it sparked conversations and debate. It got your ideas in the “room.”
If this year’s Value of Thought Leadership report is any indication, B2B vendors have lost the plot.
- 74% of executives want thought leadership to be more provocative and challenging.
- 59% say they’ve seen almost identical content from at least two providers.
- 57% say they can’t distinguish one provider’s thought leadership from another’s.
And the kicker? In research from 2024, 72% of senior marketers feared generative AI would make all thought leadership the same. Nothing like a crystal ball…
Part of this outcome is because somewhere along the line thought leadership became product-focused, violating its true definition.
ITSMA defines thought leadership as:
“Original, evidence-based point of view that builds reputation, drives innovation, and helps clients address significant challenges and opportunities.”
Making thought leadership about your products makes it about you, not your buyers and customers. It’s selfish and self-centered. So yes, upload everything about your product to your LLM of choice and prompt it to create “thought leadership” content.
Good luck with that.
The Good News: B2B Buyers Want True Thought Leadership
Not all B2B marketers are getting it wrong. And executives are counting on more of you to get it right. They need the ideation and original thinking. They want the advice. And even more, they want to build more confidence in their ability to make good strategic decisions.
Here’s the flipside found in the report:
- 68% of leaders consume more thought leadership now than previously.
- 55% say credibility has improved.
- 55% say it’s important to their decision-making.
- 53% say they received actionable advice.
Market uncertainty increases the risk of making poor decisions. Half of executives turn to thought leadership content to reduce that risk.
But what makes true thought leadership a competitive advantage for marketers is that rather than focusing on emerging trends looking out for a few years, 63% of executives now want advice applicable within the next three to 12 months.
Thought leadership content used to be a brand and CEP play more focused on building memory structures than advancing buyer momentum. Now it plays a role throughout the buying process. Here’s your chance to go bold — beyond what an LLM can create. Be provocative. Challenge the status quo. Become the resource your buyers and customers trust and rely on to help them become more successful.
The IBM BV 2025 CEO Study found, “65% of CEOs say establishing and maintaining customer trust will have a greater impact on their organization’s success than any specific product and service features.“
This is great timing. As buyers push interactions with vendors to the end of their buying cycle — often after they’ve chosen their short list — that doesn’t include their willingness to consume vendor thought leadership content.
Given their inclination to engage with thought leadership content increased from slightly over half to 99% saying it’s crucial for the evaluation of trusted advisors, it’s time to make thought leadership content a pillar in your brand-to-demand GTM strategy.
4 Keys to Compelling Thought Leadership Content
The following factors play a critical role in how persuasive and valuable your thought leadership content is to the buying process.
- Originality of Thought:
Is the main idea original? Is it something only your brand can say or are your competitors saying the same thing? Thought leadership content is about more than the content asset that contains it. The ideas in that content should also be evident in other areas of your company and reflected in the messaging on your website. Not word for word, but the thread should be evident. - Stimulate Conversation:
Have you presented ideas, arguments, and evidence in a way that addresses your buyer’s context and prompts them to take those insights into internal conversations with others who must reach consensus for solving the problem? Think about the value of getting your ideas in the “room” where your salesperson is excluded. Additionally, giving them a way to “use” the information plays a role in building memory structures that prompt recall when a trigger event happens. Not just for them, but for all they invited into those conversations. - Ideas Over Format:
It used to be we considered thought leadership as pillar pieces or white papers, research reports, or webinars. The way buyers consume content has evolved. So must the way you think of thought leadership. The goal is strong thinking and actionable insights, not length and heft. This doesn’t mean dumbing it down. What it could mean is shorter pieces that tackle one part of an issue, including actionable takeaways. Use them to generate awareness and for brand building. Link them together to build engagement.Give away the short pieces and gate the full piece. Once your audience grasps the value they get, they’ll be more likely to fill out a form that promises them access to more. Consider articles, videos, and podcasts as building blocks for thought leadership. Then pull that thread all the way through.
- Problem to Solution:
Refer to ITSMA’s definition of thought leadership above, to the part about helping “clients address significant challenges and opportunities.” What’s your original POV about the problem your solution helps solve? How does that play into your brand mission? Once you connect those dots, what are all the things your buyer needs to think about to solve the problem or capitalize on the opportunity at hand?The key here is the word “significant.” That implies hard. That implies risk. That opens the door for you to take a thought leadership approach to provide actionable insights that help them identify the urgency and best route to solving the problem in the next three to 12 months, backed by evidence. Given the ideas over format point, this also means you can provide compelling content that provokes conversations as they consider each step moving forward toward choosing to change.
One More Thing…
To use thought leadership as a strategic play, you not only need to understand and use your company’s subject matter experts’ thinking, but you also need to understand your buyers and customers.
You need to know the challenges they’re grappling with and the way they perceive risk. You need to understand how solving their problem impacts others on the buying committee. You need to know the questions they’re asking and where their confidence falters.
With those insights, you’ll have what you need to make thought leadership a momentum play.
Yes! Thought leadership required *actual* thought and *actual* leadership.