What is Content Curation?: Tips and Strategies to Get Started
Content curation is the process of selecting and distributing relevant, high-quality articles and information regarding a particular topic in order to engage and inform an audience. A robust content curation strategy is becoming increasingly important to businesses, with 60% of surveyed B2B marketers believing that content curation helps produce content that engages audiences.
Curated content should include a mix of source materials including original pieces,and third-party content, like news curation, industry journals, blogs and the work of thought leaders. Curating content for newsletters and emails can also be a great component of your overall marketing strategy. Curated newsletters are typically delivered via email and aren't a social strategy.
What is the Goal of Content Curation?
The goal of content curation is to add value by providing your audience with a unique combination of insights and information intended to contextualize and offer new perspectives on a topic of interest. Content curation can be a powerful tool for establishing your brand as a thought leader and building credibility by amplifying diverse insights and reputable sources. Though it may appear relatively easy to accomplish, compelling content curation requires skill and experience, and can distinguish your brand from competitors.
Why Content Curation is Important: Top 5 Benefits of Content Curation
Content curation offers numerous benefits to marketers looking to connect with audiences. Consider the following advantages:
1. It Increases Credibility:
By regularly providing thoughtfully curated editorial content that illuminates topics important to your audience, your brand can boost its credibility and reliability. Leveraging content from third parties allows your brand to showcase thought leadership and your commitment to keeping it at the forefront of your industry. Establishing your brand as a thought leader can have a real impact on your bottom line. According to an impact study conducted by LinkedIn and Edelman, 49% of B2B decision-makers say that thought leadership influences their purchasing decisions.
2. It's More Cost-Effective:
Curating content can be a cost-effective way to fill your content pipeline with high-quality material. By embracing external expertise you can reduce the amount of original content you need to produce at any given time while maintaining a consistent cadence of communication. This will allow you to stretch your budget for original content further, especially when working with freelance writers. Additionally, for many organizations looking to drive a global impact, content curation can be an inexpensive way to feature material in your target demographic's native language. You can rely on the quality of the content when promoting reputable publications, without having to outsource content from freelance writers or translation agencies. Curating multilingual assets can be a great addition to any global content marketing strategy, since it can save employees time and the organization money.
3. It's Faster Than Generating Your Own Content:
Not only can content curation save your organization’s money, but it can also save you time. Curating external content will free up resources devoted to developing, drafting, editing and approving original pieces. It will also allow your brand to comment in a timely fashion on the topics you cover without worrying about an original article becoming out of date before it is published.
4. You Can Leverage Industry Expertise:
Gathering insights from peers and pioneers making waves in your industry is a fantastic way to provide value to your audience. By leveraging information from trusted sources and world-class leaders, you can offer your customers diverse global perspectives and expert insights, helping them to improve their lives and their businesses.
5. You Can Stay On Top of Industry Trends:
Curating content allows you to stay at the forefront of industry trends. By consistently monitoring and selecting relevant content from various sources, you can keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening in your industry. This ensures that your content remains current and aligns with the latest developments, helping you to maintain relevance and engage your audience effectively. Staying in the pulse of trends also helps you to adapt your marketing strategies and offerings proactively, staying ahead of the competition and positioning your brand as an innovative leader in the field.
How to Get Started With Content Curation: 3 Key Steps
When it comes to content curation, it can be hard to know where to begin. Your team can start by conducting a content audit to determine where there may be gaps. Here are some additional starting points to consider when developing your content strategy.
1. Utilize Various Content Sources:
Set aside time every day to browse a variety of relevant sources, including major newspapers, industry publications and blogs to find content of interest. You can also follow thought leaders on social media and take inspiration from the articles and insights they share. When putting together your curation, showcase a variety of points of view from an assortment of sources including industry-specific publications and reputable global publishers such as The New York Times, The Economist and Harvard Business Review.
2. Provide Context for Readers:
Once you’ve selected the articles you want to include in your curated mix, it’s important to provide relevant context that expresses your brand’s perspective on the topic at hand. This can be achieved by producing an original summary or introduction for each article. These introductions should provide readers with a sense of what they might learn from the piece and why it is relevant to them. This is also a great opportunity to incorporate your own brand’s perspective while leveraging the credibility of external sources.
3. Showcase High-Quality Content:
In an age of media manipulation and misinformation, the trustworthiness of content and the reputation of the provider matters more to consumers than ever before. Ensuring that the sources you are using are thoughtful and credible are critical to maintaining your reputation and the trust of your customers. Employ only the most reputable, well-regarded sources and vet blogs or social posts as strictly as possible before distributing information to your audience.
Tips for Curating Content
1. Showcase Thought Leaders and Industry Experts
Industry leaders and thought leadership content can add credibility to your brand and deliver value to your customers. Thought leadership content can also impact how leaders in organizations view your brand. Decision makers are consuming thought leadership content at high rates, with 37% reading one to two hours per week. An additional 21% are reading thought leadership content for four hours or more per week. Additionally, 55% note that this kind of content influences how they view an organization.
2. Curate News and Industry Insights
By curating industry news, your company can become a source of valuable information for busy professionals. Financial news, healthcare news, or entertainment news content can be a valuable part of your strategy, since trends can influence how decision makers spend their budget or their quarterly strategies.
3. Consider your Distribution Channels
Confirm what content marketing KPIs you want to measure, and gather data on open rates, engagement rates, and website visits to determine which avenue is most effective for showcasing content. Your team could consider leveraging curated newsletters to your internal database, curating blog articles, or sharing this content on social media.
4. Consider Copyright
There is often confusion for many people on what is considered fair use. Generally speaking, fair use does not protect promotional or commercial use cases. Sharing a link via social media or via a newsletter is usually fine to do, provided that an asset you are showcasing isn’t behind a paywall or gated. In some cases, your team may want to republish news articles or reshare articles that your leadership team wrote in leading industry publications. Some of these use cases may require getting a copyright license or copyright permission, so it’s important to check with the publisher or your legal team before sharing or publishing content or if you have questions on copyright.
Finding the Right Content for Your Audience
Finding the right content for your target market can take a lot of effort and time, but is ultimately worth it. Here are a few tips to consider exploring while curating content:
- Audit your existing content to understand what is working
- Create detailed audience personas
- Research what questions your consumers want to be answered
- Gather content from top trusted resources
- Repurpose your top-performing content across channels
- Take a look at what your competitors are doing for inspiration
- Experiment with different types of content
There is plenty of trial and error when it comes to finding the right content, so continue to review and revise your content strategy. Realize that the way your audiences consume content will evolve over time so make sure you evolve with them.
Finding the Right Tool for Content Curation
Content curation is the process of collecting relevant content from various authoritative sources and sharing it with your audience in different formats. Having tools and resources in place that can help curate this information, can help your team be more effective in its strategy.
A content license from NYTLicensing can help you position your organization as a thought leader by providing high-quality content from renowned publishers. With NYTLicensing, you benefit from a team that can help you select the right articles for your audience. Instead of having suggestions generated by automation, NYTLicensing’s solution offers bespoke solutions to better cater to your audience.
Having a copyright license will help you save time and money while you repurpose content across your channels. The best curators become a trusted resource as they distribute content audiences truly care about, and that is exactly what we strive to do at NYTLicensing.
Examples of Content Curation
Content curation can be used for marketing purposes or to build credibility for your business news platforms. Below are content curation examples where B2B marketers have leveraged curated articles to build relationships with audiences.
AdvisorStream
AdvisorStream is an award-winning marketing platform that helps financial advisors grow their practices by building trust and credibility with clients through highly engaging and personalized communications. The platform uses licensed content and financial news from reputable publishers to help drive conversions and engagement for its user base.
NYTLicensing provided AdvisorStream with a selection of premium articles from the world’s best business publishers to fulfill its goal of expanding its content offerings. The platform added articles from The New York Times and Harvard Business Review for its users to curate for their communication needs.
This financial content initiative bolstered AdvisorStream’s lineup of trusted resources and substantially enhanced its ability to deliver on one of the platform’s core value propositions — helping advisors grow their book of business through lead capture. After adding the licensed content to its platform, AdvisorStream saw a 200% increase in views and a 260% increase in lead capture conversions on its platform.
Estadão.com
Estadão.com is the online version of O Estado de S. Paulo, a daily newspaper distributed nationally throughout Brazil. In addition to reporting on the world’s major news stories, Estadão.com identified a need to produce lighter pieces with information to make the everyday experiences of its readers, like navigating the real estate market, easier. The website created Imóveis, a new section, to provide its readers with reliable and supportive information to guide them in all aspects of home buying — from negotiating prices to decorating their new homes.
The website built out the section by publishing a combination of journalism, licensed from and curated by NYTLicensing, including articles from The New York Times Real Estate and Smarter Living sections, along with videos from T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
After Estadão Imóveis’s launch with NYTLicensing’s content in May 2019, Estadão saw an increase in audience engagement. Readers spent an average of three minutes on New York Times content, almost double the time spent with other articles on their site. New York Times content also guided readers to other properties on the Estadão website. Three out of five users visited the homepage or other pages after Imóveis.
Discover other examples of businesses using curated content to achieve their goals with NYTLicensing’s case studies.
Final Thoughts
Content curation can truly be an art form when done correctly. It calls upon marketers to think creatively, be mindful of the interests of their customers and stay on the lookout for compelling content from a multitude of sources. Skillful content curation is also an essential tool for delivering value to customers and building trust. By leveraging the expertise of external sources, through content licensing or news curation, you can establish your brand as a thought leader and offer unique perspectives that matter to your audience. Whether you work in healthcare or finance, content curation can be used across industries to build relationships with clients.
You can read more about how to license content from reputable sources such as The New York Times, The Economist and others to use in your curation. These articles can live on your own platforms and keep your customers engaged in your own digital environment.
Frequently Asked Questions About Content Curation
Is Content Curation Legal?
When done right, content curation can be legal. However, just because you find a piece of content online, does not mean you can reuse that content however you wish to. A news article that can be accessed online cannot be copied and pasted to your website without permission. In order to properly repost an article to your website, you will need the right copyright permissions.
There are plenty of digital copyright laws that must be abided by. Carefully select the content you wish to repurpose by pulling content from a variety of sources and properly citing original sources. For more information, check out our copyright FAQ page. If you have questions regarding your specific situation, be sure to reach out to your legal team.
What Is the Difference Between Content Creation and Content Curation?
Content creation involves developing new assets for your audience. Curation leverages assets from third-parties, by showcasing these content pieces on your website, social channels, or emails.
What Are the Fundamentals of Content Curation?
The core principles of content curation include the following:
• Finding: Selecting the most relevant and credible content for your audience.
• Organizing: Ensuring the curated content adds value and maintains credibility and organizing it in a structured and meaningful way.
• Curating: Enhancing the content gathered by providing context to the material. This helps make it align with the overall brand strategy and also helps readers understand and engage with the content.
