Working protocol
A content curation protocol for marketing decisions
Use a simple evidence-based protocol to curate source material for a campaign, brief, positioning update, or newsletter.
Create a decision feedContent curation earns its place when it reduces a large stream to the few references that change a marketing decision. A saved link needs a job. It should supply evidence, customer language, a concrete example, a market change, or a useful counterargument.
The protocol below starts with the decision and records why each item survives. It is intentionally small enough to use during ordinary campaign and editorial work.
Run the protocol
Use a separate feed for each research decision. Combining audience language, category news, campaign examples, and product activity in one stream makes selection harder to explain.
- 01
State the decision
Write the choice the material must support: select a campaign angle, update a claim, brief an article, or decide what belongs in a newsletter issue.
Completion signal: The decision fits in one sentence and names the intended audience.
- 02
Define acceptable evidence
Choose what can change the decision: first-party research, an attributable customer phrase, a documented product change, a reproducible example, or a strong opposing view.
Completion signal: Interesting but unusable commentary has a clear reason to leave the set.
- 03
Tag the contribution
For every kept item, record one role such as evidence, language, example, change, or counterargument. If two links perform the same role, keep the stronger source.
Completion signal: Every link contributes something different to the final brief.
- 04
Close the set
Stop when the decision has enough support, the strongest objection is represented, and new items repeat material already kept.
Completion signal: The curated set can be handed to another person without the original stream.
The curation record
Keep these fields beside each selected source. The example is illustrative, not customer data.
| Field | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Decision | Choose the lead angle for an onboarding benchmark article |
| Source role | Evidence |
| Contribution | Documents implementation time as a buyer concern |
| Original URL | The publication or dataset URL |
| Scope limit | Enterprise survey; may not represent self-serve buyers |
| Next use | Support the brief section on time to value |
Separate repetition from corroboration
Five articles repeating one announcement are not five independent signals. Trace coverage back to the original source before treating repetition as corroboration. Keep a secondary article only when it adds reporting, analysis, or a distinct example that changes the decision.
Source diversity is useful for the same reason. A set drawn from one publication can inherit its editorial priorities and blind spots. curaft reports source counts from the currently loaded sample so repeated coverage is visible, but the count does not establish independence or authority by itself.
Do not curate the whole market
A campaign brief does not need a permanent library of everything related to the category. It needs the strongest material for the current decision. Move durable background sources into a separate reference collection, then let the campaign set stay small.
This prevents saved-item debt. When every potentially useful link remains, the team must repeat the selection work each time the material is opened.
Handoff sentence
This set supports [decision] for [audience]. Each source is kept for one of five reasons: evidence, language, example, change, or counterargument. The original URLs remain the authority for claims and quotations.
Where the feed belongs
Use a live feed while the decision is open. Use the curated record when the work moves into a brief, campaign, or newsletter. The feed keeps discovery active; the record preserves the editorial judgment that narrowed it.
curaft can keep the research question as a semantic feed, store selected links locally, and expose the feed through a public page, RSS, or an embed. The final curation decision remains with the marketer because relevance depends on the specific audience and claim being developed.
Continue the research
Use a live topic for current material or move to the guide that owns the next part of the workflow.