The value of thought leadership content in the age of AI
Updated August 2, 2023.
Key takeaways
- Thought leadership content is vital in the AI era to engage audiences and establish brand authority.
- Effective thought leadership content needs engaging topics, expert collaboration, and omnichannel marketing.
- AI-driven content hyperinflation increases the need for unique, high-quality content.
Artificial intelligence is stirring up some big changes in the world of content, making thought leadership content more important than ever. Content marketing, in its early phase, was all about deep insights from industry innovators. However, as businesses began outsourcing to cope with the growing complexity of content creation, content quality started to take a dip. An excessive focus on SEO only exacerbated this trend.
The building blocks of thought leadership content
To build effective thought leadership content that resonates with your audience and establishes your brand's authority, you can rely on three key strategies.
Pick engaging topics
Companies traditionally concentrate on bottom-of-the-funnel content (their products) and far top-of-the-funnel content (brand awareness). Meanwhile, the middle of the funnel, a goldmine of informational content, doesn't get as much attention.
Thought leadership content fills this gap, offering immense opportunities for brand exposure.
Backed by expertise and offering genuine value, this content type is instrumental for businesses aiming to maximize their reach and establish authority.
Rely on experts
Thought leadership content should be helpful and accurately target its intended audience. Ideally, the creator should be an expert in their respective field, which ultimately adds value and authority to the information.
For example: When Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, discusses AI and generative AI, his expertise adds significant authority to his insights, positioning him as a thought leader.
Turn to omnichannel marketing
For businesses to really make the most of thought leadership content, they need to go all in on an omnichannel marketing strategy. This means sharing top-notch content across all platforms—your website, blog, and social media channels. With search and social media merging more and more, being everywhere at once is key for reaching your audience effectively.
» Learn about the negative effects of AI-generated content on SEO.
The role of AI in creating thought leadership content
These days, AI is doing a lot more than just gathering and summarizing data. It's working more like a brain, predicting and learning in ways that mimic human conversation. With this kind of power, AI can create thought leadership content—it can look at vast amounts of data, spot trends, and even make sense of complicated medical info.
Can AI replace experts in thought leadership content?
When it comes to thought leadership content, the focus should be on the value rather than the source. If AI can deliver valuable content, there's no reason to dismiss it. The goal should be to deliver high-value content, emphasizing the quality of information over the creator's identity.
Can you leverage AI to enhance thought leadership content?
The true worth of content isn't about how it's made—it's about how relevant and helpful it is.
AI can help shape your content, covering topics in a complete way, coming up with new ideas, and even rewording content.
While we're still finding out all the ways we can use AI, there's no doubt it's a powerful tool for improving content quality.
The value of thought leadership content in the age of AI
With AI shaking things up in marketing and content creation, we've got to ask ourselves: What kind of content will still matter in these changing times? What will people want to consume, and where will they find it?
To engage potential customers, the focus should be on informational and educational content. In the AI era, it's thought leadership content that emerges as the most relevant type of content for this stage of the customer journey.
» Explore how AI will affect topical authority.
AI and content creation challenges
AI tools, including advanced language models like ChatGPT, have revolutionized content creation by making it more efficient and accessible. However, these advancements also bring new challenges, particularly in marketing. The main concern isn't just about automating content creation. It's about how we use this AI-generated content to effectively reach and engage our target audience and support our broader marketing strategies.
What to do when content creation becomes too easy
The ease and speed with which AI tools like GPT can produce content has led to content hyperinflation. This rise in content has increased the competition, which means we have to work even harder to create content that stands out. In other words, the challenge has shifted from merely producing content to creating high-quality, unique content that can engage audiences in a crowded marketplace.
» Find out how to create content that converts.
Creating tomorrow's content, today
In the age of AI, thought leadership content stands as the most critical content type businesses need to create, offering a beacon of light in an otherwise saturated market.
At Entail, we understand these challenges. Rather than merely reducing content creation costs, we focus on creating relevant content that draws traffic. The key lies in attracting more people to your content funnel through search or social media and identifying the most effective content types. Our products are designed to address these critical aspects, with a primary focus on optimizing the funnel to guide customers toward a purchase.
