I have been thinking about Subrata Goswami’s comment on my last post (Attacking with Thought Leadership): “Good insight. Think it is more relevant for growth stage startups. Most early stage B2B startups I have seen do not seem to have anything on their web-site at all — let alone a blog!”

This blog post illustrates a three step process for early stage B2B startups to become a thought leader.

1. Select the customer hero journey as the focus for thought leadership
2. Tell the company story to support the customer hero journey
3. Get others to amplify the customer hero journey

1) Select The Customer Hero Journey as the Focus for Thought Leadership

As discussed in my prior blog post, the Thought Leadership opportunity for early B2B startups is the intersection of the New Way, Company vision and early customers’ vision.

One compelling intersection is the customer hero journey, which describes how the early customers become a hero by adopting the New Way with the company’s product.

The customer hero journey has three steps, as shown below:

The journey begins with the customer getting introduced to the New Way because of an urgent pain, and then ends with the customer becoming a hero of the New Way.

2) Tell the Company Story to support the Customer Hero Journey

The early stage startup can tell its own story to support the customer on his hero journey, as shown above:

a) Show PAIN RELIEF by delivering unique value tied to the New Way

Pain relief usually grabs the customer’s attention.

But, why “delivering unique value”? Ken Rutsky in Launching to Leading suggests: “moving from benefits to value to unique value… What does this mean? It means a relentless focus and discipline on seeing and communicating the value of your solution as the customer sees it, in their terms. Of the benefits that you offer, which ones really matter to them? Meaning, they will pay you money to obtain these benefits, not that they are cool or cutting edge. Then, honestly assess whether your competitors can deliver the same value, not if they have the same features. Buyers buy benefits, not features….[Also] don’t tell me, show me! Today’s buyers want to do it on their own… If a picture is worth a thousand words, an experience is worth a million. No more hiding your value — show it early and show it often.”

Showing pain relief with unique value is a great GTM tactic. But, competitors always catch up. Customers want more than a tactical solution. By showing how the pain relief leads to the New Way, the company can elevate the conversation from pain relief to the New Way and make the conversation strategic.

b) The guide for the New Way

The discussion on the New Way is noisy and confusing.

One way to break through the noise is providing that one piece of content which serves as the guidebook to implement the New Way successfully. For example, Marketo published The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing, The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation, The Definitive Guide to ….. Engagio published Engagio’s Clear and Complete Guide to Account Based Marketing, Engagio’s Clear and Complete Guide to ABSD, …

That one content piece is supplemented by success testimonials, partners and other materials.

One surprising difficulty in preparing the materials is the name of the New Way. It sounds obvious, but is harder than it seems. It is difficult to find the exact words being used by the customers to describe it.

The New Way should have a short name and be a hot trending search term.

c) Recognize and Reinforce the HEROES of the New Way

After becoming an expert of the New Way, everyone wants to be recognized as a hero within the company — and within the entire industry.

I remember the early FireEye, Marketo and MobileIron customers being very proud of their status as early customers. They helped found a new industry or new methodology. They feel and act like they are founders of the company. They relish the recognition as early customers from their peers.

Later customers want to become heroes too. They want to learn from the early adopters.

User conferences are a great way to bring them together. The conferences creates a passionate community of early true believers and later adoptees. They reinforce each other and become even stronger advocates.

d) Tell full story on owned media

Telling the full story requires a lot of content. Previously, companies couldn’t publish that much content on earned media. But, the company can tell its complete and long story on Owned Media, since the company owns and controls that media, such as the corporate website, corporate blog, Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Owned Media is extremely effective. AirPR data shows that owned media (especially LinkedIn) is effective as most earned media.

3) Get Others to Amplify the Customer Hero Journey — Creating “Thought Virality”

Other storytellers can dramatically amplify the company’s message and story. Potential other storytellers have expanded from primarily journalists to other employees, customers, partners, bloggers, … anyone. Any reader can help make the story viral.

But, getting others to amplify the company’s story is tough.

Who are the best early amplifiers?

The traditional view emphasizes reach (as measured in views, visitors, etc) and 3rd party validation (expert), as shown on the left. However, effective reach (such as lead generation) is more important for the startup, and that may be tied to passion for the new way rather than just reach and expertise.

By looking at the attribution data, the company can see which potential amplifier generates the most effective reach (such as leads).

Going after the experts in the beginning is tough. They have their own biases and agendas. Many experts are reluctant to advocate for the New Way, until there is more validation.

Start with the passionate base —the early passionate customers

Emphasizing the customer hero journey encourages the early customers to tell their stories. People generally want to help their peers and get recognition. easy.

Fuel the passion by adding Go-To-Market Partners

After the early customers, who are the most passionate believers (beneficiaries) of the New Way? That could be Go-To-Market partners, such as service providers specializing in the New Way. Another effective amplification method is joint webinars, where the GTM partner invites the guests and the company provides the food (ie, thought leadership desired by the guests). Ideally, the audience desires to hear a joint customer sharing its success story on the New Way.

Thinking Cumulative (versus the big bang)

Whatever the source of amplification, hearing the same message from multiple sources has a tremendous impact on the listener. With repetition, the message becomes accepted as the “truth.” Thought leadership is cumulative — not just sound bites.

Example: The Customer Hero Story for Marketo

• Hero: CMO with a seat at the revenue table. The young marketer who becomes a superstar by learning and executing demand generation
• Pain: generate more qualified leads
• New Way (marketing methodology): Demand Generation
• New Marketing Technology: Marketing Automation
• Passionate Community: Marketo Summit, where heroes get recognized among their peers, where marketers learn to become heroes, where young marketers meet other young marketers.

Marketo focused on becoming the thought leader by evangelizing the new marketing methodology (demand generation) rather than just discussing the marketing technology (more features of marketing automation).

Summary

Early startups can capitalize on the passion and vision of the founders, early customers and early GTM partners to become a thought leader by emphasizing the customer hero journey.

‍