How to work with a ghostwriter to build your industry thought leadership reputation.
Ever notice a C-level executive in your market segment doesn’t have time to respond to your emails for days at a time—yet you see them contributing thought leadership content to top publications in the industry, be it Modern Healthcare, Managed Helathcare Executive, Healthcare Finance and similar or in more consumer facing publications like Forbes, and Inc. with regular frequency.
Wonder how they have the time to create compelling, thoroughly-researched articles that clearly articulate their company’s value proposition when you can barely manage to write a few emails in the same amount of time?
Don’t be hard on yourself or think your not being fully porductive. The fact is, they probably had help and hired a ghostwriter.
Many top executives rely on ghostwriters, or PR teams to help them with crafting and placing content for industry and top-tier trade journals and publications.
It doesn’t mean it’s not their opinions being represented—but in many cases, their contribution might be a half-hour phone interview or a series of bullet-pointed notes, which are then crafted into an article for the target publication.
While, this may see scary to wrap your head around if you’re new to it, but, as an experienced corporate ghostwriter, we’re here to deconstruct the process for you.
How to get started working with a ghostwriting partner:
Choose someone you can trust.
You may have someone on your internal marketing team you can trust with this important task, if not, look for a qualified partner with experience writing on behalf of executives of your level and caliber.
While industry knowledge is important, strong writing experience is also critical—you need to know that the person will be able to approach the subject like a journalist and dig into the research to cover the concept throughly.
During my own time writing “as told to” stories for C-suite level executives with health plans, pharma, biotech, medical device and health technology companies, I found that it was often crucial to do deeper research than my subjects were prepared for.
You want to be assured that the company or freelancer you work with is ready and able to guide you and has the expertise to do so.
Confidentiality is also important; be sure that your team understands what they can and can’t disclose about your partnership, and don’t be afraid to ask for an NDA. As the client, you set the terms as to what can and cannot disclose.
I've worked with multiple clients where I am not allowed to disclose that I ghostwrote the article and that's perfecctly fine.
Here are the steps to work with a ghostwriter and havea good, long lasting relationship:
Kick things off with a discovery session
Once you’ve found a writer you have confidence in, you’ll need to take the time to get to know one another.
A good ghostwriter will want to go beyond your go-to corporate messaging to dig into topic research and help you find your unique experiences and lessons that you can share with a broader audience.
To do this effectively, I usually begin with an in-depth phone call to help discover and shape the article narrative, touching on the key messages that will deliver value to the different audiences that are the audience of the publication.
On this call, we can dig into the topic in more depth later on, but this is our opportunity to discuss your subject matter expertise, how to position it and your ultimate goals for developing your thought leadership profile.
Strategic planning
When I work with a client, I'm typically able to build out an initial strategic plan for thought leadership content based on our discovery call. Strategic plans are customized for each client, but might include elements such as:
Overall goal: Are you seeking to build your personal brand, or speak on behalf of a company? Will the content be placed on self-publishing platforms, or in industry publications? If I'm placing the content on your behalf, waht matters more -- backlinks for SEO, or authoriship or mentions in reputable industry publications?
Content topics: I’ll sketch out a series of story pitches based on our initial call, and we can work to flesh out in more detail with you in follow-up calls if needed.
Target publications: If I'm working with you on content that you’d like to have published in an industry trade journal or I can give recommendations on target publications and potential topics that would suit eachtrade journal.
Promotional plan: How can you effectively promote the content that's been created, and can we pursue the right outlets for additional earned media?
The first draft.
Now that we have a plan in place, it’s time to get to work.
From here, we’ll likely need to conduct several follow-up interviews, fleshing out the details of the messaging you want to convey
Through a question and answer format, we'll refine the topic and goal, and ideally discuss other related topic ideas, or ideas to filter into the content in an innovative ways.
Donlt be surprised if I take notes or record the interview for transcription, so that your exact experrience and insight can be added to the article to massage it into a clear, coherent narrative structure.
It’s important to work with a partner who can get your voice—to assure that, as you review the copy, you feel like the content still sounds like you.
Revisions are a necessary process
If the content isn’t perfect with the first draft, don’t panic.
A ghostwriting partnership is always a collaboration.
Each of us needs to provide constructive feedback on the direction in order to assure that your voice and style is coming through.
If we've developed a transparent process of providing and addressing feedback to carry through each cycle, we'll rapidly find our rhythm—and hopefully, build a strong, long-lasting partnership that’ll drive your industry thought leadership reputation.