Starting points for writing good thought leadership

Thought-leadership or opinion pieces are great content and good for visibility when approached the right way.

They are an opportunity to present your take on market trends or topics that are useful and interesting to your clients.

You can pitch them to B2B publishers and business news outlets or use them for client newsletters or on your own website to help build authority.

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They’ve been part of my working life for many years.

As a freelance, I ghost-write them for clients who don’t have the time or find writing them tricky. When I was features editor on a B2B magazine, I used to commission and edit guest columns.

Common mistake

The most common mistake when ideas for thought leader pieces were being pitched was a lack of opinion or viewpoint.

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Do you target your content pitches and press releases appropriately?

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Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

Earlier this year Hubspot surveyed 500 journalists about PR tactics for pitching stories that were counter-productive (link to piece at the bottom).

That’s the polite way of saying they drew up a list of what irks journalists.

I’m sure there won’t be anything on the list to surprise seasoned PR’s – and this isn’t a post about dos and don’ts* – but there is one broader lesson: ‘Know the audience’.

Research the audience

When pitching to journalists this means not only knowing their patch but also understanding the publication/website and who its audience is.

I’ve worked with many brilliant PR’s over the years but the one who regularly sent me stories about window boxes wasn’t one of them.

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