How to Build Thought Leadership and Generate Demand
An Ex-Google PMM's take on product marketing.
Hi, I’m Henry, and today I’ll dive into thought leadership as a powerful tool for brand building and generating inbound interest. Let's break it down into three steps: content, community, and commerce.
Step 1: Content
The goal is to create value-driven content without asking for anything in return, building trust with prospects. There are three key approaches:
Share insights about your technology and how it benefits customers.
Provide market insights that inform business growth.
Offer best practices from subject matter experts to help customers.
Step 2: Community
Amplify your customers’ voices by identifying relevant market topics and partnering with customers to co-create content. Whether it’s through blogs, videos, or industry events, your goal is to give your customers a platform to share their expertise, establishing you as a trusted facilitator.
Step 3: Commerce
Once you’ve built your content and community, you can start thinking about monetization. For content, gated resources can help generate marketing qualified leads (MQLs). For community, invite high-profile prospects to participate in discussions, creating a warm lead funnel for your sales team.
Example: AdMob App Building Competition
At AdMob, we applied the three C’s with a global student app-building competition:
Content: Created a developer business kit and partnered with seasoned developers for expert content.
Community: Hosted a global competition with thousands of student teams building apps using AdMob.
Commerce: Generated $1.5 million in ad revenue from student-built apps with a $250,000 investment, resulting in long-term brand loyalty.
By following the three C’s of content, community, and commerce, you can build thought leadership that generates awareness, trust, and ultimately revenue.
Thanks for reading! If you found this helpful, leave a comment and let me know what topics you'd like to explore next. Until next time!
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