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Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
20 Reasons Authentic Thought Leadership Is So Important In B2B
In B2B, purchasing decisions are rarely made on product specs alone. Buyers want to know who they're learning from, who they can trust and who can make sense of where the industry is headed. Engaging in authentic thought leadership without promoting one's services or products gives B2B leaders the perfect opportunity to prove they're not just participants in the industry—they're shaping it. When the insight is real and the voice is clear, people pay attention. Below, Forbes Agency Council members share why true thought leadership matters more than ever. Read on to learn how and why it helps B2B leaders rise above the noise rather than blend into it. True thought leadership positions B2B leaders as trusted experts, not just sellers. By sharing valuable, forward-thinking insights, they build credibility, nurture relationships and stand out in a crowded market. In my opinion, LinkedIn is ideal for this. It enables sharing content with a targeted audience, boosting engagement and authority. - John Readman, ASK BOSCO B2B leaders can leverage and amplify their influence when they center thought leadership on insights that share strategic learnings and keys to unblocking success. The goals are twofold: Showcase your particular methodology or point of view while helping others succeed. - Talie Smith, Smith & Connors True thought leadership differentiates genuine industry experts from superficial content creators, positioning B2B leaders as authentic voices worth following. A powerful but overlooked medium is podcasting, providing a personal, engaging way to regularly deliver deep insights directly to professionals seeking trusted expertise. - George Arabian, NVISION A bylined article in a respected trade publication is one of the most effective ways B2B leaders can reach their audience with credible, useful insights. It's targeted, searchable and often picked up by AI tools. Thought leadership isn't about promotion—it's about building trust by showing you truly understand the challenges your audience faces. - Christine Wetzler, Pietryla PR & Marketing Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? B2B thought leadership needs to be thoughtful and compelling to position your brand at the center of industry conversations. By creating what I call a 'company you keep campaign,' leaders establish credibility beyond self-promotion. A branded interview series allows you to curate influential guests, shape discussions around mutual expertise and own the conversation while expanding reach. - Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications In B2B, people buy trust as much as they buy solutions. Thought leadership shows that you get their world—and have ideas worth stealing. It builds your credibility before the sales pitch begins. One killer medium? LinkedIn posts are short, sharp, personal wins—no fluff, no jargon, just real insights that spark conversation. - Justin Belmont, Prose Thought leadership has always been important for brand building, but it is now absolutely critical for earning inclusion in large language model AI answers and gaining mindshare with potential customers. The most effective way to do that is by creating entity associations via schema markup that tie your unique perspectives across media properties to your brand. - Toren Ajk, TAC Marketing Group Most B2B 'thought leadership' is recycled best practices—safe, shallow and already done. Old ideas repackaged as clickbait. Real leaders help others navigate a rapidly changing world with clarity and a panoramic perspective. The medium will—and should—vary by industry and end goal. Where you show up depends on what you're trying to shift, spark or solve. But the mandate remains: Lead what's next. - Shanna Apitz, Hunt Adkins People don't trust logos, they trust people. Thought leadership gives leaders a way to build credibility, not by selling, but by showing up with a perspective. LinkedIn remains incredibly powerful for this. It's not about perfectly produced posts; it's about showing your point of view consistently. When done right, it builds a magnetic personal brand that benefits the entire organization. - Jacquelyn LaMar Berney, VI Marketing and Branding Thought leadership is crucial because it positions you as a go-to source of knowledge, helping you stand out. It's better to be micro-famous than anonymous! A great way to achieve this is through guest posting, guest writing and appearing on podcasts or public platforms with large, broad audiences. This strategy helps you reach your target B2B audience with valuable, non-promotional insights. - Austin Irabor, NETFLY Thought leadership positions B2B leaders as credible and forward-thinking people who drive change and set trends. Besides traditional approaches like publications and events, LinkedIn influencer marketing is an effective approach to reach out to an engaged and interested B2B audience. Influencers speak in a personal and authentic manner that catches the audience's attention. - Michael Kuzminov, HypeFactory True thought leadership builds trust, authority and long-term relationships—key drivers in B2B decisions. Publishing insightful articles on LinkedIn is an effective way to share valuable, non-promotional knowledge and consistently reach and influence target audiences. - Boris Dzhingarov, ESBO Ltd B2B leaders who engage in authentic thought leadership build trust, credibility and influence in their industry. They attract and engage decision-makers by sharing insights and expertise, not just promotions. One medium that continues to be effective is LinkedIn, where long-form posts, articles and videos can reach ideal personas, spark discussions and position leaders as authorities. - Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions Thought leadership is the cornerstone of a strong PR program, positioning your company and its executives and subject matter experts as the authorities in your space. This approach increases awareness of—and respect for—your brand. LinkedIn is the place to be when it comes to building thought leadership—posts that crowdsource, videos and polls are especially engaging and algorithm-friendly. - Jodi Amendola, Amendola Communications Op-eds, podcasts and speaking gigs are great outlets for non-promotional thought leadership. What matters is choosing the one that reaches your target audience in the best way. When you think of a company like Google or Salesforce, you always know who the CEO is behind it. That's because building your leadership as an expert in your field is the surest way to create credibility for your company. - Ayelet Noff, SlicedBrand B2B leaders must lead with insight to build trust, shape perception and stay top of mind in long sales cycles. True thought leadership drives credibility, not clicks. YouTube is a strategic channel as it blends global reach, SEO and engaging video to deliver expert content that educates, connects and converts over time. - Amy Packard Berry, Sparkpr Many see thought leadership as a way to position themselves or their brand as an industry expert. What's often forgotten is how it gives direct insight into the audience's reactions. Since it often challenges industry norms or competitors, you might want to know how customers respond. LinkedIn is a great place to connect with like-minded individuals and gauge their views. - Nataliya Andreychuk, Viseven Thought leadership in B2B is critical for the simple reason that people still need (and want) to partner with people—actual humans. Behind every successful B2B organization is someone leading the charge. In the AI age, when businesses can seemingly pop up overnight, being able to put a face to a B2B entity helps build trust faster than any volume of content or social media posting ever could. - Bernard May, National Positions Aligning with the buyer's committee has always been a critical stage in a B2B sale. LinkedIn remains the best platform for thought leaders to engage with B2B decision-makers. A combination of videos, posts, articles and polls, along with engaging discussions with B2B decision-makers at virtual events, plays an important role in building a community around a B2B product. - Oksana Matviichuk, OM Strategic Forecasting If you're focused on price, service or capabilities, you're just speaking to buyers, not other leaders. Leaders engage with ideas that help them improve their business, understand their markets and think about what is possible for the future. Smart leaders know that there is no single medium to focus on to share their thought leadership. They need to be active everywhere in our multichannel world. - Thomas Faust, Stanton
Associated Press
08-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
ASK BOSCO® to Launch AI Analyst at BrightonSEO 2025
/ -- ASK BOSCO®, the award-winning AI marketing analytics platform, is set to launch a groundbreaking expansion to its capabilities – ASK BOSCO® AI Analyst – at the upcoming brightonSEO conference on 10th-11th April 2025. Designed to transform how brands and agencies engage with their marketing and ecommerce data, AI Analyst lets users ask questions in plain English such as, 'What were my best-selling products last week?' or 'Which campaigns performed best last week?' Users receive instant, visualised answers that make their data easy to understand and act on. This means no more data bottlenecks, no more sifting through endless spreadsheets - just instant answers to data questions. Making data accessible to everyone with data conversations: ASK BOSCO® AI Analyst breaks down barriers for marketers, enabling anyone – regardless of technical expertise – to interact with data like never before. By asking questions in natural language, users receive instant, visual responses in the form of customisable graphs and charts. With the ability to explore answers further through follow-up queries and an AI trust layer ensuring accurate, transparent insights, data is transformed from simply numbers into a powerful tool for better, data-driven decision making. 'Digital marketers have long been bogged down by tedious data collection and waiting for answers - whether it's digging through spreadsheets, chasing reports, or relying on data analysts. This results in delayed decisions, a lack of data transparency within businesses, and missed opportunities. With ASK BOSCO® AI Analyst, the process is simple: ask a question, get an answer. No jargon, no faff - just instant, visual insights. It's straightforward to use and accessible to all levels of a business, regardless of technical expertise. And with the ability to dig deeper with follow-up questions, it's like having a data scientist on call 24/7,' says John Readman, Founder & CEO at ASK BOSCO®. Some key capabilities of ASK BOSCO® AI analyst include: • Conversational data analysis: Ask performance-related questions in natural language, get clear, AI-powered answers. • Instant visuals: See real-time graphs and charts - no manual number-crunching required. • Follow-up queries: Dig deeper into your data with seamless, follow-up questions • Pin and save key insights: Build and customise dashboards with saved answers. • AI trust layer: Get transparent, accurate insights. • Enterprise-grade security: Full data protection, no third-party sharing. • 24/7 answers: Get data insights anytime, anywhere. It's like having a data analyst on call all day, every day - perfect for fast-paced decision-making. Who will benefit from ASK BOSCO® AI Analyst? ASK BOSCO® is built for marketers, by marketers, and the new capabilities of ASK BOSCO® AI Analyst allow instant insights and clarity around marketing and ecommerce performance. Some of the key roles that benefit from this level of instant access to data are: • CMOs & Marketing Teams who can instantly track campaign and ecommerce performance, enabling quicker, better decision making. • C-Suite who can get fast answers for strategic decisions and board meetings. • Finance Teams who can analyse marketing ROI, budget allocations, and profitability with ease. • Performance marketing agencies who can provide more value to clients by offloading some of the mundane, data crunching jobs to AI, and replace them with more high value, instant, data-backed insights, and recommendations. See ASK BOSCO® AI Analyst in Action at brightonSEO: ASK BOSCO® is launching AI Analyst at brightonSEO 2025 on 10th and 11th April. This 2-day conference brings together digital marketing professionals, SEO experts, and industry leaders from around the world. The conference is co-located with Hero Conf, the world's largest PPC and paid social advertising conference. Founder and CEO of ASK BOSCO® John Readman will be taking to the stage on Friday, 11th April to deliver a talk to conference attendees, offering insights into how marketers can use make better use of their data to help reduce PPC costs and increase SEO traffic. In addition, the ASK BOSCO® team will be at stand 57, providing live demos of the platform including the new AI Analyst feature. Attendees will see how this innovative tool allows users to ask natural language questions, delivering instant insights to improve decision-making and optimise marketing strategies. About ASK BOSCO®: ASK BOSCO® is an AI-powered marketing analytics platform that helps brands and agencies consolidate cross-channel data, optimise ad spend, benchmark online performance and drive business growth. Recently awarded the Innovation award at the UK Paid Media Awards, ASK BOSCO® has received angel investment from tech titans including Bonamy Grimes, co-founder of Skyscanner. ASK BOSCO® is named after Bosco, the name of the man who runs the 1moreChild orphanage in Jinja and is the inspiration behind the technology platform for which the business raises money and donates to help look after the 280 children who live there. Clients include: All Saints, Mabo, Visualsoft, Pavers Shoes, SGS Engineering and Everything Managed Group. About brightonSEO: brightonSEO is renowned as one of the world's largest search marketing conferences, bringing together industry experts to share insights and strategies. Co-located with Hero Conf, the world's largest PPC and paid social advertising conference, these events offer an opportunity for professionals to enhance their digital marketing expertise. The 2025 event will be taking place on 10th and 11th of April at The Brighton Centre. Modo25 7834 4649025 X LinkedIn YouTube Legal Disclaimer:
