For many brands, content marketing means producing a lot of content quickly. For marketers who may not be able to come up with new ideas daily, this can be taxing. With the rise of user-generated content (and the coronavirus pandemic), content marketers are focusing on usability rather than volume.
Content curation can help overcome these issues. It allows you to make use of the vast amount of published data. By sourcing and sharing topics that interest your audience, you can build a stronger relationship with them. This improves customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty.
But content curation is more than just repurposing external content. This comprehensive guide will explain why you need a content curation strategy in 2022, how to implement it, and how to increase engagement.
- Demographic segmentation
- Plan your sources
- Credit the original owner
- Make your content more valuable
- Analyze your results
Demographic segmentation
It’s no longer enough to know your customers’ general interests. The COVID-19 pandemic reminded brands to market precisely. This means segmenting audiences to understand their needs. Involvement of consumers can influence their purchasing and engagement behavior.
Recognize that customers now have higher expectations of brands in a more digital world. Define your brand by curating content that enhances your customers’ last best experience. Journey and relationship are key here.
Plan your sources
Aside from selecting themes that appeal to your target demographic, assess the content and competition for each. The ideal topic is one that is valuable to your audience, has limited brand coverage, and allows for content curation.
It’s also vital to vary your sources. Curating from a single source can lead to an echo chamber or plagiarism. Using sources with diverse viewpoints and voices can help build your credibility.
Finally, look for content that follows current trends. With more people spending time at home, videos and shoppable links are hot trends in the new normal content marketing industry. These two new platforms may have an impact on your content curation strategy this year.
Credit the original owner
Not crediting the creator of a work you’ve shared isn’t illegal, but it is unethical. Giving credit where credit is due is easy. Most brands credit or tag the original owner. Others simply post the owner’s handle.
Using original sources also adds credibility. It proves your content is well researched. Crediting can often serve as a backlink, helping the original owner’s search engine ranking. But it also helps your ranking by increasing your outgoing links.
Make your content more valuable
Commenting on curated content can help contextualize it for your audience. Summarizing the content and asking for feedback can increase audience engagement and possibly purchase decisions.
This is especially true when discussing your audience’s values. More customers are now supporting brands that stand for ideals that are important to them. Sustainability, inclusivity, and social responsibility are issues they care about. Using curated content to address these issues can help your strategy.
Analyze your results
You can’t just share content and call it a day, like any other marketing campaign. Content curation should be ongoing. It can help you improve and optimize future campaigns. This includes assessing your progress and revising your goals.
These include audience consumption, potential leads, sharing performance, and sales. Compare them to audience retention, engagement, and production costs. Another thing to ensure in 2022 is your brand’s adaptability to uncontrollable changes.
There are tools and software available to help you curate content more efficiently.