The Sponsored Content Onboarding Process for Metro Parent and Chicago Parent

Welcome to the world of sponsored content! You’ll soon publish articles that tell your company’s story in a powerful way that educates and builds trust with future clients.

After businesses sign on with Metro Parent or Chicago Parent — sister companies of Zoe Marketing & Communications — they’re itching to know what’s next. You’re invested. You’re anxious to get started. And you don’t want to miss any steps.

Not to worry. This blog breaks down the easy, designed-around-you process we use to onboard dozens of sponsored content clients each year. We’ll cover these key points:

• Who you’ll be working with and how to reach them
• Details you’ll need to supply
• How article ideation/writing works
• Deadlines and why they matter
• Blog draft review and editing process
• Art for the articles

Our team is approachable, professional and cares about your success. Discover how we’ll set you up for a smooth experience and guide you through the process.

Who you’ll be working with and how to reach them

You’ll work with Zoe’s content team, which writes for Metro Parent and Chicago Parent. Your first point of contact is a content editor. They’ll contact you about a month before your content launch to kick off a working relationship and discuss topics (more on that next).

We’ll first connect with an introductory email, typically with a short video explaining what’s next. From there, we connect primarily via email — or phone/video calls when necessary.

Details you’ll need to supply

Come in with a goal for your campaign. Remember that effective sponsored content helps readers — its focus is not to promote your business. Keep it at least 80% educational for best results.

Your topic

Bring ideas, but also bring an open mind. Know that some topics won’t work well for spon con — for specifically for the audiences of Metro Parent and Chicago Parent..

The focus is on building brand awareness. The topics we create together will be informative, targeted, entertaining and tell a story. Again, you won’t be explicitly touting your brand.

Your source

Provide contact information for one person in your organization who will be the expert source for your article. The topic you choose helps determine the source.

An important note: Because spon con is short and reader-friendly, it doesn’t serve the article (or reader) if you select two, three or four sources. Stick to one source per article.

How article ideation/writing works

Let’s look at both the idea creation and the writing involved.

Coming up with topics (ideation)

This is a critical discussion. In a phone/video meeting, we’ll guide you through the process. A few things to keep in mind:

• Your ideas are welcome. We’ll work with you to brainstorm new topics or refine your subjects to be more entertaining, informative and less promotional.
• We know our audience best. They want info that will help them make better decisions, be better educated and be better parents. This is often tip-based information, a “how to” or a different way of thinking about a particular subject that might be a pain point. Trust our knowledge about our readers.
• Your content should build brand awareness and trust and position your organization as a thought leader in your field.
• This is NOT your only chance to get information out to this audience! So, think about what you would say if you had six months. Spon con is a long-haul strategy; it’s not a flash-in-the-pan billboard.

The writing process

Once we settle on a topic and receive your expert source’s contact info, we contact them for a phone interview. We then write the story, edit and proof it and send it to you for review.

Deadlines and why they matter

As publishers, we have a professional journalistic approach to deadlines. You’ll receive a customized timetable, but these are the main deadlines:

1 month

We reach out to you one month before your content launches. Be prepared to settle on a topic now or shortly after this. And be ready to share your expert source and their contact information.

3 business days

Once we have interviewed the source and written the story, you’ll receive the draft to review. Edits are due within 3 business days.

3 weeks

From start to finish, sponsored content takes about 3 weeks to produce. This allows ample time to settle on a topic, make last-minute photo selections and get your approval.

Delays

Meeting deadlines is essential for your content to go live at the agreed-upon time. Your content will be delayed if it takes longer to meet those deadlines.

Setbacks happen when people on your team who need to give their approval to the final story are busy or out of the office. Bake factors like vacations into the process. Also, it’s best to have one point person give that final approval — and ensure they’re reasonably accessible.

Blog draft review and editing process

Your input on your articles is essential. 

Number of drafts

Typically, you’ll see two drafts:

1. The first draft: You’ll get a copy of your story as a Word document or Google Drive Doc. You provide feedback and edits directly in that document. Editing can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! Follow these editing best practices to help you along.
2. The second draft: This is the final approval. At this point, you’re just checking to ensure all edits and facts are correct. You’ll need to green-light this draft by emailing back the specific word “approved” — vs. “looks good,” “ok,” etc.

Your input

We welcome your input on these critical factors:

• Refining quotes: Clients often tweak and finesse their quotes, and that’s perfectly fine.
• Errors of fact: Is a name or proper noun misspelled? Is something misdescribed? Set it straight.

And we ask you to respect our process when it comes to these aspects:

• Editing style: We have specific standards on grammar and style. For example, we don’t use Oxford commas, and our quote attribution verbs are in the present tense. Unless something is glaring, please don’t adjust it if you might consider it “wrong.”
• Conversational tone: We also have standards on how content should sound to make it accessible to our readers. Please allow that tone to shine through.
• Indirect quoting: Most of your article is paraphrased from your source. When we say someone “says” something, it doesn’t always mean it’s a direct quote. Please avoid putting quotation marks around indirect quotes.

Streamline edits

If you’re running your draft past multiple people, pull ALL of those edits together and send them back simultaneously. 

Rewrites are rare

We pride ourselves on following high journalistic standards. If we’ve done our job, total rewrites are seldom needed. In the rare cases they are, it means we didn’t select the right topic. And we’ll work with you to get it right.

Art for the articles

Once your story is approved, the art selection tops it off. This is an important choice: It’s the first thing people see when they read your article.

If you have photos that illustrate your unique environment, that’s great. If not, no worries. We supply a stock image and work with you to select the best art option — at no extra cost. 

A few things to keep in mind:

• Focus on people within your environment, not an empty room. Think people and faces. Also, small groups of 1-3 people are more illustrative than a big group.
• Avoid too many people and unprofessional quality. Good lighting and a good eye are essential. We also need high-resolution images that fit our standards — landscape format, 1200 x 718 pixels or larger.
• With stock, we’ll lend our professional insight on what captures your company. We spend time researching and offer you several options to choose from.

The bottom line with your sponsored content

We aim to make the sponsored content with Metro Parent and Chicago Parent seamless and smooth. In this blog, you learned all the key steps of this process — including your role.

Still curious how all this works? Learn how to create excellent sponsored content and compelling topics by reading:

• How to write a good sponsored content article
• How to come up with great topics for sponsored content

The best sponsored content articles are educational and trustworthy. Keep open to the process to watch your spon build your brand awareness.