Source, a research company, have analysed Thought Leadership in Professional Services, their area of specialism. Amongst many observations, they offer two that really interested us. 

Firstly, the value of Thought Leadership in Professional Services is well understood.  Paul English, their Director of Marketing Advisory quotes their research finding that 87% of CxOs "read, watch, or listen to thought leadership produced by professional services firms" every day or several times a week. 

Second, in larger firms, brand consistency is a major problem. Quality is seriously undermined by an inconsistent approach. Problems around governance are real for Professional Services firms that may offer different services to different clients in different jurisdictions. “Establishing an effective approach to governance... in a firm of any size can feel as multiplex as delivering world peace." 

The suggested solution is to provide centralised technology platforms with templated Content Marketing approaches to production and approval. “We see a strong correlation between the degree of centralisation of the thought leadership function and quality scoring.”

This is certainly a trend we are finding in the market. If high-quality Content Marketing is simply required in Professional Services, then the question is not whether to do it but how to do it very well, on brand at scale. That's very much the challenge we are now being posed here at Passle - can you do that?