Cultivating Content from Customers

Content cultivation is the practice of collecting content from customers to use in ongoing marketing and customer nurturing.

When it comes to content marketing after the sale, you need focus on the issues that are important to current customers. What better source for this content than the customers themselves?

You may have heard the term user-generated content, referring to posts, videos and other content created by customers rather than brands. Content cultivation goes further than simply collecting social media posts. Marketers engaging in content cultivation actively pursue and share contributions from customers to create new marketing content or support ongoing marketing objectives.

See this article I contributed to Marketo’s blog for a description and examples:  How Content Cultivation can Reinvigorate Your Content Marketing Efforts

Here are a few other examples of content cultivation.

• GoPro has practically built its brand on user-generated content, as the product is all about collecting and sharing video. The company invites customers to submit photos and videos for selection as the photo or video of the day.
• Pley, a sharing economy startup for children’s toys, created an online community called PleyWorld in which subscribers can submit and vote on designs for LEGOs kits.
• Contests and awards are another great way to solicit content from customers. In a B2B example, Totango invited its customers to nominate individuals and teams as customer success heroes. The company shared the video submissions for team awards and celebrated the winners at the Customer Success Summit.

Do you have examples of content cultivation you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them. Leave a comment or send me an email. Thanks!

And if you’re interested in marketing for ongoing customer loyalty, join my Subscription Marketing group. I’ll share interesting resources and articles every couple of weeks.

[Image via Skitter Photo on StockSnapIO.com]