For many brands, creating a steady stream of original content is an ongoing headache. In fact, more than half of the respondents to a Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs joint survey last year said that producing content was the greatest challenge facing marketers.
There are several ways to tackle this challenge including hiring a dedicated staff, outsourcing to an agency or a team of freelancers, licensing content, or curating content from third-party sources. This article explores the latter, as content curation can alleviate several of the pain points marketers typically face while providing a regular flow of brand-appropriate content.
As a content curator, you can publish sufficient content for your content marketing campaigns, by selectively finding, organizing and sharing the best content on your topic. Here's a look at five reasons to incorporate this approach into your content marketing strategy.
Save time and money. Curating content from other sources can be more cost-effective than paying freelancers or staffers to create content from scratch. Instead of spending hours researching and writing your own articles, locate relevant content written by other sources and share it with commentary of your own about why it's useful to your audience or what the broader implications might be. You can quote from third-party content but always try to make your commentary longer than the sections you're quoting to ensure that you're adding value.
Avoid burning out staff. Writing original content often falls to members of the marketing team, who may already be stretched thin with other responsibilities. Content curation can reduce the pressure on marketing staff to constantly churn out something new. It can also free up time for them to concentrate on other aspects of their job. Content curation tools like Curata can help streamline the process in as little as 20 minutes a day.
Give readers a variety of perspectives. When companies focus on producing original content, the content typically reflects the points of view of the people creating that content. Some companies such as HubSpot enlist employees from across the organization to make sure that the blog reflects many different perspectives. For smaller companies, that may not be as feasible. Curating content from a variety of sources (and at times even mentioning contrarian opinions) ensures that readers get a more varied understanding of your industry and the issues they face.
Position your brand as being in the know. Linking to and sharing outside content demonstrates your awareness of industry trends and issues. As you develop a knack for finding content that resonates with your audience and presenting it in a useful way, they'll return to your site again and again and potentially share it with colleagues. All of this helps develop your platform as a thought leader.
Participate in the online community. Some brands take a siloed approach to content creation and rarely link to outside sources for fear of sending readers away from their own site. This is a missed opportunity to engage with other thought leaders in your industry and participate in the broader community. By linking to third-party sources and providing thoughtful commentary, you increase the likelihood that other content producers know you exist and that they might link to you in the future, boosting your inbound links and SEO.
Content curation proves to be to most efficient and cost-effective way to provide a steady stream of relevant content to readers. Curators are able to select appropriate content, organize it and share it to multiple platforms with one click, giving readers diversity in material, your staff a break and you a leg up in your online community.
Download our Curation Rockstar eBook and out how you can find, curate, share and analyze the freshest content for you audience in just 19 minutes in a day.