2025 Thought Leadership Statistics and Trends You Need to Know

2018: Thought leadership takes center stage in B2B marketing

I remember when thought leadership was just a buzzword. In 2018, it started to take center stage in B2B marketing conversations. Content marketing was already mainstream by then:

• 91% of B2B marketers reported using content to reach customers
• 89% felt that content marketing was linked to all other parts of their business
• Content marketing could generate three times as many leads per dollar as paid search advertising

In other words, sharing useful insights was often more effective than simply pushing ads. Instead of just touting products, companies were trying to lead with ideas. A joint study by Edelman and LinkedIn found that:

• 58% of business decision makers were reading at least an hour of thought leadership per week, up from roughly 50% the year before. The most significant increase was among those who spend 4 or more hours per week reading thought leadership. (Clearly, busy executives actually make time for whitepapers and LinkedIn articles.)
• Almost 60% of decision-makers said that a piece of thought leadership had directly led them to award business to an organization. 

Put differently: more than half of buyers could recall hiring a company because of its insightful content. Sharing knowledge could drive real sales.

We also noticed how thought leadership started to build trust and credibility in a new way. In 2018, Edelman’s global trust surveys were showing a tentative rebound in trust for business leaders. For instance:

• CEO credibility rose to 44% globally – up 7 percentage points from the prior year. A major reason, I believe, is that people were hungry for authentic voices. 
• Two-thirds of people (64%) in the same report even said CEOs should step in and lead on societal issues rather than waiting for the government. 

Thought leadership content gave executives a chance to step up and speak out. Executive branding was in.

By the end of 2018, thought leadership had graduated from a niche PR tactic to a core B2B strategy. Companies realized that publishing insightful articles or studies could both attract new prospects and strengthen loyalty with existing clients. In fact:

• More than half (55%) of decision-makers said they had increased the business they did with a current provider because of that provider’s thought leadership content. 

Thought leadership was no longer optional in B2B markets.

2019: Bridging the trust gap with credible content

The momentum continued into 2019. Thought leadership was on every marketer’s radar, yet there was a bit of a paradox. On one hand, buyers valued it even more than the creators realized. On the other hand, not all content was hitting the mark. 

The findings of the 2019 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study (released late 2018) pleasantly surprised most of us. It confirmed that thought leadership drives the full B2B sales funnel – far beyond just brand awareness. Executives were willing to act on good ideas: 

• 55% said they use thought leadership to vet organizations they might hire.
• Almost half of C-level execs (47%) had even given their contact information to a company after reading a strong piece of content.

Think about that – nearly half of C-suites willingly opened a dialogue with a vendor because of an article or report. Yet, when marketers were asked if they believed content could generate leads, only 39% of sellers thought it helped with lead generation. 

Clearly, there was a perception gap. Buyers placed more value on thought leadership than the very people creating it. This trust gap showed up in other stats too. The 2019 global survey expanded to thousands of decision-makers across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. It found that:

• 48% of decision-makers spent an hour or more each week consuming thought leadership content – a significant chunk of time. 
• Crucially, 89% said good thought leadership improved their perception of an organization. 
• However, these discerning readers were not easily impressed. A full 85% of decision-makers in that study felt that most thought leadership content failed to deliver quality insights. 
• Only a tiny minority (15%) rated the content they saw as very good or excellent. 

You can imagine the disconnect: we had a glut of “thought leadership” posts out there, but much of it was mediocre, and audiences knew it.

It meant that quality and originality mattered more than ever. It wasn’t enough to churn out blog posts; you had to say something meaningful to decision-makers. When asked what makes thought leadership compelling, the vast majority said: 

• Address timely issues (87% cited that)
• Keep it concise and easy to absorb (75%)

Be relevant, be insightful, and don’t waste the reader’s time. It’s advice I still live by today.

Meanwhile, trust in leadership kept evolving. The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed a complicated picture: people’s trust in institutions was split, but business was emerging as a relatively trusted institution. Over the next year, Edelman would come to report (in its reflective 2021 report) that:

• Business was the most trusted sector (61% trust globally), overtaking government and media. 
• Notably, three-quarters of people believed CEOs should lead on change by this point. 

Thought leadership content became a primary way for leaders to build trust. Done right, it served as proof that “hey, this CEO knows their stuff and cares about more than just quarterly earnings.” 

2020: The trust paradox and a digital pivot

2020 upended everything. The COVID-19 pandemic forced nearly all interactions online, and digital content exploded. Suddenly every conference was a webinar, every panel a Zoom call, and every thought leader had a new blog or video series. 

We were slammed with LinkedIn posts and whitepapers as businesses scrambled to stay visible in a fully virtual world. In the words of a later report, the pandemic unleashed a “tidal wave of content marketing.” And honestly, a lot of it wasn’t great. 

One finding from the next Edelman–LinkedIn study said that 4 in 10 decision-makers in 2020 said there was now more thought leadership content than they could manage. This pandemic-induced glut diluted the perceived value of thought leadership.

Yet, paradoxically, this was also when thought leadership proved most critical. With in-person trust-building off the table, decision-makers leaned on content to guide them. Over 70% of buyers in Edelman’s next report said they continued to consume thought leadership to stay up-to-date with the latest thinking in their sector. I often found myself scrolling LinkedIn reading expert takes on things like remote work or travel ban impacts, two things that directly affected me. 

By the time the 2021 Thought Leadership Impact Study came out (reflecting on 2020), it noted that breaking through was harder than ever, but still achievable. Strong content stood out amid the flood. Buyers were becoming selective and gravitating to thought leaders who offered clarity. 

Notably, 60% of B2B buyers in 2020 said that high-quality thought leadership content built trust in a new supplier they weren’t familiar with. I found that fascinating – even if a company was unknown, if it published insightful content during this tumultuous time, buyers were more willing to give them a chance. It was a confirmation that thought leadership could level the playing field. If you had ideas and data, you could build credibility quickly, even as a newcomer.

By the end of 2020, we also saw B2B buying behaviors change due to the fully digital journey. Buyers became more self-directed, doing deeper online research before ever contacting sales. Social media emerged as an influential research channel. At that point, 62% of Fortune 500 CEOs were now present on at least one social media platform. 

And before then, 52% of buyers had said LinkedIn was the most influential channel during their purchase research. That was in 2018, and it had only increased in a remote world. It made sense: LinkedIn had turned into a 24/7 B2B trade show once travel stopped. 

So by 2020, many B2B brands were doubling down on LinkedIn content and ads. The platform kept growing in reach – it surpassed 700 million members in 2020, on its way to over a billion a few years later. For you and me as professionals, LinkedIn became not just a networking site but an information hub. Whitepapers, case studies, opinion posts – all of it showed up in our feeds, vying for attention. 

The challenge for marketers was clear: be relevant, be credible, or be ignored. Those who got it right earned trust at a time when trust was in short supply.

2021: Content glut tests quality and engagement

In 2021, we were all trying to find our footing in the “new normal.” The flood of content from 2020 hadn’t fully receded – if anything, companies kept producing thought leadership in high volume. The 2021 Edelman–LinkedIn report (the fourth annual) described a fatigued audience. Decision-makers were frankly drowning in low-value content, and it was hurting the overall reputation of thought leadership. 

At that point, 71% of decision-makers said that less than half of the thought leadership they consume gives them valuable insights. It meant the vast majority of content out there was middling at best, and as a writer, that gave me pause. It became more important than ever to rise above the noise.

However, it wasn’t all bad news. Thought leadership remained critical to customer engagement – that part hadn’t changed. Over 70% of respondents in 2021 said they consume thought leadership to keep up with latest industry trends and to stimulate their thinking. So the appetite for quality insight was still there; it was the supply of quality that needed to catch up. There was a gold rush of content (some of it fool’s gold), but the real nuggets of insight were as prized as ever. 

And there was evidence that when a piece of content was truly insightful, it cut through. For example, the Edelman study that year found 87% of B2B buyers believed thought leadership could be intellectually rigorous and fun at the same time. People welcomed content that was authoritative yet human – maybe even a bit provocative or story-driven. This validated the approach of mixing data with narrative, much like Malcolm Gladwell and other social science authors do. You didn’t have to be dry to be taken seriously — authenticity was welcome.

Another theme in 2021 was trust and credibility. With so many new vendors reaching out digitally, buyers asked: “Who can I trust?” Thought leadership was one answer. Content could build trust — especially for challengers and newcomers. If a company wasn’t an established market leader, publishing compelling research or viewpoints was a way to signal credibility. 

Around 60% of buyers said that strong thought leadership content makes them more confident in an organization’s expertise when entering a new category where that company isn’t known. In practice, I had clients – small tech firms – whose reports on, say, supply chain resilience went viral in industry circles and suddenly they were getting calls from bigger companies. The content itself conferred authority. Useful knowledge earns you a seat at the table.

By late 2021, the thought leadership game was maturing. Marketers were learning that less is more – better to publish one great insight piece than five shallow blog posts. The audience had become more discerning and perhaps a bit jaded by the onslaught of content. Engagement on LinkedIn and other platforms had to be earned with genuine value. 

LinkedIn itself responded to this trend: they started promoting “creator mode” and encouraging professionals to follow individual thought leaders. This was when the term “LinkedIn influencer” started taking off. Thought leadership became part of one’s personal brand and digital influence. For executives, being invisible online was becoming a liability.

2022: Executives go digital — the rise of the social CEO

If I had to pick a year when executive branding truly went mainstream, it would be around 2022. By this time, a new cohort of business leaders fully embraced social media and content as tools to shape their public image. 

The numbers tell the story. Back in 2016, only about 40% of Fortune 500 CEOs had any social media presence at all. Many top leaders were frankly absent from LinkedIn, Twitter, you name it. Fast-forward to 2022 and the landscape had transformed: 70% of Fortune 500 CEOs were active on at least one social platform. 

Virtually all of those socially active CEOs were on LinkedIn: by 2023, 98% of Fortune 500 CEOs with a social account were using LinkedIn. In just a few years, LinkedIn had become the gathering place for top executives. This was around the time people like Chris Walker came onto our feeds, pushing the gospel of demand generation.

And there was a clear business case for it: 

• 82% of business leaders in 2022 agreed that there’s a wider reward for the company when leadership is active on social media. 
• The same FTI report found that over half of FTSE 100 leaders were actively posting on LinkedIn.

Agencies like Hatch sprung up to serve this need, pumping out video and audio content for CEOs like Walker and Dave Gerhardt. Walker himself openly attributed $7.3 million ARR to his company’s podcast and $5.3 million to his LinkedIn activity (what Alexis Madrigal from The Atlantic called ‘dark social’). Being a “social CEO” wasn’t just vanity; it directly affected the bottom line.

We also saw a surge in executive trust and influence metrics:

• Financial readers trusted a CEO who uses social media up to 9 times more than one who doesn’t. 
• 87% of the top executives in the UK (FTSE 100 executive committee members) had a LinkedIn presence by 2022.
• Over 55% of FTSE 100 CEOs were now posting actively on LinkedIn. 
• Nearly 85% of business decision-makers said that stakeholder relationships (customers, employees, investors) improve when executives actively engage online.

Basically, if you were an exec in 2022 and not on LinkedIn, you were in a tiny minority. Being part of the online conversation was a given. This reinforced a virtuous cycle, as more executives embraced thought leadership and social media.

After all, when a CEO posts an article or a video, it tends to get far higher engagement than the same content from the corporate account. Your voice carries farther than your logo, and having an executive who is a respected online thought leader is an asset to the company’s reputation. 

And far from an active CEO ‘crowding out’ the rest of their leadership team, having at least four active leaders across the Executive Committee (ExCo) raises the overall impact for the whole team. 

In my mind, 2022 was the year of the “executive influencer” – when being a thought leader became part and parcel of being a business leader.

2023–2024: thought leadership cements its influence

By 2023 and into 2024, thought leadership was not just a marketing experiment – it was baked into B2B strategy. The global economic climate got tougher in 2023 (many companies braced for recessions), which actually made thought leadership more important. 

Why? Buyers were more cautious and sales cycles stretched longer: nearly 90% of global B2B buyers said their purchase process had become more drawn-out in 2023. 

In such a climate, a company’s steady drumbeat of informative content can keep potential customers engaged even during long consideration phases. We noticed companies doubling down on educational webinars, research reports, and executive podcasts to stay on their prospects’ radar through the slow burns.

The 2024 Edelman–LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report (their sixth annual study, released as we headed into 2024) really highlighted how far we’d come. One big finding: almost three-quarters of decision-makers (73%) now say an organization’s thought leadership is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities than its traditional marketing materials.

This is huge. It means that if a buyer wants to know how good Company X really is, they’re more inclined to judge by Company X’s articles, presentations, and ideas rather than its product brochures or ads. 

In 2019, that figure was around 59%; by 2023 it had jumped into super-majority territory. Thought leadership had effectively become the trust gateway for B2B brands.

We also saw the impact on concrete buying actions reach new heights. 86% of decision-makers said they would be likely to invite a company to bid on a project (or participate in an RFP) if that company consistently produces high-quality thought leadership. 

This was the logical extension of the trend first noted back in 2018 (when 45% had invited a content producer to bid). Now it wasn’t just half of buyers doing this – it was nearly all, given the right content quality. 

Essentially, great thought leadership became a ticket to the consideration set. Even if a buyer didn’t know your firm, your content could earn you an invite to the table. You don’t need a decades-old reputation or expensive ads to get a shot at the deal — you just need insights that make a decision-maker stop and think.

It’s worth noting that not every piece of thought leadership immediately converts to a sale. The journey from content to contract can be winding. The 2024 report illuminated this nuance: more than 75% of decision-makers said a compelling thought leadership piece prompted them to research a product or service they weren’t originally considering. 

That’s the spark of interest. But among those who went as far as researching a new offering because of thought leadership, about 23% ultimately started doing business with that company (i.e., became a customer). 

At first glance, that might seem low, but think about it – that’s nearly a quarter more conversions from “content interaction” to “new customer.” It underscores that thought leadership opens doors, even if you still have to walk through with a strong proposal.

I also observed how pricing power became another benefit of thought leadership by this period:

• Back in 2018, we heard that over 60% of C-suite executives were willing to pay a premium to work with companies that articulate a clear vision through thought leadership. 
• The 2024 data echoed this: roughly 60% of decision-makers said good thought leadership content makes them more willing to pay a premium to a supplier. 

When budgets are tight, that premium might be the difference between winning and losing a bid. 

Thought leadership doesn’t just influence whether you win business, but also on what terms. If your content has convinced buyers that you’re the gold-standard thinker in an area, they feel they’re buying added value, not just a commodity. This is a critical insight for companies navigating price-sensitive markets.

Meanwhile, the scale of LinkedIn and digital platforms hit new records, reinforcing the reach of thought leadership. By early 2025, LinkedIn surpassed 1.1 billion users globally, effectively tripling its membership from a decade hence (2015). It remained the dominant B2B social network for many Fortune 500 firms and their key people. Other platforms like Twitter (or X) and YouTube also played roles for specific audiences, but LinkedIn was the common denominator for professional content. 

We live in an age of digital influence, where a single LinkedIn post from a credible executive could sway industry perception or start a conversation in boardrooms. By 2024, a mid-level manager in London or Bangalore could write a thoughtful article on LinkedIn that catches the eye of a CEO in New York – and that could lead to a partnership or deal. The playing field of ideas had globalized and flattened thanks to these platforms.

The table below highlights key statistics from the late 2010s to the mid 2020s on how thought leadership’s impact has grown and evolved over time:

Metric	Around 2018	By 2024
B2B decision-makers reading thought leadership ≥1 hour/week	58% (NA & EU, 2018) 48% (global, 2019)	52% (global, 2023; 54% among C-level)
Use of thought leadership to invite a previously unconsidered supplier to bid	45% (2018)	86% (2024)
Buyers who awarded business to an organization due to its thought leadership	60% (2018)	23%* (see note below)
Decision-makers who will pay a premium to companies with strong thought leadership	>61% (C-suite, 2018) 42% (all Decision-Makers, 2019)	60% (all DMs, 2023)
“Thought leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing a company than marketing materials.”	59% agree (2019)	73% agree (2024)

*Note: The 2024 figure of 23% reflects the subset of decision-makers who, after being prompted by thought leadership to consider a new product/service, went on to begin buying from that company. In earlier years, surveys asked more generally if thought leadership ever directly led to awarding business (yielding 60% affirmative in 2018). The slight drop highlights more rigorous buyer journeys post-2020, but the initial influence of thought leadership remains very high.

As the table shows, thought leadership’s reach and credibility have only grown. More decision-makers are consuming it regularly now than in the late 2010s. Far more are using it to drive decisions – inviting firms to bids, shaping shortlists, and justifying premium prices. And critically, trust in this kind of content has solidified: nearly three-quarters of executives trust thought leadership content over traditional marketing collateral.

2025 & Beyond: Reflections on trust and influence

Looking back on this journey, I feel we’ve learned some clear lessons. First, thought leadership thrives on authenticity and value. Audiences today can sniff out self-serving fluff in a second. But give them a fresh idea or useful data, and you win their precious attention. 

Second, the personal voice of leaders matters. We’ve seen how executives who step out from behind the logo to share their perspective can transform a brand’s image. In an age where trust is fragile, people trust people – especially people who show expertise and empathy in equal measure.

Third, content and trust are now deeply intertwined. Ten years ago, marketing content was mostly about products. Today, the best content is about ideas and insights, and it’s integral to building trust in those who publish it. 

Whether it’s an engineer’s technical blog, a CEO’s op-ed, or a research report from a company, thought leadership has become the currency by which credibility is traded in B2B (and even B2C in many cases). 

As buyers, we ask: “What do you know? What can you teach me?” If a company consistently teaches you something new, you’re inclined to believe in its value.

Finally, digital platforms have leveled the playing field for thought leadership. LinkedIn, in particular, grew into the global town square for professionals, with over a billion members now. It enabled a solo consultant in one country to influence a Fortune 500 CEO in another, purely through the merit of ideas shared online. 

This democratization means anyone with expertise and willingness to share can become a thought leader in their niche. It’s no longer gated by title or budget – though maintaining quality and consistency is hard work.

In a Gladwellian sense, there was a “tipping point” around 2018-2020 that propelled thought leadership from a fringe marketing experiment to a mainstream strategy. And by the mid-2020s, it reached a kind of critical mass: it’s now expected that companies have something meaningful to say, and that leaders will engage with the public. 

Thought leadership has proven to be a powerful bridge between brands and audiences, built on trust, insight, and human connection. And as we move forward, I only see that bridge strengthening. In a world full of noise, signal will always stand out.