Subscription based business models are all the rage – and they’re a great content curation strategy.

I have an amazing friend, Kali Gray. She’s a ‘non-diet’ dietician. She helps her clients feel good and have more energy through better nutrition, self-care and wellbeing. As you can imagine, eating healthily is a big part of Kali’s brand. This past Christmas I got a small gift in the mail from Kali. And when I opened it, it turned out to be a piece of beautiful chocolate.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Kali’s gift. When I received it, I was surprised, but absolutely delighted. Suddenly, I had permission to indulge, even in a small way, from an expert. That a dietician, and one I respected, would send me a piece of chocolate meant that I could fully enjoy it… because she’s already curated it. By sending this gift she was saying, ‘This is great, go ahead and have it.’ And because I trust and admire her, I did!

How does this relate to content creation?

Often experts, entrepreneurs and solopreneurs become bogged down ‘creating’ content. Everyone is looking for something new, original and innovative. But you don’t have to be creating original content all the time. Choosing an article or a fantastic quote that you know will resonate with your audience and sharing it, is a great content curation.

And people don’t curate enough.

What are the benefits of having a content curation strategy?

It lets you share your expertise

Just as I listened to Kali that it was OK to have the occasional piece of chocolate as part of a healthy diet, your tribe is listening to you. I listened to her because I trusted her expertise and valued her opinion.

When you choose a piece of content and share it with your community, you are saying, ‘this is great, it could benefit you’. And because they trust your expertise and believe that you know what you are talking about in your niche, as I did Kali, they’ll pay it greater attention and place a higher value on its worth. They’ll believe that it has your ‘expert’ stamp of approval.

As you create and curate thoughtful pieces of content, you’ll also cement your expert status even more. Cumulatively your content will show you’re reading, seeking out information, staying on top of industry trends and are part of ‘the conversation’.

It helps you capitalise on your trust

Another example is Rachel Zoe, a well-known stylist to the celebrities, fashion designer and style icon herself, has created a subscription box, called the Box of Style. When you subscribe to this service, you get a quarterly box delivered to you that contains $500 worth of products, for a $100 outlay. It has items such as leather belts, gold jewellery and designer capes, each chosen, or curated, by Zoe.

Why would someone buy a box of items chosen for them? Well, it is partly because of the value you receive (the items’ combined value is more than the cost of the box). But it’s primarily because they admire and trust Rachel.

Having a content curation strategy in place lets you capitalise on the trust you’ve built within your own community. When you say, ‘hey, check out this article on LinkedIn’, your community, your tribe, knows it will be worth their time and energy. Because you’ve told them.

You can give more for less (the compounding effect)

Part of the reason the subscription-based model works so well is because it relies on the compounding effect. Zoe’s Box of Style relies on putting together a variety of items that are chosen for their style and on-trend status. The cost of the whole is less than its parts, meaning Zoe is giving more for less.

It might seem counterintuitive to put together one of each item, and then sell them for less than the value of the whole. But when you put together 100 boxes, or 1,000, or 10,000, you start earning that value back – through marketing opportunities for up-and-coming brands, the promise of repeat purchases and exposure to a new audience.

Content curation works in the same way. As you build a stable of expertly curated content, that is on-brand, you are compounding its value. You are giving your tribe something valuable while reducing noise and saving them one of their most precious resources – time. You are also keeping them within their community… within your community. And that’s the whole point of content marketing.

Next steps

1. Start now.

If you aren’t already giving your audience curated content, now is the time to start. You can even offer up to 50% curated content, to back your 50% original content. That’s the content curation strategy we often tell our clients to use, because it works. It really works. If you’re struggling to get started, subscribe to a platform like Feedspot that will send you a daily email with links to your chosen topics and articles to curate.

1. Curate content that will resonate with your audience.

Of course, you need to ensure that all the content you create aligns with your brand and adds value for your community. If it doesn’t, it’s just spam, regardless of if you created it yourself, or are resharing it from someone you admire. 

1. Keep it consistent.

Drip feeding curated content over time helps your audience stay engaged in your community. It helps them to feel that you are ready and willing to share your thoughts and expertise with them. And it helps to cement your position as an expert in your niche.

Curated content creation is an invaluable part of an overall content creation strategy. And it’s important to remember that we’re less noisy than we think, and by giving our community curated content from someone they trust, we’re helping them cut through that noise even further.

Love to hear your thoughts….