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In this video blog, Lee Frederiksen addresses the differences between the two similar concepts, thought leadership and content marketing.
Video Transcription
Hi, I’m Lee Frederiksen and today I want to talk with you about a question I get a lot. That is ‘What’s the difference between thought leadership and content marketing?’
Thought Leadership vs. Content Marketing
Some people use them almost interchangeably and it’s not surprising that there might be some confusion as they are pretty similar kinds of concepts.
Thought leadership is a term that has been around for a long time, and it means basically what it says. It means that someone who is driving the thought in your industry. You are a leader, coming up with new ideas and new concepts that can be adopted. But that can be a very intimidating process.
Content Marketing
Let’s talk about content marketing. Content marketing is a broader concept. It means using some kind of content, such as articles or videos, some kind of content to convey what you do and who you do it for. In other words, to demonstrate your expertise and make it visible.
Content marketing is an overall strategy and you don’t need to use thought leadership. For example, one of the most successful content marketing strategies is to take constructs that are difficult to understand and simplifying them, making them easy to understand, explaining them to people. That can be a great way to do content marketing, but it’s not thought leadership. It’s a different kind of strategy.
Next time someone says, ‘hey, we should do thought leadership marketing’ ask yourself if they are talking about thought leadership as a strategy or are they really talking about content marketing?