The Expert-Led Content Playbook

What is an Expert-Led Content Program?

Maybe you’ve heard of founder-led marketing, but if not, here’s what everyone’s search bestie, Gemini, has to say about it:

Founder-led is a hot approach in the tech startup space and it’s easy to see why. Alex Lieberman of Morning Brew fame sings its praises. I run my newsletter on Beehiiv because of Tyler Denk’s LinkedIn content.

But while tech may have popularized the approach, founder-led marketing isn’t new and it’s not just suitable for startups. To expand the methodology to fit into more organizations, I prefer to think of it as “expert-led content”, a strategy to leverage the knowledge, experiences, and POVs of experts within an organization to build competitive differentiation.

Why Expert-Led Content and Why Now?

Forrester has done some fascinating research on understanding B2B buyers, and basically discovered they’re chickenshits. Risk drives decision-making in B2B. Risk to both the company, and the reputation of the decision-maker. The remedy to risk, according to Forrester? Trust.

Enter expert-led content marketing.

It’s time to put your internal subject matter experts front and center. Instead of generic company content, elevate the knowledge, insights, and POVs  you and your team have to share. Why? The results speak for themselves:

Source: Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report

The trust recession is nothing new, but with generative AI making top-of-funnel content a commodity, organizations need to get good at mining and sharing human stories.

The Trust Advantage in B2B Marketing

Research shows that buyers who trust a vendor are nearly twice as likely to pay premium prices. And who doesn’t want premium rates?

But remember how risk-averse our B2B buyers are? They choose safety over bold moves to protect their careers, their businesses, or the status quo. It’s hard to overcome that with your Company Page posts because people bond with people, not brands.

Expert-led content solves this problem by building trust across three key dimensions:

1. Competence

If you sell marketing software and your CMO explains when to use different attribution models, they’re demonstrating expertise that makes buyers feel safe. Like, “Oh, this place knows what they’re talking about.”

2. Personal Relationships

Experts with strong personal brands create a trust spillover. When buyers trust the expert, they trust the company. Buyers trust companies more when their leaders actively share industry insights.

3. Consistency 

Expert-led content works at every stage of the sales funnel. From awareness-building thought leadership to case studies with expert commentary to expert-led webinars, this approach maintains trust throughout the buyer journey.

Building Your Expert-Led Content Program: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Align Around Your Content Question™

Before identifying experts or creating content, get clear on your strategic focus. What question will your thought leadership content answer for your audience? 

For solopreneurs, it helps to have a thought partner for this process because it’s really hard to read the label from inside the bottle.

For brands, be advised that expert-led content programs can go off the rails really fast if the company’s messaging and expert’s messaging conflict. Aligning around the central question (and also on mission, vision, and values) keeps everyone singing the same song.

For Suite Ghost, my content question is: "How can B2B experts use content to build trust and close deals?"

This question guides my content creation by giving my creativity some gentle restraint, which is way easier than starting from a blank canvas every time. Pick a question that:

• Focuses on a single problem

• Can be researched using multiple sources

• Is specific enough to answer thoroughly

• Is complex enough to sustain long-form content

• Is related to what I do

Step 2: Identify Your Internal Experts

If you are a solopreneur, you can skip this section. You’re the expert, babe. And if you’re going straight-up founder only, you can probably skip this, too.

Brands, look for these people in your company:

• The ones you send new hires to for guidance

• The ones other departments consult on difficult problems

• The ones who are visible and vocal in meetings about their expertise

• The ones who have external recognition (speaking invitations, media mentions)

Consider both subject matter competency and marketing potential. The best candidates can provide deep insights and are willing to participate in content creation. 

Step 3: Develop Your Expert’s Knowledge Base

Set up a project in Claude for your expert (or yourself if you’re DIYing this). Populate the project’s knowledge base with company information and goals of your content program, including:

• Your ideal customer

• Company core values

• Your brand’s positioning

• Brand and voice guides

• Your company Content Question™

• Any marketing plans or content goals

• Your expert’s bio and area of expertise

• The personal brand and voice guide of your expert

I build the last one in a 90-minute onboarding session for clients who don’t have their personal brand articulated. For solos, your company and personal brands may be the same or very close. For bigger brands, you want the company and individual brand and guides because when you’re creating content with Claude you can ask it to identify any potential conflicts between the two. Alignment is key!

Step 4: Create Your Story Mining System

Once you know what your primary owned media assets will be, set up a 30-minute interview with your identified subject matter expert. Ask them questions that you can tie back to the Content Question™ and how that’s shown up in their work recently.

If you are a solo, let these questions guide your brainstorming sessions. You can even record yourself answering them for videos.

When I do expert interviews for my Suite Ghost clients, I follow this general framework:

1. What has been particularly exciting about work lately?

2. What’s a challenge you’ve overcome this week?

3. What’s something you taught someone this week?

4. How is {industry trend} impacting {Content Question™}

These types of questions will get you a good mix of behind-the-scenes content, personal experience, and industry thought leadership. I wouldn’t prepare more than these for the interview. Instead, I would be listening for comments that relate back to the Content Question™ and drill deeper into those.

Step 5: Create and Repackage:

One of the biggest mistakes I see would-be creators make is attempting to churn out brand new content with brand new ideas every day. You are going to flame out, crazy! Instead, thoughtfully create and repackage your best ideas, POVs, and stories. Here’s how.

Create a long-form piece of content (blog, article, etc.) where you can do a deep dive with your expert. I call this the Cornerstone Content and it usually comes from the last question on the interview list above. From there, you’ll repurpose into other pieces:

Cornerstone Formats

• Long-form articles or blogs

• Newsletter Deep Dives

• Detailed Op Eds

Repurposing for LinkedIn

• Adapt blog content for bite-sized, short-form posts (Use Claude - but edit! And Canva.)

• Record the interview and do short vertical video posts (Use Opus Clip)

• Abbreviated LI newsletter that encourages email signups

• Long-form LinkedIn articles - they have more domain authority than you

Other Ways to Use Your Cornerstone

• Vertical vids on YouTube Shorts or TikToks

• Break LinkedIn posts down further for X or BlueSky

• Decks for industry talks or keynotes

• Press release angles for podcast pitches

How it Works for Different Businesses

I’ve used thought leadership to grow brands of all sizes, from solo operations to $12-billion conglomerates. The principles are the same, but the approach varies. Here are a few ways this can work:

For Solo Consultants and Fractionals

Example: An independent fractional CMO

Approach:

• Define expertise niche (e.g., SaaS go-to-market strategy)

• Create a monthly newsletter exploring your Content Question™

• Repurpose that into your LinkedIn content

• Build a personal brand that supports a high-trust pipeline

Result: Attract higher-quality prospects through demonstrated expertise

For Startups

Example: A B2B SaaS startup with 15 employees and two co-founders

Approach:

• Make sure there’s alignment on mission, vision, and values

• Choose the Content Question™ with an understanding that pivoting happens a lot at this stage. Make it flexible but directionally correct.

• Interview co-founders weekly and mine for content ideas and stories.

• Share from the founders accounts and encourage them to engage with others in the industry for reach.

Result: Build awareness and credibility for early customers and investors

For Mid-Market (25-200 employees)

Example: A manufacturing company with 100 employees

Approach:

• Identify knowledge differentiators - what topics do you know better than competitors?

• Identify 2 to 5 internal experts and give them supportive creators to work with.

• Develop a monthly webinar series featuring different experts to capture leads.

• Share clips and tidbits from the webinars on the expert’s profiles. Have your executives share it to amplify reach.

Result: Position the company as an expert-led solution provider

Next Steps

Start Small

1. Choose One Expert: Begin with your most willing and articulate expert

2. Pick One Platform: Focus on LinkedIn for professional B2B audiences

3. Set Realistic Goals: Commit to weekly content rather than daily posting

4. Create Templates: Develop content frameworks experts can follow

Process Recap

1. Interview Method: Record 30-minute expert interviews monthly

2. Repurpose Content: Turn interviews into multiple content pieces

3. Add Value Consistently: Focus on useful information over promotion

4. Maintain Expert Voice: Keep content authentic to each expert's perspective

Track Metrics that Matter:

• Engagement Rate: (Reactions, comments, and shares) divided by Reach

• Lead Quality: Quality ICP inquiries vs. price shoppers

• Expert Authority: Speaking invitations and media mentions

• Business Impact: Pipeline influenced by expert content

The Future of Expert-Led Content Marketing

As AI democratizes content creation, human expertise becomes more valuable, not less. Buyers can get generic information anywhere. What they can't get is your specific expertise, experience, and perspective.

Expert-led content marketing isn't just about showcasing what you or your company experts know. It's about building relationships with people who value that knowledge. When buyers see your experts as trusted advisors rather than sales channels, everything changes.

Here’s to figuring shit out together.

-Angie

P.S. Want hands-on helping implementing this system? I’m looking for two more beta testers for the high-trust content program I’m building. If you’re interested, reply and let me know!