The Power of Thought Leadership
3 Reasons C-Suite Executives Need a Ghostwriter
So you’re a member of the C-suite or a Vice President of a promising new startup that’s finally ready to scale—amazing! Blood, sweat, and tears don’t even begin to describe what you’ve put into the company. But you’re tapped out; you can’t possibly add anything to your plate to raise the next round, get acquired, go public, add headcount, or just keep the lights on. Well, there is something you can and must do to move your company to the next level. You need to take the advice of your Chief Marketing Officer and start working with an executive ghostwriter.
As we’ve established, you simply don’t have time to develop your own content and the price of staying silent is too high. Resist the temptation to reach for the shortsighted excuse, “That won’t bring in leads.” Instead, consider these three major reasons to hire a pro to produce substantive thought leadership content for the entire executive team.
1. YOU ARE AN ASSET. The first thing I do when working on content with a new company is audit all the existing marketing assets and review what can be reused as is, tossed altogether, or improved to work with the most recent marketing strategy. This includes a thorough assessment of the leadership team. Aside from the product, I count the executive team as among the company’s most valuable assets.
The C-suite is a critical spoke of the marketing wheel. As a marketer in today’s crowded tech landscape, I know consistent messaging from company leaders can be an effective way to create high-level, long-term brand differentiation. While every product on the market includes some form of automation, integration, and artificial intelligence, it's the small team of leaders who run the place that can help the company stand out. When thought leadership content is professionally created and curated by a human (ahem, not AI), the company's mission becomes anchored in the real-life purpose and personal vision. Each leader provides a deeper connection to the product and can more quickly bring the brand closer to earning, growing, and keeping the trust of the marketplace.
In addition to creating a content wish list for each member of the C-suite, when getting to know company executives, I often consider:
Who has a strong enough stage presence to nail a keynote speech at this year’s big conference? Hint: This is not always the CEO. What does the pitch sound and look like?
Who on the C-suite can hold their own on a webinar? Maybe there are two execs with entertaining banter about their complementary specialties.
Who on the leadership team could use some media training? Answer: All of them. A refresher course always pays off, whether there are legitimate press plans or not. I consider each company-wide meeting to be a practice press conference—how do those look?
Do any of the corporate leaders have a professional social media audience worth tapping into? If so, what is their most popular content? Can it be replicated for the company?
Does the LinkedIn profile, headshot, and cover image of each executive reflect the company accurately and consistently? It might be time for marketing to provide professional tidy-up.
“The best leaders know what they don’t know, and that is especially true when it comes to marketing strategy and writing.”
Because not all leaders are marketers or writers, executive content is most effective when thoughtfully planned to align with the go-to-market plan, created and curated by marketing, and amplified by marketing operations across all channels. When thought leadership content is built into the overall marketing strategy, a cohesive voice develops across all platforms and consistent brand messages communicate the company's mission, values, and vision for the future. Hire a writer to create that content and amplify what is best about the brand identity using each executive's area of expertise and personal style.
2. YOU ARE BEING WATCHED. I know, it feels like you’re all alone atop that massive mountain of responsibility, but you’re not. Lots of people are peeking in on what you say and assessing if it matches what you do. Several groups of people care about the frequency, quality, and consistency of your thought leadership content:
Employees want their company to succeed and they want to feel proud of where they work. But when leadership is publicly silent, employees often fill in the blanks with their own corporate narrative. Unfortunately, that can go negative. Instead, messaging from the top should echo and strengthen the brand message that originates from marketing. When it does, the esteem of the entire organization is lifted and employees are led to trust their leaders and support the efforts of marketing.
Future employees learn what to think about your company by what they search on Google and read. Whether they find a company review on Glassdoor or uncover your byline as a multi-submission contributor on the Forbes Business Council, they’ll take a close look before they apply for or accept a job with your company. Make it easy for Google to feed them legitimate, thoughtful content written by you about a subject you care about—your company and why it’s better than any other.
The board, advisors, and investors care about how the company is being run, especially when it comes to getting real value from the folks earning the highest salaries. Cutting dead weight is the easiest way to feel better about last quarter’s low revenue, so prove you’re worthy of your spot in leadership with regular contributions to the brand content strategy at a high level. This is especially true if your startup is in fundraising mode. Realize that valuable content requires lead time and a regular cadence to develop into a contextual story arch that matters, so the time to put someone on the project is now.
3. YOU ARE YOUR BRAND. No matter the state of the economy or your position at the company, these days, it is no longer realistic to assume you’ll retire from your current position. You already know the stats, but here they are anyway: 70% of startups fail within their first five years in operation, 1% of startups reach unicorn status, fewer than 20% of those unicorns will go public, and less than 1.4% of all startups are likely to be acquired.
Without fostering too much paranoia, I’ll simply point out that the adorable post-college goal we all had to “gain experience” does not age well in tech. Next time you find yourself interviewing for a job, don’t be surprised if you hear the term “over-qualified” as a nice way to say you’re “too old to understand the current and future industry.” Simply put, creating and updating content with your byline is your bridge to relevancy as you age in the workforce. Ageism is real.
If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself at the tip of the spear at a startup, take advantage of it by hiring a professional to create your content. For example, a Chief People Officer may explain how their unique experience has translated into insightful knowledge of human behavior in the workplace and helped shape the company values that employees love; a Chief Technology Officer might explore the evolution of products of their specific industry and how they’re looking forward to next-gen versions in the coming years; or a Chief Executive Officer may outline their secrets to leading with confidence and how they’ve managed to succeed against all odds. Is it a weekly blog post or a series of white papers? Maybe it’s finally time to start that YouTube video series on your particular area of expertise. Yes, your ghostwriter can write scripts. Bonus: Do this for a year and you’ll have enough material for your very own book, no matter where you end up after this gig.
The bottom line? You can do it all if you delegate. The best leaders know what they don’t know, and that is especially true when it comes to marketing strategy and writing. For more info on how thought leadership strategies are developed and executed, listen to the “Not Everyone Should Write” episode on the podcast All Things Growth. And if you are serious about making a difference for your company, read How to Hire an Executive Ghostwriter.
