Leadership Has Its Privileges...
 

Becoming a leader has a lot to do with being visible to potential clients online.

What is it about thought leadership that is making such an impact in the B2B market?

Why is thought leadership having such an influence on increasing both sales and marketing efforts online today?

http://www.adultweblife.com/JoeD/ima...e Biller 2.jpg

Because traditional B2B advertising is getting fuck all results for most people. Now, this is for a couple of reasons:

a) People in this biz don't like being 'marketed to'. Generally, we are intelligent, sensible and when making a purchasing decisions have enough contacts and resources to research the market and buy with confidence.

b) 99.9% of B2B advertising is appalingly bad. Look at AVN or XBiz. Take ANY ads, and swop over the logos, would you notice? Ooh some pictures of money, cars, naked girls, etc. All the ads are almost identical.

So, in order to make people aware of what you do WITHOUT 'marketing' at them, you need to do something different.

I set up www.adultmarketing.co.uk where I give away free hints and tips for marketing porn. Not arrogant enough to say it is thought leadership, but it is certainly what I am aiming for.

It gets my message across, is well liked (judging by comments I get at shows and the traffic), and generates leads for me.

imho, anyway.

Interesting post and follow-up.

As Damian states above, IMHO most program owners/directors/managers source their business needs directly as opposed to relying on advertisement.

While some might feel that this inhibits their B2B sales efforts, the sea-change in B2B sourcing presents a real opportunity for people who are actual subject matter experts in their fields.

By establishing yourself as an expert in your given vocation and sharing relevant information with clients and potential clients, you build good will and help yourself by "qualifying" your clients instead of relying on un-targeted advertising methods.

As a new member of GFY (but not the industry) I'm finding this an invaluable opportunity to see what's going on in the industry and learn more about my potential client's needs.

I look down on management...

Europeans Billing Europe!
 

You guys get it - effective brand building through social leadership interaction - as B2B specialists our goal is to establish our company as a leader in its industry...

It's why we all drop in here - I haven't seen a thread like this in a long time so I thought I'd drop it in to see who showed up - at least I got a couple deliberate considered responses -

Im just trying to find my epassporte Joe... have you seen it?

What a load of crap.

It's obvious you know nothing about leadership because you haven't stolen our money yet.

Europeans Billing Europe!
 

Maybe you're right, but you haven't given me the opportunity! Happy to send you information on our solutions :winkwink:

Europeans Billing Europe!
 

I think I left it in the inside pocket when I borrowed that coat...