The seasoned 95:5 rule of B2B marketing explains why there has been an influx of promoted content today, especially sponsored thought leadership posts.
Businesses spend months marketing to the 95% of the market that isn’t ready to buy yet. This is because the remaining 5% that are ready to buy, have already made their decision from their day-one list.
This is where outbound marketing comes into play, and two techniques are particularly popular:
- Traditional ads on platforms like LinkedIn showcases content that is typically promoted by the company itself, focusing on sales and immediate conversions.
- Sponsored thought leadership posts, on the other hand, amplify personal posts from company employees or industry experts, aiming to build trust and establish an organisation as the leader in its field. They tend to look like regular posts from a specific person, subtly indicating the promotion by a specific company.
Both are vital and complementary techniques in long and complex B2B cycles. On average, people will consume at least 13 pieces of content with 8 coming from the vendor and 5 from 3rd party sources.
Let’s look into them in more detail…
‘Traditional’ company ads are losing momentum
LinkedIn has over 1.2 billion users with 134.5 million daily users and 69 million company pages. This highlights how crowded the platform is.
And with increased competition, you have more ads fighting for attention under the same budget.
Ads give your brand a chance to reach new audiences who might have not heard of you. Many prospects might have come across your brand and need another prompt to check out your website. Highly effective for people in the awareness stage (95% of your B2B target audience is in this stage).
While this sounds great, many companies run ads expecting high-quality conversations like getting a demo enquiry. When your ads inform instead of educate about the benefits, it’s wishful thinking to expect people to sign-up for a demo.
Another reason traditional company ads are losing momentum, is because of LinkedIn’s current algorithm. LinkedIn prioritises content from the users’ first degree connections, and personal posts also end up getting more engagement due to sounding more authentic.
What are the main challenges?
As mentioned above, a staggering majority of 95% aren’t ready to buy yet. They’re busy with their day-to-day tasks, trying to learn about the problem they want to tackle next. And amidst all of this, a generic company sponsored post turns up on their feed.
In a nutshell, that’s the problem. Let’s dive into why this kind of content often fails by being too generic:
- Lack of accountability: B2B marketers have become really good at detecting unverified claims. Their attention span is decreasing, and they have little patience for self-serving content. When coupled with unimaginative, product-focused company ads, this choice of format can contribute to raising your prospects’ guards and dropping their interest in what you have to say.
Regular sponsored posts often come off as tone-deaf when they lack a face backing their claims and sound like a song stuck on repeat.
- Content consumption patterns: B2B marketers are humans behind screens. They want to connect with what humans would like to say and engage with content shared by humans. This drastically affects the way content is consumed online. Senior c-suite members’ posts appear more authentic and gather higher engagement rates.
Both these challenges bring down the effectiveness of traditional company sponsored posts. This creates a false expectation that any engagement is good engagement, since people rarely engage with a company sponsored post.
Why aren’t engagement metrics enough to measure your campaigns?
Most marketing or PR campaigns sadly face judgment based on immediate outcomes, like the numbers of leads generated or engagement rates for sponsored posts.
However, these tell you very little about the lasting impact of a campaign.
Ideally, engagement only covers how people choose to interact with your content in a given timeframe, which means that the true essence of what you need to convey can be lost. Successful leaders will always focus on building long-term value, but due to stakeholder pressures they are often judged on short-term gains.
Focusing on engagement only can impact your campaigns in the following way:
- Content that sounds forced – If going viral is your judgment criteria, then your content is bound to fail. After a while you may sound pushy or self-centred, keeping offering the same solution without addressing the problem.
- Resorting to the ‘spray and pray’ approach – When desired content doesn’t stick, you may be tempted to increase content production in different formats for multiple platforms, expecting better results. This typically leads to your team spending more time and efforts on managing a lack of content strategy that produces marginal results.
- Losing existing business – Falling engagement figures lead to a negative perception of your ability to build value and stay relevant. While winning new business can be challenging enough, your existing clients may also start to question your understanding of their market as well as your capabilities.
You might argue that you have a great relationship with them, however always keep in mind that your clients can easily access high-quality content from your competitors and be tempted to give them a chance.
Traditional company-sponsored posts and ads still have a place in B2B marketing and PR campaigns, but you can’t solely rely on them any more.
This is where sponsored thought leadership content comes into play.
The rise of sponsored thought leadership posts in B2B marketing
The right kind of thought leadership post informs and prompts the readers with actionable steps on industry problems. And in many cases, sponsored thought leader posts on LinkedIn outperform traditional LinkedIn ads.
They often exhibit higher engagement rates, lower costs per click (CPCs), and lower cost per thousand impressions (CPMs). According to LinkedIn, they also have a 1.7x higher click-through rate and a 1.6x higher engagement rate than other single-image ads.
Other studies point in the same direction, showing that people are 3x more likely to trust content from individuals (as opposed to fully-branded content).
Here’s are more specific reasons why this works:
People talk to people
B2B decision-makers increasingly seek authentic, peer-driven insights. Research from Edelman and LinkedIn shows that 73% of decision-makers consider thought leadership more trustworthy than traditional marketing materials.
Individuals sharing content amplifies trust, as buyers relate more to real people sharing expertise than to corporate broadcasts.
Furthermore, 90% of decision-makers are more receptive to sales and marketing outreach from companies that produce high-quality thought leadership, highlighting the importance of a human voice in content.
Company posts can be perceived as salesy
Traditional company posts often focus on promotional messaging, which can be off-putting to sophisticated B2B buyers. Sponsored thought leadership that prioritises education and actionable insights offers more value and appears less self-serving.
Nearly 60% of B2B buyers say strong thought leadership directly led them to award business to a company, while 29% have decided against awarding business due to poor thought leadership content.
This shows that buyers check vendors based on their thought leadership quality, not just marketing claims.
Positions the poster as a problem solver
Effective thought leadership addresses real industry challenges, offering practical solutions and demonstrating expertise.
According to the 2024 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 86% of decision-makers are likely to invite companies that produce compelling thought leadership into RFP (request for proposal) processes. Further,75% have explored products or services they previously overlooked because of strong thought leadership.
Additionally, 60% of decision-makers are willing to pay a premium to work with organisations that deliver high-quality thought leadership, underscoring the value placed on problem-solving expertise. This positions both the individual poster and their company as trusted advisors, not just vendors.
How to craft thought leadership content that sticks
Creating thought leadership content that resonates with your B2B audience requires strategic planning and execution. Here’s how to ensure your content makes a lasting impact:
1. Know your audience
Identify precisely who you’re speaking to and the specific challenges they face (audience research can help with this). Whilst thought leadership content is widely accessible, each piece should target a specific segment, addressing their pain points and interests.
2. Begin with clear objectives
Start with your destination in mind. Determine the headlines and angles you want to establish, then work backwards to identify what research you need and which experts to consult. Set measurable goals for your thought leadership strategy to track success.
3. Conduct thorough research
Gather data from relevant industry sources and consider commissioning primary market research through a third party. This approach generates unique insights that can fuel your content pipeline for months whilst ensuring credibility and validation.
4. Develop a harmonious strategy
Ensure all your thought leadership pieces work together cohesively. Choose distribution channels where your audience actively seeks information and inspiration. Your strategy should align seamlessly with your broader marketing and business objectives. (Thought leadership and content research can help with this)
5. Tell a compelling story
Focus on one or two core points related to your goals. Your content should be:
- Informative and insightful, blending opinions with facts
- Providing a unique perspective that advances industry conversation
- Consistent in presence but diverse in format
- Both planned and reactive to emerging trends
Read more about storytelling in our blog-post by Harriet Jowett.
