Leadership and Authority in Your Market Niche

Leadership and Authority within an industry, even in a select portion of the industry, is incredibly valuable, and, more importantly, attainable. It requires careful planning and an intimate understanding of the market. There are a few important criteria, most of which have been discussed earlier in this book. First, a solid foundation for your brand platform is a must to build Leadership and Authority. Everything in Phase 1 and Phase 2 has to be in place and functioning well. Second, SEO has to be producing results. Your keywords need to be performing. The business has to have traction for the primary keywords from the company’s Keyword List and they need to steadily climb up the results in natural search. (This is another reason the entire process can last months.) Finally, third, there needs to be a plan and vision to design and create the content necessary to 'own' the market.

Leadership and Authority revolves around content and defining the different types that are needed to succeed. It is also wider in aspect, taking a broader look at the market, competition, and influencers that define the industry. In fact, it is about becoming an influencer in the industry, or taking the company’s level of influence up several notches. So first, the types of content needed to achieve this end must be understood.

Case Studies

CognitiveScale: AI Powered Personalization

When CognitiveScale began their Marketing Orchestration approach, as noted earlier, they ranked for four keywords. By the time they were ready for the Leadership and Authority phase of the action plan they ranked in the top fifty for well over 200 keywords specific to their niche in the artificial intelligence industry. That included over thirty rankings in the top ten and more than fifty in the top twenty. It took less than six months to achieve those goals (KPIs!). So, how do you become the leader and authority in a new industry? What are steps are required to give the company that chance?

The first thing to consider is what did they want to own? Their AI Orchestration platform is all about AI-Personalization and Trust and Governance. They are well known in healthcare and insurance, though they have a presence in several other industries. The company has won multiple awards for its AI Orchestration platform and they have been granted more AI-specific patents than any other AI company, with the exception of Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. That puts them in really good company! It made sense to go after AI Personalization in those two industries.

New Industries Have Their Own Considerations

There was one other consideration, something that could be difficult to manage unless they were dedicated to the endeavor. As of this writing, the company is at the bleeding edge of the industry. Most—nearly all—companies trying to scale up AI in Healthcare and Insurance are still in the Machine Learning phase. They haven’t gotten to AI Personalization—yet. But it's coming, and quickly. The difficulty is something that was mentioned earlier: industry taxonomy and nomenclature aren't settled and may change over time. As an example, look at the industry Analysts when they discuss AI platforms. Forrester calls the process of orchestrating an AI app 'AI Orchestration' while Gartner talks about 'AI Makers'. In this situation, it would require monitoring of the market to pivot to one or the other, if necessary. Eventually, one of the terms will win out and become the default wording everyone uses—or something else may take its place. But because the industry is new and CognitiveScale is at the bleeding edge of the industry they had to be agile and aware of changing market sentiments.

Once it was decided what the company wanted to 'own' in both Healthcare and Insurance—AI Personalization—the current content had to be evaluated. A series of questions was asked and answered regarding the on-hand content, such as:

Do we have the proper Technical documentation? (down funnel sales process) For CognitiveScale this meant content for Data Engineers, Data Scientists, and Developers.
Is there the proper mid-level, semi-technical product-based content?
Does the top-level content speak to the correct persona? (Messaging) The initial person any company deals with in the buying process isn’t likely to be super-technical. They are typically the business owner. In Gartner’s Buying Center definition, they may be the Initiator, Buyer, or Approver. The content for this persona is different from the content required of Data Scientists and Developers.
What types of content can be developed to enhance the customer journey? Articles, Videos, Demos, Podcasts, White Papers, Case Studies, etc.

Is there broad-reaching, more philosophical content that establishes the company as a thought leader? This is an important area of content that gets overlooked at times. There are several reasons why it is important, just as there are several ways it can be used. Broad reaching content isn’t about products or even the company. It’s about ideas, strategy, and philosophy. This is the sort of content you hand to your PR agency and tell them to get it into outlets like Forbes, Wired, The Economist, etc. Broad reaching content generates interviews with some of those same magazines and outlets. It makes the company a thought leader in its industry. It establishes Leadership and Authority. When those healthcare companies move from Machine Learning into AI Personalization CognitiveScale wanted to be seen as the leader and authority in the space.

For each area content was evaluated and a plan put in place. One key employee was put in charge to develop the content needed and the timeline to produce it. The entire team helped with editing to make certain of consistency and accuracy, including Product. This can take some time to develop. But in the end, it can have a massive impact on the enterprise.

And it did. One way to measure the impact of this content is to look at the natural search results and how well the new content is ranking. If the articles and other forms of content are created with keywords in mind, search engines will rank those pages. This is exactly what happened for CognitiveScale.

SmartSound: Royalty Free Music and Editing Technology

SmartSound is an interesting Case Study. They are both a music company and a technology company. The messaging was quite complex. They are also in an industry—royalty free music—that is mature and heavily populated with a lot of large players. So, how did they differentiate themselves from the rest of their competitors?

There were several key factors used to differentiate them. First, their patented software has won dozens of awards and is highly respected within the industry. Second, the music is of the highest quality. SmartSound seeks out the best studio artists to create for them. Third, the SmartSound customer base included some of the largest organizations in the world.

And at the time of their sale (2019) they did business with nearly every top 1,000 corporation and organization. Companies like:

Apple
GM
IBM
Disney
McDonalds

So, too, did other top organizations like:

US Army
Navy
Air Force
Marines

To get to that point, content was developed along many different lines and channels. How-to videos and articles were created. Blog posts on every album the company created. Articles on particular series of music that had a long history. Music category landing pages were developed. Special landing pages were developed for events and holidays: Halloween, Christmas, Fourth of July, Wedding Music, and more.

Industry Experts

One of the more successful areas of content development was around the people who used the software and music. Articles and interviews were created about the people and how they used the products in their work: Independent filmmakers, Major Film Studios in Hollywood, Corporate filmmakers, Commercial Producers, and articles about the artists who created the music.

SmartSound was successful in a crowded industry by offering something unique and different and sharing with their users (150,000 email subscribers) others’ success stories, techniques, and individual perspectives.

Key-Personnel Visibility

A final note on the Leadership and Authority phase. The CEO or COO can have a lot more visibility in this phase. If one of the goals is to get outside sources to write articles about the company and its products, or do interviews with key senior management (KPI—PR), the company needs a face, or voice. These interviews can also be part of an ad campaign and promotion. For instance, a podcast with a leading industry influencer or trade journal. Other times it may be as a presenter at a conference or summit. Regardless of the situation or opportunity, having the enterprise aligned in a culture of collaboration ensures the proper messaging is being delivered, and all of the additional attention and notice helps build authority.