Everywhere you look in the marketing world, people talk about third-party generation or content curation. You may be asking, “Who is this third person at the party anyway?” It’s actually simple: when someone else writes something about you, it has more credibility than when you write something about yourself. Makes total sense. Then why don’t […]
Everywhere you look in the marketing world, people talk about third-party generation or content curation. You may be asking, “Who is this third person at the party anyway?” It’s actually simple: when someone else writes something about you, it has more credibility than when you write something about yourself. Makes total sense. Then why don’t we all do it?
As most of us look for that perfect person who is well-known in our industry and has credibility, we may find few or no possibilities. Have no fear, the industry has created something called “Paid Content Generation.” You can pay people to write something great about your company. You can even tell them what to say. How much easier could that be? Well, it is not quite that simple. You need to conduct due diligence to make sure the person writing is credible, and is a great writer. You don’t want this opportunity to backfire on you.
Many companies don’t have the resources to create content for all of today’s platforms: social media, blogs, infographics, etc., so this third-party content generation can also help them with their overall content strategy. But not all postings are created equal. For example, a common strategy on Twitter is to create some original content with other people’s content mixed in — a retweet. This combination works, but make sure your original content is sprinkled in as much as possible. You want to be seen as an expert in your industry. Not just someone who re-posts other companies’ stuff — they are then the expert. Always make sure you are building your brand, not someone else’s.
Now, let’s add the third-party content generator into the picture. This adds another voice to your brand. This person (or publication) is seen as unbiased and trustworthy because “what do they have to gain by pushing this brand so heavily?” You know it is because they were paid to do it — no one else needs to know that. A good third-party content writer will make that part of the equation invisible.
Sometimes the idea of it being paid content is unavoidable. For example, most industry publications bank on their unbiased and editorial trust so the idea of getting paid to write content is not acceptable. Therefore, it may state that the content is paid or an “advertorial.” That is OK — don’t shun these opportunities. These publications tend to be the most trusted and well read. Many people won’t notice the subtle paid-content message, and even if they do, you will get the search-engine optimization (SEO) benefit of being mentioned somewhere else other than on your own site.
So, let’s talk SEO and how this content can benefit you there as well. Google has crazy algorithms it creates so no one can figure out the system and win the ranking game. For the past couple of updates, content generation has been the most important element in the rankings. Third-party content is a big part of that. Google sees it as credible, and the companies that have it will rank higher in searches — assuming the rest of their site isn’t a disaster.
The digital world makes the linking from site to site easy, and research has shown that when there is a link present from an outside site, clicks increase by 33 percent, over links posted on your own site. We tend to trust this third-party content much more than self-generated content.
There are many tricks out there to help achieve your sales goals, because let’s face it, ultimately, that is what we want, more sales. Today’s world makes it easier for us to get our company out there in front of lots of new prospects. Embrace it.
Jenn Cline is a sales and marketing consultant for ABC Creative Group and The Business Journal News Network. Contact her at jcline@nordiqueconsulting.com