Outbrain gives us larger a platform, greater scale, global reach, and an amazing team of people who share our vision and passion for online marketing and creating amazing consumer experiences'.  We will be able to accelerate our product plans and sales and marketing efforts in ways we could never have accomplished on a stand alone basis.  Once we learned about Outbrain's desire to invest in both the Scribit Platform and retain the Scribit team - all of whom have joined Outbrain as part of the transaction -  it was clear that the deal was a win/win for everyone.

On a personal note, I would like to thank and congratulate the entire Scribit team for all of their tireless effort and endless talent in creating such an impactful and powerful new content marketing platform and an all around great company.  We look forward to continuing to serve all of customers and look forward to announcing some of our exciting and innovative new product plans in the near future.

Also check out Yaron's blog post on the acquisition.

Press inquires, please contact Lisa LaCour at lisa@outbrain.com.

1. Does my content build trust and add value?
2. Does my subject entice the customer to open this email?
3. Is the value enough to my customer to share?

Let’s dig in and discuss how to address each one of these questions.

1.    Build Trust First, Then Sell.
Whether you are educating a new prospect or making an offer to an existing customer, it all about building a deeper relationship with your customer.  If you know your customer or market well, this may be easy.  Either way, ask yourself:

What content resonates most with my customer?

• Ask!  Talk to your customer care and sales teams today.  Look at your web analytics and see what content they’ve clicked on. Survey them, even if it is just a few customers for their interests and needs.  Talk to lost prospects to see why they chose a competitor.  While you may think you know, until you ask, you are only guessing what they want to hear.

• First impressions are lasting impressions with all relationships, and those initial impressions are even more important with email. The first email you send is your first opportunity to demonstrate how you and your company treat its customers and how you will build a digital relationship with them. Make it count. Connect with your customer! Watch your open rates to see if they are opening and engaging with your emails.

• Segment your customers so you can speak directly to them.  Almost all marketers segment by industry and interests.  Again, watch what your customer is digitally responding to: 1) subject line, 2) content (links), and if there is any difference in 3) tone (professional vs. friendly).

• Seasonality will impact your some of your campaigns. More email is sent in December than any other month.  Tie seasonality in with your message to keep the open rates high.

• Humanize your emails.  Even automated emails need a human watching the replies. Wherever possible, include a person’s name and allow recipient to reply to receive questions. Encourage responders to reply quickly and with the Company personality.

What demonstrates my commitment to my customer?

Content Credibility Tips
The most important way to establish credibility is through compelling, quality content.  Content should be a balance of informative information on their interests with your product and promotional information.  It should also be a blend of original and curated content.  Here’s a few credibility tips that will keep your customer opening and engaging with your emails… in other words, keep your customer coming back for more:

• Start with a Compelling Content Mix
  • Curate News and Informative Industry Updates to build credibility and trust with your customer or prospect. News gives you a reason to connect and build customer relationships and brand loyalty.  Reports and educational articles written by reputable third party sources are available. Post these articles and videos directly to your website where your readers can learn more and where you can track what their interests are.  By using third party content, you provide your customers with external sources that are often more meaningful that articles you create that can appear self-serving.  For more details on the best practices for content curation, click here. 
  • When you cannot curate content, create Original content that provides the information your customer needs. If you are resource constrained, try outsourcing whitepapers, research, e-books or other marketing information to reliable, affordable sources.
  • Add meaningful Product Promotions and giveaways.  Surprise them with new incentives that are meaningful to them, or that they might even want to share with colleagues.

• Personalize all emails. “Hey there” emails do not help you build relationships.  People love to see and hear their name.

• Practice Good Grammar.  Have someone proof your email so your email reflects your professionalism… you do not want bad grammar or a typo to take away from your quality content.

• Format content for easy “skimming” and readability. Use headings, bullets and white space.

• Create Links to relevant content on your web site and format links with an underline font to make it clear it is a link.

• Check in on your Frequency.  Too frequent and your opt outs will increase.  Too seldom and you lose the sale.

Click here to read more on how to develop powerful content.

2.    Spend Time on Your Subject Line
Give customers a reason to open your email. Have a great subject?  Don’t disappoint. Start with a stimulating subject, always short & captivating.  There are lots of articles written on this.  Here are a few tips and facts about subject lines that I like.

3.    Don’t Struggle to Find Content

Are you struggling to find content?  Under a deadline and stressed about having to write the content? There are more and more affordable ways to get all the content you need.  Once you know what you customer needs, look at the many sources of content at your fingertips, whether it’s written, videos or images.

Don’t struggle, but also don’t settle.

• Leverage what you have on your website, stories from your customers and even include their most frequently asked questions.  Whether you have the resources in-house or not, make more of those resources you do have by focusing on the customer needs and getting more from what you have.
• Leverage your existing resources to build more relevant content by simply finding and curating industry content from credible third parties. Post it on your web site to increase your credibility and to keep them on your web site.
• Utilize third party resources who do this for a living. Cost for out-sourcing projects are a lot more affordable and worth it if it is not core to your abilities.

Credible, relevant content will go a long way to helping you build customer relationships.  Creatively leverage your resources to deliver the best.  When you provide customers with meaningful information, you gain their trust.  And, no matter how helpful your content, remember how busy your customer is, and that to open your email, the subject line must compel them to open it!

Have these ideas generated a few ideas that you can try today? Did I miss one that you feel is important?  Please share!

Also, as we move into the end of the year, it may be even more important to move quickly and draw more out of your initiatives to make them count this year.  

How do you get the most out of your content resources? Here are a few initial steps!

1. Prioritize - Like everything you do, prioritize your content marketing projects.

- Focus on the biggest wins.  Pick one or two target projects that you are able to measure and deliver results quickly.  Pick another that will have a long-term benefit. Do something new. Avoid falling into the same routine of old, or simply doing it because your competitor. 

- Be specific. Segment your audience. While it does take more work, time and effort, it will make it easier for you to provide more meaningful content that will resonate with your target audience by focusing on their needs, their wants, their desires and using their language.

- Group them into likeminded groups, who have common characteristics, like where they are in the buying cycle. This is a helpful infographic as you think about segmenting for email, but is applicable to social and web content as well.

2. Listen – Learn more about your customer’s real interests and concerns.

- Provide a blend of relevant original, curated, and product content that speaks to your customers’ business problems and interests. Maintain a balanced, consistent content stream across all platforms, with fresh content for your social visibility and evergreen to grow your authority.

- Tell a great story to your customer.  If you can’t tell a great story – dial an agency who can.  Content marketing agencies are a terrific resource and they specialize in story telling.  Read more on how to tell a story or how to develop powerful content for web and mobile. Outsource to agencies when you know what you need, but don’t have the time to write it yourself. When it is not core to what you do, agencies can do it faster, better, and cheaper than you can.

- There are a growing number of tools to help you find, curate, and relevant, credible content, leaving your staff to work on original content.  Read more on best practices for curation.

3. Attract customers to your website through your content to further engage.

- When using social media, link to articles and blogs on your website.
- Once you have spent the time and resources on your content, don’t pinch pennies on the design of your landing page for your content.  What’s the point if your audience users to read?  Make sure you have links to additional stories to further engage.
- Add gated content to collect names of those interested to nurture.
- Make it easy for customer to share your information with their colleagues.
- Track everything to better understand your customers interests and learn what is meaningful to them so you.

I hope this has given you an idea or two that you can implement today on how to get the most out of your content resources.  Have any other suggestions that have helped you?  Please share!

And, if you are that diligent marketer, you’ve discovered that there are millions of whitepapers, articles, blogs and presentations on the topic of content marketing. From information on the importance of content marketing, to education on how to more successful or determine a return on your marketing spend, there is a wealth of information to consume. 

As a result, marketers are getting the message that to be noticed, your content must stand out. You have to be better at curating and creating quality content. Once you have assembled your persuasive content, what’s next? How do you effectively reach your audience? How do you know that you are in the right place to even “listen” to what is going on?  How do you secure the greatest return on our resources?

Let’s start by taking a few lessons, such as those from e-commerce merchandising pros, to help us define and think through how to leverage and “merchandise our content” to assure we get the yield we’re expecting.

Merchandising
When you hear “merchandising” you naturally think retail. Specifically, how to leverage window and floor displays, inventory rotation, free samples, signage and special pricing,… not simply product promotion, but to attract customers into your store, but put them in front of them the right product at the right time so that as they enjoy the experience and maneuver through your aisles as they make their selections and buy.

E-commerce marketers’ goals are the same as traditional.  It’s important to merchandise by keeping your site fresh, sustaining an intuitive navigation, using high quality images, and possibly the ability to highlight reviews to drive more clicks and sales.

Whether you are brick and mortar, or e-commerce, the savviest retailers are now going high tech and targeting the needs of a community with their products. Key to their success is accurate forecast and measurement, which is a must for any marketing campaign.

Merchandising Your Content
One of the first times I heard of Content Merchandising was in CB Whittemore’s article “How to Merchandise Your Content Marketing.” Whittemore did a great job explaining how he “merchandises” his blog, news releases, articles and presentations. And, they are still valid today.

My list is more generic. Setting aside goals, reporting and analysis for a later discussion, let’s simply look at how to merchandise your content.  Run through this short checklist to assure you are getting the most out of each piece of content.

1- Identify Buyer Personas
2- Grab attention
3- Cross-sell
4- Call to action
5- Editorial calendar

Let’s dive into the checklist:

1. Identify Buyer Personas
• Know who your are talking to.
• Speak to the heart of their concerns.
• Does the content persuade them? Does the content handle their objections?

2. Grab Attention
• Like traditional displays and signage, use content to draw your prospect in with catchy, effective titles.  Make your content accessible, easy to find on your website.
• Rotate, add new, or update your content weekly. Keep it fresh.
• Always use high quality images, they are a reflection of the quality of your product
• Know where your customer is hanging out and contribute your articles on those sites with links back to your web site, preferably to it’s own landing page. 
• Post extracts in social media, always linking prospects back to your web site.
• Include links in your signature and sales collateral.

3. Cross-sell
• Include at least three reference links within your articles, blogs and descriptions to your other articles to provide your audience with additional helpful information.
• Links should drive your prospects to your website or a special landing page to read the relevant article.
• Leverage curated links, those that can link back to your web site, to participate in conversations on social media and keep that conversation going on your web site. 
• Curated links from credible 3rd parties provide another opinion, almost like a review, to build your online reputation.

4. Include a Call to Action
• At the end of every piece of content
• On every content landing page

5. Editorial Calendar
• Map all the types of content, e.g. whitepaper, case study, webinar, prospect blog entries, user blog entries, articles, promotions, releases
• Show a clear plan of where and when each piece of content is positioned
• Rollout plans by platforms, e.g. social media, marketing automation, sales.

So, what is Content Merchandising? 
Content merchandising is taking all your quality content, e.g. your articles, whitepapers, case studies, blogs, and product descriptions, and crafting a plan to put the right content in the right place, at the right time, for your targeted prospect.  The primary objective of creating content is to convert prospects into paying customers.  Follow these 5 steps to position your content in places to reach. Then listen! Your prospects and clients will give you further ways to engage and you will be well on your way to building relationships and giving them the experience they are looking for.

Do you have a similar or different approach or a checklist?  Please share!

The advent of social sharing tools is another huge step in providing businesses with the possibility of reaching new clientele. The number of people using social media websites has grown exponentially over the past few years, giving companies an ever growing base of potential customers to get their message out to. Using social media gives every marketing and business owner the possibility of growing their business to points that would not have been imaginable only ten years ago.

The Growth of Social Media

If you are a savvy marketer or enterprise, you are already aware of the benefits and are executing on a social media plan.  You realize that brands are beginning to influence buying decisions through social media. In fact, according to a study conducted by Market Force, 78% of respondents said the posts by companies they follow on social media impact their purchases.

But, if you are just getting started in social media marketing for your business, you may be overwhelmed by the growth and the options. Start simply. Start with at least one of the most popular networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, that are adding millions of users every day and begin to ride the wave.

• Facebook is adding new users at a rate that far exceeds other social sites and is currently estimated to be at 955 million users worldwide and 158 million in the US (that’s three-quarters of the internet population). Each of these users has the potential and a way to see content from any business with a Facebook account.

• Twitter has also continued to grow, and while it has not reached the level that Facebook has attained, it had over 140 million users as of March 2012.

There are many websites that have registered users that no longer serve any real benefit for business owners. Sites like Myspace and Xanga used to have more users than other social media sites, but they have quickly died out and really don’t provide enough exposure for businesses. Websites like Facebook and Twitter, however, keep track of the number updates their users post per day. Consistent posts from registered users show that they are online and available to see business pages if given the appropriate push.

Also growing is the number of content shares every day on Facebook, ranging from status updates to reposting content from other people’s or business’s pages. In July, 2011 Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, stated that there were over four billion pieces of information shared on the website every day. Twitter comes in at a far second, but as of July 2012, there were 350 billion items shared on Twitter each day.  This includes curated or linked content from other sources that they want to share. This can include news articles, pictures and even updates from different companies.

The Growth of Social Sharing by Businesses

Savvy business owners have started to realize that marketing on social media sites is the wave of the future and 83% of marketers surveyed indicate that social media is important to their business.

The Content Marketing Institute conducted a study that concluded that:
• 74% of all business-to-business marketing companies found social media the most important tactic next to articles.
• 74% distributed content on Twitter vs. 70% on Facebook, and
• To address the needs from a content perspective, 62% of B2B marketers use a mix of insourced and outsourced content.

How Businesses should leverage Social Media

One mistake that even the most social media savvy businesses are making has to do with sharing links between their website and their social media web pages and vice versa.

• Having links to a social media page on a company’s actual webpage is a quick way to turn current customers into permanent customer acquirers.
• Likewise, conversations on your social properties should link back to your website to engage your prospects on your website, whenever possible.
• 74% of marketers interviewed saw an increase in website traffic with just over an hour a day invested in social media marketing.

It’s important to expand your social reach using tactics such as sharing your content, content of others, and establishing appropriate relationships.

How Businesses should Curate for Social Media

Sharing great content puts your company in a position to be seen as a thought leader. Posting content on a regular basis instills trust in a company.  You’re your company continuously produces innovative ideas your show your readers and prospects that you can not only be trusted, but can be trusted to know exactly what is best for your customers.  One of the easiest, most effective ways your can acquire and share content is through content curation.

When you curate content for your social properties, alternate it with original content, product promotions, and customer insights.  The curated content from credible third party sources allows you to engage in conversations your customers and prospects care about on the latest trending topics in your market. Always add links that drive your prospects back to your web site where you can further engage and sell.

To make the most of your content, remember the 3 Rs to content creation. Your content should be: Recent, Reliable, and Relevant. 

If you are not sharing socially, the time is now.  When you start to share your ideas socially with content displays your bold ideas, clear point of views, and high quality original research then your business begin to achieve thought leader status.

Keep your audience engaged and interested by staying focused on what makes you unique to them. Think of it as your nook or expertise and reinforce through articles and blogs what differentiates you and your businesses in your market industry.  Don’t stray. There are several things to remember when undertaking a content marketing campaign.  Stay focused on your niche and ask yourself if what you are sharing follows this easy N-O-O-K rule.

N - Make sure content is NON-PROMOTIONAL
When using content marketing as a driver of new business it is important to establish trust and the idea that a company is thought leader. Both of these are important in establishing a solid fan base. Putting blatantly promotional content on a social media page is not going to earn either of these two things. The content should always be creative, with a balance of syndicated and original.  Never obviously try to sell a product. Just because the content isn’t promotional, doesn’t mean it should be completely off topic. It should be relevant to the company and the reader. These are the posts that fans will ‘retweet’ or ‘share’, and depending on how many friends they have on their lists a piece of content may be seen by thousands of people just by one fan reposting.

O - OFFER something to your fans
Sharing content via social media is going to gain more fans due simply to the fact that at least one person is likely to repost or retweet the update. This doesn’t mean that business owners can’t give their fans an additional bump. Fans love giveaways and prizes; offering these things as rewards for reposting a status is a quick way to garner more fans while not spending too much money. If only ten people share the content off of a business’s social media page, and each of these ten people have 190 friends (the average friend count people on Facebook have) then 1900 additional people were given the ability to view the content and see exactly the business page that it came from. What’s even better is that at this point the fans gained from following their friend’s repost may also share the post for a chance at free prizes.

O – OPTIMIZE for your fan base
Every company wants to get their message out to their fans that will allow their fans to get their message out to others, but there is such a thing as overdoing it. If too many status updates or tweets from a specific company pop up on someone’s social media page they may feel as if the company is doing nothing more than spamming. This is the quickest way to lead fans to stop following a page.

An optimum amount of daily Facebook updates is often to be reported as about three, but it does depend on your industry and audience. Going much over three can start to crowd up a person’s newsfeed or just annoy them that they’ve seen so much from one business in a day. These updates should also be spaced throughout the day. These should also be spaced out so as to not let a person see back-to-back updates. The same content can also be shared throughout these tweets or updates, but business owners should make sure to vary the title of the post slightly.

Likewise… Not posting enough updates is just as bad as posting too many updates. Letting customers forget a company exists is a terrible way to gain and keep clientele. Some experts say that a company should at least create an update once every other day, but this is nowhere near enough for an effective social media or content marketing campaign. Everyone in the world, or even in a city, isn’t on Facebook and Twitter at the same time. This means that an update can be seen by ten out of a hundred fans that just happen to be on at that time. If another post isn’t made during the day, then the fans that weren’t lucky enough to be on during the initial post may never see it. Many social media users don’t take the time to scroll back through all of the updates they missed, so maintaining a good balance of not too many updates but enough to reach everyone should be maintained.

K - KNOW your audience
The content a company uses should be focused towards their specific clientele. If a company sells a clothing line for preteen girls then it is likely not a good idea to post a white paper as content. Any decent business professional knows that they need to know their audience and that audience’s demands. Most people like short concise content, especially if they have to read it. Most people in the Internet age also take kindly to videos. Regardless of what mainstream audiences like, however, content should be solely focused on a company’s niche audience.

Social media marketing is a new frontier that more and more people are realizing is going to have a huge effect on the way businesses work from now on.  There’s no time like the present for you to start.  Keep it simple with a keen focus on your nook… and you will begin impacting your success, today!

1. Know your brand values
In an October 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal, reputation guru Anthony Fitzsimmons commented that 40 percent of the value of a vibrant company can be attributed to its reputation – a key component to brand value.  Companies like Apple have been able to monetize that reputation to the hilt and their value, and subsequently the prices they charge remain stable if not increasing. 
We all know what Apple offers, but does everyone know what your business uniquely brings to the table?  Maybe a quick audit of your brand is in order?  Often this requires a non-jaded look at what your competitors are offering and how you stack up against them.  What are you offering that cannot be found anywhere else?   Are you less expensive or just plain better?  This has to be reflected in the content found on your Web presence.

Beyond your unique selling proposition, your brand has to stand for something that the audience you’re trying to reach will find palatable.  Fed-Ex ran into that problem when they first launched because no one understood their brand value or why you would pay someone a premium to ship a letter or a box.  It wasn’t until they rolled out ‘When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight’ that the general public understood the concept, and subsequently, the brand value.  Whether your brand is fun or passionate or connotes ease of use, it has to be reflected in the content associated with your Web presence.

2. Your most important key words
In the Web world, key words are the equivalent of highway signs.  Drop two or three words into a Google search and off you go to your digital destination.  So as you do this self-assessment of your brand value, do the key words in your Web presence reflect your brand strategy?  What words are people using to search and click to your site and equally important, what key words are your competitors employing.  Does the content on your site, both organic and curated, reflect the key words needed to drive the right traffic?  It’s more than worth a few minutes of your time to marry your brand strategy with five to ten key words and use them consistently.

3.  Know your sources
In the old days, your teacher would assign a writing project and require any number of sources to be cited.  Often your grade was influenced by the quality of your sources nearly as much as the content itself.  It’s a lot like that in the content business.  People accessing your Web presence for information want to know that what they are reading is from a reliable source.  Both the organic content as well as the curated information must be held up to a standard of credibility.  One poorly sourced article or even thought can send your potential or existing customer into the arms or Web presence of a more reliable other.  The content you post is a reflection of your brand.  Less than reliable content equates to a less than reliable brand.

Just as critical as knowing the credibility of your source is having an understanding of where the content lives.  Brands should consider the importance of hosting their curated content directly on their home pages via a content marketing platform rather than directing traffic to an outside site.

4.  Keep your focus--be careful with off topic content
Suppose you have an epiphany about last night’s American Idol judging and you take to the Web.  That’s great if you’re a business associated with the entertainment industry.  Not so much if your rant has nothing to do with your work.  That’s why it’s extremely important to stay focused on why people access your content in the first place.  Remember those key words.  I doubt any of them were American Idol.  No one goes to the sports page looking for business news and if you want people coming back to your site, you have to remain focused and stay on topic.

5.  Measure behavior and seek content that drives the most profitable engagement
A wise executive once said, what gets measured gets managed.  That’s why you consistently have to audit the success of what you are doing.  Did you post a curated or self-penned article on your site that drove significantly higher traffic?  Great, continue to look for content in that vein to keep them coming back for more.   Are certain key words driving more traffic to your site and others having no impact?  That’s something you need to know and you won’t unless you take the time to investigate. 

In the non-cyber world, it’s often said that it’s not what you say but what you do that counts the most.  But in the world of content curation, what you say is the only way a new customer will know what you’ll do.

Revamped Search

One of the biggest changes is our improvement to the search experience.  We increased the availablity of search throughout the application, along with creating a search homepage with more interesting content from the Scribit network. We have supplemented the "New Content" search with quick searches for:

1. Recently Posted Content: recent articles that other Scribit users have found interesting and posted to their site.
2. Top Posted Content: the most popular articles with other Scribit users.
3. What People are Reading: gives you insight into the popular articles from our Scribit content providers.

This is the result:

If you want even more information density, we also created a "content wall" that shows you Scribit's newest and most popular content in a concentrated and easily browsable view.

Saved Searches And Content Alerts

You'll notice a little box on the top right of our screenshot of the new Discover homepage titled "Your Saved Searches." If there's a search that you run frequently, you can save it and a link to that search will appear on your homepage. Click that link and you will be able to see all the search results. We even tell you how many new results there are since the last time you logged in.

Along with saved searches, you can also create "Content Alerts." Content alerts are Saved Searches where the results are delivered every night to your email inbox. You can create a content alert for any keyword and optionally filter them down by just your favorite sites to relevant topics. Clicking the links in the content alert emails will open the article post page in your browser. You can create multiple content alerts. Any alert with new results will be included in your daily digest email.

Scheduled Posts

Finding the content you need is only one half of the equation. A content marketers know that you want share at a regular pace with the social followers of her brand. Many companies have created editorial calendars to control the flow of content into their social streams. The new Scheduled Posts feature helps you set up your Scribit posts in advance to follow your calendar. Now you can set up much of your content marketing for the week in just a few minutes. (And if you are using our Content Alerts, we'll let you know when there's something new that you might want to add to your schedule.)

If you have a Scribit subscription that includes the feature (most plans do), you'll be able to schedule any article to be shared at any time in the future. Posting in the past is still an upcoming feature, as our engineers ran into a few issues involving the space-time continuum.

What's Next for Scribit?

We're not done adding new features to Scribit. Making it easier to include Scribit in your email campaigns is one big capability that we'll be rolling out soon. We are also starting to integrate with popular social posting and monitoring tools to make the process of enaging your users through Scribit content even easier!

To make the most of your content, remember the 3 Rs. Your content should be:
1. Recent
2. Reliable
3. Relevant

1. Recent

Content curators generally prioritize recency, and there are good reasons for that:

• Users want the latest, most accurate information.
• Search engines generally see recency as an indicator of higher relevancy.

But beware of focusing only on the latest and greatest. By its nature, recent content — that is, content focused on the latest news or market developments — can have a short shelf life, and requires you to repeatedly replenish your content stream with the newest information. Each update, in turn, will quickly be overtaken by the next round of news, the trendiest trends, and the freshest takes on recent events, leaving much of your previous content stale and out of date.

2. Reliable

When you’re developing a strategy for content curation, don’t focus so intently on the most recent content that you overlook the importance of reliability. Make sure your content stream is well-rounded by providing your readers with reliable, useful material that has a longer shelf life. This type of “evergreen” content doesn’t go out of style, and it won’t be overtaken by new developments.
For instance, if you only post stories about the latest technology developments in your market, that material will quickly be outdated when the next round of updates occurs. Instead, aim for a balanced diet by pairing fresh content with “sticky” informational pieces from credible sources; think “how-to” guides, checklists, in-depth analyses, and FAQs related to central issues in your industry. Once you’ve got it, this content retains value at little to no ongoing cost in terms of time and attention invested in revisions to stay current.

When smartly optimized, over time you will build an archive of evergreen content that users can reference to solve problems or answer questions, and your site will become a destination for authoritative content.

3. Relevant

The final variable to consider when developing well-rounded, effective content streams is relevancy. Everything you publish, regardless of source, should be relevant — to your brand, to potential customers, to your industry, and across all platforms. Be vigilant about maintaining your focus, and don’t sacrifice relevance for recency, reliability, or any other criteria. No matter how great the content is, your customers have to care about it.

As you evaluate curated content, don’t forget to consider relevancy on a macro level, too:

• Is it relevant to your brand? Does the content fit the brand persona you’re striving to create? Don’t post material that’s contrary to your brand values, or to the values your customer base expects.
• Is it relevant within the context of your website? This doesn’t mean you can’t ever post a funny aside or an entertaining but tangential oddity — it doesn’t all have to be meat and potatoes. But consider which platform is appropriate for different types of material. Use your website for material that tightly focuses on your core business, and keep quirky bits for Twitter. Put a personal face on your brand with blog posts, and use Facebook for promotions and to drive attention to posts on your other platforms.
• Is it relevant to other content you’ve posted? In other words, do you have a coherent content stream across all platforms? Avoid contradicting previous content or posting material that’s way outside your focus as you’ve defined it. It’s crucial to filter your content stream to ensure it’s always aligned with your message, goals, and intended audience. All content you post should match your brand values and the image you wish to present.

The 3 Rs: A balanced equation for effective content streams

Here are some tips for creating a mix of recent, reliable, and relevant content that bolsters your visibility and authority with customers:

• Maintain a balanced, consistent content stream across all platforms, with fresh content to leverage recency for high social visibility.
• Take advantage of reliable, high-quality, evergreen material to grow your authority.
• Aim for relevant content by keeping your market and your brand in mind.

It’s actually pretty simple:  In business, the Internet is a nonstop battle for visibility. Your competitors are using all the weapons they can find to get an edge, and if you want to keep up, you’d better be armed and ready as well. Your ammo? You might be surprised.

Fresh, original content is the best way to get noticed. It’s both a best practice and essential for SEO success. You’ve probably already discovered the downside, though: It can also be a bottomless time suck. If your productivity is being drained by the hours spent maintaining your web presence and feeding the Twitter beast, you’re probably not serving your primary business in the way it requires.

The demand for content never ends, but your ideas, inspiration, and time sure do. Luckily, you’ve got other options. Curated content can satisfy the info-cravings of this 24/7 millennium and give you some breathing room while at the same time raising your social media profile, which you need to drive traffic to your website. It’s faster,  easier and cheaper than creating original material.

Well, sort of. The thing is, finding and using syndicated content may relieve your brain-drain when you’re out of ideas, but to do it well—that is, smartly, specifically, with your target market squarely in mind—it still takes time. This is where content distributors come in.

Syndicated Content Puts You in the Spotlight

When it comes to content curation tools, you’ve got lots of choices. For instance, you can use one of the many free aggregation tools to collect and review interesting articles; when you find something you think will be of interest to your target audience, you can copy and post a snippet on your site, and link back to the original source so that your readers can view the full article. The problem with this is that you risk sending your readers away from your site. With the rise of behavioral advertising, this means you face the likelihood that when your reader clicks through to the original article, the first thing he sees is an advertisement from your competitor splashed next to the article you’ve sent him to. If you don’t want to take that chance, you have to keep customers on your site where you can control the experience. The longer they stick around, the better chance you have of making a sale or converting a potential customer into an actual one.

One way to avoid this scenario is to use a content distributor that offers syndicated material. A syndication service searches the web for the best content available, secures the necessary usage rights, and delivers the material to you. The difference between this type of service and some other curation tools is that syndication offers you legal use of full articles, which you’re free to post in their entirety. You avoid the hassle of obtaining permission to use the content—because it’s already done for you—and you don’t have to direct readers to another site to read full article or video.  This means you increase your content stream and keep your brand front and center.

Shared syndicated content fed to your social media platforms will link back to your site, rather than the original source of the content. You can use this stream of fresh material, culled from the best publishers and producers on the web, to post daily or even multiple times a day with less cost to your productivity. And because of the high quality of the material you have to choose from, you might be able to share the task of posting to social media with others in your organization without fear.

If you only focus on search results to get the attention of potential clients, you’re missing a major opportunity.  A high-visibility social media presence drives traffic to your site, which means you get more chances to attract clients. But to  effective, you have to continually push new content that attracts your target audience. You monetize and grow your social media presence by being prolific and interesting.

If you use search results or email marketing to get the attention of clients and prospects, supplementing your landing page with interesting links to syndicated content on your site is a great way to maximize your acquisition investment.  You’ve spent money getting prospects to your site, give them multiple reasons to stay and engage. 

Show Your Customers That You Know Them

Selling online is a difficult proposition.  You must attract prospects to your website, have a product they want at a price they can afford, and be trustworthy.  But how do you prove trustworthiness online?  One way is to demonstrate expertise in your industry and an appreciation of your typical customer.  Blogging to establish thought leadership is an excellent solution.  Another solution is to bring content onto your site from premium brands.  Selling financial services?  Post content from Forbes that supports your position.  Be credible by associating with brands your consumers trust.  In fact, you don’t have to limit the nature of the content to your industry.  There are thousands of articles written every day that will appeal directly to your customers’ demographic that may not be related to your business.   The same customer who finds interest in the Forbes article may enjoy an article about the best private jets.

Playing Fair (use) Doesn’t Always Get You the Win

Fair Use rules are the rules we live by to stay on the right side of the law. The problem is, Fair Use isn’t going to get you the traffic you need.  If you’re generating content and supplementing with material from other sources, you’re limited by the amount of material you can legally borrow—which can be a little as a few lines—and by copyright protocols, which require attribution to the creator in the form of links to the original site. Fair and reasonable, for sure, but it can have a significant downside: You risk sending visitors away.  It can result in a missed opportunity, and you can’t afford too many of those. If your site is nothing but a layover on the way to the final destination, you lose critical attention.

Using syndicated content eliminates these restrictions, because all necessary usage rights have already been obtained. Many aggregation tools offer a stream of interesting articles, but few provide copyright-cleared, full-content articles you can post on your own site.  It’s always a good idea to keep your legal department out of your daily life.

So yes, you do need to arm yourself with a robust web and social media presence in today’s marketplace. But don’t just take up space. Be dynamic to get noticed, establish thought leadership, and boost sales. You have to find ways to stay in the conversation.  An optimal blend of original and syndicated content is just the way to do it.