Episode 7: How to Become a Thought Leader in Your Industry with Sarah Wallace

Steve sits down with Sarah Wallace, a consultant at Forrester. She has over 20 years of experience working as an industry analyst and thought leadership marketer while providing consulting and advisory to C-level executives on both vendor and practitioner side.

Over the years, Sarah has consulted for such companies as Futurum Research + Analysis, Oracle, IHS Markit, TimeTrade, and Informa. She has been cited by Forbes in their list of top mobile influencers, was chosen to attend the first Tory Burch Foundation Ambition Summit for women, was selected for Seth Godin's AltMBA program, and was featured in Audi's "Pay Your Dues" campaign.

Listen in as Sarah shares some of the most interesting projects that she had the opportunity to contribute to. These include a social media campaign leading up to the launch of a wearable tracking device for individuals who have a tendency to wander off; as well as conducting a survey for the Gen-Z retail space for a tech startup.

Sarah explains that thought leadership fundamentally revolves around providing value to one’s audience rather than pitching products to them. For B2B marketers, this involves building authority by doing thorough research in a given space, as well as focusing on addressing pain points over selling products on a white paper.

Key Takeaways:

• When conducting social media campaigns, patience is key. Raising awareness, and moreso building loyalty, for a brand takes time.
• Too many companies default to their opinion on a market with little more than a white paper containing a case study or two. Doing extensive research (using tools such as surveys) automatically makes any B2B marketer an authority in that space. Instead of sounding like a pitch, marketers are seen as a valuable source of data and a revenue generator.
• When crafting long-form content such as for a white paper, rather than focusing on the solution first, start with the current state of the industry, then highlight the pain points, and then explain how the company intends to address these problems. Instead of trying to “sell” your products, take the approach to offering help to your target audience. This is the foundation of thought leadership.

Connect with Sarah Wallace on LinkedIn.