May 5, 2015 | less than a minute read

Thought leadership: is your firm individual enough?

Passle

In his recent book, The Thought Leadership Manual, Tim Prizeman writes that ‘to the outside world your firm probably appears pretty similar to your competitors’.

How then do you stand out from the crowd?

Having a USP (unique selling point), such as being a niche firm, is certainly one way to stand out.

But what if you are a regular firm, who offers the same services as most firms, with similar employees of similar qualifications?

Firms need to work out what is unique about them and draw it out. Becoming known as the go-to firm for a particular service is a sure way to stand out.

Prizeman's book is full of sensible advice on how to achieve this, including how to get coverage in the major media outlets.

A good place to start is to regularly demonstrate your firm's expertise online and in print, through content marketing. We've put together a handy infographic on its benefits here.

The ability to create insights that grab the attention of clients and the media has become one of the most important marketing challenges for businesses selling high-value services. Yet ‘thought leadership’ barely features in marketing courses, and there is even less advice available on how to create the all-important stream of great ideas (which is the toughest part!). The Thought Leadership Manual fills this gap, providing a process and toolkit that enables newcomers and the experienced alike to create and launch successful campaigns by getting buy-in from colleagues and budget-holders, delivering the all-important breakthrough ideas (and, essentially, identifying ideas you think are great…but actually aren’t), planning and executing in order to deliver the very maximum in terms of marketing, publicity and, most importantly, sales.