Content marketing strategies are easier said than done. While everyone knows and understands the importance of them, putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) can sometimes be the hardest part. Even though you’ve created an editorial calendar, done your research and have a small outline and jist of what you want your audience to read, actually creating content is hard and time consuming. Creating original content no longer has to be the only way you put out a blog post. Curated content is just as relevant to your buyer as original content but takes about half the time to create.
What is Curated Content?
Curating content means to gather, research and find content that is relevant to your buyer that you can distribute and repackage in a blog post. You don’t have to constantly be creating and distributing original content to stay relevant to your buyers, you can curate content for them instead. For example, curated content consists of commenting on the newest trends in your industry or redistributing a guide that your audience may find useful. Always be sure when you’re curating content to attribute/ link to the original source and mention why your specific audience will find it helpful or interesting.
What is the difference between original and curated content?
When you create original content you likely use outside research and external sources to support your own thoughts and ideas but when you are writing a curated blog post you are using someone else’s original content to provide commentary and opinion to the industry. There are three distinct ways in which these kinds of content are different:
- The structure of these blog posts will look different. Original blog posts are lengthy and include a specific beginning, middle and end. Curated posts are short. They introduce the article, explain the relevance and that’s it.
- External sources are used differently. Curated posts use external sources as the main topic of the blog while original posts use sources for support only. For example you may start a curated post by saying “Recently Google wrote an article on the importance of using keywords…” vs. an original post would use the same source but in different context such as, “We believe keywords are important because of x and y, and Google agrees.”
- The purpose of curated posts and original blog posts are completely different. Original blog posts are directed to buyers while they are in the awareness stage of the buyer journey. Buyers are interested in what you are selling and they want to hear more about what you have to say as a business. The purpose of curated content is for buyers while they are in the education phase of their journey. They are new to the industry and new to the solution you are offering so your main focus should be on educating vs. selling.
If you need more clarification as to what curated content is or how best to create it, Content Marketing Institute and HubSpot have some good quick reads all about the topic.
