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Content curation is rapidly growing in popularity. In August 2019 alone, 30 curated content products ranked in the top 5 on Product Hunt.
It’s no surprise really.
That’s where Publicate’ Slack integration comes in.
We content marketers have been curating content for social media followers, roundup blog posts, etc for a long time.
But, many new curated content types have risen up, and are now becoming great content marketing performers for those that create and promote them well.
I’ve had great success with high-value content curation myself. Having created a curated email newsletter in early 2015 named CommunicateBetter.io that was covered on TechCrunch, ranked #1 on Product Hunt for the day, and drove over 3,400 email signups on day 1.
In other words, content curation works. Big time. But, with a caveat… You have to provide unique value.
Thankfully, today there are tools to help you create better content much faster, including curated content.
Coming up with ideas for great content that provides unique value usually isn’t the hard part – it’s finding the time and resources to produce it all.
Which is why tools like Canva and Piktochart are just so awesome.
Canva helps you create beautiful social media visuals and other graphics in less time, and Piktochart does the same but really focuses on creating infographics.
And there are many more tools like this: Shareasimage (sharing images on social media easily), Powtoon (creating animated videos), Shortstack (creating social media promotions), Unbounce (creating landing page), and Coschedule (managing it all).
If you haven’t tried any of these tools, it is a must.
Publicate is another member of this group of insanely useful tools for content marketers. It focuses specifically on helping you create uniquely valuable curated content assets.
Publicate helps content marketers fuel content creation and drive new leads using curated content.
How it works is simple, and can be described in 3 steps:
The type of curated content you can create is really up to your creativity. But, to help you get started we’ve compiled a few ideas. 30 to be exact.
Here are 30 curated content assets you can create fast with the help of Publicate.
Note: Not all examples shared below were created using Publicate, but they easily could have been.
Keep your brand in view and drive action with every piece of content you share on social media.
Simply add your logo, a banner image, or any call to action in a curated publication you create using Publicate. Add in your hand-picked curated content (you could do this even when sharing just 1 piece of content), and then share away.
Tip: Turn on the Lead Capture feature to “lead gate” any piece of content in the Publication. A name and email address will be required in order to access the content. This is a great way to turn your social media channels in lead generation channels.
Some of the most popular content on Product Hunt recently have been curated resource directories. These are web pages or micro-sites often built to be the #1 resource online for a specific topic.
Share the directory as a curated Publication over social media or email, or embed the curated resource directory on a page of your website or on a microsite.
Tip: Make the entire resource directory open to the public, or just some of the content and require a name an email address using the Lead Capture feature for visitors to gain access to the full library of resources.
Curated email newsletters are extremely popular lately, because they are an easy content marketing asset to produce to convert opt-ins to your email list.
It’s also a great way to consistently stay in touch and provide value to your email list.
Publicate saves you time on two fronts with creating curated email newsletters:
Tip: For Content Hacker Weekly, our curated email newsletter, we actually host the curated content on our blog and send subscribers a link to the curated roundup blog post each week. Do this, and you hit two content marketing birds with one stone.
You may have a sales prospect that is on the verge of converting, but only needs to learn more about a specific use case or benefit of your product.
Curate content specific to your sales prospect, add your logo, and a calls-to-action so the prospect can easily take a specific action after reviewing the content.
Tip: Don’t be limited to content that your company has produced when trying to use content to persuade a prospect. Pull in content from outside sources like industry stats that support your claims.
Just as with the personalized sales collateral, you or your customer support team can curate resources that will help specific customers solve specific problems they are dealing with.
Curate resources that will help a specific user be more successful with your product or service. Add in commentary tailored to the user on what information they should be looking for in each piece of content, and what actions they should take.
Rather than getting this content in an ephemeral live chat session, they’ll now have a curated resource they can turn to anytime they need.
Tip: Promote a next step for the user to take after reading through the curated content. Consider also adding a photo and bio of yourself as the support rep along with your contact information.
Much of the time, a press kit primarily contains content and files you have already produced or are easily found. Creating a press kit using Publicate is easy, and makes updating your kit much easier in the future.
Curate press assets like screenshots, hi-res logos, URLs of press mentions, etc. Also, make use of heading, horizontal line, text box, and other formatting features inside Publicate to make your press kit look exactly how you like.
Here is our press kit we’ve made for Publicate’s launch. Nothing fancy, but it covers most of the bases and took very little time to produce using Publicate.
Press kits are primarily shared directly with press. But, there is benefit of sharing press and social media mentions publically on your website as well.
It’s “social proof” that could help boost website conversions.
Use Publicate to compile positive press and social media mentions, and embed the curated publication linking to this content on a dedicated page on your website.
You could also embed the curated press and social mentions within a more prominent page on your website, like on your homepage for more visibility.
If you are a service business, you need a portfolio to show off your work.
Create a main portfolio and keep it up to date easily with Publicate. Anytime you update content for a publication inside Publicate, the content updates wherever you have the publication shared or embedded.
Tip: You can also create more personalized portfolio to showcase work that is most relevant to a specific contact. Just copy your main portfolio publication, and personalize as you like.
For you product companies, showcasing how your product can be used and the quality of output is just as important as a portfolio to a service business.
You can create a dedicated “Use Cases” or “Examples” page on your website, and always keep the content up to date inside Publicate. Just create the curated publication, and embed the HTML into your new page.
Tip: Create dedicated pages or blog posts for each use case or example. Then curate these pages and present them together using Publicate. Do this instead of just adding the content inside Publicate. You’ll drive more search traffic for each specific use case/example.
Similar to a Use Cases/Examples page on your website, showing off real output and thoughts from real users can offer a huge social proof punch.
User output can be more behind the scenes for some companies (analytics services), compared to others (landing page services). So, in some cases you can curate output, and in other cases you can curate results (that users have given permission for you to share) or simply quote testimonials from users.
Curate the great work and words of your users, and let them communicate your product’s value.
Yet another opportunity to create a new page (or pages) on your website using Publicate… showcasing your partners and sharing special offers negotiated with partners.
A Partner / Offers page provides value to your customers with the curation of quality providers that work well with your solution. But, it also provides you and your partner’s value in strengthening your relationship.
Tip: Don’t wait around to form official partnerships to create this kind of page. Curate and show off your company’s favorite tools and services, and any public special offers for these companies. It may help lead to official partnerships if you drive enough traffic/leads to these services.
Images with a quote or inspirational message on them perform great on social media these days.
Anytime you find a great quote or inspirational message, compile it inside Publicate.
Then, you can use a tool like Canva to create a beautiful image with the message inside of it, and then share that on social media.
Tip: Create a curated publicate for the message that provides more value via curated content that helps people take action on the inspirational quote or message. When you share this publication, also share the image you created in Canva.
A “swipe file” is a collection of examples that you would like to take inspiration from in the future.
As you browse the web and see design elements you like or web copy you appreciate, add the URL to Publicate or take a screenshot and add the image. Focus your swipe files on specific topics by adding leveraging the tag and folder organization features in Publicate.
Tip: If your swipe file provides your team value, it could provide your audience with value as well. People love examples they can take inspiration from, and may even be willing to hand over their name and email address for it if you use the Lead Capture feature.
Inspirational quotes and messages are great for sharing on social media and swipe files are a great resource for internal inspiration – an inspiration board is similar to both of these but focused on a specific project or goal.
Create a curated publication filled with content that should inspire direction for the project, and encourage your team.
We created an inspiration board using Publicate when we were preparing for our last website design. It was a big help in deciding on the direction Publicate’s revamped brand design and copywriting style.
Keeping tabs on what your competitors are doing can help you stay ahead of the curve. Not to copy what competitors are doing, but to be aware of how they are positioning themselves and the efforts they are focused on.
Checking out your competitor’s website every now and then isn’t going to give you much learning. But, you will start to learn a ton if you take note of specific insights and keep a record over time.
Create a folder in Publicate for each of your main competitors, and compile content there anytime you find competitor content across the web. When you see a specific insight, add it to a curated publication where you can add the screenshot or URL, and your commentary.
Over time this curated publication will be filled with super actionable insights that will help you beat your competitors.
Tip: Be sure to add the day/month/year anytime you add an insight to your curated publication for each competitor. This way you can see how each competitor adapts over time, and learn from their lessons (without having to make their mistakes yourself).
Prospects either have experiences with your competitors, or they will at least be aware of a few of them. In either case, they will have questions of how your product/service matches up.
Your sales team would surely love to have competitor comparison pages or “battle cards” for every competitor that details the differences and why your solution is the better option.
You can add static pros for using your solution and cons for using the competitive solution. But, you could also go a step further and constantly add content to this resource using Publicate that further backs up your claims.
Anytime someone says how much better your solution is over a competitor on the web, add that content to a curated competitor comparison publication in Publicate.
Conversely, when someone complains about a competitor, add that content too. Then, you can embed that publication on a competitor comparison web page, or share it directly with a prospect that is considering that competitor.
Sometimes you may want or need to share analytics and compilations of data to people outside your team or organization. Unless you want to give these people access to your analytics account or dashboard, it’s not always easy.
Even if you can give someone access to a tool, often they may prefer a simple breakdown of performance metrics and your insight on next steps.
You can create this kind of custom report easily with Publicate. Just take screenshots of the data, or create charts in Google Sheets using the raw data.
Then, add the charts/images and your insights to a publication. Then, share this report any way the recipient would like to consume it. As a link, within an email, on a web page, etc.
Tip: Creating custom reports with Publicate is a great way to get around “Report” limits in certain tools.
There’s a reason why startup directories like Getapp, Product Hunt, and Betalist are so popular…People want to know what tools other startups are using to help them make the best decision on what tools to use themselves.
Sharing the tools that your team uses is a great way to provide this value to your audience.
It also is a great way to give a shout out to your favorite tools, building up rapport that could be leveraged for comarketing efforts.
Tip: Reach out to the tools that you share directly with the link of the curated tool stack publication. They may be inclined to share it with their audience if you provide enough value in your commentary on why you recommend their tool.
Curate the best of the following content types to provide valuable resources for your audience.
Tip: When you share your curation of each content type, be sure to contact the original content creators. They may be willing to share your curated publications to their audience.
Curate webinar recording videos that you have recorded, or videos other companies have recorded.
Most companies record their webinars these days, and share them with anyone that has registered for the webinar. Sign up for enough webinars in your niche over time, and you’ll be able to compile a bunch of high quality video content to share with your audience via a curated publication.
Tip: Use BuzzSumo to find the most popular videos shared for specific topics over the past year.
Slideshare likely has hundreds or even thousands of presentations that cover your niche.
You can also use BuzzSumo for finding popular infographics. Just search for your topic, and choose the Infographic filter.
Tip: Check out visual.ly for tons of great infographics by topic.
Anytime you find a statistic that may help with your marketing or sales, add the URL or take a screenshot and add it to a folder in Publicate.
When you get enough stats for a specific topic, create a curated publication for it to create a super valuable resource.
Quora often has some of the very best answers to questions that many of us ask in our daily work and personal lives. You could go in multiple direction with curating content from Quora…
Curate great questions that have yet to be adequately answered. Curate amazing answers to interesting or valuable questions. Or curate top Topics or users to Follow.
Podcasting has made some major gains in popularity recently, of which many attribute to the popularity of podcasts like Serial, This American Life, and Startup.
There are now likely several quality podcasts that cover your niche or related topics. Curate the best of them, and share why you think your audience should tune in.
Everyone loves a good book. Few enjoy the risk of investing time in a bad book.
Break down your niche into multiple topics, and curate the best books for each topic to produce multiple valuable curated content assets.
Curating and showcasing the top influencers in your industry can provides you two major benefits:
1. You provide value to your audience by sharing who they should follow and pay attention to.
2. You provide value to the influencers by promoting them, which may help initiate a relationship with them.
Nearly any curated publication you produce (especially #s 18-29 above), can be formatted as a roundup blog post as well.
You won’t have to mess around with HTML code to line up two images, or add commentary next to multiple images.
Simply grab the HTML from Publicate after creating the curated publication, and paste it inside a blog post in your blog post tool of choice.
A “content upgrade” is a resource promoted at the end of a blog post that provides additional value to the reader on the topic. Most of the time, the content is lead-gated (requires an email address to obtain).
Many times content upgrades are ebooks, courses, and other types of content assets that can take weeks (or longer) and potentially thousands of dollars to produce.
Using Publicate, you can create a content upgrade for every blog post you produce in a fraction of the time that is worthy of readers handing over their name and email address.
Just curate the best content you can find and add in your own insights to produce a high quality curated content piece. Then, turn on and format the Lead Capture feature, and embed the publication at the bottom of your blog post to start capturing leads.
Tip: Don’t get hung up on providing a ton of resources for each content upgrade right out the gate. Start small to start capturing new leads right away, then add more value over time to increase the conversion rate. (5 resources, then 15 resources, then 33 resources, then 101 resources, etc.)
Similar to content upgrades, “lead magnets” are content assets that you can require a name and email address to obtain.
The difference is you wouldn’t just promote a lead magnet at the bottom of blog post. You’d promote it wherever relevant throughout your website, social media channels, and advertisements.
Again, these assets usually take a ton of resources to produce. But, with Publicate, you can produce lead magnets on your own in minutes.
Publicate’s Lead Capture feature can be enabled for any piece of content in a publication, and be triggered wherever the publication is shared. Whether it is shared on a web page, through social media, or inside of an email.
After you’ve produced multiple uniquely valuable curated content assets, you should pool them together on a dedicated page on your website to drive more attention to them. Often this is called a Resources page.
There is a popular trend towards making your entire resource library open to the public, and just promoting signup to your email newsletter based on the high quality of content you share.
But, if your business is B2B and highly focused on lead generation and nurturing, you should definitely try lead gating content on your Resources page.
A lead generation focused Resources page on your website can become your #1 lead generator. Publicate can be your #1 way of both producing lead generation content to add to this page, as well as the way you create and manage this page.
Whether you use Publicate or not, you are now equipped with 30 ideas for curated content you can create and leverage.
But, if you want to give Publicate a try, we’d like to issue you a challenge.
Create 30 curated content assets in 30 days or less using Publicate.
Here’s what’s in it for you…
For more details on the challenge, visit “The 30 Day Curated Content Creation Challenge” info page.
Want to check out Publicate first? Request access to the private beta. Let us know you’re interested in the challenge and we’ll grant you instant access.
Got any other curated content ideas, or want your curated content assets promoted in this post as an example? Share your ideas, thoughts, and curated content in the comments below! Let’s make this the #1 resource online for curated content ideas and inspiration.
