How Successful Sales Teams Use Content Curation

Creating useful, unique, and engaging content usually takes a lot of time and effort. To reach and connect with their target audience, marketers and sales teams are already spending much of their time and resources on crafting such content.

Having unique content is always a must for successful brands. Yet, there is one trick that can help marketers promote their business and save tens of hours. Aside from original content, sales teams can also use curation to find, select, and promote relevant content from other sources.

What is curated content?

Curated content is any content that other organisations create, but a particular brand or a company shares it because it is valuable, interesting and appealing to their target audience. 

With so much content available online, it is up to marketers and sales teams to successfully navigate and curate the content that they find the most useful for their target audience. 

There are three stages of successful content curation process: 

• Content aggregation: A stage where you find sources that are relevant to your topic and audience. 
• Content selection: A process of  selecting the best content from chosen sources. 
• Contextualization: Putting selected content into context and adding your own value to it. For example by sharing, commenting or rating it. 

Going through all of these three stages thoroughly will ensure that you bring high-quality content to your network, as the infographic below shows.

Infographic source: https://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/can-proper-content-curation-feed-thought-leadership-0787205

Carefully curated content can help deliver valuable marketing materials to target audiences, especially if it is coming from an authoritative and informative source. 

Additionally, there is the increased expertise that some of these sources can provide on different topics, relevant to you and your brand. Also, it helps position your brand as a thought leader that your audience can rely and count on.

Curated content can also increase the effectiveness of marketers and sales teams in raising their own brand awareness. Without having to directly promote their brand. It can also save sales teams valuable time and resources. They don’t have to spend weeks or months on crafting original content. 

Curated content is most effective when it is distributed through various channels, such as blogs, websites, newsletters, and social media. When diversified, content curation can contribute and help bring substantial traffic. It can also attract new leads and customers, and increase the brand’s existing audience and reach.

What are the advantages of using curated content in sales?

Utilizing the right combination of original and curated content can do wonders for brands. According to statistics from Curata, leading marketers often use a mix of 65 % original content, and 25 % curated content. From building trust with your audience, to sharing valuable and relevant information while saving time and money – there are many benefits of using curated content. Getting leads, raising brand awareness and growing your network are also among the top advantages that content curation provides to sales teams and marketers.

1. Building trust with your audience 

Offering high-quality curated content from selected and reputable sources regularly will help you build trust with your audience, and lay the foundations for mutual respect with existing and potential clients.

2. Sharing valuable information

Sharing carefully curated and relevant content can be of great importance to your audience, since it provides them with the valuable information they are after. It will also keep them up-to-date with the latest trends in areas and topics of their interest.

3. Saving your time and money

Sometimes, it can take hours or even days to write and promote a quality blog post. As an addition to original content, using curated content helps marketers and sales teams free up more time for using their resources on other activities. Thus increase their productivity.

4. Building authority of your brand in the niche

Sharing relevant, niche content from authoritative and reputable sources can help position your brand on the market. It can also attract potential leads and raise brand awareness without having to craft original content all the time.

5. Growing your network

Frequent collaboration with different sources means an increased network of contacts that can prove valuable for your business. Sharing their content will also help to establish a potential business relationship or collaboration in the long run. Brands or sources whose content you’ve shared will also be grateful for your support, and may offer to do the same for you in the future.

6. Supporting lead nurturing

Providing your prospective leads with continuous high-quality curated content will develop mutual trust and help establish new relationships. The right balance between original content and relevant curated content can also keep leads engaged and interested in potential cooperation.

How to identify if the content is worthy for your audience

Having the right criteria is key to whether content from other sources will be valuable to your own audience. When the content is relevant, unique, diverse, and credible, it will appeal to both your existing and potential audience.

What criteria you can use to test the value of your content

• Relevant – The best way to have relevant curated content is to understand what your audience wants. Engage them and study their point of view. See what type of content they’d like to read.
• Unique – Offer a unique commentary or viewpoints when sharing relevant curated content. It will keep the audience satisfied. In return, they will trust you and keep coming back to your site and social media channels.
• Diverse – Curated content offers different viewpoints and diverse voices. This will keep your audience both interested and curious to find out more about your own business.
• Credible – Curating content from authoritative and trusted sources means that you are also becoming a credible source to your audience. Therefore, they can count on you when searching for quality information.

How Successful Sales Teams Use Content Curation

1. Content as an ultimate lead nurturing tool

Quality content often translates into increased sales, and therefore using content curation can be the ultimate lead nurturing tool. 

When sales teams are reaching out to potential customers using content, the best way to utilize it is by including contextual information that is appealing and relevant for them. Always make sure that the content you provide resonates with prospective buyers, adds value and ultimately supports their goals. Additionally, always research and review what potential leads are interested in, and use that information to curate the best content.

After providing the content, marketers and sales teams can also see how the audience is engaging and reacting to their posts, identify potential sales prospects, and make the connection. 

Visual elements such as videos make content more appealing and engaging for your audience. However, producing video content isn’t always the easiest. Therefore, using tools for video making is one of the best ways to provide high-quality video content. This will bring you new leads, customers and increased revenue. 

Once the connection is there, keep a steady flow of both original and curated content. This will make sure that your leads see your brand as both original and credible. 

2. Carefully crafted content based on the buying stage

Content curation can be a powerful tool for capturing a potential buyer’s attention. When prospective leads are interested in purchasing a product, carefully curated content is there to guide them steadily and safely to their destination. One way to organize this content is having a content calendar that will save you time and help you focus more on the content quality.

Finding, organizing and highlighting content that targets what potential buyers are looking for can prove decisive during the buying stage. 

There are three stages during this journey: 

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision 

Keeping a potential buyer engaged at each stage will likely produce a positive outcome and grow your business.

infographic source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-for-every-funnel-stage

3. Identifying potential prospects through content interactions

Identifying potential prospects can often prove tricky. However, with content curation, salespeople can see how potential clients are engaging with their posts. 

Based on that, they can track if there’s further interest in the product or service, and act at an efficient pace. 

One of the best ways to identify prospects is by using multiple channels such as newsletters, social media and blogs. Diversifying efforts on different platforms will significantly increase engagement and interaction with potential customers.

4. Using the right content curation tools

Marketers and salespeople can always use the help when it comes to content curation. 

Therefore, using content curation tools may be of a benefit for both companies and marketers – by sorting, organizing, and disseminating content. 

Digital tools such as Scoop.It can help marketers and sales teams with researching and distributing content across multiple channels and platforms. By using this tool, sales teams can organize, coordinate and publish content quickly, as well as effortlessly. The further time, they can focus on other marketing needs. 

As a result, you’ll get an increased content publication, become an influential source in your field, and boost your website traffic. Moreover, if you ensure proper website protection and great user experience, sales results will come in faster. 

5. Content is a key to strengthening your social selling

Increased engagement on social media plays a big part in the social selling of your product. It is also one of the best ways to establish a relationship and mutual trust with potential clients along the buyer’s journey. 

The best way to utilize a brand’s social media channels and nurture leads is to have curated content of the highest quality. This will resonate greatly with possible buyers and help attract the right target audience.

Publishing quality curated content will give you a strong social media presence, making your social media pages more engaging and provide your audience with a diverse list of credible sources. By curating content on social media, people will also see you as a thought leader. It, too, gives you a deeper understanding of the latest trends in your industry.

Conclusion

Curated content can be a very powerful tool for keeping your audience engaged. It attracts new leads and supports you to cooperate with various professionals from different industries. 

By having a good strategy for using both original and curated content, your marketers and sales teams can save valuable time and resources. In return, it will help your brand grow and expand your business.