In today’s increasingly digital and competitive landscape, it’s more important than ever to increase your brand’s visibility, credibility and name recognition. While content marketing is proven to attract prospects, convert leads, retain existing customers and grow your business, there’s an even more effective tool for marketers. On the other hand, thought leadership takes content marketing a step (or more) further. Thought leadership demonstrates individual and organizational expertise, builds trust and has the power to transform an industry. While content marketing is essential for all businesses, nothing pulls in leads and boosts the long-term success of an organization like a well-executed thought leadership strategy.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a glut of content, especially in the B2B marketplace. But not all of the content is good or effective. While nearly 90 percent of C-suite decision-makers say thought leadership influences their opinions of a company, only 17 percent say the content they consume is either “very good” or “excellent.” This creates an opportunity for companies to create the high-quality thought leadership content readers seek.

Seven Key Differences

While content marketing and thought leadership are deeply connected, there are a number of key distinctions.

1. Content marketing boosts product visibility; thought leadership boosts company recognition. Content marketing recommends your products and services as solutions to the problems that keep your target audiences up at night. On the other hand, thought leadership draws a direct line between your company and a solution. A company’s thought leadership shows target audiences that the organization is continuously researching, investigating, thinking and innovating. It demonstrates that the company isn’t afraid to change and take a stand.

2. Content marketing solves problems; thought leadership stimulates conversations. Content marketing supports the buyer’s journey by providing resources that facilitate decision-making. Meanwhile, thought leadership stimulates conversations because content shares new research, the latest industry ideas, and even controversial opinions.

3. Thought leadership content focuses on quality, not quantity. Content marketing includes blogs, social media posts and website content, all of which need to be created, posted and updated frequently. It involves a great deal of evergreen content. Thought leadership, on the other hand, is all about quality, not frequency. Thought leadership content is typically longer in format because it digs deeper into topics. It may include bylined articles, white papers and case studies. Not only should it offer solutions, thought leadership should deliver research-backed opinions and ideas that encourage people to think about topics in new ways.

4. Content marketing sells; thought leadership “shows.” Content marketing demonstrates your company’s solutions and explains why you’re the best choice. It typically follows a specific format:

• Identify the problem
• Offer actionable solutions and advice
• Explain why your company is the answer.

Thought leadership doesn’t overtly sell a company or its solutions. In fact, the best thought leadership content never mentions a company’s offerings. Instead, thought leadership content should demonstrate a brand’s authority and generate interest. Content should focus on a company’s value proposition, authority and capabilities. It should show, not tell, why a brand is better than its competitors. When done correctly, readers will come to their own conclusions.

5. Content marketing reflects industry research; thought leadership is based on independent research. Research is an essential component of thought leadership content. Invest in independent surveys and leverage other research tools to identify original topics and pinpoint upcoming trends. Research gets into the head of your audience, revealing their concerns, challenges and pain points. Anything else is just a guess.

6. Content marketing solves today’s problems; thought leadership solves tomorrow’s problems. Content marketing is reactive, using existing industry topics to create content. From there, write, share and repeat. It solves yesterday’s or today’s problems. Thought leadership is always at least two steps ahead. It leverages today’s research to predict and solve tomorrow’s problems. As such, thought leadership shows your target audiences why and how your company can be trusted to weather the ebbs and flows in your industry.

7. Content marketing reflects the industry narrative; thought leadership influences the industry narrative. Every top brand has a visible thought leader. Think of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs. They defined the industry narrative, and people looked to them for answers. Leverage thought leadership to set the stage in your industry. Of course, it takes time to reach this point. Thought leaders who are recognized industry names don’t get there overnight.

Two Components of One Strategy

Content marketing includes every piece of content a business creates to promote itself. From printed marketing materials to email campaigns, social media posts and its website, content marketing represents every word a company publishes. Thought leadership is part of a content marketing strategy.

In B2B marketing, thought leadership can establish a brand’s presence and generate leads. It shows target audiences that your company leadership is prepared to tackle industry challenges and deliver solutions. No content marketing strategy is complete without thought leadership. Understanding the differences between the two is vital to producing content that is useful to your audiences and that drives results.