Coming up with unique and impactful content on a regular and consistent basis is far from an easy affair. In fact, if you’re not ready for the strain that comes with this process, you can drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with the demand for meaningful and engaging offerings generated by your inbox audience. To help keep your head above water, and ensure that you’re always a must-read member of the email marketing community, let’s spend some time talking about how content curation can add a new dynamic to your content approach.
What Is Content Curation?
Of course, if you’re not familiar with the term, chances are that the notion of content curation doesn’t spark too much of a response as you’re reading this post. With this in mind, here’s a quick breakdown of the process, as explained by Kristina Cisnero of the HootSuite blog.As Cisnero points out, the idea of content curation is all about sifting through blog posts and other pieces of content on the web and bringing only the best offerings to your target audience. Naturally, citation and proper referencing is a must when leveraging this practice, but even with these requirements, content curation can help keep your brand stay at the heart of the conversation – even when it’s not your content on display.
Sifting Through the Big Differences
It doesn’t take an email marketing professional with years of experience under his or her belt to see that the idea of promoting other people’s content is a big departure from the standard take on creating your own branded offerings. However, there’s other subtle differences that are worth mentioning when the conversation turns to a comparison between curation and creation.For starters, heading down this path requires an intricate understanding of what other movers and shakers are doing within your industry. While creating your own content is often a more closed off experience, curating from other sites requires a significant jump in external activity. Additionally, curation also stands as an opportunity to promote other organizations and thought leaders, thus creating unique relationships and boosting the reach of your brand within the community.
Is This Process Right for Your Email Marketing Campaign?
Now that you’re up to speed with the curation process, it’s time to answer the big question – is this approach really right for your brand? According to The Content Marketing Institute’s Mark Sherbin, the answer to this query requires digging deeper into your overarching content philosophy.Before allocating and curating content for your inbox messages, step back and ask yourself a few questions. Is it okay to showcase the work of others in your emails? Do you need to seek out permission for the usage of these pieces? Is there even enough content to curate in the first place? By answering these questions now, you can ensure that your brand gets the most out of this powerful take on the content development front.
Getting the Most out of Content Curation
Should you decide to take on the content curation approach as a way to switch things up with your email marketing audience and reduce the strain of constantly creating offerings for the inbox, Matthew Collis of The Huffington Post offers up a few tips to help you excel via this practice.To start, Collis suggests that variety take center stage with your curation process. Bringing new voices and takes on industry issues and concerns to your audience is all about making a splash, so don’t be afraid to switch things up by leveraging a large selection of both authors and content types.Additionally, if you’re able to, try and add your voice to the conversation. Even little blurbs and responses to these pieces of curated content in your weekly messages can go a long way toward showing your readers that you are not only up-to-date with the latest news, but also willing to give your own take on the subject.Collis also points out that tracking the response from your audience to these pieces can help you decide when, where, and how to optimize your curation approach. By listening to what your viewers have to say via feedback, as well as tracking clicks, your brand can refine and adjust the type of content – and the frequency at which it is sent out – in order to create a more enjoyable curated experience. When paired up with your unique offerings, it won’t be long before this supplemental take on content development has your brand standing as an innovator in the inbox.
