The Difference Between Created and Curated Content

For the longest time, digital marketing experts have debated the differences between created and curated content. This begs the question: which of the two is better for you? Which content yields more results for your digital and social media marketing?

Created or Curated Content?

What is Created Content?

This is any form of original content that is created by your brand for your brand.

What is Curated Content?

Curated content involves the process of sorting and planning your content in an organised way. This includes sorting, arranging, filtering and finding the best pieces of content on the web to be distributed and published by your brand. This could be any content and does not have to be material you have created for your own brand.

Created vs Curated Content

The authenticity of created content would typically attract potential marketers as opposed to the unoriginality of curated content.

The idea of crafting your own content to build your company’s unique expertise, products, services, visions, and ideas, requires you to strategically consider whether starting your content from scratch would ensure value for your brand as opposed to tweaking what already exists and has been tried and tested in your industry.

Some exciting news is that curated content is easy on the pocket and saves time. However, don’t jump the gun just yet.

What you may need right now is a content strategy. Would created content, which is originally produced by your company and lives on your website and social media channels, help you achieve your long-term or overall digital marketing strategy?  Or would curated content – which is sourced from outside your company that you share with your audience on your website and social media channels – do you much justice?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself before deciding between the two as part of your digital marketing strategy.

Benefits of Created Content:

• It provides exclusive, authentic content that stands out for your target audience,
• Created content is custom made for your target market,
• It gives your customers an overview of the product information as well as answering their specific inquiries.
• Created content displays your products and services as well as your employees and customers.
• It incorporates your brand’s distinct voice, language, tone, and visuals.

The drawbacks of created content is that it:

• Is expensive to create as it requires both manpower and resources,
• Overlooks your timeless content because as you become solely focused on creating new content you may neglect or fail to find time to promote and upgrade your seasonal content,
• Needs to be improved for consumption and search; it isn’t enough just to create content: it has to be eye-catching,
• Requires effective distribution because creating original content by itself isn’t sufficient to attract an audience: distribute it broadly across owned, social and third-party media.

Benefits of Curated Content:

• Curated content builds trust with your key audience by involving influencers and fans.
• This type of content can include original content. Often digital marketers overlook the fact that curated content can be composed solely of original information that’s never been published elsewhere. This makes it a powerful arm of your digital marketing strategy.
• Curated content prolongs the relevance of your original content.
• It extends your content distribution and reach. By involving influencers and followers in the creation, your curated content naturally attracts them to promote it.
• Content which you curate positions you as a guru in your market. By selecting the cream of the content in your specialty, you become known as a go-to resource.

Cons of Curated Content:

• If you focus too much on curated content you may neglect to prioritise your original content.
• Relying too heavily on curated content forces you to swim with other competitors and doesn’t let you shine.
• Using curated content overlooks the importance of informing your audience about the next action you would like them to take.
• It underestimates the need for resources to obtain curate content. Though curated content is usually less expensive than original content, it requires resources to enhance the content for consumption and to incorporate digital asset management.

To diversify your content, instead of choosing one over the other consider how both curated and created content both serve very different purposes.  Restricting yourself to just one means you may miss out on the others valuable opportunities the other offers. Try using both to maximise your chances of a fruitful digital marketing strategy.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

The Digital School of Marketing’s Digital Copywriting and Content Marketing Course teaches students the art of creating content for a digital marketing environment. This digital marketing course – which is backed by the MICT SETA – provides digital marketing at its best. You won’t find a better and more comprehensive digital marketing certificate out there. For more information and to register, follow this link.