There are many reasons thought leadership content can underperform.
These include weak insights, poor positioning and lack of distribution. Poor internal alignment is one that’s often overlooked — and entirely avoidable.
In this video, you’ll learn how to choose better thought leadership topics — ones your company will actually support and promote.
✅ The three ingredients every successful thought leadership project needs
✅ Why internal misalignment can quietly derail even good content
✅ How to choose topics that face less internal friction — and gain support
How to build a content marketing strategy
Want to learn more about building a content marketing strategy? Watch Gregory’s video series on Advisor.ca: How to Grow Your Practice with Content in 2025. The series is designed for financial advisors, but the lessons apply to any industry—if you’re creating content to connect and build trust with potential clients.
Explore an award-winning thought leadership strategy
Gregory is an award-winning content marketing and thought leadership strategist. Read how he led a project that turned aggregate health insurance data into compelling narratives featured in the Toronto Star and other publications.
Video transcript:
You can’t force a company or its leaders to care about a topic they just don’t care about. And if you try, you’re going to be wasting the precious energy you need to execute on your project.
There are a lot of reasons why thought leadership projects underperform: weak insights, poor positioning, lack of distribution. But misalignment within your organization is one that’s often overlooked, and it can quietly sabotage even the best idea.
Here’s a simple example. Say your company builds bridges. And because of regulatory requirements, your company has developed an expertise on environmental issues — soil stability, aquatic ecosystems.
As a marketer, you might see this as a great angle for thought leadership. It matters to your clients, and your expertise is a differentiator.
But leadership isn’t exactly excited about it. They don’t see it as a key value proposition. They’d rather talk about innovation or safety.
So now what happens? You’ll struggle to get internal experts to prioritize it. You’ll have to fight for a budget. And if you do manage to finish the project, senior leadership isn’t going to champion it externally.
So what does this mean? High effort, low impact.
So here’s the takeaway. Find where these three things intersect: what your audience really cares about, the unique perspective your company can bring, and the topics your leadership wants to talk about and promote.
When you do that, you’ll face far less friction, and you’ll gain the internal momentum you need for your thought leadership project to succeed.
