Content curation is one of the most overlooked, if not unfairly maligned, tools that marketing professionals have in their arsenal. When executed correctly, a thoughtful, sustainable content curation strategy can help fortify your marketing efforts by bringing different resources and perspectives into the conversation.
Here are five important benefits that a strong content curation process can provide:
- Establish yourself as a voice of authority: Whether it’s original or curated, content should provide information that’s of value to your target audience. Doing so effectively and consistently will help establish your site as a reliable source. Curating well-researched articles and reports is a great way to accomplish this, particularly for businesses that can’t afford to conduct firsthand research.
- Boost your SEO: Search engines are constantly crawling for new content, and when your website adds new, relevant pages, it can enhance your SEO. One of the quickest ways to build expand your site is through curating high-quality content.
- Reduce the burden of content creation: Publishing original content on a regular basis is a time-consuming task, especially for small marketing teams. The burden often leads to a drop in either the quality or quantity of posts, and it can be difficult to catch back up. Content curation still requires background research and careful reading, but with a well-managed curation process, it’s much faster than writing original content.
- Build relationships with influencers (and potential partners): Much like making friends in real life, establishing a constructive relationship with online influencers in your market can have expected benefits for your business down the road. Retweeting, reposting, and citing influencers and other potential business partners is a great way to reach out. By endorsing their content and sharing it with your own audience, you’ll create a positive first impression with the original writer and hopefully open the door to future interactions.
- Stay ahead of industry trends: You need a comprehensive, well-informed perspective on your industry space to identify emerging trends before they blow up. By its nature, the content curation process exposes you to a wide variety of sources, which can help you spot patterns and shifts in the market before they reach critical mass.