Let’s say you and your team have crafted a brilliant piece of thought leadership.
And now it’s time to place the cherry on top 🍒: the call-to-action.
🍇 What do you want your audience to do?
🍇 Is it easy for them to do?
🍇 Why is this in your audience’s interest?
The first question is one of specificity.
Your thought leadership’s call-to-action should be clear.
Don’t leave your audience guessing on what they should do next.
The second question is proportionality.
Your call-to-action needs to match their level ⚖️ of investment
(time, attention, and interest).
There’s an art to calibrating a next step of the right size.
Too big 🌲or too small 🌱, and it won’t happen.
The third question is where many organizations get tripped up.
There’s a lovely term in Latin (now used in law) which asks “cui bono” –
that is, “who benefits from this action?”
Your organization?
Your audience member?
There’s a lot of pressure to craft next steps that benefit your organization.
That next step is tied to outcomes, KPIs, bonuses,
and they make us look good in our next performance review.
However, thought leadership must serve its audience first.
Show that there’s a clear (and immediate) benefit to them.
Make sure you have the answers to these questions
before you put your next thought leadership asset out into the world.
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I write about
#ThoughtLeadership #OrgTL and #Brand