This is a guest post from Kate Parish, chief marketing officer at Onilab, with 8+ years in Digital Marketing and eCommerce web development promotion. Kate constantly upgrades her knowledge and skillset to stay fit in the progressing online world. She always does exhaustive research in such spheres as SEO, branding, SMM, PPC, and Magento PWA development, before sharing her expertise with a wide audience. How can you get the attention of your target audience as the amount of produced content constantly grows? Your business has to be known and seen. So you need to be consistent in publishing engaging material on various platforms. While it’s sometimes enough to blog one to four times a week, many companies have to post unique, catchy content every day. Where do you find such inspiration? How do you ensure that readers don’t miss what you’re posting in such an overwhelming amount of information that’s bombarding them from various sources? Consider opting for content curation strategies. It’s a simple tactic to collect existing materials (delivered by you or other content creators) and present them on your blog, social media, or newsletters. Note that it doesn’t imply simple copy-and-paste, nor that you’re deceiving your audience. With the content curation approach, you can select valuable pieces in your sphere to help readers cover everything important. But how do you start with content curation? How can you take advantage of this content marketing strategy? This article will show you content curation examples and benefits. Curated Content CharacteristicsA customer journey is no longer a straight line from point A (the buyer’s need) to point B (the purchase or other similar action). Buyers use various devices and explore different channels when making a decision, so they won’t wait for you to tell them what they should do next. Just consider these numbers. According to data: 70% of purchasers understand what they need without contacting a salesperson, and 44% already have specific solutions in mind before the interaction begins. This is why marketers should look for innovative ways to direct customers on their conversion “path” through complex and omnichannel experiences. How do you do that? For starters, you have to try to maintain their level of interest, provide valuable information, and share expertise. Your task is to do this unobtrusively, for example, with the help of qualitative content. Users open the blog, see appealing images and topics, and move on with decision-making. Therefore, mind that your standards in terms of engagement must remain high. 
Screenshot taken on the official Databox website
How else can your business benefit from content marketing? Content marketing helps businesses respond to the changing customer environment to achieve various goals:
What Defines Curated Content?In this respect, “curated” can mean “assembled”. It’s the content analog of making a quilt. For example, you can put together helpful lists and “tops” on relevant topics that resonate with your business or niche. Or repost someone’s tweet or social media post that can liven up your feed. However, as you select the material that’ll fit, you’ll most likely have to go through dozens of pages of content that’s already created by others. But, luckily, you can use one of the many tools that are perfect assistants in content curation, such as Scoop.it or Flipboard. These can save you a lot of time. Importantly, make sure you’ve given all the deserved credit and mentioned your sources before sharing the piece with your audience. Some key curated content characteristics include:
On another note, remember that even the most authoritative content will hardly bring the expected return on investment if the page loads slowly. That’s why optimizing the website performance is always crucial for any sphere. If we speak about an online store developed on the Magento CMS, the store owner should consider Magento Time to first byte optimization. The same also applies to different website types that work on other platforms, as page opening speed is a vital factor that influences SEO rankings, bounce rate, perception, user satisfaction, among other things. 3 Ways to Get Results from Content Curation Strategies Now let’s take a closer look at how to implement content curation. 1. Educate with Well-Researched Content Content curation strategies allow you to keep abreast of what’s going on in the industry. Suppose you’re gathering content for a keyword, such as “content marketing”. You see what other people in your industry are publishing and spot gaps in the information stream. With so much content analyzed, you can write articles or shoot videos to fill in the gaps. As you see, it’s not just copying and pasting. You provide value to your viewers and get a chance to find some insights for future posts. This is how you can make the content original:
Screenshot taken on the official Aurate Instagram account
2. Consider Reposting Reposting doesn’t involve any spendings. Instead, it provides positive outcomes. You can repost and retweet content that is relevant to your audience, such as:
If you want to strengthen the bond with your audience, leverage user-generated content (UGC) in your content strategy. For example, a jewelry brand, Aurate, collects every public figure wearing their adornments and shares the photos on Instagram. It’s an illustration of the so-called social media content curation. The team created a separate Highlights folder on Instagram to show its popularity from all angles. Here is one of their Stories depicting a Victoria’s Secret model, Romee Strijd. Such a tactic helps brands increase their authority and attract more visitors to the website. 
Screenshot taken on the official Ulster Weavers website
This doesn’t have to be limited to just socials. You can also devote a separate section with UGC on the website, for example, on the home page. It will work as social proof of your popularity and demand for your products and services among broad audiences. Below you will find how the Ulster Weavers online store shows such curated content examples. 
Screenshot taken from the newsletter from Spotify Design official website
3. Send Digests in Email Newsletters Digests are one of the greatest email newsletter formats available. They may contain discounts and other promotional information. However, impress your customers by giving them something extra. First of all, filter the content before sending it. This step takes time and effort, but it will be well worth it. Once you’ve gathered a decent amount of content, ask yourself the following questions about each piece:
A case in point is Spotify and its monthly digest. The team collected the company’s news and reminded readers about its monthly curated station, providing more inspiration. 
Pro Tip: Automate
Do you share breaking news? If not, why not schedule curated content posts ahead of time? It allows you to delegate content publishing to automation tools and focus on other tasks. The system will send a newsletter even when you aren’t at your desk. How do you create and schedule your post? Utilize free tools like Hootsuite to do it directly from your browser in just a few clicks. It enables you to generate curated content articles right when you find something worthy on the web. Wrapping UpCustomers come to your website to get useful information, so you have to understand and meet their needs. How do you satisfy them when you don’t want to talk about yourself alone? Content curation comes in handy for companies that want to enrich their content marketing efforts. Do you need more things to post on your social media? Employ social media content curation. Or maybe it’s time to remind clients of what the company has achieved recently? Then, send email newsletters with digests. Pick the relevant content, add your expert opinion, and share it with the audience with the help of automation tools. Remember, content curation is in no way plagiarism. Link the content source and author. When done correctly, eye-catching visuals, statistics, and top stories will bring you only benefits. Learn SEO at Discounted RatesContent Marketing Blog
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Last Updated 8/08/2021
If you want to hire a writer for your online content it can be a pretty confusing process to enter. One of the first decisions you will need to make is whether to hire a content writer or a copywriter for your project. In this post, let’s go through the main difference between each discipline, we hope this can help you decide which type of writer is right for your project. Let’s start first with copywriters, what do they specialise in, what are their core skills and why should you hire a copywriter? What Do Copywriters Specialise In?
Copywriters are writing specifically to sell. It doesn’t really matter what the format is but their primary goal is to make a sale of a product or service.
For example, an Advertising Agency like Ogilvy will have a team of copywriters who will do the copy for their client’s TV ad campaigns and billboards. A campaign at an Ad Agency for a large client will be themed around a central idea and then delivered to the public through a range of different formats. The best campaigns are delivered so that the target audience sees the campaign multiple times a day, in different places, for several weeks, resulting in a strong product recall and sales long into the future. 
​Brands like Apple, Coca-Cola and Vogue, which rely heavily on selling a concept and an idea to the consumer, spend vast amounts of money on these campaigns. They can do that because once someone starts identifying with a brand at their core being, they will be buying for a lifetime. When it comes to online copy, copywriters will write landing pages and core sales pages, sometimes shopping cart pages too. Any touch point where the reader is close to purchasing something, a good copywriter can increase conversion rates and capture more sales. ​ What Core Skills Do Copywriters Have?
Copywriters need to be creative but also analytical and be able to create content around a central goal and track it. There are a ton of different goals one might have.
For example, Coca-Cola might come to an ad agency and say; “Our market research is showing that consumer behaviour is now preferring healthy drinks, smoothies and juices. How do we position Coca-Cola so that it is still a preferred soft drink and increase our sales by XX?â€. The campaign will be created to shift consumer behaviour and so the creative will be wrapped around this core goal. Another goal could be that a business coach wants to increase the sales of her coaching program by X, by improving her sales page. How can she go about doing that whilst still remaining true to her voice and keeping the integrity of her brand? Copywriters need to be able to take a brief and use market research to back up their concepts and the delivery of their creative. Should You Hire A Copywriter? ​
A good copywriter is not cheap, the work they do is very advanced stuff requiring years and years of education and practice. Hire a copywriter for the really important sales touch points in your customer journey.
If your budget is small then your sales page is the first place to start. A good copywriter can cost anywhere between $1,500 - $2,000 / £1,000 - £1,500 and up for a single sales page. But the value you get in return from increased sales will be huge, so it is well worth it.
When hiring a copywriter, double check that is what they specialise in. Many online writers say they are copywriters when actually they are content writers using the term to add $$ to their pricing.
Copywriting is a specialist skill so watch out for those who say they can do it all! What Do Content Writers Specialise In?
Content writers specialise in writing online content which is produced to educate, entertain or inspire an audience into taking an action. More often than not, content writers are focused less on sales and more on lead generation.
Content writers will be writing the 90% of the web that comes through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, your favourite blogs and online magazines. These could be blog posts, guest posts and social media updates. Content writers focus more on the top of the funnel, they are attracting the first eyeballs into the brand, copywriters will convert them. Content writers will tend to focus more on competitor research, keyword research and positioning the content in a way which will engage the reader and drive a subscription, provoke a social media share or a comment. When it comes to guest posts, content writers will also be focused on link building and improving the SEO of the site they are writing for. ​ What Core Skills Do Content Writers Have?
Content writers also need to be creative and analytical, able to track what is and isn’t working. They need to be able to think quick on their feet and produce a high level of quality, engaging content at a quicker rate than copywriters.
​Copywriters might write several landing pages a month, content writers might be writing 4 or 5 long form pieces per day. They need to have strong attention to detail and be able to think imaginatively and creatively. They also need SEO skills and they should understand the basics of content marketing on the web. Should You Hire A Content Writer? ​
If your strategy is heavily focused on using content marketing to generate leads then you should consider hiring a content writer. They can produce your blog posts, guest posts and all of your social media updates.
​Many can even produce your email newsletter (though if you can afford it I would invest in a copywriter for your newsletter, especially if you are focusing on selling affiliate products or your own products through your newsletter). Good content writers will also have an understanding of marketing on the web and how the content they produce for you fits into an overarching Digital Marketing Strategy. They can provide you with extra ideas and some advice about how to grow your leads and subscribers through Content Marketing. They should also be staying up to date with the rapid changes that happen in the online world. It is very handy to have a good content writer on your team! Do We Focus On Copywriting Or Content Writing At Ginger Marketing?
We focus on content writing, this kind of writing lies at the core of producing quality blog and guest posts.
​However, we don’t just simply ignore copywriting. We spend one day a month learning about copywriting tools and techniques and then write down how we can start practically applying it to the editing stage of our content to improve client results. For us, a key indicator of content success for clients is the engagement. We track how many social shares and comments each piece of content receives. Copywriting tactics can be subtly applied to blog and guest post writing to improve this engagement. Speedy Summary! 
Have you ever hired a copywriter or a content writer? What was your experience?
​ Related Posts How To Choose A Blog Name You Won't Hate In 2 Years 10 Ways To Get Visitors To Your Blog Without Feeling Like A Hamster Why Your Mindset Is In Control Of Your Marketing The Difference Between A Content Writer And A Copywriter   BIO: Stephanie Trovato fills her days with content creation and marketing strategy for publications like Business Insider, Investopedia, Huffington Post, and more. She also works marketing strategy as a freelancer with Optimist, while balancing duties as a DotDash editor. She is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and is based in New York. Check out more of her work at BigHContent.com. There’s no doubt that marketing today is the epitome of multitasking. It's all about big data, and functions that advertisers used to do manually are now inextricably linked with automation. Marketing automation is a system that streamlines and automates marketing procedures to make marketing practices easier. Marketing technology offers a lot: more leads, transactions, and sales, and all with less effort. In fact, according to CMO, businesses that employ automation have seen a rise in leads and revenue, resulting in a 14% increase in sales efficiency and a 12% decrease in marketing overheads. Automation represents an incredible prospect for increased productivity, cost savings, and a better consumer experience for marketing practitioners. It can seem daunting to embark on an automation journey for your company, but with the right guidance, it is simpler than you expect! Benefits of Marketing Automation Marketing automation tech allows you to do so more than just place orders for your various promotions. It has real advantages for a marketing firm, not just for you and your marketing campaigns, but also for your customers. Here are the top three primary benefits of marketing automation tools: 1. Saving Time and Raising Efficiency The term "automation" is self-explanatory. Marketing automation software automates processes that used to take days and completes them in hours or even minutes. For example, social media management systems allow advertisers to plan and publish posts across several social networks simultaneously. This gives advertisers greater freedom in all marketing firms and agencies, allowing them to focus on their creativity rather than waste resources on repetitive activities. A strategy like this boosts production and performance. 2. Less Routine, Happier Marketers Marketing workers should assign the most routine and time-consuming functions to intelligent algorithms, ensuring well-established procedures while unleashing their imagination. As a result, the staff is happy, consumers are delighted, and revenue is high. 3. Multiple Channels to Drive More Leads and Sales Marketing automation software allows you to meet consumers at various stages of the consumer experience across various platforms. Multi-channel targeting gives you options: you could send an email or a social media post, make phone calls, or tweet in a tailored manner. You could utilize a broad range of techniques deftly, like a real sorcerer.  5 Ways Automation To Advance Their Marketing Strategy As per recent data published on the Digital Marketing Institute, 44 percent of marketing leaders think automation will become more relevant as a capability in 2020, which can be considered when reskilling workers and recruiting new employees in 2019. Here are few ideas for incorporating it into your business strategy: 1. Content Marketing Automation The aims of the modern marketer are timeless: build new ways to increase profits while keeping current buyers satisfied and returning for more. And content management is a huge part of that. When you have valid, accurate, informative, and actionable knowledge, you are using a tried-and-true strategy for meeting your clients, not to mention achieving your marketing objectives. Attempting to do it all manually, on the other hand, is a complex challenge that can quickly keep you awake at night. Marketing automation can make it easier to build and monitor content across several platforms. It will provide the appropriate content to each customer, ensuring that your efforts are not lost and that connections are effectively nurtured. An effective marketing automation framework will also report on how the content is doing across all channels and in all situations. Moreover, marketing automation can help you create good quality content that enables you to showcase your personality. As there’s no doubt that content is the king of marketing and will remain so for a long time, there have been commendable advancements in the field of content creation, processing, and planning—for example, a headless CMS. A headless CMS is based on a modular model that separates content development, management, and publication from how it is presented. This allows marketing teams to push fresh content and IT teams to make new technical changes without having to call on each other for assistance or worry about breaking something. Not only does this increase efficiency, but it also speeds up the process and workflow.  2. Email Marketing Solutions Email marketing encompasses so many facets of brand-customer engagement that it is rightly regarded as one of the most common marketing platforms. Furthermore, it remains one of the most successful ways to meet your target demographic. By using this form of marketing, almost every company across multiple industries can automate and personalize communications sent to new and current customers. Most notably, such tools allow large-scale email marketing campaigns with a large number of recipients. Email marketing program dashboards typically have comprehensive campaign information. 3. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Solutions Companies are also using social media to exchange news with consumers, solicit feedback, and even create leads. It's not shocking, given social media's enormous capacity for brand promotion and corporate identity management. Social media marketing software is ideal for organizing posts, engaging new contacts, and assessing the effectiveness of the SMM campaigns. Moreover, by organizing your posts and using automation to understand trends, you’re more likely to create a viral post. 4. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions Customer data management is an extremely critical but routine activity that takes a long time and demands complete focus. Another aspect to consider: how you capture and retain consumer data has a significant effect on the customer service the customers ultimately get. The authenticity of the information, prompt responses to customers, contact history, and knowledge about past contacts are all critical for your appearance and credibility and for converting leads into opportunities and prospects into clients. CRM technologies allow sales and marketing departments to simplify these critical elements, ensuring that the business is still seen in the best possible light in the minds of your consumers. 5. Marketing Analytics & Reporting Solutions Marketing automation systems provide a variety of valuable knowledge in and of themselves. However, from this vantage point, one category stands out in particular. There are marketing solutions designed to monitor campaigns and provide detailed metrics. User behavior analysis, dashboards of different types of metrics, illustrative graphs, and reports — marketing monitoring and monitoring systems help companies determine which campaigns are effective and which are not. Analytical marketing techniques can be specialized, such as website traffic analytics solutions, or they can provide advertisers with a comprehensive view of all campaigns. 4 Key Steps Towards Automation It is critical to create a workflow before introducing digital marketing systems. This enables the staff to prepare for future processes while still ensuring that automation produces the best outcomes for your brand. There are four major moves to take:  1. Identify The Right Tasks Look for the team's most popular marketing activities. This is where you'll see the most benefits from automation. As previously said, simple automatic response emails, for instance, will significantly minimize the team's logistical workload. Make a list of all of the latest marketing tasks and choose both time-consuming and automatable ones. 2. Select The Appropriate Automation Software When it refers to automation applications, there are almost limitless options. Sorting out the right ones can be difficult, particularly when you're just starting out. We'll guide you to the cream of the crop later in this post, and it's also important to note that applications customized to your industry can exist. Expand the study to ensure this before making a long-term commitment. Most platforms have a free trial period, allowing you to try the app in your own environment and determine which is the right match. 3. Train Your Team While automation improves marketing efficiency instantly, the implementation of modern technologies and processes necessitates an investment in preparation for relevant workers. Team members must understand how technology blends into their workday and how their job can be refocused. Emphasize the incentives and allow employees to carefully assess new systems while acknowledging any questions they might have. Marketing automation is expected to become one of the most relevant marketing capabilities, and companies are investing accordingly now and in the coming future. 4. Evaluate Automation Effectiveness Putting automation in place is not the end of the story. We suggest doing a regular assessment of what is going well, what could be changed, and the effect of automation on key indicators. This allows you to make the required modifications at the proper time. Conclusion Automation has a lot of potential benefits. Greater performance, cost savings, increased effectiveness, more informative analytic results, and enhanced customer service are all appealing to marketing professionals. Almost every company can incorporate and create a successful marketing automation strategy within their organization by undertaking proper preparation, clear priorities, and advanced training. This can help companies reap the plethora of benefits of marketing automation and take their enterprise to the next level. |
AuthorWritten by Cheryl A Clarke Chief Happiness Officer & Content Marketing Freelancer @ Ginger Marketing (unless stated otherwise) Blog CategoriesPopular content marketing postsTop Udemy Courses*Archives
October 2022
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Office Address: 119D High Street, Linlithgow, West Lothian, Edinburgh, EH497EJ