Content curation is a more cost-effective marketing method than creating new content every day. It is a powerful strategy that allows marketers to maximize all sorts of content to its full potential, sans the self-imposed pressure to do nothing but sit in a dungeon and come up with new ideas all day long. If you want a few quick and easy tips on maximizing your content curation efforts and freeing up some of your valuable time, here are four examples of how to do just that.

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What is Content Curation?

Content curation is a healthy mix of assembling, categorizing and presenting relevant, high-quality information to your audience on a specific topic – or range of topics. It is the act of aggregating supporting information supporting your brand, or reinforcing your message by utilizing content you have created alongside additional (supporting) content you have collected.

Why is Content Curation Relevant?

Content marketers often struggle to create sufficient, new content on a regular basis. Many lack the appropriate level of time, people, resources and funding to hire a dedicated content creator, forcing many to take a leap of faith on their own. This is why many business owners give up on content creation: it’s stressful.

The majority of online purchasers seek out purchase-related information on their own, prior to contacting a professional. Many rely on search engines and custom (or curated) content to drive a purchasing decision long before they hand over their credit card information.

While promoting your own content is important, it is not sufficient when it comes to breaking through to skeptical consumers. Adding another experienced voice to the mix can help bolster your brand, improve your influence and (ultimately) drive higher sales numbers.

How Do You Do It?

Compile a list of resources relevant to your message
Your business can capitalize on other people’s research and statistics by sharing it on your blog. Craft a blog post or infographic showing data from respected experts in your field that is relevant to your message and to your business. Link back to all of your sources for added credibility and do not be afraid to add your own commentary.

Use images
Create or curate images to improve click through rates and overall customer engagement for your site. You can create or curate infographics or a collection of images found across social media and create a slide show or several blog posts around these. Many authors and professional bloggers will even utilize some of their custom content and curate that into a meme or quotable image; something appropriate to share across all social networks, and something that can be used more than once.

Curate comments
Effective communication online is all about dialogue. If you have a spirited bunch of followers who engage with you either on your blog or your social media platforms, you can take screenshots of these interactions and post them, with a link back to the original blog. This is a quick, easy piece of image-driven content that helps improve engagement, and even boosts your organic search engine ranking.

Quote and curate comments from top influencers in your field
Collect content, posts or even interview 10 of the top influencers in your field. This creates a highly sharable piece of content that doesn’t take very long to create, as it is almost entirely written by the influencers, with just a brief introduction and conclusion from you.

Above all, make content curation a habit. Once you are comfortable sharing and giving credit to other content creators, you will find that it does wonders for your business, without having to invest countless hours wracking your brain, suffering from writer’s block or being so overwhelmed with ideas that you do the wo