How to write thought leadership content without betraying client confidentiality (even if you have an NDA)

Use the Specificity Ranking described in this article, and use the highest ranking evidence you’re allowed.

You know that prospective clients want evidence that you can do what you say you can do and so you know you should be building a body of thought leadership content.

But much of your work is confidential.

Maybe your clients don’t want their challenges discussed publicly. Maybe your contract limits what you can say. Maybe you’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Or maybe you simply take client confidentiality seriously and would rather err on the side of discretion.

So you feel stuck. You’re scared of saying too much, so you end up saying nothing at all.

Jon Hannah-Spacagna is a consultant for the modular construction industry. He told me that because of the NDAs he’s signed with his clients, "I feel like I’m missing such an opportunity… I just can’t tell anybody anything.”

Because of this commitment to confidentiality, you may not be showing prospective clients how you think or what you’re capable of. You may find yourself relying almost entirely on referrals. (Referrals are great but, unless you have a referral system, they’re like the weather. Unpredictable.)  And somewhere in the back of your mind is the uncomfortable question: What happens if those referrals slow down? Without marketing, without persuasive thought leadership content, that’s a distinct possibility.

Prospective clients could visit your website — perhaps after meeting you at a networking event, or seeing you on a panel at a conference, or after being referred by a previous client — and they don’t find the in-depth information they need to in order to take the next step and book a discovery call or send you a message. There’s nothing to build trust and move them closer to becoming a client.

Let’s try to avoid that.

Confidentiality does make marketing more difficult. But it doesn’t mean you have nothing useful to say.

You can create credible, specific content without exposing your clients or sharing information you’ve agreed to keep private. This is the general principle:

Use the most specific evidence you’re permitted to use.

At the ideal end, you can say exactly who the client was, what problem they had, what you recommended, what you did, and what happened as a result.

If confidentiality prevents that, you move down a Specificity Ranking, starting from the most specific:

Level 1: Case study with a named client + specific problem + specific work + specific result.

Level 2: Case study with anonymous client, but still specific about industry, size, problem, work, and result.

Level 3: More heavily anonymized case study: “a mid-sized financial services firm,” with some details generalized or omitted.

Level 4: No identifiable case study at all, but you can discuss patterns, decision-making, common mistakes, and lessons drawn from your experience.

Plus a different kind of evidence of expertise:

Level 5: If even highly generalized client-derived material is difficult to use, reinforce your expertise with third-party credibility and non-client endorsements.

The key is to remember that confidentiality isn't binary. The question isn't “Can I talk about my client?” It's “What's the most specific evidence I'm permitted to use?”

In this article, I’ll give three ways to share your expertise without compromising client confidentiality. But first…

Before you do anything else: Ask what you’re actually allowed to disclose

Don’t assume an NDA means nothing can be disclosed. If you’ve signed an NDA or have confidentiality provisions in your contract, don’t assume that means you can never mention anything related to that engagement.

At the same time, don’t assume anonymizing a client makes everything fair game.

Start by looking at what you have actually agreed to. If you’re uncertain about your obligations, get appropriate legal advice rather than guessing. (I’m not a lawyer, and of course nothing I say here should be construed as legal advice!)

Then consider asking the client whether they would approve something slightly less specific than what’s ruled out by the NDA. You’re not asking them to retract anything covered by the NDA.

For example, they may be willing to approve:

• an unnamed testimonial

• a heavily anonymized result

• one specific metric

• a general description of the type of work you did

• an anonymized case study

• a case study you submit to them for explicit approval before publishing

Don’t assume. Ask. (Including getting legal advice.)

A client who doesn’t want their name attached to your marketing may still be perfectly comfortable approving a carefully worded statement about the engagement.

The first solution below works in a scenario in which a client is OK with their case being talked about, so long as it’s sufficiently anonymized. And if they say no? The following two solutions move down the specificity ranking and provide alternatives.

Levels 2 & 3: Create anonymous case studies that demonstrate your expertise

Remember, use the most specific evidence you’re permitted to use. Anonymize only as much as necessary. Preserve concrete details about the problem, constraints, reasoning, actions, and outcome wherever permitted.

If you’re allowed to discuss the work without naming the client, an anonymous case study can give prospective clients much of the evidence they need.

The principles of how to write a case study don't fundamentally change when you can't name the client. You still need to explain the problem, your approach, and the outcome. All that changes is how much identifying information you can include.

The key is to remove identifying information without stripping out all the useful substance.

For example, rather than naming the organization, you might describe like this:

“A 200-person professional services firm based in the UK.”

Or:

“The CEO of a fast-growing Canadian SaaS company.”

Exactly how specific you can be will depend on what you have permission to disclose. In some situations, even seemingly harmless details could make a client identifiable — especially if you work in a very narrow niche with only a few possible companies you could be talking about — so check the terms you’ve agreed to and use good judgment.

But anonymous doesn’t have to mean vague.

An anonymized case study can still explain:

1. What problem the client had

2. What made the problem difficult

3. What options were considered

4. What you recommended and why

5. What changed as a result

Those details matter because prospects aren’t only looking for a dramatic before-and-after story. They’re trying to answer questions such as:

~ Do you understand problems like mine?

~ Do you know what to look for?

~ Can you make good decisions when there isn’t an obvious answer?

~ Do you understand the constraints people like me are working with?

~ Are you able to get real results?

An anonymized case study can demonstrate all of that.

The same principle applies to anonymous testimonials and quotes. A client who doesn't want their name or company publicly attached to an endorsement might still be willing to approve a testimonial that identifies them by their role and industry.

In this case, ask whether they would approve something like:

“CEO, B2B SaaS company”

Again, permission matters. But it’s worth asking rather than automatically concluding that a testimonial or case study is impossible.

When I help consultants develop thought leadership marketing content, this is one of the places we can look for usable material: identifying past work that contains a strong lesson or story, working out what can safely be shared, and shaping it into content that gives a prospect meaningful evidence without unnecessarily exposing the client.

Anonymous case study examples: What you can share without naming the client

Here’s a helpful article about how to write an anonymous case study:

How to Write Anonymous Case Studies

And here are a couple of real examples:

When Ransomware Hit, a Logistics Leader Was Recovery-Ready

Note how the unnamed company that’s the subject of this case study is described: A global logistics company, headquartered in the US, with over 200 locations. 

Quotes were included without naming anyone. The sources were described as the “Senior Systems Engineer” and “Director of IT Infrastructure and Operations.”

The problems that Commvault was brought on board to help with are summarized at the beginning, without naming the company:

~ Frequent acquisitions left the logistics company with multiple data protection solutions to manage.

~ A ransomware attack encrypted some of its production data.

~ The IT team needed around-the-clock support to recover data and resume all operations.

The actions Commvault took to help sort things out are also described without identifying the logistics company, starting with:

“The company quickly evaluated its recovery options and engaged Commvault’s Support team. First, Support restored their CommServe database from the cloud, enabling them to rebuild their on-premises server. They also rebuilt three MediaAgents and restored some data from legacy tape.”

The results, including what’s most important to the logistics company, are described anonymously, but Commvault’s leads can appreciate the value of what they were able to accomplish:

“Once the company engaged Commvault’s Incident Response, the most critical systems were restored within 72 hours, and the rest of the productions systems were back up within a week. That meant deliveries could resume, minimizing the disruption to retail clients and customers.”

Construction Safety Program Case Study

For this second case study, the client is described as:

“A global leader in data center development with a rapidly expanding construction portfolio across North America.”

It’s especially understandable that this company wouldn’t want to be publicly identified, given the challenge they faced: “The client had limited internal bandwidth for safety program development and no existing processes or contractor accountability mechanisms.” In particular, “Rising incident rates and safety risks onsite… created significant challenges for the client.” 

ISS worked with their client to create a safety program and the results for the client included: “60% reduction in incidents and near-misses within months.”

Unlike the previous case study, this one doesn’t include any quotes, even from unnamed sources. You can see how this makes for a somewhat less compelling case study. The more specific details you can safely include, the better.

So, about your own past projects, ask yourself:

• Which details truly identify the client?

• Which details make the story concrete, but don’t identify the client?

• How much of the problem, constraints, thinking, solution, or result could I preserve, while removing identifying information?

• What would a prospect need to know for this case to demonstrate my expertise?

Level 4: Write about your thinking, not your clients

When you genuinely can’t discuss the specific engagement, move away from the case itself. This moves a further down the specificity ranking from an anonymous case study. Instead, it allows you to demonstrate expertise through patterns, judgment, and teaching.

In fact, this can make for stronger thought leadership content because you’re moving beyond one isolated example and showing that you recognize broader patterns in your field. So, even if you’re allowed to create named case studies, this kind of content is still incredibly valuable to create in addition to that, not just as an alternative. It’s incredibly powerful either way.

For this type of content, instead of writing:

“Here’s what I did for Client X…”

step back and write about the broader patterns you’ve observed.

This is particularly effective for consultants because prospective clients are buying your judgment.

They want confidence that when you encounter a messy situation, conflicting information, limited resources, internal politics, competing priorities, or an unexpected problem, you’ll make sensible decisions on their behalf.

Your content can directly demonstrate that judgment.

Explain your process

One of the simplest ways to do this is to create content about your decision-making process. If you've been doing your work for years, you may not realize how much valuable material is hiding in the decisions you make almost automatically.

For example:

• How I decide whether a company needs x or y.

• The five things I look at before recommending…

• Why I usually advise against…

• What I need to know before solving this type of problem.

• To get the information I need, this is the process I use…

• The questions I ask before recommending…

• When x makes sense — and when it doesn’t.

• These kind of trade-offs often come up and here’s how I decide between them.

• During an engagement, I look for x, y, and z before making a recommendation.

• People in my industry commonly recommend x, and I disagree because…

• Experience helps me see…, which inexperienced people often to miss.

• I used to think… but after years of doing this work, I now think…

None of these requires you to reveal a client, but each gives a prospective buyer a window into how you approach the work. And that’s much more persuasive than simply telling people you have 15 years of experience or describing yourself as an expert. You’re providing evidence of that expertise.

Teach from recurring mistakes and misconceptions

Your client work has probably also exposed you to the same misunderstandings again and again. Those are excellent content topics.

You don’t need to say who had the misunderstanding or made the mistake. You don’t need to describe the exact situation that prompted the observation. You can take what you’ve learned across multiple engagements and turn it into a general lesson. In effect, you’re mining confidential work for non-confidential expertise. (Again, making sure you understand what you’re allowed to talk about, because you’ve asked your client and gotten legal advice.)

For instance, look for patterns across your experience and ask yourself:

• What problem do I keep encountering that clients don't recognize as a problem?

• What do clients frequently misunderstand?

• What do I notice that clients often don’t?

• What assumptions do clients often have that I need to correct?

• What solutions are clients often inclined towards that I need to explain aren’t appropriate?

• What would I want other companies facing this kind of problem to know?

Discard anything that could identify an engagement or client and turn the remaining insight into standalone thought leadership.

What seems obvious to you may be exactly what a prospective client needs to understand before they'll trust you enough to book a call with you.

Expertise is often invisible to the person who has it. And part of the work I do with consultants is helping them recognize those valuable observations, decisions, patterns and points of view, so they can be turned into thought leadership content that demonstrates their expertise to prospective clients. Over the years I’ve been interviewing subject matter experts for trade magazine articles, I’ve noticed there’s often information that’s valuable to others that experts don’t always think is important to mention — because to them it’s so obvious and elementary.

For example, Jon could answer questions like this in his thought leadership articles:

• What can modular manufacturers do to reduce the risk of local building officials raising objections to a modular project?

• What myths and misconceptions do developers typically hold about working with modular construction?

• What are the benefits and trade-offs for GCs when working with modular construction rather than conventional construction?

• What can designers do to minimize delays when submitting drawings of modular buildings to state officials? 

• What are the benefits for developers, builders, and manufacturers of working with a modular consultant?

For Jon, the answers to these questions are obvious. But they aren’t obvious to all his potential clients.

Make the most of your thinking

These generalized lessons can be used in other contexts, not just your own written thought-leadership content. You can gain third-party credibility by talking about how you think in contexts like the following:

• guest articles

• podcast appearances

• expert quotes in industry publications

• conference speaking

• panel participation

• professional awards

• relevant certifications

• trade association involvement

These signals work differently from a case study, but they still increase a prospective client’s confidence in you. 

If an industry publication asks for your perspective, that tells people someone else considers your expertise worth hearing. If a conference organizer invites you to speak, that provides another form of validation. If respected podcasts, associations, or professional communities involve you in conversations about your subject, that contributes to the picture a prospect forms of you.

It goes without saying that the more respected the venue is in your industry, the more weight your appearance carries. So, you shouldn’t chase every possible third party engagement or invitation, just the opportunities that will help boost your credibility.

Then make sure you actually use that credibility in your marketing.

Mention the publication where you contributed an expert quote. Share the podcast interview with people on your email list. Repurpose a useful point from your conference presentation into a LinkedIn post. Add relevant speaking appearances or professional involvement to your website.

Third-party credibility becomes far more valuable when prospective clients can actually see it 😉

Jon’s been interviewed for articles in niche trade magazines and more popular publications, he’s also appeared on podcasts. In no case, did he come close to threatening client confidentiality, but he’s nevertheless sharing his expertise.

Level 5: Get endorsements from people who aren’t clients

If client confidentiality prevents you from using client testimonials, there may be other people who are well placed to comment on the qualities a prospective client cares about.

For example:

• professional peers

• mentors

• referral partners

• collaborators

• conference organizers

• podcast hosts

• editors

• former colleagues

They may not be able to say:

“Jane increased our revenue by 37%.”

But they may be able to credibly speak about your expertise, professionalism, judgment, generosity, reliability, or ability to explain complicated ideas clearly. An editor might be able to comment on the quality of your thinking. A referral partner might be able to explain why they trust you enough to recommend you. A former colleague might be able to describe how you approach difficult problems. A podcast host might be able to speak about your depth of expertise and your ability to communicate it.

These endorsements are at the bottom of the specificity ranking. While they’re better than nothing, of course it’s preferable to also have thought leadership content with more specificity, as much as you’re able to use. 

You don’t need to choose between confidentiality and marketing

To sum up, respecting your clients’ confidentiality does not require disappearing from public view. Use the most specific evidence you’re allowed to use. Named case studies, quotes, and endorsements whenever you can. Anonymized to the least possible degree when you can’t. Generalized lessons when you can’t talk about specific cases at all. Failing that, collect non-client endorsements and recommendations.

The goal is to give prospective clients enough useful evidence to understand how you think and why they might want your help, while still respecting the trust your clients have placed in you.

Once you realize how much you can talk about without talking about the client, confidentiality becomes much less of a reason not to create thought leadership content. Which, admittedly, also means you can no longer use it as a particularly convenient excuse not to put yourself out there 😉

Not sure what to write about next?

If confidentiality isn’t the only thing making content creation difficult — and you’re also wondering which topics are actually worth spending your time on — read my article:

“How consultants can (finally!) stop wasting time & know which thought leadership content to create”

It will help you narrow your options and focus your effort on the content most likely to support your marketing goals.

You have the expertise. Let's make it visible.

If you're struggling to work out which parts of your experience and expertise you can turn into thought leadership content, I can help.

Together, we'll identify the ideas, insights and experiences that will help prospective clients understand your value, then develop a strategic collection of thought leadership content that builds their confidence in working with you.

Learn more about my Signature Thought Leadership Collection service.