Five tips for writing thought leadership with impact

When time is short, every word needs to serve a purpose. Here are ChattyDuck’s top five tips for writing powerful thought leadership articles.

Write a series of thought leadership articles for LinkedIn, they said. It will raise your business’s profile, they said. A sure-fire way to start conversations with potential new clients, they said.

Perhaps you did write one lonely LinkedIn article once. Perhaps it even gained a bit of traction and garnered a few comments from your network. But where do you go from there? 

Writing thought leadership content isn’t easy. It’s time-consuming, it takes some writing nous as well as a good bit of research, and often there just aren’t enough hours in the working week (or members of the team) to make it a regular fixture on your marketing calendar.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile endeavour. Focused, purposeful thought leadership pieces can help cement your credibility and convince prospects that you’re a safe pair of hands. Sharing your original, unique perspective is key to true thought leadership, tempting as it may be to regurgitate the opinions of well-respected others.

Here are our top five tips for making sure time spent on writing thought leadership is time well-spent.

Pick your topic wisely
It’s tempting to jump on current trends to try to get more eyes on your content, but your article will lack impact if the topic isn’t relevant to you or your audience. Sharing your thoughts is all well and good, but your article also needs to serve a purpose for your readers. 

There are some key questions to ask before you write a single word: Are you passionate and knowledgeable about this topic? Is there a problem that others need to solve? For example, are they struggling with how to integrate Industry 4.0 into their contractor business? Can you offer a solution, perhaps sharing how you’re handling digital transformation within your own organisation?

Do your research
In that daunting free text field on your LinkedIn account, there is no one checking whether what you write is true. That doesn’t mean you can dispense with facts. Don’t fall into the trap of simply stating an opinion or making a sweeping generalisation. In our example above, you could start with some statistics on the productivity gains that make implementing Industry 4.0 worthwhile in your sector. 

Backing up your arguments with data and research-based evidence will strengthen your argument and have a much greater impact on your audience.

Make it personal
Thought leadership is all about sharing what you know, with a view to helping others overcome similar challenges. So, it makes sense to make your thought leadership articles personal with examples from your own experience, as we’ve already mentioned.

Plus, without becoming a sales pitch, this can be an opportunity to showcase your past work, credentials and expertise in the field. To continue our theme, you could highlight the strides your company has made to modernise and adapt to the current landscape. Your unique viewpoint on this process is what will make the article memorable.

Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know
Asking for your peers’ experience, advice and opinions is a great way to start conversations on LinkedIn. What are their concerns and challenges when it comes to Industry 4.0? Have they overcome a barrier that you’re still grappling with? If so, how?

Rather than coming across as a sign of weakness, a willingness to admit to gaps in your knowledge shows integrity and humility. Both are valuable characteristics in a business leader. You’re not here to have all the answers. Acting like you do will only discourage your audience from interacting.  

Tie up loose ends
Perhaps we should have mentioned this earlier, because you should be thinking about tying up your argument from the very start. Having a basic plan of the key points to cover and how they link together will guide your writing, so you’re not left with multiple dangling threads of thought. Remember, every good story has a beginning, middle and end, and the same goes for thought leadership pieces. Finish off with a recap of your main argument or opinion that will solidify it in the reader’s mind.

And don’t forget to add a call to action – whether that’s to leave thoughts in the comments or to follow you for more impactful thought leadership (hint, hint 🙂).

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