The Fall of PR: Why Companies are Leveraging Their Own Executives Instead

In the realm of marketing, thought leadership content can be one of the most powerful tools – particularly when it's coming from the very top.

Owner/Founder. Executive. President. Senior VP. Department Director. Partner. 

If you fill any of these roles (or any key leadership role), people want to hear from you. Others in your industry – potential customers, business professionals, and peers – need to hear your perspective. In sharing your perspective, you are immediately putting yourself in a position of influence – through your core values, leadership style, problem-solving strategies, or experience. These are valuable qualities, unique only to you, for executives to embrace – and effectively sharing them can propel you as both a thought leader and an expert in your field. 

In 2021, customers and vendors remember brands because of the executives that represent them. 

In this digital age of social media and constant communication, faceless brands seem impersonal. Thought leadership thus serves the dual purpose of elevating the brand and elevating the executive – both of which are essential to achieve the highest level of success.

Put another way, thought leadership is proactive reputation management, media relations, and PR all put together – and it's here to stay.

So, just how effective is it?

Impact Study

Edelman & LinkedIn released a 2020 impact study featuring insights from over 3,000 global business decision-makers. The study revealed how thought leadership content is viewed as a signifier of an efficient company that cares about its business. The ability to quickly produce high-quality thought content increases a business’ ability to capture their customers’ attention and is directly correlated to their ability to produce results for their business. 

Additionally, of the global business decision-makers who responded, 88% said thought leadership content is effective in promoting and enhancing the trustworthiness of a company.

The takeaway is clear: high-quality thought leadership content can be a powerful competitive advantage. 

Still not convinced? Try these numbers on for size: 

• 87% of decision-makers said thought leadership content can boost trust
• 89% of decision-makers said thought leadership enhances a company's reputation
• 58% of decision-makers said they based their decision to work with an organization on thought leadership
• 61% of decision-makers are more likely to pay a premium price to work with a company that clearly articulates a vision through thought leadership content

The data doesn’t lie – there's a good reason why high-quality thought leadership is so valuable. It builds trust with readers, establishes you and your company as an expert in your industry, and can even shift the path of your business (or even industry) to achieve even greater success. 

Tom Popomaronis is Executive Vice President of Innovation at Massive Alliance, a global executive reputation agency. Tom co-founded Massive's Executive Leadership Branding program, which provides executive ghostwriting services and red-carpet access for their authorship at mainstream media publications. He is also a leadership columnist at CNBC Make It and Entrepreneur Magazine and has published over 650 articles with Inc. Magazine & Forbes.

Interested in expanding your own thought leadership footprint? Apply to contribute to Strixus – an exclusive community of visionary leaders.