The Ultimate Guide to Content Curation by Mark Hayes - HTML preview

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CURATION  EXAMPLES

Before you can start publishing great content, you need a better understanding of your audience. One common marketing method of doing that is to build personas with as much detail as possible. This gives marketing a more direct tie to the audience they are trying to motivate. Building an emotional connection between your brand and your customer is the most essential aspect of content marketing.

Choosing a theme

Diving into content curation means diving into a specific topic or theme. Themes are like that first cup of coffee in the morning. Yes, you can get up and go to work without it, but the day starts on the wrong foot, and often continues in the same vein. With the right theme, you kick off your marketing campaign on the right foot.

Unfortunately, many businesses get caught up in complex mission statements and forget the basics.

When looking at content from the perspective of a theme, the theme comes first, but how do you choose one? Ask the right questions and themes should present themselves. Start by explaining your company in this simple format:

Our company sells            to our ideal

customer who is                .

Here are a couple of examples to help you get started:

Fashion "Our company sells purses to our ideal customer who is a professional working woman." Some potential themes that arise from that include getting organised, accessorizing for the office and the evening or creating a personal style.

Technology "Our company sells PBX hosting to our ideal customer who is small business owners in the Northeast." A few potential themes might be increased employee productivity, improved communication and cutting technology costs.

Retail "Our company sells affordable housewares to our ideal customer who is middle-class America." Theme ideas might include decorating on a dime, DIY projects or customizing decorations.

As you can see, by framing the question as simply as possible, you make potential themes obvious. Don’t overthink this part. Themes should be obvious. They should also go beyond the immediate theme and touch on human emotions. No one enjoys reading nothing but sales content. Think of your theme as if it is the ice cream in a sundae. The toppings add customization, but without the ice cream it’s just a pile of sweet stuff, not a sundae. Your theme is what brings everything together.