Achieving Business Growth by Sharing Ideas and Solving Problems

Entrepreneurs Mastering Thought Leadership

Written by Rowena Morais

Imagine having an audience hanging on every word you speak, businesses reaching out for your expertise, and a stream of opportunities ranging from speaking engagements to lucrative partnerships. It’s the dream of every entrepreneur.

When you have added the finishing touches to a recently launched product or service and present it to the world, the anticipation for feedback is palpable. It’s only natural to desire influence and visibility at that point, more than ever before. Your visibility and credibility are enhanced when you have a robust executive presence, conveying all that you have to offer, matched by the credibility stemming from years of experience.

For small to mid-sized business owners, achieving these results and more is possible by strategically investing time and resources in building thought leadership. 

In this article, I’m sharing how you can achieve business growth by sharing ideas and solving problems.

What’s ahead in this article:

  • Galvanise action
  • The purpose of thought leadership
  • Build a robust body of work
    • Step 1 Take stock
    • Step 2 Determine key focus areas for your content
    • Step 3 Evaluate the best way to deliver your content
    • Step 4 Set up for success
    • Step 5 Plan an editorial calendar
    • Step 6 Develop, edit, publish and promote

Galvanise action

Meet Sarah, a well-regarded workshop facilitator and executive coach. Based in Sydney, Australia, Sarah has been coaching C-suite executives and senior leadership teams for over 15 years. Sarah has achieved considerable success through word-of-mouth and her clients have stayed with her for many years.

However, Sarah is keen to grow her business this year and knows that she needs to increase the professional visibility of her brand and that of her business. So here’s the deal: Sarah has a LinkedIn profile but is not active there and she doesn’t have a business website. So, what can Sarah do to grow her business?

In two words: thought leadership. Or you could call this content creation where Sarah drives her business’s visibility and attracts new leads simply by creating relevant, authentic content.

Sarah uses the content she creates to showcase her expertise to her audience. She shares insights and stories and helps to solve problems. Done right, this can lead to sales and new business development.

The purpose of creating content

Sarah creates content for several reasons: she offers a unique perspective, she experiments with new approaches, and she solves problems.

But this takes work.

Sharing thoughts and insights to shift perspectives or galvanise action requires several things initially: trust, credibility, and patience, and not necessarily in that order. 

Sarah speaks for herself and for her business, and to do so, Sarah needs to come across professional, confident, and knowledgeable.

In a face-to-face environment, Sarah’s audience can verify the situation directly and in real time, considering her content, poise, tone and delivery. First impressions matter in face-to-face interactions.

But what about in a digital environment? This is when Sarah’s personal brand and digital profile take on a heightened significance. 

Sarah’s audience will go to what is readily available, and rely on what they find, which makes first impressions critical. 

What does Sarah’s digital personal brand speak to? How is Sarah’s digital profile presenting her? Is everything discoverable online about Sarah placed there by her or by others? Creating content is how Sarah can shape and contribute to the conversations that matter.

Build a robust body of work

Sarah can begin her thought leadership journey by carefully curating the content that best represents her and her business. Through her content, Sarah can show her audience her experience and expertise. This content she creates —  I call this Sarah’s body of work.

As an individual, Sarah’s body of work is something tangible that her audience can use to assess whether she is who she says she is. Content can come in many shapes – an article, an infographic, a slide deck, or an interview.

Businesses understand the value of this, which is why content marketing exists and is so widely used. 

Content marketing is a strategy used to attract, engage and retain an audience by sharing content which may be developed as a video, blog post, podcast or other media. Businesses use this to establish expertise and promote brand awareness.

This is “show, don’t tell” in action. Through powerful narrative, your audience gets to experience your story through actions, words, subtext and feelings rather than through a description or summary.

There are several ways to do this. The power lies in storytelling and creating credible material that informs, educates, inspires and propels action. The steps below outline how any business owner can begin their content creation journey. 

Step 1 Take stock 

Evaluate what has already been developed

Don’t jump straight into writing an article — begin by evaluating your existing body of work. Look at finished and unfinished materials, talks delivered, project worked on, and more. Are there issues you find yourself talking about repeatedly, and why? Some of these may be good starting points.

Reflect and connect the dots

Often, this body of work may sit in your head. Your job is to distil, separate, and bring those ideas to life on paper. Evaluating and taking stock of the material you’ve already developed is useful.

The content you begin developing may start with what you’ve already created. If you’ve already written an article:

  • Does it need to be updated with new topics? 
  • Can you add resources to make it more relevant in today’s climate? 
  • Should anything be removed? 

Step 2 Determine key focus areas for thought leadership

Consider challenges resolved

Review your business and the problems you are addressing. Think about your business direction and the outcomes you are after.

Look for the things that bring your ideas, experiences and expertise together to develop your business narrative. Bring it all together as your business’s elevator pitch. 

Consider the target audience

Reflect on your target audience and customer types and ask yourself: 

  • Who is my target audience?
  • What do they need and care about? 
  • Is there more than one audience type? 
  • How can I reach my target audience?

Your business focus areas determine the direction your content needs to take.

Are there particular services to showcase? Has there been a service recently launched? Identify what your clients are looking for and explore how you can leverage their attention.

Think also about relevant keywords. In fact, feedback from clients can also shed light on creating meaningful content.

Consider the content pillars

Your focus areas become your content pillars or content categories. 

Just like a good movie has central elements that weave a plot together, the content pillars are the key themes you keep returning to in order to consistently define your business’s brand. The good news is that you don’t need to be limited to one content pillar.

For instance, if you are a fitness coach, your content pillars might be wellness tips, nutrition and weight-training advice. Each topic becomes a building block that is part of your overall brand’s story.

And your end goal?  You’ve hit pay dirt when someone thinks of a particular content pillar or category, and your business is the first to come to mind.  Your positioning and elevator pitch must sit alongside your key focus areas, helping inform the type of content you develop.

Step 3 Evaluate the best way to deliver high quality content

Some prefer to write articles, while others may love to videos instead. The creatives may relish the idea of crafting an infographic or putting together a slide deck. 

Go for the quick win by choosing something that fits with your personality.  So, if you love writing, then write an article. If you prefer speaking, record a video.

Step 4 Set up for success 

Developing content can’t be a one-time effort. You must commit to producing and promoting a certain volume of work.

There’s also a few things to do to set yourself up for success.

If you love writing, ensure you have a website so you can house all the content you create. But you can also do guest-posts on mainstream publications or write a native LinkedIn article.

Once you’ve got your audience’s attention, think about where you want them to go. Where can your audience go where you house your best stuff? What’s this place where you can control exactly what you put out and when to do so? That’s right — it’s your website.

Step 5 Plan an editorial calendar

An editorial calendar is simply a plan that allows you to develop your business content and schedule it across all of your social media accounts. Teams typically work with editorial calendars because it helps them manage multiple pieces of content and varying roles and responsibilities. 

However, even if you are working on your marketing alone, develop an editorial calendar so you can get a quick overview anytime you need. You can create a three, six or 12-month plan, identifying:

  • how frequently you will publish content
  • where there is more than one type of content, a way to distinguish between different formats such as video and article
  • how your editorial calendar will be used – as a tool to brainstorm and dump ideas, to collaborate and refine, or to assign work to others in real-time
  • the various steps that a piece of content needs to go through before publishing, such as the review process and ancillary tasks (such as creating a headline image, paragraph headings and relevant hashtags)
  • the format in which the calendar will be used and shared

The key is to keep things simple. Don’t over-complicate matters or get caught in too much bureaucracy. The more steps there are, the more complexity is added. Focus on getting started and celebrating quick wins. This helps you stay motivated and keep going.

Step 6 Develop, edit, publish and promote

The creative process involved in developing a piece of content includes: 

  • planning around a theme or topic and how this sits alongside other pieces in the editorial calendar
  • writing the piece of content
  • editing it to check for errors, flow and tone of voice
  • preparing for publication by developing a cover image, identifying keywords and hashtags and preparing the author bio
  • publishing the final piece
  • promoting the content through word of mouth and social media

Ways to create ease and flow

There are several things that can ease this process: 

  • focus on just one key topic or theme for starters
  • keep content short. If it is a video, keep it to 2 to 3 minutes. If it is an article, cap it at around 600 – 700 words or less
  • always be guided by your audience
  • once an article is written, step into your audience’s shoes to evaluate if this is helpful and insightful
  • pass the article along to close friends or colleagues who are happy to provide feedback

A topic, particularly when large and complex, can be spread out over multiple pieces of content such as a series of consecutive blog posts. An article or video does not need to be exhaustive. Block time out in your calendar for the content development process — be generous with your time particular when first starting.

In conclusion, you can achieve business growth by sharing your ideas and solving problems.  Creating authentic content that helps solve your audience’s problems can help you establish yourself, strengthen your tribe of followers, amplify key messages, and clarify your service or product offering. Content creation is already a mainstay in every successful business’s arsenal. Embark on your thought leadership journey today and reap the rewards. 

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