Chapter 9

Offering Curation

The possibilities for creation and insight are endless. We’re constantly collecting more data, and it’s starting to be very relevant to our lives.

—Aaron Koblin

Why do people visit Best Buy? Walmart? Costco? Ogilvie & Sons? Is it because these retail stores have better products than their competitors? Or is it because of something intangible? Something like . . . selection?

Successful retailers, like Ogilvie’s, rely on their selection as a statement of their position in the market. People come to their stores because they know what they will find. Curation is not just about the number of products they make available; it is also about the quality of those products. If Best Buy had the biggest selection of electronics, but all the products were subpar, few would frequent its blue and yellow buildings.

Selection is another element that influences relationships. We frequent stores that reflect our interests, values, and tastes. The keepers of those stores help save us time by curating amongst all the potential choices we face, finding items we value and presenting them to us for simple selection. Marjory, our harried young mom with the budding Ringo in tow, could have mounted a search for child safety equipment to cut short his drumming career. She might have read up on the latest developments in the field, searched online for recommendations, checked with Massachusetts child safety officials on regulations, and eventually made a decision, found a source, and made her purchase. Instead, she paid Kevin Whittemore a fair profit on his labor for doing all that and more in the background. Curation is a valuable service, especially in today’s time-pressed society.

Why Is Digital Eating into Retail Sales?

Despite the lingering success of finely curated stores like Ogilvie’s, when faced with the choice of shopping for something at a store and buying it online, consumers are voting with their fingers, and more often searching their favorite e-commerce store.

The promise of a lower price plays a part, as does the temptation of not paying sales taxes, but price is not the primary driver for the success of online retail. It is not purely increased selection, either. Selection without curation actually lowers the retailer’s value, forcing us to waste valuable time searching through too many options.

The driver for online retail success, then, is access to content.

Our Affinity for Content

If there is one thing that digital has evoked in us, it is our love for content. Videos. Stories (more on that in Chapter 11). Images (not just of cats). We love to read and experience new things. That is part of the physiological impact of novelty that we discussed in Chapter 3.

In the digital world, content comes fast and furious. As Figure 9.1 suggests, we might actually be addicted to content. Our usage of digital technologies is on the rise. And what are we doing most often when we are online? Socializing. It seems that we want to access and consume more content more often. We need to Tweet and “Like” and text. If you remember back to Chapter 4, this makes complete sense—social networks are “novelty on steroids.”

Figure 9.1 Our Digital Device Habits: A Breakdown

Sources: eMarketer; The Huffington Post; Marketing Pilgrim; Gartner; The Convergence; Business Standard.

We “Like” content. We share it. We copy and paste it. We email it. We surround ourselves with content from our phones, computers, and TV.

When Content and Product Selection Collide

Back to that idea that selection and curation add to the relationship we have with a business in the analog world. We choose an e-commerce retailer over a physical store because we can more easily amplify the relationship we have with the business in the digital world. Not only do we get selection and curation, but we also get content, and the ability to rebroadcast and contribute to it, which we would never have in the real-world retail environment. Thinking of the nonlinear buyer’s journey, where we jump around in the discussion and selection process, what we want is to be part of the conversation. Remember that we switch relationship needs quickly and easily. But those needs aren’t just related to the relationship between the person and your organization. People have a need to connect with each other, as well. They want to talk about what they are thinking of doing so people they have a relationship with can comment. The world is one giant water cooler!

When we visit a good online retailer, the product selection experience is part of the content experience. There are reviews, product specifications, and pictures. There may be content that prompts people to think about additional purchases and a way to socialize and start a conversation.

Not only has the retailer curated applicable products for us, they have also curated all the content related to that product.

Curation Proves Content Is Important

Businesses must look at content as an asset they can leverage to help develop strong relationships. Imagine visiting a website to purchase a product and finding no descriptions, explanations, or reviews. Having a variety of content (like product specifications, testimonials, comparisons, stories, videos of people using it, etc.) helps target the needs of particular relationship types, and allows us to build history with each visitor. As people interact with carefully curated products and content, their interests feed our understanding of them and contribute to their history with us. Kevin Whittemore observed as Mrs. Appleyard showed some interest in bird feeders; this knowledge might serve him well later, when she returns to the store for another visit. So, too, will great curation. Observation of people’s interaction with content helps us in driving repeat visits and building stronger online relationships.

Summing It Up

Curation is the process of collecting things to make the process of selection easier for people. In the real world, that is having only a set number of products on the shelves. In the digital world, it’s having content to support the decision making process right alongside the product.

Helpful Takeaways

Curating content for your audience adds to your credibility and authenticity. It demonstrates that you aren’t only out for yourself. Curation demonstrates your utility to your audience, which can strengthen relationships. Here are some helpful tips, tricks, techniques, and things you can do today. Note that these aren’t in any particular order.

• Map content formats to relationship needs. We’ve explained those four different kinds of relationships needs. But what kinds of content do they want and where do they want it published? The best way to discover this is through trial and error (or A/B testing as they call it in the digital world). What you sell/provide and how people shop for it will determine the kinds of content that will have the most impact with different relationship needs. It’s not the same for every organization.
• Mix up your content types. Don’t just provide all text-based content. Don’t just provide all video-based content. As they say, variety is the spice of life. You can even show the same content in multiple formats to appeal to different relationships needs.
• Don’t be afraid of competitive information. Remember that part of the value you bring to a relationship with your audience is one of helpfulness (this is discussed in more detail in Chapter 15). Your audience is going to find the competitive information anyway. Wouldn’t you rather it be on your site (where you can use it to engage with the audience) than on your competitor’s site?
• Curate content that isn’t yours. Remember, you are the expert (well, at least that’s what you want your audience to perceive you as). And the expert is going to know what’s best. That includes the content that will help someone make a decision about how to solve the challenge they are facing, which is driving their need to buy something (hopefully your product). But this doesn’t mean just copying and pasting from around the web. Provide attribution. When you reference content from another site, write some original content around it (i.e., your analysis of why the specific content is important to your audience). Also, remember to include social. Facebook and Twitter make it easy to embed posts within your content, which means you can curate conversations as well.