Content Marketing Services

Content Curation – What, Why When?

Unlike the common assumption, content curation is not same as content creation. Content curation is essentially finding other people’s work and sharing it with your own audience via blog, social media, or any other online platform you frequent. It takes far less time than creating content from the scratch.

That sounds rather simple, but the impact it can have is profound. Digital marketing experts agree that focusing too much on self-promotion damages your chances of building or keeping a readership. Likewise, successfully curating content can lead to scores of new followers and new opportunities for you in your discipline.

Captivating content curation can be tricky, especially for newcomers. It’s easy to be drowned out by the constant roar of social media and share random stuff that barely offers any value to readers. Here are six steps to help you effectively curate content and make an impact on your followers and your brand:

Know How You Are Curating Your Content 

There are two basic styles of content curation to choose from:

1) Sharing links to other people’s articles from your social media profiles; or

2) Writing an article that is specifically about someone else’s blog post, using it as the foundation for your own thoughts.

Both are valid and have a place on your pages; it is up to your discretion to know which style will have the most impact for a given piece.

It is important to note that the latter style provides for opportunities to quote directly from the piece. These can help you rank well with Google and get a higher response rate from you audience. However, you have to make it is obvious to Google that it is not duplicate content by linking to the original source and articulating your own thoughts and quotes.

Curate Content Organically  

Even the professional content curators disagree on the optimal ratio of curated content to original content. Some say your pages should feature more original content. Others contend having more curated content yields greater rewards. Most likely, the best answer is the one that makes the most sense for your site.

Therefore, you should always take care to curate your content organically. Similar to content creation, you should adhere to a schedule with content curation as well. Every piece of curated content should carry with it the wonder of discovery—if you’re excited about an article, your audience will know and respond to it accordingly.

Here are a couple of more handy tips that will help you to curate content organically:

• Capitalize on content creators’ research: There are so many content creators out there who conduct comprehensive research to come up with unique content. Make sure to follow them on social media or subtribe their newsletters to come across the ideal curated content for your audience.
• Pick an experienced content creator to curate content: Content curation is a not a cakewalk. It involves a lot of hard work as well as skills. By assigning this role to a non-professional, you may not be able to make the most of it. We would recommend you take a professional content creation expert on board for the reasonability.

Curate Worthwhile, Relevant Content

Content “curation” is a different animal to everyday sharing. The term “curation” alone implies a level of sophistication and thoughtfulness behind every retweet and re post. As a result, you should take care to only re-post articles pertaining to your chosen subject and by authors or publications with authority.

However, simply riposting from your discipline’s largest website isn’t going to impress your audience. Most likely they will have already seen and shared that source’s pieces. Great content curation should provide a new dimension to the conversation and should wow with a new perspective.

Don’t Neglect Your Own Writing

Content curation isn’t meant to supplant developing and publishing original content creation. The consensus among prominent content curators is that it shouldn’t obscure or overpower your own work but instead highlight it. Put another way, content curation is not a substitute for genuine insight. If you spend all your time parroting the authorities in your field, you’ll be unable to establish yourself as one and will give readers no reason to listen to you. Learn how content marketing works.

Content curation is partially meant to give much needed context about your discipline to your followers. The key is to use that context to position yourself as a unique voice on the subject. Content curation is a scaffolding to your own creative process, not the endpoint.

Frame Curated Content in Your Own Voice

Perhaps the most important piece of advice that every content curation expert expresses is to frame curated content in your own voice. Part of that is ensuring that the content you’re sharing reflects you, your brand, and what you’re building, but it also means so much more.

When curating content, you must ask yourself why this piece matters to you, and if it matters to your audience. The answers to those questions should be shared as prominently as the content itself. Whether you make an argument for or against it, muse on a tangential topic, or even crack a joke about it, what’s important is that you explore why this piece resonates.

Take Away

There is no denying that content creation is certainly a powerful digital marketing tool. But that does not mean you should overlook the importance of content curation to accomplish business goals. Similar to content creation, content curation shows our audiences that we are not mired in hubris or stuck in self-imposed isolation in our fields. Remember the ultimate goal of content curation is to show why you are to be trusted as an authority in your field. Riposting mutely will not accomplish that—only by sharing your thoughts as well as your curated content will lead to success. Speak to one of our experts today

As a keen fan of content marketing, it should come as no shock to you when you hear ‘content is king’.

You know the power it can drive for your whole sales funnel.

But if this is the case, why do so many struggle with the advanced content marketing strategies?

Could it be because they don’t know the benefits of content marketing?

I doubt that.

It’s more likely the case you know the benefits but don’t know how content marketing tips will work for your industry.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is anything from web content, eBooks, blog posts, white papers, infographics, videos, webinars. Anything you produce that educates entertains, inspires or informs your target customer is the form advanced content marketing.

In this post, we’re going to discuss the blueprint for getting your content marketing plan together.  

Before we dive in, let’s look at some of the reasons why there maybe hesitation.  

Firstly, it’s often hard to see the direct results of content marketing compared to other marketing efforts: paid search for example.

Another reason people might not jump on the content marketing bandwagon is they’re following the wrong metrics.

Without scoping out a proper plan, you’re not sure which metrics matter to you. Because you don’t know which metrics you should be following.

Understanding the value of content marketing in Canada

If you really want to get the right plan for content marketing you need to make sure you understand the value of it.

Now I don’t mean reciting exciting facts about how great content marketing is.

Remember, most people already know the stats.

You need to understand the true benefit for your own niche or business.

The object or goal of content marketing should be to gravitate people towards your service or product. To provide enough value that your audience recognizes likes and trusts your brand enough to want to do business with you. See our absolute guide to content marketing. This is highly valuable, and if done correctly, can have astronomical results for your business.

Working Out Your Own Value

Whilst outbound marketing is all about pushing people towards taking an action, like signing up for a free trial watching a demo, or downloading a free guide. Inbound marketing is all about pulling people in to get to know you better. Creating the right type of content for your audience is timeless. The more people who discover your content, the more chance you have of it being shared. This means generating endless results over time.

Customer relationships change all the time. When these relationships change you need to rely on audience-centric content marketing. Audience-centric content means putting your audience first. When your audience’s needs change, so does your content. It gives you an opportunity to stay in touch with your audience, even if the relationships change and allows you to keep all communication channels open.

Look At Other Brands In Your Own Niche Who Are Winning With A Content Marketing Strategy

Set realistic expectations that suggest when you’ll expect to see measurable results. Is there any value in doing content marketing if you won’t see any results for 10 years?

The best content marketing tips are the ones that realize the bottom-line outcomes. You need to create the connection between the two. The way to do that is to create a performance-driven content marketing strategy.

Presenting That Value

If you want people to engage in your advanced content marketing, then you need to produce convincing data and quantify your content marketing process.

Speak In Their Language

You might think you have a great idea for a piece of content, but if you want buy-in that shouldn’t be what you focus on. Instead, focus on the aims and the goals of the content – Why is it good for your audience? How will the company benefit from producing this content? That is what every seasoned content marketing agency does.

It’s the classic case of show, don’t tell. Prove your points through data analysis and case studies from your own niche. When trying to appeal to people to get buy-in for content marketing, it’s imperative you make it relatable.

Think about it, even a salesperson doesn’t just push a service or a product.

If you want to come across likable through, let’s say, content marketing blog, then you need to do more than just sell, you need to tell a story and content marketing is a great way to do just that. This way you can connect your tactics to the entire organizational end goals.

You need to realign your content marketing strategy with what they care about, or what they worry about.

Making Content Marketing Blog Work For You

If you already doing content marketing but want to take it to the next level, it’s important to analyze the content you already have. There are a few ways to look at your results:

Short term and long term results.

Short term content marketing involves looking at -value metrics such as social shares on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc.

Long term result involves looking at things like leads that have come directly from your content marketing efforts.

Compare it to your current cost per lead. Like with traditional marketing efforts, such as display ads or sponsored posts, content marketing doesn’t have any recurring costs.

Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing, it generates more than three times as many leads. Meaning, it’s a lower cost per lead over time. However, you can even reduce costs by collaborating with professional content marketing services in Toronto.

Content marketing allows you to take your readers on an organic journey teaching them about your brand, without being too salesy. People dislike being sold to.

 

 

Post-Buy-In

You need to consistently show the value of the content you’re putting together. The best way to do that is through testing and reporting. Come up with hypotheses and test and report back.

The elephant in the room with content marketing is which metric do I follow. The answer is: you follow the ones that make sense for you. When you plan your content marketing blog it should be aligned with your overall strategy.

Takeaways

You need to understand the value your content marketing has for your business. Once you’ve started your content marketing process, the hard work doesn’t stop there. You need to continually find ways to showcase your results in order to prove the benefits your content marketing is having on your bottom line.Connect with one of our experts today to start building your blueprint