Off the Rack or Custom Made

Content – the latest buzz word in digital marketing – is vital to today’s marketing initiatives. Content marketing has grown exponentially over the years and it isn’t slowing down, but rather gaining momentum and continuing to grow. In fact, according to B2B Marketing Insider, on average, marketers spend over a quarter of their marketing budgets on content marketing.

Content can come from a variety of sources, and with so much out there to select from it makes sense to just “cut and paste” – with the proper attribution of course. But taking someone else’s words and adjusting them to suit your needs may not always be your best bet. Think about this for a minute. Why are you writing a blog in the first place? What are your goals? Are you simply out there to share great content you stumble across, or are you attempting to establish yourself as a “thought leader” in your industry? If it is the latter, then your content needs to be fresh and original. Your posts should reflect your thoughts on a particular subject, backed up by the facts and statistics.

Interesting content is one of the top three reasons people follow brands on social media. What could possibly be more interesting than custom content created by unique individuals willing to put their own spin on a subject? In fact, according to McMurray / TMG , 90% of consumers find custom content useful, and 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building a good relationship with them.

There are some other really great reasons for creating your own custom content. First and foremost – Google rankings! Yep, that’s right, custom content increases your Google ranking because Google specifically looks for original and relevant content. Google can tell if your content hasn’t been updated in a while, and even more importantly, it can tell if you’ve copied content from another site. If you want your website to make the first page on a Google search, you better have relevant custom content throughout your site that features key words related to your market.

When you create your own content, you own it, and therefore have the ability to recycle and reuse it as you wish. You can incorporate it into your marketing materials and you can determine how to use it to solve a problem for your audience.

There is nothing wrong with sharing content. In Saurage Research’s Key Findings newsletter, we try to find a balance between curating and creating. There are so many people out there putting content on the web – some of it is good, some of it is great – a lot of it is original, but much is someone else’s great thoughts regurgitated. However you decide to pursue your content marketing, just take care to ensure you are clear if you are sharing versus creating. Make the appropriate attributions when necessary, but definitely bask in the glow of your own creation
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