Each year, LinkedIn and PR consultancy giants Edelman publish their Thought Leadership Impact Study. This year is the fourth in a series that examines how thought leadership influences decision making and contributes to success.

You can check out the 2018, 2019 & 2020 reports here - I've summarised some of the key learnings for legal marketers from the 2021 report below, the report in full can be downloaded here.

Thought leadership is critical to customer engagement - breaking through the noise is harder than ever.

The research from Edelman & LinkedIn supports other research by Gartner, McKinsey and a number of other firms that shows how essential thought leadership is to the decision making process.

Buyers are far more likely to engage with online content than with suppliers directly and the vast majority of buyers prefer to identify and evaluate suppliers based solely on their digital presence.

Higher quality, more digestible content is key

As more firms recognise the importance of thought leadership, the amount of online content has skyrocketed. The growth in low quality thought leadership has changed the way buyers are interacting with thought leadership content.

Thought leadership is proof your firm can help

For firms that are challenging established brands, are trying to develop offerings in a new marketplace or are wanting to challenge market share distribution - thought leadership is a powerful way to establish trust and credibility.

For unknown or untested firms, effective thought leadership is undeniable proof that the authors understand and can help solve the challenges of the firm.

Thought leadership is a magnet for better talent

In the same way that thought leadership creates recognised and desirable suppliers, so too does it create recognised and desirable employers.

Firms and brands recognised for their excellence in a particular domain are benefitting from the turbulence the current job market is experiencing.