Episode 2 Lucy Ferguson, DeepL AI: The Problem with Thought Leadership

Lucy Ferguson, Content and AI Marketer, and former Head of B2B Content at Google, discusses the problem with Thought Leadership. Focusing on the common mistakes she has seen over the course of her career across media owner, agency and platform roles, we discuss how and why B2B brands are turning clients and potential customers off with content that's more 'inside-out' than outside in. Lucy shares insights on how to develop the content your customer needs and the huge ROI potential from taking distribution seriously, including a practical view on how AI can make this better (or worse) depending on the approach you choose.

Key talking points:

• How Google’s lens of ‘Helpfulness’ shapes the content the business creates and “helps the user to do their job better”
• How to plan thought leadership content effectively when 95% of your audience isn’t ready to buy
• The importance of moving on from a campaign / “one and done’ mindset to creatie once, using everywhere.
• The case for long term investment in brand platforms and owned IP to grow ‘mental availability’

Internal vs. External Influencers: Deciding who to partner with externally and how to “help the voices inside the organisation become more vocal."

Authenticity Matters: The importance of asking "Is this the best use of your brilliance?" and finding ways to channel what individuals are genuinely passionate and knowledgeable about for creating effective expert content

Generative AI in Content Marketing: Avoiding the risk of anodyne content: "The problem... is using AI in a way that just churns anodyne content... it wasn't written with love… and anything that moves us away from really understanding our audience, really helping people, and sharing new knowledge is going to be a problem." But harnessing the possibilities; "use it as a hypothesis as a test, alongside existing content and compare how it works”

Links and references:

• Google Firestarters
• Gartner on the Rise of Buying Committees
• 2024 Edelman-Linkedin Thought Leadership Impact Report

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