Who’s educating your customers? Who’s providing the perspective and insights to help them make informed purchase decisions? To date, that’s largely been the media’s job. If organizations wanted to reach prospective customers in a credible way, they invested in public relations. They told their story to press and analysts. And they had to hope it would be represented accurately and with an objective endorsement. The alternative is advertising. If you can’t earn media coverage, or if you simply want to raise awareness, then you can buy publicity. This model is changing fast. Consumers and business executives are shifting their media habits. They are moving online where traditional publishing and advertising are merging with social media, user-generated content and interactive marketing. The Internet has created a new dynamic for engagement and influence. It’s given organizations the opportunity to become content publishers themselves – crafting the valuable perspectives and insights that educate their audiences and sharing this content directly with their key audiences. When that happens, it’s called “content marketing.” To be successful content marketers, though, organizations need to think, write and publish like credible media. Sheffield can help you accomplish that. We collaborate with our clients to define their story team with their internal subject matter experts, customers and outside influencers to produce compelling content. We then develop and implement marketing strategies to put content to work through lead-generation, product launch, search engine optimization and other programs.

1. Content Marketing Sheffield Marketing Partners
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2. Sheffield Marketing Partners
Founded by two big-agency veterans that
saw where the marketing conversation
was heading
• Boutique agency in suburban Chicago › Create a story
• Experts in corporative narratives, content worth telling
marketing and video production
• Team of 12+
• We help our clients create stories worth telling
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3. Traditional advertising model is losing relevance
• People are shifting their media habits to the Internet
and dropping off the subscription lists of publishers
• The media channels marketers once relied on to reach
their audience are shrinking in both size and impact
• The Internet is an increasingly effective publishing and
advertising domain
• Organizations have an opportunity to speak directly to
their audiences
• In this model, content is trumping advertising
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4. The emergence of content marketing
• Creation and sharing of high value information to generate sales leads, grow
brand awareness and initiate an educational conversation with your audience
• According to several recent studies, content marketing is claiming up 33% of B2B
marketing budgets and investment is on the rise
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5. Content marketing requires publishing skills and talent
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6. To be taken seriously as publishers, marketers must
follow media best practices
1 Define your editorial scope
2 Find an angle
3 Build a news team
4 Hone your editorial voice
5 Craft your content
6 Build a distribution network
7 Foster a community
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7. Seven Steps to Content Marketing
1 Define your editorial scope
• Differentiate your content from the competition
• Identify knowledge you have to share that is unique to
your organization
2 Find an angle
• Avoid the big picture
• Make your ideas immediately implementable
3 Build a news team
• Scout existing authors, spokespersons and content
• Look outside your network for experts and partners
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8. Seven Steps to Content Marketing
4 Hone your editorial voice
• Ditch the sale voice and apply an editorial filter
5 Craft your content
• Make your content inviting and accessible
• Don’t bury your lead
• Let visuals sell your story
6 Develop a distribution network
• Use an email marketing platform
• Build landing pages to host your content
• Feed social networking sites
• Issue press releases to drive readership
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9. Seven Steps to Content Marketing
6 Develop a distribution network (continued)
• Pitch your content to bloggers
• Host Webinars
• Leverage events
• Buy paid links on major search engines
• Partner with media, analysts and industry trade organizations
• Make it viral
7 Foster a community
• Own your beat
• Have a series mindset
• Encourage interaction
• Be an industry resource
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10. Content marketing requires a different type of agency
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11. Sheffield approach
Content
Distribution
Content
Development
Message
Guidelines
Message Lead generation
•Customer
Development testimonial
videos
•Sales videos PR/media relations
•Flash/demo
presentations
•Case studies/
white papers Event marketing
•Corporate
overviews
•Webinar Brand engagement
Narrative presentations
Flow •Brochures/
Narrative sell sheets
Employee comms
Flow
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12. Stories we've told
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13. Content marketing in action: lead generation
• A leader in satellite communication
technology, iDirect saw an opportunity to
make waves in the growing maritime market
• Sheffield helped iDirect produce an integrated
content marketing program
• The campaign reached 2,500
prospects, generating a 15% response rate
• It helped iDirect win $8 million in new
maritime contracts
• And increased first-page rankings on
Google, landing above trade media sites
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14. Content marketing in action: product marketing
Flash Narratives merge corporate video with film making for high impact to
dramatize a company’s product or solution
“Healthcare Remittance Manager” – FIS “The Summons” – FIS “Discovering SatManage” - iDirect
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15. 630.310.5190 phone
630.310.5195 fax
Contact 1311 Butterfield Road, Suite 300
Downers Grove, IL 60515
www.sheffieldcompany.com
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