30 Stats That Will Make You Want to Become an Authoritative, Industry Thought Leader
Thought leadership is a crucial element to business success, but unfortunately, there aren't many reports that showcase the importance of it. There’s barely any information on the ROI of thought leadership and how many businesses are actually prioritizing it.
However, to offer some clarity and insight, this blog post will do two things:
Walk through LinkedIn and Edelman's study on thought leadership, which offers the most recent findings on the subject.
Provide statistics on the type of content — blog posts, gated collateral, social media, and infographics — that will enable you to become a thought leader.
So, without further ado, here are 26 stats that showcase why you should focus on becoming an authoritative, industry thought leader.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP STATS
9 in 10 decision-makers find thought leadership content important. (LinkedIn and Edelman)
55% of C-suite executives give an organization their contact information after consuming their thought leadership content. (LinkedIn and Edelman)
82% of B2B executives trust organizations that create thought leadership content. (LinkedIn and Edelman)
78% of B2B decision-makers and 79% of B2B C-suite executives think successful thought leadership content offers insights on trends and obstacles. (LinkedIn and Edelman)
52% of B2B decision-makers use an organization’s thought leadership content to vet and understand the business’s thinking. (LinkedIn and Edelman)
45% of B2B decision-makers have decided to work with a company after consuming its thought leadership content. (LinkedIn and Edelman)
GUEST-CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE STATS
Business leaders who submit guest-contributed articles have increased their email list by adding 36,733 subscribers. (Source)
Brian Harris, CEO of Videofruit, garnered 1,086 web visitors the day his guest-contributed article published. He also gained 686 web visitors the day after it published, and overall, he averaged 285 web visitors per day for 30 days. (VideoFruit)
Businesses who develop guest-contributed articles have established their reputation as experts in their industry (Moz)
Businesses who create guest-contributed articles have increased their leads and sales opportunities. (Moz)
BLOGGING STATS
53% of marketers continue to make blogging a top priority. (HubSpot)
Blogs are the fifth most trusted source of information on the internet. (HubSpot)
Businesses that have a blog typically experience 434% more indexed pages. (Source)
B2B companies with a blog generate 67% more leads than companies that don’t. (Source)
6 out of 10 online marketers agree that they’ve garnered customers just by blogging. (Search Engine People)
GATED CONTENT STATS
74% of deals are given to companies that are first to add value and insight. (CMO.com)
Using targeted content to nurture leads produces an increase in sales opportunities of more than 20%. (HubSpot)
61% of B2B buyers agree that the winning vendor delivers a better mix of content for each stage of the buyer’s journey. (Demand Gen Report)
76% of buyers want content that’s unique to where they are in the buyer’s journey. (Source)
95% of businesses lean towards brands that offer content throughout the entire buying process. (Source)
SOCIAL MEDIA STATS
80% of Instagram users follow at least one business and 75% of users take action. (Hootesuite)
47% of marketers report that Twitter is the best social media channel for customer engagement. (Source)
LinkedIn content with images generates 200% more engagement than content with text only. (Social Pilot)
Fortune 500 companies use LinkedIn the most out of all their social media platforms. (Source)
80% of B2B marketing leads are generated through LinkedIn. (LinkedIn).
57% of people believe social media influences their shopping with Facebook leading at 44%. (Marketing Dive)
INFOGRAPHIC STATS
People who hear information are likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. But if the information is paired with a visual, people will retain 65% of the information three days later. (Brain Rules)
Now at 65%, infographics have had the biggest increase in usage among B2B marketers in the last four years. (Content Marketing Institute)
When information is paired with relevant images, readers spend more time looking at the images than they do reading the text. (Source)
40% of marketers agree that infographics (and other original graphics) are the most engaging visual content. (Venngage)
Bottom line, becoming a thought leader should be one of your top business priorities. While it's a journey and requires various types of content, your efforts will produce results — and your credibility and authority will be established.