Why do thought leadership teams need to get a handle on ROI, and what kinds of metrics for success are the most convincing? Our panel of Thought Leadership for Tomorrow experts discuss all things ROI.
Despite its reputation for insights-led complexity, thought leadership is an ROI-driven exercise, particularly in the private sector. Companies invest in thought leadership to get a return, whether that’s influence, reach, or sales leads.
All roads lead back to increasing the top and bottom lines.
So, for thought leadership teams that want to do more, such as have a social impact or create purpose-inspired projects that may not necessarily have a direct impact on the pipeline, finding ways to map the road to proven ROI is critical.
While the best thought leaders know that an intimate understanding of a company’s strategic objectives is the guiding star of thought leadership production, they also know that being more innovative in your topics and presentation can have more impact than the usual tired content. The difficulty is explaining ‘how’ to wary C-suite executives, for whom content may not be at the forefront of their minds.
That’s where the ability to measure ROI comes in, and it was the subject of our last panel at Thought Leadership for Tomorrow in New York, chaired by Yogesh Shah, CEO of iResearch Services. Shah has overseen the development of innovative tools for measuring ROI, so who better to lead this session?
To ROI or not to ROI
Just how far should a company demand direct returns from thought leadership? It depends largely on the company. Our panel came from very different enterprises, some more directly ROI-motivated (State Street) than others (McKinsey & Company).
But regardless of the type of company our panel represented, they all believed ROI was important both as an end in itself and to shape better thought leadership.
For Anna Bernasek, Global Head of Thought Leadership, State Street, keeping an eye on the top and bottom lines was intrinsic to the job. Operating in a global financial institution means fighting for resources. While everyone understands thought leadership is valuable, for her, it means calculating how valuable.
On the other hand, Lucia Rahilly, Global Editorial Director & Editorial Publisher, McKinsey & Company, worked in a ‘purer’ thought leadership environment. While not operating with strictly ‘transactional’ products and services, criteria for success still apply, including how it impacts their consultants who advise clients.
So, a company like McKinsey & Company is still focused on ROI. For example, the company is pursuing a ‘less is more’ strategy, reducing output and focusing on the most global, high-priority topics (even as hyper-personalization looms).
However, how thought leadership is defined can lead to tensions of perceived value. Bernasek commented that while her CEO – a former McKinsey partner – saw it as Op-eds, speeches, and presentations, she wanted to produce intellectually new ideas. In that context, it is important to listen but also prove the value of innovation.
So, thought leadership is on a tight leash, with often conflicting ideas about what it means. But is that tension a ‘negative sum game’ or does it add value to thought leadership?
For Rahilly, the gold standard of thought leadership is that it should be:
Tying thought leadership to organizational priorities is vital to get key stakeholder buy-in as well as strategically focusing efforts.
Customer pain points
Everyone wants to produce thought leadership that lands. For our panel, the best way of doing that was to understand customer pain points. And it turns out this is a winning strategy.
Artemis Vallianatos, Head of Brand & Thought Leadership/Central Marketing (Worldwide), Amazon Business, talked about her past experiences at Gapgemini. There, they created ‘custom conferences’, an early example of personalization in which executives were offered a private review of the World Wealth Report tailored for their organization.
As an opportunity to learn more about customer pain points in a confidential setting, it turned into a huge lead generation opportunity with great results. She argued that examples like this showed thought leadership is a product in itself.
In one way or another, everyone doing thought leadership creates assets that center ROI. And this can help shape truly impactful work rather than ones that miss the mark.
But it’s one thing to center ROI and another to calculate it.
Doing the maths?
Thought leadership is still a numbers game when it comes to measurement. Tracking traditional marketing metrics like reach and engagement have a core role, as do surveys.
Looking at the numbers can be creative. Bernasek, for example, compares thought leadership against marketing – for example, website engagement. The figures often reveal that thought leadership has ten or twenty times the amount of engagement.
But it can’t just be about numbers. Rahilly, for example, pointed out that sometimes the numbers and qualitative metrics don’t dovetail. Some pieces resonate with clients – and that understanding comes through feedback – but they don’t have reach. Delving into what’s happening can lead to valuable insights and new approaches.
Share of voice (SoV) is how often you are mentioned (for example, in the media) and is a measure of brand visibility. SoV, in many ways, is an ideal metric for thought leadership because it gauges influence. For Rahilly, SoV reflects quality. Its core output – earned media – shows how distinctive their work is.
As part of SoV, earned media—trade or national media mentions you don’t pay for and which have widespread resonance—is also a vital way to prove value. Jonathan Dahl, VP and Chief Content Officer at Korn Ferry, said that sometimes stories have momentum, and it’s important to get behind them.
Working across silos
Engaging your C-Suite and sales can also help establish ROI, says Dahl. He points out the benefits of PR promotion for colleagues. Joking, he asked them, “Do you have security outside of your house?” They say no. “Well,” he says, “after you work with me, you’ll be so famous you’ll need it.”
Hitch your wagon to sales, says Vallianatos, and take them with you in discussions with the C-Suite.
The panel commented on the lack of control over distribution, which can directly impact performance. Getting those key ROI metrics means having the right distribution strategy, and that means working with colleagues in PR, marketing, communications, sales, and so on.
Building relationships also helps to get your agenda and distribution ideas on the table, says Bernasek.
ROI is not a headache
While establishing the ROI of thought leadership is challenging, it undeniably performs better than traditional marketing.
“There is lots of low-hanging fruit in thought leadership,” says Dahl. There isn’t a lot of it about, he argues, which means when you produce something, it can have quite a big impact and show a return pretty quickly.
All thought leadership needs to work hard to justify what it does, and that’s natural in a corporate context. But with thought leadership impact, you are already ahead of the game.
