Content Marketing

Content that tells a story and creates clear context is what drives the new marketing model.

In the words of David Meerman Scott, “Before the Web came along, there were only two ways to get noticed: buy expensive advertising or beg the mainstream media to tell your story for you. Now we have a better option: publish interesting content on the Web that your buyers want to consume.” Sheffield not only helps an organization define what their story is – something fundamentally important and inherently challenging – but also assists them to create compelling content that informs their audiences and directs them to action.

Content development’s importance is growing. In lead-generation programs, content is the draw. To succeed, an organization needs to think like a journalist or publisher: what do people want to read, hear and watch? For most organizations, this means they have to shift how they create content; writing and producing self-serving Web copy or mindless infomercial videos will only alienate the propsects and audiences they are trying to connect with online and offline.

Sheffield’s expertise is that we think in terms of the story and create content that establishes a compelling narrative. A white paper is no longer dry, but reads like an in-depth feature; a video is not long and drawn out, but dynamic and filled with challenges, opportunities, conflict and resolution; Webinars aren’t slide after slide of bullet points but contain a narrative flow.

A few primary examples of the types of content that are useful in lead-generation campaigns: