How American Express Business Class Builds Trust and Loyalty with Thought Leadership Content

American Express showcases its leadership and authority by producing valuable and original customer-centered content for business owners. 

The internet is a double-edged sword for small businesses. There is unlimited content available, but it is challenging to sift through a sea of unreliable information to find sold sources of valuable content. With so many blogs, podcasts, videos, online courses, and webinars competing for their attention, how can they tell which ones are worth their time and trust?

This is where authoritative, thought leadership content marketing comes in. Read on to explore thought leadership content and how it can help your business. 

Thought leadership content creation 101

A smart way to understand how thought leadership content works and its impact is to look at examples from other companies. American Express Business Class is a prime example that harnesses authority content to differentiate itself from its competitors. 

• American Express Business Class recognizes that More than 54% of decision-makers currently claim that they spend more than one hour per week consuming thought leadership content. 
• By acknowledging that 74% of these decision-makers say that less than half of what they read provides valuable insights, AMEX realizes the enormous opportunities for original, impactful content. 
• AMEX has earned a reputation as a leader and authority in the small business world by focusing on creating authoritative, customer-centered content.
• By producing thought leadership content, businesses can boost their brand awareness, reputation, customer retention, and loyalty.

Taking a deeper look into AMEX Business Class’s approach to content can help you learn to leverage the advantages of crafting thought leadership content. 

American Express Business Class: The strategy

AMEX Business Class is a content platform that provides small business owners valuable insights and advice on various aspects of starting, running, and growing their businesses. Their platform leaves no stone unturned, covering everything from acquiring customers, managing money, building your team, strategic change management, and beyond. 

Unlike its competitors, AMEX Business Class aims to deliver genuine value to its customers –– not to sell its products and services. Its platform gains merit by focusing on original thought leadership content full of evidence-based thoughts, expert opinions and interviews, and thorough case studies. 

AMEX Business Class also addresses small businesses’ pain points and challenges and provides practical approaches and solutions. Across its channels, including its website, social media, and emails, you will not encounter any blatant sales tactics or overtly promotional content. This is what elevates their content to the status of a genuine ‘thought leader’, as opposed to another run-of-the-mill promotional blog.

AMEX Business Class uses multiple channels to reach its target audience

AMEX’s content: A deep dive

How exactly does AMEX Business Class create thought leadership content that stands out? Here are some of the best practices it uses:

Outsourcing Content

Rather than relying on its team of in-house writers, American Express outsources its content to outside contracted content experts, like Wizeo. 

While the team at American Express could certainly handle creating engaging content, they decided to bring in experts with the expertise and experience to deliver excellent thought leadership content.

A recent study shows that 50% of companies outsource content creation in some capacity. The benefits of outsourcing content creation are boundless –– including access to specialized knowledge and expertise, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to scale content production seamlessly.

Customer-first content

Recognizing the importance of equipping small business owners with pertinent insights on how to grow, AMEX Business Class actively solicits and analyzes feedback from its target audience through various channels –– such as surveys, interviews, and core analytics. This allows it to tailor its content to resonate more effectively with its readership.

In-depth content

AMEX Business Class doesn’t pull topics out of thin air. It does its homework by digging deep into industry trends, market opportunities, customer behavior, and best practices before creating content. It also teams up with experts, influencers, industry leaders, and content creators to add more value and authority to its content. The outcome? You can trust that every article, blog, video, and podcast is based on solid research and facts.

Original content

AMEX Business Class blazes its own trail by pioneering innovative ideas and viewpoints grounded in custom research and authoritative expertise, instead of regurgitating other content pieces found online. Its content exudes a bold perspective, yet remains fortified with robust data and facts to support its arguments. This bold and visionary approach sets its content apart –– elevating it beyond mere entertainment or information, and positioning it as a thought-provoking guide to the future.

The results

You can see AMEX Business Class’s success through its 1.5 million subscribers, reaching over 100 million small business owners worldwide. This platform has also won many awards, including the Content Marketing Award, Webby Award, and the Short Award. 

By focusing on thought leadership content, AMEX Business Class has earned a reputation as a leader and authority in the small business world. This helps it boost its brand awareness, reputation, customer retention, and loyalty in an indirect but powerful way. On the business side, AMEX’s content platform has driven countless visits to the AMEX website, generating thousands of leads and millions in revenue.

American Express Business Class: The takeaways

AMEX Business Class is a stellar example of how thought leadership content marketing can differentiate your brand and cultivate a following of engaged readers. Its position as a top-tier, professional credit card company is all the evidence you need. 

Here are some steps you can take to create engaging thought leadership content for your business:

• Stick to your niche and focus on the topics that matter to your audience and your industry.
• Back your content. Establish your voice and tone and use storytelling, humor, and emotion to connect with your audience.
• Add value and offer solutions, insights, and inspiration to your audience with data and research, and cite credible sources and experts.
• Research and analyze industry trends, and offer original and forward-thinking perspectives and opinions.

By following in the footsteps of brands like American Express, you can create content to help your business build trust and loyalty, and ultimately grow your business. The good news is that you don’t have to tackle this kind of work alone –– especially if you work with a reliable content marketing firm to help you scale your content.