Impact and growth

Thought leadership is a boon to business

Unquestionable impact, unreliable measurement

Four in five marketers believe thought leadership has made a positive contribution to their organization’s reputation, relationships, and revenue—the three Rs—over the past 12 months.

From boosting awareness and perception of your brand to strengthening existing relationships, thought leadership is unequivocally a boon to business.

While most respondents agree that thought leadership has made some or significant improvement to the three Rs in the past year, they are struggling to measure it in real terms.

For example, barely a quarter (28%) of respondents say they could trace the impact of thought leadership on revenue “very well."

It’s not much better for leaders. While leaders score higher across all thought leadership competencies, including measurement, only around half (53%) say they could measure thought leadership’s contribution to revenue “very well.”

Though half of leaders say they can link thought leadership to revenue, only 33% routinely collect and monitor “revenue generated” to assess the impact of their output. Even fewer, 18%, say they monitor “pipeline revenue generated.”

I don’t believe anybody who says they can accurately measure the impact of their thought leadership.

Anna Bernasek, Managing Director, Global Head of Thought Leadership, State Street

So, how are marketers measuring the impact of thought leadership on the three Rs?

For me, impact is about lead generation, conversations, and meetings. Does any work come out of it?

Jenny Hallatt, Senior BD Manager, Campaigns and Content, CMS

Leaders are more likely than laggards to monitor feedback from clients/readers (62% vs 43%), brand value (52% vs 34%), sign-ups/subscribers (38% vs 16%), and brand trust (38% vs 13%). Meanwhile, other popular metrics used by all survey respondents include customer advocacy, feedback from sales, and perception of expertise.

There may be lack of hard evidence for thought leadership’s impact on revenue, but senior marketers clearly recognize its effect on deal size, pipeline growth, and new business. Jeffrey Brown, Global Marketing Director, Solutions & Services Group, Lenovo, says: “Although we don’t tie all thought leadership outputs directly to our sales funnel and therefore have a firm ROI, we have noticed that when we identify an important topic and track the share of voice or awareness metrics, they are a leading indicator of future revenue performance and growth.”

Sadly, the length and complexity of B2B buying cycles simply make it too difficult to trace the direct link from thought leadership to top-line growth.

In the markets that we operate, the sales cycle is often six to nine months for a $100 million deal.

Peeyush Dubey, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Tech Mahindra

How effectively can you measure your thought leadership’s contribution to the following objectives: reputation, relationship, and revenue?

% of respondents who selected “very well."

Linking thought leadership and growth

While marketers struggle to connect the dots between thought leadership and revenue, there is evidence to suggest that leading organizations see higher company growth.

Leaders’ organizations grew by an average of 8.3% in 2022, compared to laggards’ which grew by an average of 6.5%. The same trend appears when leaders and laggards are asked to forecast their growth in 2024. Leaders expect to grow by an average of 11.3%, compared to 8.3% for laggards.

Though the link between thought leadership and growth isn’t necessarily causal, it does add weight to the overwhelming conviction that they go hand in hand.

Can you measure the link between thought leadership and revenue growth?

Yes, absolutely
Somewhat
Not really
Not at all

Most B2B customers buy from one of the vendors that’s on their shortlist—right out of the gate, before they enter the buying cycle.
If your brand reputation gets you on the shortlist, then you're more likely to win the deal. Quality thought leadership builds your brand reputation, and brand reputation maps directly into deal win-rates. It’s as simple as that.

David Jonker, Vice President, Insights Research Center, SAP