What the Bloody Hell are Content Pillars?!?
The ups and downs of creating
aligned content for your business
(see what I did there? ups and downs? …pillars… ah forget it)
Photo by Jay Chaudhary
Ok, I’ve heard of these before, but what are they?
Simply put, content pillars are broad topics that align with your business goals and target audience. They serve as a guide for creating content that is both valuable and relevant to your audience.
Each pillar needs to be unique to your business or industry and provide the foundation for a series of related content pieces, such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media updates, and anything else you can think of to drive the marketing of your company.
Let's say you own a small bakery (if only!)
Photo by Mae Mu
Your four content pillars might be:
Baking Techniques: You'll share your knowledge and expertise on different baking techniques, such as how to make the perfect pie crust or how to achieve a fluffy soufflé.
Recipes: You'll showcase your favourite recipes, from classic cakes to modern twists on old favourites, and also the latest fresh recipes you invent.
Product Spotlights: You'll highlight your best-selling baked goods and give customers an inside look at the ingredients and processes that go into making them.
Behind the Scenes: You'll give customers a glimpse into your bakery and the people who make it all happen, from your bakers to your delivery drivers.
By following this content pillar plan, you'll be able to create valuable, relevant content for your target audience on a consistent basis. This helps you achieve your business goals and builds a strong online presence for your small bakery.
Why are Content Pillars Important?
They’re so important when marketing your business
Photo by Camylla Battani
Gets you focused on what’s important: When you have a set of content pillars, you have a roadmap for your content creation. This stops you or your team from creating content that's completely off-topic or utterly irrelevant for your audience and customers.
Builds your brand awareness: Consistently producing content that centre around your content pillars helps build both brand awareness and establishes you as a thought leader in your industry.
Attracts and retains customers: By creating and publishing valuable, relevant content that your audience actually wants you'll attract and retain customers who are interested in what you have to offer.
Supports your business targets and goals: Your content pillars need to align with your business goals, like increasing sales or building stronger customer loyalty. By creating content that supports these goals, you'll see a positive impact on your business.
By following this content pillar plan, you’d be able to create valuable, relevant , and most importantly, shareable content for your target audience on a consistent basis.
Great, now how do I do this thing?
The steps you’ll need to take to create your content pillars
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Firstly, define your target audience
Who are your customers and what are their pain points, interests, and needs? What do they want to know about your industry, and more importantly your business?
Then, identify your business goals
What are your main business objectives, such as increasing sales, building brand awareness, or establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry?
Now the fun bit, brainstorm pillar ideas
Based on your target audience and business goals, brainstorm a list of potential content pillars. Make sure each pillar is unique to your business and provides value to your audience.
Time to refine your pillar list
Take your list of potential content pillars and narrow it down to the most important ones. Consider how each pillar aligns with your target audience and business goals.
How will you communicate your content?
So you know what you want to focus on. Now you’ll need to select which channels you’ll use to communicate to your audience. Are you going to try a shotgun method across a wide range of channels? or be more targeted in your approach?
All right, get to creating a kick-ass content plan
For each content pillar, create a plan for the type of content you want to produce and how often you want to produce it. This will help you stay focused and consistent with your content creation.
Woah, hold up there buddy.
That sounds really complex!
Photo by John Barkiple
Yup, I’m not about to candy coat it. Developing content pillars for your business can be tough, especially if your business is in a saturated industry, has a large quantity of products and services, or maybe you have an audience base which isn’t at all clear cut.
You’ll need to take the time to research your audience preferences, refine your content efforts and offerings, then test your fresh content pillars with your customers through your chosen channels, all so you can make better decisions on where to spend your marketing efforts.
Daunting huh? It doesn’t have to be…
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Yep, you got to the end of the article, get ready for the sales pitch
Look, no matter if you’re a business owner, or you’re a part of a team in a vast organisation there’s one thing I know you don’t have a lot of… and that’s time.
Time to work through the steps, time to sit around and brainstorm your content pillars, hell you probably don’t have the time to get yourself a second (or third!) coffee for the day.
So rather than keep shuffling your content strategy onto the back burner (like you’ve done every other time you’ve thought about it), hire me to take the pressure out of creating your content pillars, develop content plans specific to your customer needs, and make it your best year ever.
