If you think nobody reads email newsletters, think again. Email newsletters are actually an important information source for 17% of digital users across 10 countries. In addition, 65% of subscribers say email is a convenient way to get the news. Of course, not all email newsletters are successful in terms of readership and engagement. The most popular ones feature quality content. This entails accurate and balanced reporting, engaging writing style and tones, and careful content curation.
When readers encounter interesting topics, they immediately want to learn more. Email newsletters hungry for additional engagement (and subscribers) can benefit from adopting this strategy.
But when undertaking content curation, publishing teams should implement best practices to ensure increased interest and better search engine optimization (SEO) scores. More importantly, they must also take steps to ensure that they comply with copyright laws and attribute the content properly.
To this end, let’s review the ethics surrounding content curation.
Understanding Copyright and Attribution in Content Curation
One of the challenges of content curation is giving proper credit to outside sources. In the rush to create quality content, many teams often fail to understand copyright and attribution rules when citing and linking additional information.
Chief among these failures is the wholesale, word-for-word lifting of passages or entire articles. This practice is outright plagiarism. While not a criminal offense, plagiarism becomes unlawful when it infringes on an author’s intellectual property rights.
Outside of plagiarism, content creators can also fail to properly attribute the author of a cited work. This includes not linking the source or simply paraphrasing text without adding anything of value. While short of plagiarism, it fails to give proper credit where credit is due.
Ethical Guidelines for Curating Newsletter Content
Curating email newsletter content requires finding additional information that helps sustain a reader’s interest in the subject matter. To do so, content teams should exercise diligence when looking for and using curated content from other sources. In effect, the goal is to add value to your content by including timely and relevant articles or videos from authoritative sources.
Looking for the best materials to curate means sifting through a number of potential links. Unfortunately, whether due to time constraints or plain laziness, many content curation teams will simply pick the first few sources they come across. Your subscribers deserve the best and most authoritative information. So, take extra care to choose the best ones.
Start with what’s in your own inbox. Subscribe to leaders in your industry and share their content with your customers. This will show that you keep up with the latest news and trends.
When searching online for relevant topics, go beyond the first page of the search engine results page (SERP). Some of the best and most informative supplementary content might not be as SEO-friendly as other sites. A little digging can help unearth these gems.
You can also find engaging content by joining an online community for industry members or attending industry events.
Best Practices for Ensuring Ethical Content Curation
For best results in content curation, it’s important to follow established and ethical attribution practices. These can help ensure that your content links to relevant, engaging, and informative material that adds or enhances value.
Double-Check the Date
The goal of content curation is to bolster your email newsletter, but linking outdated information can backfire. Perform additional research on the article or video you want to include to verify that your material is timely. Avoid citing sources that are more than a few years old.
Get Another Side
Don’t present information that leans toward a single viewpoint. This not only reeks of inherent biases, but it can also make your content look and sound like an echo chamber. If possible, cite other equally authoritative sources that can support a proposed idea.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
When citing sources, go beyond the immediate source and look for the original article. By making an effort to connect to the original author or study, you show readers that you’re trustworthy. It also ensures that original authors receive the credit they deserve for their work.
Add Value When Quoting Other Works
When quoting other works or authors, don’t settle for changing it just enough to avoid a plagiarism charge. Paraphrasing uses your own words to retain the original author’s intent. But even then, make sure you credit the author for the idea and provide a link. More importantly, add value to the cited work by including additional observations, viewpoints, or reactions.
Build Your Email Audience Through Content Curation
Email newsletters are an effective way to get relevant and engaging content in front of your customers. But in the content curation process, be sure to maintain a clean list of links and sources. It’s also crucial to follow ethical curation practices and comply with copyright laws.
Daily.ai can help you supercharge your email engagement and subscription rates without straining your content team. We enable you to create artificial intelligence (AI)-generated newsletters that conform to your desired tone while providing content your audience prefers. Set up is quick and easy, so you can publish your first email newsletter in less than five minutes!
Our perspective engine will optimize content based on subscribers’ reactions. It also seamlessly incorporates your preferred brand voice into every piece of content you generate. You can even set filters so that your newsletters won’t contain any negative material. As a result, subscribers will receive informative, insightful, and engaging content every time.
Learn how Daily.ai can fully automate your email newsletter process. Book a free demo today.
