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How to 10X Your Marketing Reach with Content Curation

By: Shayla Price
Shayla Price
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content curation

Nowadays, people engage with brands in a personal way and content has become the go-to choice for marketing.

Content supports potential customers, replacing overt selling methods. In exchange for their time and attention, companies have the opportunity to educate buyers about their products.

Content marketing works. But it's a challenge. According to a Content Marketing Institute report, marketers said “producing content consistently” is one their top challenges. 

Content curation is one solution to this problem.

What does it look like in practice? Beth Kanter offers a useful definition:

Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast amount of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a theme. The work involves sifting, sorting, arranging, and publishing information.

Let’s explore how to 10X your marketing reach using content curation.

Know What Content Is Worth Curating

Curation isn’t a quick fix to your content woes. But it does have benefits. 

When you curate content from influencers, you associate your brand with the best voices in your industry. And when you curate content from your community, you highlight the best in your customers. 

The content you share should be helpful, unique, and relevant. Customers want to relate to your brand. 

"Marketing has moved on from creating glossy brochures and shallow messages to producing content that engages people emotionally, and continues to engage over time, to make you their provider of choice,” says Jesper Termansen, Chief Marketing Officer of Templafy.

Give curation a personal touch. Just like your original content, provide context and add your own thoughts to the conversation. 

Keep in mind you don’t want to recommend too much content to your audience. Based on the 2016 Content Marketing Staffing & Tactic Study, the most successful content marketers use 65% original, 25% curated, and 10% syndicated content.

Curated content should fit with the purpose and themes of your blog. For every piece you consider for curation, ask: "Would this make sense as an original piece published on our blog?"

Use these ideas to publish only the content that's worth curating—not just what’s popular.

Create A Streamlined Curation Process

Content curation is only efficient if it’s faster than producing original content. You'll need a plan and a solid set of sources to draw content from. 

Use your social feeds to start curating. Follow industry influencers and publications.

A set of simple curation tools will make the process easier. They will surface content your audience might like and measure the reach and impact of that content.

Try using the following tools to boost your curation efforts:

  • Use Feedly to subscribe to content updates from creators you trust. See social metrics for content as it's published and keep your content subscriptions out of your inbox.
  • Nuzzel let’s you view the most-recommended content from within your own network.
  • Pocket and Readability both make it possible to save and categorize articles online.
  • Curated quickly collects articles and schedules them into weekly digests.
  • Try Scoop.it to automate your content discovery and distribute content to your social networks.

Decide Where to Share

Content curation isn't limited to your blog and social networks. Your readers also may appreciate curated emails and microsites. Find out what’s a good match for your audience.

Email newsletters with curated content have had a renaissance in recent years. The popular photo website Unsplash started as a curated weekly email of photos. Today, they continue to release curated photo collections from influencers in the design space, like this one.

Emails are a perfect supplement if you don't want to publish any non-original content on your blog. Experiment with a weekly email roundup of the best reads, or a bi-weekly email sharing a single piece of content. Just make sure that your content isn't time sensitive.

In addition, consider curating content on a dedicated site. Microsites allow your brand to become an authority on a particular subject. And it’s great to include topics that your blog doesn’t cover. 

For example, IBM created an entire hub site for data science and analytics. Most of the content is written by external contributors. IBM receives quality content, and the authors reach a larger audience with a reputable brand. 

Stay away from automated curation. A human editor can avoid silly public relations disasters. Plus, a dedicated content curator knows what your audience wants.

Curate Your Content Mix

You time is limited. Sometimes, your team just can’t create original content for your customers. Use curation to amplify your content marketing efforts.

To 10X your marketing reach with curation, know what content is worth curating, streamline the process, and select the best distribution channels.

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Marketing

Shayla Price

ABOUT:

Shayla Price

Shayla Price creates and promotes content. She lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology, and social responsibility.

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