Why Video is Essential for Thought Leadership Marketing
Thought leadership marketing is vital for your success as a thought leader. Here’s how video can help you streamline and convey your messaging.
Thought leadership. Over the past five to 10 years, thought leadership has become the thing that business leaders must strive for. It’s replaced the ‘expert’ (who is seen as focused on understanding things that are or have been) and the ‘industry leader’ (who is seen as being at the top of his field from a pure business results outcome). Thought leaders, on the other hand, are not only experts on what has happened and is happening in their field, but are influential predictors of what is going to happen as well. And in order to convey your thought leadership well, you need excellent thought leadership marketing.
A great example of a thought leader is Stephen Covey, who created the highly-impactful Time Management Matrix. This matrix essentially maps out the interaction between what is important against what is urgent.
The point of this model is to convey that we need to spend less time on the urgent, non-important stuff, and more time on the important, but non-urgent stuff. This single piece of thought leadership has influenced millions of people (and made millions and millions of dollars).
But, it wasn’t an original idea.
Stephen Covey attributes the original concept to Goethe who said, ‘Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least’. But Covey took that idea, and made it relevant, engaging and meaningful. He made it change the way that we think. And that is thought leadership.
Why is Thought Leadership Marketing Important
Thought leadership builds credibility and trust. When you provide people with valuable and accurate information consistently, they will begin to look to you for answers to problems or situations within your field. Rather than casting around blindly for information, they’ll instead turn to you. And that means they’re more likely to choose your business over a competitor. But in order to to get your thought leadership into the world, you need to embrace thought leadership marketing.
In fact, thought leadership marketing can lead directly to sales. Almost 60% of business decision makers said that thought leadership led directly to their awarding of business to an organisation. And 58% of decision makers consume one or more hours of thought leadership per week (which is 8% higher than in 2018).
Thought Leadership Marketing and Video
But now that we understand the importance of thought leadership marketing, we have to understand how to get that message out to the people you want to hear it. And that is where video comes in.
What are Thought Leader Videos?
Thought leader videos are usually top-of-funnel content that is delivered as a high-level overview. This might include keynote speeches, webinars and interviews, but it can also be ‘how to’ videos or practical tips and advice. But what they have in common is they help to establish you as an authority on a topic and inspire action or new thinking in others.
Watch: Aura Technology thought leader video
Read: Ten Types of Marketing Videos
Benefits of Thought Leadership Video
Easily Shareable
Video is an essential part of thought leadership marketing. It’s an incredibly effective way to get your message out to your audience. In fact, video is one of the most shared types of content on social media. Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined and over half a billion people are watching video on Facebook every day.
Using this incredibly impactful method to deliver your thought leadership gives you an immediate advantage over text or images, or even the combination of the two.
Easily Digestible
Video also helps you to convey information quickly (the brain processes video 60,000 times faster than text and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual). That means you can reach your audience with your essential message more easily. And it also conveys more emotion than just the written word, and allows you to be you (and people love to see the person behind the business).
Easily Controllable
Unlike other forms of content, video is easily controllable in terms of your messaging. Because you have verbal and visual cues included (and other subconscious cues as well), plus the opportunity to script your video, you can more easily convey the message that you want to convey in the way that you want to convey it.
Read: Film Strategy – What it is and why you need one
Getting Started
Getting started with thought leadership marketing videos isn’t hard, but you do need to conceptualise a unique angle. Ultimately it’s your subject matter that will draw your audience in, and you want to back that up with credible research or other information.
Tips to Get you Started
Find a unique angle.
Write a script but be authentic. You’ll want to ensure you hit your talking points without being too wooden.
Consider doing a series. Thought leadership videos presented as a series give added opportunities for building credibility and trust.
Choose a speaker who is a subject matter expert, but is also good on camera. If your speaker isn’t likeable, your business won’t be either.
Thought leadership videos will engage your audience and grow your business. Get in touch to get started!