Online video is fast becoming a marketing staple. According to research by Unico, fifty-five percent of marketers are currently using videos, with another 20% planning to use them in the next 12 months. Video is a particularly good tool for showcasing brief snippets of thought leadership. It engages your audience in ways that images and words cannot. And for that reason alone, you should add it to your mix… continue reading

We just launched the first issue of our free monthly newsletter, B2B Content Marketing. The newsletter offers tips that will help you generate and nurture leads, improve customer retention, and position your firm as a thought leader in your market. B2B Content Marketing features include the following:

• Custom Content, where you’ll discover best practices for writing, editing, designing, producing, and

Junta42 has done it again. If you're not familiar with them, Junta42 is a content marketing firm that publishes some of the best information on content marketing in the profession. And they've just released a new white paper on engagement that is must reading. Written by Junta42's founder, Joe Pulizzi, and Keith Weigold of Nutlug, the white paper tells you why engagement is important to you and… continue reading

Now that you’ve put all that effort into creating your great thought leadership content, what are you going to do with it? You probably published it originally to engage your prospects and customers. But to reach new and larger audiences you should regularly republish your content on a variety of online media sites. Your content will not only show up when people search those sites for your topic, but these… continue reading

We've all come to realize how difficult it is to market our products and services in today's economy. Marketing budgets have been dramatically cut. Prospects are taking longer to buy. Buyers are buying less. That said, I have some recommendations for you to start the new year with a bang. Develop… continue reading

I was rereading a marketing classic, Positioning, by Al Ries and Jack Trout, and was impressed by how well their message still holds up (I guess that's why it's called a classic). It's particularly relevant to those trying to practice thought leadership marketing. Positioning is the process marketers use to try to create an image or identity in… continue reading | 1 Comment

There are two general types of e-books, each with its own purpose. The first is the e-book that was originally a printed book that has been converted to an e-book (see ebooks.com for thousands of examples). These books are usually 100-400 pages long, almost all words, with minimal design — you know, a book. They are expected to be read starting at the beginning and continuing, reading page after… continue reading

Thought leadership is a fairly new concept, said to be first coined in 1994 by Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of Strategy & Business (wikipedia). Thought leadership marketing — intentionally applying the practice of thought leadership to build a personal or organizational brand — is an even more recent phenomenon. But the concept has a cadre of advocates (thought leaders of thought leadership marketing) who have been writing and speaking about… continue reading | 1 Comment

We love to ask questions here at Dance. They help us to think clearly about issues, to explore alternatives, to do better work. Our first two downloads from our website are lists of questions that we think will help you in planning your thought leadership marketing or publishing programs:

• 40 questions you need to answer to have an effective thought leadership marketing program
• 80 questions you need to answer to

Welcome to our Thought Leadership Marketing blog. I'm Jim Pennypacker, CEO of Dance Communications, and we will explore ways to position yourself or your organization as a thought leader in your market. We’ll discuss what it means to think about your market, how to think about it, and then how to communicate your thinking to an audience. We hope this blog becomes an enlightening exchange of knowledge, so please join… continue reading | 1 Comment