As a marketing content writer, I write a lot of blogs and newsletter articles. These pieces are designed to showcase my clients’ expertise, keep them top of mind, and, hopefully, help create new opportunities for them. In other words, the type of idea-sharing “thought leadership” pieces I discuss below.

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Many businesses wonder if blogs, newsletters and other “thought leadership” pieces are worth the effort. I recently came across a study, the “2019 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study,” that explains why the answer is yes.

Last year Edelman surveyed 1,201 U.S. business decision makers and purchase influencers across a wide range of industries and company sizes, including 43% from companies with less than 200 employees. This study showed that well-done thought leadership content…

• Helps buyers vet vendors – The survey showed that 55% of decision makers use this content to vet potential vendors; 69% see it as an excellent way to get a sense of an organization’s caliber of thinking.
  
  
• Can get you in the running – Based on thought leadership content, 45% of decision makers asked for a bid from an organization they had not previously been considering.
  
  
• Can drive sales – This content has caused 60% of decision makers to purchase something they had not previously been considering.

However, quality matters
That said, poorly written content can do more harm than good: 29% of decision makers have decided not to buy from a company because of their low-quality content.

A big issue here is that high-quality thought leadership pieces are evidently few and far between. In fact, only 18% are rated “excellent or very good” by decision makers; 53% are seen as “good”; and 30% get a failing grade of “mediocre to poor.” In addition to being well-written, a key differentiator of the highly-rated pieces is that they provide valuable insights.

Shorter is better
Finally, the study validated what I have always preached: Most decision makers don’t have a lot of time or patience for long-form articles. The preferred format for 57% of busy professionals is “snackable” media that can be digested in just a few minutes.