How to Measure Thought Leadership: A Complete Guide

When Ann Handley publishes a thought leadership post on LinkedIn or fires off a newsletter, she’s not just taking a shot in the dark and hoping for the best.

A marketing guru who’s the driving force behind MarketingProfs — and the world’s first Chief Content Officer — Handley’s known for her wit and wisdom. But behind the scenes, she’s laser-focused on the content that sparks conversations.

Handley measures thought leadership impact to figure out which kinds of posts resonate — and why — and uses that data to inform her content creation process.

If you’re looking to maximize the returns from your thought leadership investments, you’ve got to measure thought leadership, too. Keep reading to learn how to make it happen.

73% of decision makers prefer reading thought leadership content over marketing and sales collateral for assessing a company’s capabilities.

What is thought leadership and why does it matter?

Thought leadership is the intentional act of sharing original insights and expertise with your audience to build influence and become a trusted source for your industry.

By regularly sharing content across channels like LinkedIn, company blogs, and podcasts — and contributing articles to industry publications — business leaders can strengthen their personal brands while building deeper connections with their audience. This, in turn, leads to more opportunities, setting the executive — and, by extension, the organization they head — apart from the rest of the pack.

Today’s leading organizations prioritize thought leadership because it returns significant dividends. According to The Harris Poll, money spent on thought leadership delivers a 14x return on investment. What’s more, the 2024 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report found that 73% of decision makers prefer reading thought leadership content over marketing and sales collateral for assessing a company’s capabilities.

By prioritizing thought leadership, businesses can attract new customers, land top talent, and bolster their bottom lines.

The challenge of measuring thought leadership

“Half the money I spent on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” — John Wanamaker

While thought leadership can have a tremendous impact on business outcomes, it’s notoriously hard to measure. In fact, one report found that just 26% of marketers can measure the link between thought leadership output and positive business outcomes. Unlike direct response marketing or traditional content marketing, thought leadership success isn’t always reflected in clicks and conversions.

Let’s dig a little deeper into some of the key reasons why thought leadership impact is so hard to measure.

Long-term vs. short-term impact

Thought leadership success isn’t achieved the moment you publish your first post. Gains compound over time, which is why thought leadership is so hard to measure. In today’s fast-paced business world, stakeholders are always gunning for rapid ROI. But building a reputation and cultivating a trustworthy brand takes time.

Attribution is difficult

B2B buyers rarely read a single piece of content and decide to buy something right then and there, making it much harder to trace deals back to specific thought leadership content. That said, the 2024 Edelman–LinkedIn study found that 70% of C-suite executives have reconsidered whether to work with existing vendors after reading a piece of thought leadership. So, even if touchpoints are indirect, thought leadership can absolutely move the needle.

Source: The 2024 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report

Engagement isn’t the same as influence

Just because a thought leadership article or post gets a lot of engagement doesn’t necessarily mean that the individual posting it is a bona fide thought leader. In the age of viral content, sometimes posts can turn out to be springboards for discussion that don’t end up earning trust. True thought leaders cast a wide and consistent net to accrue credibility over time. They’re quoted in newspaper articles, they’re on cable news programs, they speak at prestigious events, and they even write books!

Despite the controversy surrounding his company, Palantir CEO Alex Karp is regularly invited to share his insights on news programs, panels, and keynotes.

There isn’t a universal formula

Every company has different priorities. Some might prioritize media mentions, others might prefer share of voice, and even others might be most interested in inbound leads. With so many competing priorities, it can be hard to benchmark your efforts. Complicating things further is the fact that metrics vary widely between different formats. How do you compare the impact of a television appearance, a newspaper article, and a webinar?

Qualitative impact is often overlooked

Trust, brand perception, and credibility are crucial elements of thought leadership that can’t be measured quantitatively. Even so, these factors play a major role in winning over stakeholders and opening the doors to high-value opportunities.

How is thought leadership measured?

To measure thought leadership, you first need to understand your underlying goals. Are you trying to raise awareness? Are you working to build credibility? Are you trying to push leads into the funnel? Attract and retain employees? Secure your next round of funding?

Only you know the answers to these questions. While different goals likely will involve different metrics, here’s a general overview of how you can measure thought leadership.

Quantitative metrics to measure thought leadership

While it can be tricky to truly measure thought leadership impacts, tracking several quantitative metrics can give you valuable insights into your reach and how it’s evolving over time.

Impressions

By keeping tabs on how many people see your social posts, watch your videos, read your articles, and visit your website, you can get an idea of the reach of your thought leadership efforts and figure out which channels are most effective at capturing attention.

Engagement

Lots of people might see thought leadership content. But do they really take the time to absorb and interact with it? Tracking engagement enables you to figure out whether your audience is actually interacting with your thought leadership content. So, pay attention to how many people are liking or commenting on your social posts, leaving comments on your bylines, and sharing your thought leadership with their own audiences.

According to a report from Dripify, a LinkedIn engagement rate over 4% is exceptional; if you’re under 1%, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

Source: Dripify

Community growth

Are you building a community of bought-in followers and an on-demand audience? Tracking social media followers, connections, and newsletter subscribers is a great way to ensure that you’re making steady progress with your thought leadership efforts.

Qualitative & business metrics to measure thought leadership

The metrics above have the advantage of being immediate and easy to track. But to truly understand the impact of your thought leadership, you need to go deeper. As FT lays out in its framework for measuring thought leadership, it’s important to track qualitative and anecdotal evidence, too.

Trust, influence, and reputation

Are you changing the way people perceive you and your business and expanding your circle of influence? You can measure this, at least indirectly, by tracking share of voice, brand mentions (online, on social, and in the press), brand recall, and Net Promoter Scores. If you’re getting more invites to share your expertise during speaking engagements and media opportunities, it’s a sign you’re moving in the right direction.

Business outcomes

Ultimately, thought leadership needs to positively impact your business in concrete ways. Yes, it can be tricky to tie a specific piece of thought leadership to a specific outcome, but there are ways to do it. For example, attaching UTM codes to content is one way to track its impact. (This also gets into the world of cookies, pixels, retargeting, and pipeline attribution, which you can read about here.)

With a tracking system in place, you can start seeing how thought leadership advances specific business outcomes like:

• Driving qualified leads to your website (e.g., via Contact Us submissions or lead magnets)
• Deepening rapport with key clients or prospects
• Landing high-value accounts tied to thought leadership efforts (e.g., the world of account-based marketing)
• Increasing overall sales and conversions
• Attracting new employees (and retaining existing team members for that matter; employees like to work for impactful leaders)

75% of marketers are paying more attention to measurement and attribution for thought leadership content.

Strengthen your thought leadership impact today

While organizations have typically struggled to measure thought leadership, a recent report found that 75% of marketers are paying more attention to measurement and attribution. As more and more organizations begin prioritizing measurement, the thought leadership battlefield will only get more competitive.

To make sure your thought leadership content cuts through the noise, consider joining forces with an experienced thought leadership agency that knows what exceptional content looks like and has the tools and knowhow needed to measure the impact of each campaign.

Learn more about the easiest way to uplevel your thought leadership initiatives today.

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