Launching Thought Leadership within Marketing | Eric Dates | 399

How do you bring thought leadership online in a quickly growing organization?  It's a task that can be easily over-complicated, adding more spinning plates to employees who already have their hands full. So how do you make it work? We've invited Eric Dates, the Director, Growth Marketing at Ncontracts, a software firm providing risk management and compliance to a rapidly expanding customer base of financial institutes. Eric's voice adds to the conversation as someone who is currently adding and expanding the role thought leadership plays at his company. Eric shares how he kick-started thought leadership at Ncontracts by finding people inside the organization who are interested in becoming the face of the brand. He's found that people get excited at the prospect of being offered the space to share their voice on behalf of the org. Getting people interested in thought leadership might be easier than the task of creating it. Eric explains how he helps people break down the large task of thought leadership creation into smaller chunks, to avoid employees feeling overwhelmed. We also discuss how to integrate a high-profile employee into the thought leadership program without overshadowing others or taking away from the many voices that are involved. If you want to understand how to better shine the spotlight on the amazing talent in your company, as well as share great ideas, this episode will move you in the right direction. Three Key Takeaways: * By showcasing a variety of the talented people in your organization, they gain credibility and create a level of trust for the entire org. Credibility that can be relied on, and will pay off in every future interaction. * Getting subject matter experts to move into thought leadership involves giving them the space and confidence to share their ideas. * Understanding the full potential of employees contributing to the org's thought leadership can help marketers move the needle.