The recent Edelman/LinkedIn report on The Impact of Thought Leadership on Demand Generation surveyed 1,300 business execs and asked them how they engage with Thought Leadership content and what impact it has on their business lives. The report is overflowing with statistics but the main points for me were:

• 50% of execs spend at least an hour every week consuming thought leadership content
• 82% of business decision-makers say it increased their trust in the vendor. 
• And more worryingly, 35% of C-Suite Execs decided NOT to award a piece of business to a company because of what they read online / poor thought leadership. 

These statistics stress the importance of having fresh, relevant and engaging content. The difficult part is knowing a) what these key decision-makers find engaging and; b) how to attract them in the first instance. 

The reports suggests that content based on hard numbers which deals with issues/trend relevant to the industry (and more particularly, relevant to them) will be a winner. However, often it is the format which can be the deciding factor on whether a piece of content is successful or not. Here are a few tips on how to get more out of your insights:

Presentation?Short, sharp and to the point.

• Title: this is the first thing which they will read and the foundation of an engaging post. Create a very specific title which will tell the reader exactly what they will get out of reading your post - e.g. Starting with Account-Based Marketing? The 6 steps to make it a success. 
• Tone: keep it light, engaging and to the point. 
• Language: Use enough relevant vocab to get your point across, but avoid jargon unless you're dealing with a very technical target audience. Write in a way which shows your personality, give your unique perspective.
• Length: we live in the 140 characters generation, so it is difficult to grab someone's attention for more than a few minutes. Limit your content to a digestible format which can be consumed within 2 minutes - this will encourage the reader to come back for more. 

Once you've created your post, don't forget to share it to a place they can read it (the social networks etc.) or even send it to them directly. It is useless if just sat on your website - leverage your own and your colleagues' networks to maximise the effect of each piece of content and bring them back to your hub of unique and useful content.

For more information on creating the perfect blog post, check out our guide on how to create a Passle post.