We’ve all heard the phrase “content is king,” but in the world of inbound marketing has our definition of “Content” changed? Ninety-one percent of B2B
marketers use content in their marketing mix and a majority use social media to distribute content.
While content creation has always been a force in marketing, trends show companies shifting towards content curation. But can curation provide accurate, targeted information or are we sacrificing
informational effectiveness for cost effectiveness?
What Is Content Curation?
While content creation is the development of original
material, content curation is sharing others’ content, finding the most relevant content and bringing it forward. Content curation can be automated via “daily
paper” sites such as Paper.li, Flipboard and Scoop.it, which automatically share articles on a business’ social pages. However, curation and aggregation are not the same. Curation involves
sifting through available material and choosing content to appeal to a specific audience. While content curation is a way of increasing the amount of material on a webpage, it prioritizes quality over
quantity as does content creation.
Curation vs. Creation
Curated content is ideal for companies seeking to increase their web traffic. Curation
allows companies to quickly produce large amounts of content, which is great for building an audience and retweets/shares. In addition, updating content consistently increases web crawling as it is a
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technique. By linking to, or reposting, articles, websites share information that is trending, drawing users to their page. Linking out generates 33% more clicks than
linking to owned sites. On the other hand, content creation leads to higher conversion rates -links to owned pages have a 54% higher click-to-conversion rate than posts linking
to third-party websites.
The Dangers of Content Curation
While content curation seems like a solution for the cost-conscious, curation is a
labor-intensive process. Haphazard curation bore viewers driving them away from the webpage. Content curators may also be inclined to overload webpages with information and links. Once again, quality,
not quantity, should be the focus. Keyword stuffing and excessive linking only hurts websites, especially considering Google Penguin’s focus on quality links and curators must cite sources, and
provide links, to avoid plagiarizing. Links should be relevant, interesting, and readable. The homepage should offer context to readers and relate content to products if consumers are to develop a
rapport with the company.
What to Do
Content curation and content creation work best when paired. Curated content can attract viewers, but
created content retains those with an interest in the brand. Recently, marketing organizations have increased the amount of in-house content they create, as well as the amount of curated content. In fact, a study of B2B marketers showed that their top priority was
producing enough content. In order to find a balance of created and curated, marketers tend to produce one-half to three-quarters curated content and one-quarter to one-half created content, with
approximately 40% original being ideal. They have significantly higher
conversion rates than curators and substantially more clicks per post than do self-promoters. This pairs well with the content marketing pyramid, in which low effort content is produced often while
high effort resources (i.e., books and white papers) are rarely produced. Companies should view themselves as one of many interacting parts of a social network that produces and distributes
information.
Applications to Healthcare
Content marketing must be adjusted to the landscape of an industry, such as pharmaceuticals, which is
saturated with content, providing plenty of good material to curate to create value. For example, there is ample medical research online, but the difficult language and quantity of academic sources
discourages individuals from finding it. However, an effective content curator will sorts through the technical sources and provide consumers with readable material. Because this data comes from
respected research institutions, it benefits the company’s image and serves as an emblem of authority. In fact, when polled, marketers said their main reason for content curation was “establishing thought leadership.” Content curation shows that a company is willing to see
different perspectives and establishes it as a mover in social media, a relevant concern for pharmaceutical companies that want to be seen on the cutting edge.
Content creation is
just as important in the healthcare field where it shows that a company is invested in its consumer relations, Yes, content curation can be used to give viewers targeted information, but content
creation builds brand loyalty by showing the company is invested in that information. Content creation also benefits companies by being shared by other organizations, which establishes thought
leadership.
Ultimately, the mix of creation and curation is dependent on whether a company wants to be seen as proactive as a leader and a thoughtful communicator.