The defense and government contracting industries remain highly competitive. Government contracts are highly lucrative for multiple years. But they’re also hard to secure and require a huge amount of credibility to land the biggest (and most prestigious) projects.

That’s why defense firms and government contractors are turning to thought leadership

It helps companies demonstrate credibility, leapfrog over the competition or the incumbent, and secure major contracts that can generate profits for years to come. Thought leadership is the future of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) marketing, and your company can’t afford to ignore it.

Marketing Week recently dove into the research surrounding thought leadership in B2B sales. They found: “The research also suggests the need for brands to be seen as thought leaders is rapidly rising. Last year it ranked as the 20^th most important decision driver for buyers, but it has rocketed to third this year.”

Despite the key role thought leadership plays in B2B sales, “only 26% of B2B brands are rated highly by buyers for their thought leadership.”

In this guide, we’ll help defense contractors build a thought leadership campaign from scratch and bring government buyers to them.

What is thought leadership? It’s the process of building credibility and expert authority for your company.

When you invest in thought leadership, you let potential customers (and employees) know that you’re a leader in your field. This transforms your sales process from outbound-focused to one that brings customers directly to you. It can reduce customer acquisition costs (CACs) and help you land more contracts over time.

“Effective thought leadership enables B2B organizations to influence and shape their image, brand, and terms of competition. B2B CMOs must produce quality thought leadership that drives customer priorities and actions,” says Gartner Research.

This is especially important in the defense industry and government contracting, where trust is key, and the community is extremely close-knit.

Government buyers prefer to work with companies with a proven track record. When you produce content that showcases expertise, past projects, and an understanding of their pain points, you resonate with decision-makers and build long-term relationships with readers.

Finally, the defense and government sectors face unique challenges, like compliance, data privacy regulations, and classified data. Thought leadership is the perfect chance to show that you understand their needs and can deliver exactly what they need.

The first step is figuring out your company’s niche and unique value proposition (UVP). As a government contractor, you’ll want to lean into subjects like advanced defense technologies (“Golden Dome”, UAS/drone), cybersecurity solutions, modeling/simulation, and/or supply chain management, and, of course, how one can use AI/ML to support these focuses.

Next, it’s time to create a marketing funnel and build content for each level. At the top of the funnel, you need to create awareness and make sure decision-makers know about your firm. Highly targeted Display ads, Blog posts, social media content, and op-eds/sponsored content on major websites will help you reach a new audience.

The second stage of the marketing funnel is the evaluation stage. You can meet buyers here by producing educational resources (like white papers, research reports, etc.) and building case studies that focus on buyer pain points and how you resolved them. Social channels are a great place to post these because this is where the discussion is happening.

Finally, you’ll need to build content for the final phase: conversion. Can you be found when they are ready to buy, or take the first interaction with you or your competitor?

One of the best ways to establish a reputation as a thought leader is to produce and comment on industry trends. Successful defense contractors, like Lockheed Martin and Boeing, are known for producing original research and industry surveys.

These are important because they give the customers unique insights they can’t find anywhere else. You’re also more likely to attract media attention and gain mentions in news articles, which helps your company reach even more government decision-makers.

If you don’t have the resources or desire to create original research, you can still build an audience by commenting on original research from consulting and advisory firms like McKinsey, Deloitte, Gartner, and others, and posting that (or reposting it) on social media. This shows that you’re on top of industry trends.

Once you’ve figured out your niche and started to produce original insights, it’s time to spread your message across multiple digital channels. You can start with your company’s website blog.

“Blogs are particularly good because they showcase your knowledge, and search engines prize the frequent stream of fresh content,” says Dorie Clark in the Harvard Business Review. In addition, you can build out your website even further by re-purposing this content and expanding on it in white papers, customer case studies, and testimonials.

Reach an even larger audience and boost website traffic by posting this content on social media platforms like Facebook/Meta, X, and LinkedIn. These are incredible platforms that allow you to engage with decision-makers, build long-term relationships, and stay top of mind for new projects.

Finally, you can consider using paid advertisements and targeted campaigns to promote your unique insights to specific decision-makers in government agencies. This is where AMG Defense Tech can come in to assist.

By positioning your company as a thought leader in the defense and government industries, you can increase credibility and land more high-ticket contracts. The key to becoming a trusted thought leader is producing high-quality content focusing on original insights, customer successes, and anticipating future trends.

At AMG Defense Tech, we specialize in brand marketing and thought leadership for B2G firms. Reach out to a member of our team today to learn how we help our clients build an audience, establish credibility, and land new contracts.