Facing up to the challenge of measuring ROI on thought leadership

Assuming there's a clear and tactical commercial purpose for the thought leadership (get X meetings or Y event attendees), it's easier than ever to measure leads, and it's not rocket science. For example, always use one primary contact name for phone responses. This channels enquiries to that individual, who can be briefed by marketing to capture leads and ask the all-important question 'How did you hear about this?' Similarly, use unique email, phone numbers and URLs for each piece of thought leadership. By doing so, you can easily isolate the source of the enquiry and prove conclusively which pieces of collateral are working the hardest. If the goal is more strategic 'issue ownership' - which, if you think about it, is the higher purpose behind a lot of thought leadership activities, then you must begin with thorough research. You have to understand if there are competitors already actively discussing the issue you want to own, and what they are saying. If there’s no gap to be exploited, or a position you can easily adopt that provides a client-compelling counter narrative, then you will struggle. All of the above takes careful planning to do effectively, although I suspect many marketing teams are simply told by the fee earners ‘we need this, and we need it tomorrow!’ It would certainly explain why most of what is touted as thought leadership in consulting is, in truth, followership.