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5 Criteria for Assessing the Quality of B2B Content

Before you send your article out into the world, take a moment to review whether it has the five elements that will make your audience want to read it.

How to Find a Book Agent

A good agent – meaning an agent with a track record who can get your proposal in front of an editor – is a pearl beyond price.

How to Write a Book Proposal, Part 3

Once you've got a publisher's attention, the next step is writing a one-page summary of each chapter of your book.

How to Write a Book Proposal, Part 2

If you want your book to succeed, you’re going to have to do a lot of the promotion yourself. Proving you can do that is a critical part of your proposal.

How to Write a Book Proposal, Part 1

The first step to writing a book is understanding that publishing one is, first and foremost, a business.

A 10-Step Program for Ridding Your Writing of Empty Superlatives

How can you stop using superlatives that undermine the credibility of your content? The same way you break any bad habit. You enter a recovery program.

7 Tips for Professional Ghosts

Ghostwriting for business experts is a different animal than journalism or corporate writing. Here's how to make the leap.

Why an Outline Is Critical To Developing Thought Leadership Content

Many people think they already know how to write an article and that creating an outline just means extra work. Think again.

5 Building Blocks of a Compelling Business Article

One of the most common problems with thought leadership drafts is they aren't properly structured. Here's the format that works.

An Oxford comma walks into a bar…

I would not have believed that grammar could be funny. But here’s a proof.

Colloquial Writing Style: Not The Thought Leader’s Enemy

If you hope to establish yourself as an authority, you’d better sound real. If you don’t, you won’t connect with people.

Why Results Are Critical to Thought Leadership

Too many case studies lack hard evidence that a proposed solution to a business problem really works. Here's how to avoid making that mistake.

Why Real Examples Are Better Than Hypotheticals

When reading about business topics, people want real stories, not make-believe.

How to Write Great Headlines: 5 Rules

Every piece of writing that’s published on the web – from white papers and articles to blogs and tweets – needs to grab the reader’s attention.

5 Reasons to Give Away the Family Silver

Many professionals worry that if they share their proprietary insights in an article, they'll have nothing left to sell. Here's why that's wrong.

Why Business Writing is So Bad

We asked an HBR editor the most common reason he rejects article submissions. This is what he said.

10 Dos and Don’ts for Great Survey Reports

Surveys are easy to do badly. How to make sure yours will be a hit.

3 Ways to Make Survey Reports More Interesting

Every week you can find a new survey report that reveals something everyone already knows. These strategies will help ensure yours won't.

Why Good Thought Leadership Is Like Good Parenting

Too much content has the same lecturing tone that parents often use with their children. And it has the same adverse effect.

Want To Get Your Readers’ Attention? Scare Them

Fear is a powerful motivator. Use it to your advantage.

How parentheses could be ruining your writing

Sometimes, I come across paragraphs so convoluted that I want to lie down in a dark room and take deep, cleansing breaths. Punctuation issues are often the culprit.

Is Rhetoric a Good or Bad Thing?

While picking a name for our company, we initially rejected “RhetorIQ.” Then we changed our minds. Here's why.

How to Write for the C-Suite

So many content marketers want to reach top executives, yet so few do. Here's how to be one of the few.

5 Ways to Develop a Stronger Point of View

In the world of business management, new ideas are rare. So, if you're writing about a well-worn topic, you'll need a unique argument to stand out.

How to Help an Expert Write Great Content

Five lessons from a panel discussion among content developers.

3 Steps to Making Corporate Writing Better

How does a good editor make an article better? We share our secrets so that you can do it too.

Why You Should Write for a Specific Audience

It's hard to resist the temptation to try to appeal to the masses. But to gain readers, you must.

So, You Want To Write a Book? First Answer This Question.

Many people think it’s writing a book that will make them a star. That’s no longer true.

Will AI Steal My Job, Developing Thought Leadership Content?

Machines are already writing articles for The Washington Post, The Associated Press, and Bloomberg. Is content marketing next?

7 Ways to Write for Executives from Someone Who Used to Be One

So as to attract and keep their attention.

What’s the Optimum Length of an Article? Wrong Question.

Many think it's the word count that determines how many people will read an article or blog post. The shorter, the better, right? Not so fast.

5 Ways to Help Your Agency Help You Develop Your Thought Leadership

How content directors, marketing officers, and editorial directors can get the best out of us, or any other content marketing agency.

How to Write About the Right Things

Before you begin to develop thought leadership content, it’s important to get the topic right.

How to Annoy Editors

Don’t bother editors after you’ve submitted an article. It never produces positive results, and it can poison the well for future submissions.

Thought Leadership’s Key Question, and Why You Must Answer It

You might work at a big-name firm or have impressive credentials, but that’s not always enough to generate the leads you want.

How to Wrap Up Thought Leadership Articles

Authors often use the close to summarize what they’ve already said, which risks boring and frustrating the reader.

3 Tips for Writing Long-Form Content

Once you’ve got a powerful point of view, and you’ve captured your reader’s attention with a smashing lede, how do you keep him or her reading?

How to Get Your Thought Leadership Published in Harvard Business Review and Forbes

We know you’re smart. Everybody we work with is smart. But do you have what it takes to write about a specific subject?

10 Ways to Power up Your Thought Leadership Marketing

Tweets or white papers? LinkedIn or Facebook? We provide a roadmap for developing and promoting your content.

How to Structure Your Blog Posts

Write Better Blog Posts: 3 Critical Rules

Is Thought Leadership in Trouble?

The label "thought leader" is like any other honorary title. Only a nitwit would award it to himself.

3 Tips for Writing Great Thought Leadership Ledes

How to write opening paragraphs that grab your reader’s attention.

Authenticity is Invaluable; Originality is Non-Existent

Some writers are so concerned with saying something earth-shattering that they forget to be authentic: to base their assertions on things they know.

6 Keys to Consistently Good Thought Leadership

Many professional services firms try to publish a steady stream of high-quality content. Some succeed, some fail.

7 Smart Content Marketing Moves

Skimp on promotion and your article, despite your hard work developing it, will slip into quiet oblivion. Without these steps, it happens all the time.

Go Ask Alice: 4 Questions to Answer Before You Begin Writing

The hardest articles to fix are those the author has already drafted but has not thought through why he’s writing it in the first place.

The Advantages of Long-Form Content

Short-form content on platforms like Twitter and Vine have become very popular. But for B2B firms, the data shows that long-form is often more effective.

How to Help Thought Leaders Who Suffer From the Dunning-Kruger Effect

Ignorance, far from making one humble, often leads people to overestimate their performance on things they know just a little about. Like writing.

How Counterintuitive Thinking Can Help You Cut Through the Clutter

Most of what’s published in your area of expertise is useless. Challenging conventional wisdom is one way to rise above the crowd.

What’s the Difference Between Content Marketing and Thought Leadership Marketing?

Don’t be confused by the commentators who toss these terms into the same blender. They're not the same thing.

4 Roles Thought Leadership Writers Must Play

The job is akin to that of an analyst, consultant, and therapist, as well as that of a writer. Is it any wonder that only a few ever learn to do it well?

4 Reasons Writing By Committee Fails

Why limiting the number of authors involved in a thought leadership article is worth the fight.

How to Stand Out in the Thought Leadership Crowd

With so much material published on so many topics, it’s harder than ever to differentiate your content from your competition’s.

5 Nice Ways to Say No to Bad Thought Leadership Ideas

Bad content lowers a reader’s opinion of the firm that publishes it and makes prospects disappear. But how do you tell your SME their idea isn't going to fly?

Why You Should Measure Your Thought Leadership ROI

A business should always strive to measure the return on its investments. Otherwise, how do you know what works?

Was Albert Einstein a Thought Leader?

We compare our "7 Hallmarks of Thought Leadership" to the type of groundbreaking thinking the famous physicist did.

Curated Content and Why You Should Avoid It

Unfortunately, there is only one reliable way to attract users with quality content: creating it.

5 Steps to Getting Quoted in the Media

Getting quoted in the media is an excellent way to build your reputation as a thought leader. The funny thing is, it’s not that hard.

Industry Insight: What Editors Want

The do's and don’ts of appealing to those who can get you published in high places.

10 Rules for Publishing Articles Anywhere

We frequently publish articles in third-party journals on behalf of our clients. When people ask how we do it, here's what we say.

What Is Thought Leadership?

Too many definitions of "thought leadership" are vague and confusing. Here's one that isn't.

The Beginning Is the Hardest Part of Thought Leadership

Why establishing yourself as a content development expert, not just a writer, is critical to getting these projects off the ground.

3 Barriers to Beginning a Thought Leadership Program

Despite all the excitement about thought leadership marketing, the uptake in industries outside of management consulting and IT services is slow.

Top Practitioners Offer Four Best Practices for Thought Leadership

How to produce the best content and get it in front of prospective buyers in a compelling, consistent, and even industrialized way.

In Defense of Buzzwords

With the use of jargon in business writing so pervasive, maybe we should stop advocating for plain language.

Is SEO a Waste of Time?

Mostly yes, and a little bit no. Here's why.

What Business Writers Can Learn From the Literary Greats

It might seem odd to turn to the literary masters for lessons on business writing. But I think there are some we can learn. And the first has to do with clarity.

A Unified Theory of Knowledge Management and Thought Leadership

The key ingredients of high-quality content in one diagram.

Is Thought Leadership Annoying and Boastful? Part 2

Sometimes, yes. But we haven’t found a better term for it. And it's a helpful term when it's legitimately applied.

Is Thought Leadership Annoying and Boastful? Part 1

Why we sometimes wish the type of work we do was called something else.

Why Corporate Writing Stinks

There are two major reasons: Fear and the taint of the hidden agenda. Allow me to explain.

How to Write a White Paper That Makes an Impact

Most white papers are ignored or forgotten soon after they are published. Writing one that connects with executives and opens doors requires a different approach.

Case Study Research: An Essential Ingredient of Thought Leadership

Understanding what works in the field and how it works is critical to developing new approaches to business. Surveys alone can't do that.