5 Strategies for Positioning Your Firm's Subject Matter Experts for Thought Leadership Succes

For many businesses, subject matter experts demonstrate the true value of a company and are critical to both operational and financial success.

Whether they’re found on a manufacturing floor, inside a branch office, or in your home office, these individuals represent decades of experience in particular subjects.

Put another way, subject matter experts are the keepers of business intelligence, safeguarding institutional knowledge and helping to grow new leaders and experts at your firm.

However, while subject matter experts may be known across your company as the best at what they do, leveraging this expertise as a marketing tool develops from how you express their insights to the broader world.

In this article, we’ll explore the nuances of how subject matter experts can become thought leaders and provide some strategies for turning your business’s most valuable resource into a source of high-value marketing content.

What is a subject matter expert (SME)?

A subject matter expert (SME) is an individual with advanced knowledge and skills in a specific area or topic. They are typically the go-to sources for information and guidance in their respective fields and are identified through their ability to help others solve difficult or complex problems.

For example, both the seasoned architect designing the building and the project manager responsible for guiding the construction process can qualify as subject matter experts in their particular fields, as their expertise draws from years of experience in facing and solving challenges.

They’re a treasure trove of valuable information worth passing on to a company’s clients and team members. Additionally, their knowledge can be invaluable in differentiating your firm in the market and attracting prospects to your marketing ecosystem.

47% of buyers say thought leadership led them to discover and ultimately purchase from a company that was not considered to be among the leaders in a particular category (i.e., a challenger brand) (Edelman and LinkedIn, 2021)

How are subject matter experts different from thought leaders?

Generally speaking, for most businesses all thought leaders are subject matter experts, but not all subject matter experts consistently create and promote thought leadership.

The key differences between a subject matter expert and an industry thought leader are visibility, credibility, and a desire for long-term growth:

• Visibility — While subject matter experts often have deep knowledge of a particular topic, this knowledge is often focused on specific projects and known to a relatively small group. Meanwhile, thought leaders proactively find venues to share their expertise on larger platforms to engage a much broader audience.
• Credibility — The inherently public nature of thought leaders means that they will often validate their expertise in professional circles by publishing articles in industry journals, winning awards, attending conferences, and networking with other thought leaders.
• Aspirational Growth — Thought leaders often pursue new avenues of discussion by exploring cutting-edge subjects with the potential to disrupt the broader industry.

This is not to say that subject matter experts are inherently missing any of these qualities. After all, there is a significant overlap between SMEs and thought leaders when it comes to expertise and experience in a particular topic.

The key difference is that thought leaders make an intentional, proactive effort to broaden their horizons in each of these three areas for the purposes of accomplishing key business goals, such as brand exposure, business development, or M&A activities.

They actively seek out speaking and visibility opportunities, build industry credibility through publishing and gaining accreditations, and take steps not only to push the boundaries of their areas of expertise but also to carve out a path for others to do the same.

When turning your subject matter experts into thought leaders, the key thing you’ll need to reinforce with them is that they need to push themselves out of their comfort zones in each of these three areas to establish themselves as a leading voice for their topic of choice.

Is thought leadership the same as content marketing?

While interconnected in their purpose, thought leadership and content marketing are actually two separate tactics for establishing your firm’s experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

The term “content marketing” applies to the broader practice of using content such as videos, webinars, articles, and conference presentations to establish a connection with a target audience.

In this way, thought leadership is often seen as a sub-strategy of a broader content marketing plan.

For example, a content marketing plan for a quarter may include news posts about promotions and company happenings, project videos showing off recent work, and webinar presentations on how new materials can make buildings stronger. Only the final point would be considered “thought leadership.”

5 Strategies for turning subject matter experts into a source of thought leadership

89% of C-level decision-makers believe that effective thought leadership enhances their perceptions of an organization. (Edelman and LinkedIn, 2021)

Following, we’ll outline a few key strategies to help position your subject matter experts as effective thought leaders for your firm.

1. Visibility is key when establishing the leadership element

To be seen as a leader in a particular industry or subject, one must not only quickly and holistically display expertise, competence, and commitment to the subject matter at hand (to win over new audience members) but also maintain this momentum for months or years to reinforce and reaffirm your strong first impression.

Visibility, then, is key in establishing leadership across all professional service industries.

This means not only immediate visibility (such as meeting someone at a conference or having someone read an article for the first time) but also continued visibility and saturation of your expertise in their professional circles and news sources, whether that’s LinkedIn, conference presentations, academic journals, or other sources.

2. Contribute to the broader industry discussion

Collaborating with other industry experts and contributing to the broader discussion are both ways for your subject matter experts to elevate their voices into the public discourse.

Participating in industry discussions will introduce them to other thought leaders in the space, broadening their thinking and opening up new possibilities for professional collaboration.

Partnering with other organizations and professionals to create industry working groups or training courses, or even just participating in a conference or submitting an article to a journal, are also great ways to begin a conversation and get their thoughts out there.

3. Share expertise by helping your subject matter experts post helpful, insightful content

Having your subject matter experts create impactful content for your firm’s website is a powerful way to energize your publishing schedule and display your firm’s expertise online.

Providing as much assistance as possible in this effort helps ensure they can create content that’s both valuable to users and in line with furthering your organization’s marketing goals.

This extends not only to the creation of the content itself (which will often involve interviews with the subject matter expert and a good deal of editing and revisions) but also to its promotion.

For example, one common strategy firms employ is to have the SME publish an article either on their website or in an industry journal and then have both the SME and the firm promote this piece of content on social media and over email.

4. Mind the gap between industry experience and subject matter expertise

One common pitfall that subject matter experts often fall into when positioning themselves as thought leaders is the fallacy that they must be experts at everything that happens in the industry. Actually, the opposite is true.

As the saying goes, there are riches in niches, and when it comes to marketing your experts as thought leaders, it’s important to draw a clear distinction between the wide breadth of knowledge they’ve accumulated about the subject and the types of content they want to position themselves next to as a thought leader.

For example, an architect with decades of experience in the built environment may be able to talk about numerous different subjects in their field, from design and geomatics to cost estimating and regulations.

However, from a strategic perspective, it is often advantageous to have your experts position themselves in one particular subject or field to build credibility and momentum in a particular subject.

Commonly, this means picking a topic at the intersection of the expert’s interest and your business’s strategic growth goals and helping them create and promote thought leadership about that particular subject.

For example, an engineer could focus exclusively on thought leadership about suspension bridges, while an architect could focus on designing correctional facilities that emphasize rehabilitation and reducing recidivism.

5. Innovate and push the boundaries to establish new ground

Finally, it’s critical for your subject matter experts to offer innovative, disruptive, or exceptionally valuable insights into their area of expertise to draw the industry’s attention. This is what puts the leadership in your thought leadership.

A thought leader stands out because they know an exceptional amount about the industry and its best practices, and then push this information further. They drive the conversation to new and innovative places and may even set the course for where professionals in the field will focus in the future.

Innovation can also help you create helpful, insightful content directed at a particular niche as your expert explores novel, unique, and interesting topics.

Help your subject matter experts break new ground in the broader industry

Transforming your subject matter experts into thought leaders is a strategic approach that can elevate your firm’s reputation, industry influence, and overall success.

When leveraged correctly, they can provide your firm with a wealth of knowledge and content. While some may be naturals at content production and promotion, many will require assistance from the internal team on their journey to become thought leaders.

For this reason, it’s important for marketing departments to nurture and assist these professionals as they begin to spread your company’s name and expertise across the broader business ecosystem.

By focusing on visibility, industry collaboration, content creation, niche specialization, and innovation, you can empower your subject matter experts to lead meaningful conversations in your field.