Thought Leadership to Market Your Company and Products
It’s no secret…We depend on voices of authority for guidance before buying practically anything, and today’s consumers have a wealth of information and choices available at their fingertips. To help buyers make the leap from curious browsers to loyal customers, here’s what they want to know:
- You represent a trusted brand
- You are a knowledgeable advisor and a go-to source of information
- You have your customers best interests at heart
Case Study:
Bell Rock Growers is the pet industry’s pioneer grower and supplier of green nutrition products. The company was the first to distribute live wheat grass to pet stores nationally. Along the way, they realized there was a serious information gap with pet owners. Many considered wheat grass to be a fun novelty item, but didn’t fully understand the health benefits of including it in their pets’ diets.
To help educate retailers and customers and support sales, Bell Rock 
Growers worked with Parallel Interactive to develop and market an eBook on the benefits of wheat grass for pets. Key messages from the eBook on the power of green nutrition are also included in their website, ads, press releases, media interviews, trade show booth, store displays, product catalogs, and packaging. To date, the eBook has received over eleven thousand downloads from Bell Rock Growers’ website, coverage in national trade and consumer magazines and is used as a selling tool with online dealers.
Bell Rock Growers’ marquee product, Live Pet Grass®, has become a leading cat SKU (stock-keeping unit) with major retailers. They’ve since extended the Pet Greens® products to include a popular line of dog and cat treats and an earth-friendly therapeutic grooming line, all made with nutrient-rich wheat grass.
Want to learn more about the value of thought leadership? Check out the following articles: Why Thought Leadership is Your Most Valuable Asset and Do’s and Don’ts of Thought Leadership Building
Tags: advertising, best practices, eCommerce, eMarketing, thought leadership, website infunence, Websites
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 12:04 pm and is filed under eCommerce, eMarketing, Thought Leadership, Websites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 19th, 2010 at 1:35 am
Kirk – All good stuff. May I suggest another powerful piece of the thought leadership puzzle — video. After working in video production for nearly 2 decades, I created an instructional DVD called, “How to Keep Your DO-IT-YOURSELF VIDEO From Looking Like You Did It Yourself.” Sales typically took several months from initial contact to close. Since having the DVD, we have had six first-call closes. One client actually stopped mid meeting, went in the other room, came back with a check and said, “Let’s get started.” Other ways smart marketers use video: Vlogs, Webinars, Podcasts, Viral Video Campaigns, Video White Papers, Testimonials, etc. If you want to be seen as the expert, get on-camera and literally be seen as the expert.
March 30th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Hi Jim –
Thanks for your response. Yes, I agree. Video is an essential tool for viral campaigns. In fact, Bell Rock Growers is currently working on a few videos to include in their social media marketing set to launch in 2011. Stay tuned!