The internet can be both an awesome and frustrating place because of the availability of so much content. Though there are tons of helpful blog posts, videos and podcasts, it's hard to find content that answers your needs well.
You know what that struggle is like. It's very likely that your audience is going through the same challenges in finding excellent content to consume. What if you could help your customers with this problem and boost your own business growth at the same time? It's possible!
The way to help your customers and grow your business at the same time is by curating content. With this strategy, you don't build content from scratch but painstakingly find the best blogs, podcasts, and other material around a specific topic. You provide content made by others to your audience and get several positive outcomes as a result.
Why should you offer curated content?
What outcomes does your business get from curating content? We'll take a look at that soon, but here are a few helpful content marketing statistics to show you the significance of this technique:
32% of marketers rate their content creation management as fair or poor. Only 8% think they're doing an excellent job. But successful marketers had great ROI from using tools to help with curating, creating and distributing content.
According to Curata, 48% of marketers say that content curation and aggregation are their top concerns when creating their ideal context mix.
The ideal content mix for top marketers is 65% company-made, 25% curated and 10% syndicated.
82% of marketers use content curation.
More than 50% of marketers say that curation increases their brand visibility, SEO, traffic, customer engagement and more.
About 41% say that curated content increases the number and quality of their sales-ready leads.
These statistics give you a good idea of why content curation is a good idea. But let's look further to understand the reasons why offering curated content to your audience will grow your business.
1. Establish authority on a topic.
An influencer or a thought leader is someone who has their finger on the pulse of an industry. Curating content makes you appear informed and puts you ahead of your competitors in important knowledge. When you share curated content, people begin to think of you as an authority or leader in a specific area.
2. Provide value.
Sharing content that you've carefully picked out of a sea of information is a form of service. You're giving your readers something useful. Your audience saves time while still staying on top of important information.
Many businesses cleverly use content curation. For example, the Oregon Wine Board has a resource page appropriately named The Grapevine. This page brings together important information centered on wine. Wineries, enthusiasts, employees and other actors in this industry can get relevant industry news in one place here. At present, The Grapvine has resources and news around the current pandemic and how it impacts the wine industry. It's clearly a helpful and valuable source of information in its niche and also establishes itself as an authoritative organization in its local wine industry.
Following this example, you can curate content to provide value to your audience and to others in your industry. When more attention is on your content, it will move to your brand too.
3. Build trust.
Customers tend to be careful about making purchases online. They are skeptical and won't trust a business or a new product they've just heard of right away. Your average customer looks for around 10 reviews before making a purchase. They also rely on recommendations from their peers and family and do not trust marketing materials easily.
You can overcome these hurdles to winning customers by leveraging the principle of reciprocity. The idea behind reciprocity is to do a favor for another person. They'll be open to returning the favor to you at another time. It's even better if you can ask your audience for a favor. As a result, they will start to justify the action of helping you by telling themselves that they like you or trust you.
Curating content is giving something helpful to your audience. This effort can build trust and make your audience more open to what you have to offer.
What are some ways to curate content?
The hardest part of content curation is to find content that helps your audience. You can find great content by doing the research yourself. You also have the option to subscribe to existing content curation platforms, but these platforms can be expensive for small businesses.
Here are a few free ways to find content:
Set up Google Alerts for specific keywords. You'll get daily emails or weekly digests with articles containing your keywords.
Search for your topic on multiple free platforms that often provide related topics. These sites include Flipboard, Pinterest, and social media sites like Reddit and Twitter.
Use browser extensions, especially those available on Chrome, to suggest similar articles to the one you're reading at the moment. You may notice a similar feature like this as an embedded part of your mobile browser too.
Once you've found great content, the next step is to share with your audience. How you share your material will depend on your theme, your audience's preferences and the nature of your business.
1. Use newsletters or a membership site.
Some businesses curate specific content that's both valuable and difficult to find. A few examples are legitimate remote working jobs, teaching jobs in foreign countries, and partnerships with international businesses.
In such cases, it makes sense to offer your curated content in a more gated way. You can create value for a group of people who opt in to receive your content through a newsletter.
You could also create a membership site to create an exclusive content hub for your audience. This can be very useful if you have industry-sensitive information that serves a relatively small group of people.
2. Use social media.
Sharing your curated content does not have to be complicated. The best platform for you might be a free social media page.
Billions of people use social media, and the various platforms focus on different types of content. You can curate content on the right platform by considering your audience's preferences, your content format and your field of business.
Some brands use Pinterest to share curated content. It's a brilliant stage to present visual content that provides value and is likely to create buying customers. Ikea, Nordstrom and some smaller businesses showcase fashion, travel, and other types of content that appeals to people looking for inspiration and potential future purchases.
People also look for marketplaces on Facebook or in local communities for information. Work with a platform that you know your audience is on and build content from different sources.
It's practical and effective to make curated content a significant part of your content marketing strategy. Being a source for helpful content is a valuable service. It's also a way to save time and effort, as you won't have to create blog posts, videos and other material from scratch. If you do it correctly, you can use it to engage your audience more and to build a community that recognizes and supports your brand. We've looked at some solid reasons why you should start curating content and some ideas on how to begin. It's over to you now.