“Every great teacher is a good thief.” I was walking down the hall with a new colleague of mine, it was probably my first day of my brand new career, a high school English teacher. We were making small talk about our curriculum, and I mentioned one of the novels I was going to teach, he then offers me his entire unit study. I was a little surprised and said I didn’t want to copy his stuff. And that’s when he said it, “Every great teacher is a good thief. You steal what you can and adapt the rest.”
Now, what does this have to do with boosting your business? Your content is providing an education to your target audience. In one way or another, you are a teacher to your consumers. So why recreate the wheel week after week, blog post after blog post? Take a look at your competitors or peers with the same target audience. What are they saying? What issues are they addressing? What is the “it” topic right now? Are you sharing it with your audience? Chances are they’ve heard the messages and would like to know your opinion or recommendation on the matter. Don’t be afraid to discuss the same topic as someone else. Your audience wants to hear from you, if you’re marketing right, and targeting right, you have become their trusted brand and the one they rely on for relevant information.
“Steal what you can and adapt the rest.”
Now, let me be very clear. You are not to copy and paste someone else’s content and call it your own. That’s plagiarism, and illegal. It’s also very easily detectable. So, do not do that.
But do read and observe what other people are writing and doing. Then take it back to your own audience in a way that is authentic to your brand and your voice.