How to create content pillars and use them to drive your marketing strategy?

Engaging marketing content that connects with your target audience is an incredibly valuable resource for any brand. However, in today’s digital age, the Internet is overflowing with an endless stream of content, making it increasingly difficult to stand out and capture the recipients’ attention. As you scroll through your social media feeds, you’re likely to come across a wide variety of videos and posts: some funny, some educational, and some downright sarcastic. In such a crowded space, you may start to wonder…is it worth creating content anymore? Of course, it is. You just need to develop a consistent strategy centered around content pillars. In this blog post, we’ll explain what content pillars are, how to define them, and how they can help you boost your content marketing strategy. Read on.

How to create content pillars? – table of contents:

1. What are content pillars?
2. How to define content pillars for your brand?
3. Content pillars example
4. Summary

What are content pillars?

Content pillars are the core topics or themes that a brand or business uses to guide its content creation and marketing strategy. These pillars typically reflect the brand’s values, expertise, and unique selling proposition.

A content pillar strategy involves identifying a few key topics or themes that are important to the brand and then creating a range of content types around each pillar. This might include blog posts, videos, social media content, webinars, and more. It’s important to keep in mind that content pillars shouldn’t be overly detailed. Instead, they should serve as a solid foundation that can be further developed.

Content pillars play a vital role in SEO. By using relevant keywords and researching related phrases, you can optimize your content for search engines, which means your marketing materials can reach more people. While creating content with your target audience in mind is important, it’s also crucial to remember that search engine algorithms decide whether your content will be discovered or not.

Content pillars are a powerful tool that can help a brand achieve consistency and recognition on social media. By following a set path, brands can build a strong identity that resonates with their audience.

How to define content pillars for your brand?

As we have previously discussed, effective content pillars possess two key qualities. Firstly, they are engaging for the audience and relevant to the brand. Secondly, they incorporate appropriate keywords that have the potential to rank highly in search engine results.

Identify your target audience

To understand what is important to your audience and how to communicate with them effectively, you must first identify who they are. Therefore, your primary goal should be to define your marketing persona. Understanding your audience can shed light on their preferences, basic demographic data, and behaviors. This, in turn, can help you answer specific questions that are essential for creating effective content pillars. These questions might include:

• What are the core values of your target audience?
• What is the best platform to use to reach my audience?
• What are your customers looking for from your brand?
• In which areas is your brand considered an authority, and what is important to your audience in those areas?
• How can your marketing content address and solve your audience’s problems?

These are just a few examples that may help you identify content that is relevant to your target audience.

Choose compelling topics

Once you know who your target audience is, you can start pinpointing your content pillars. Defining your marketing persona may have already given you some initial ideas. Additionally, creating a list of topics that your audience is interested in can be helpful. This process can be based on your past experience and data available in search engines. Many online tools can assist you in identifying topics related to your brand, based on solid data.

Google Trends can be helpful in finding popular keywords related to your industry. Most internet users search for answers to their questions there, so it is a powerful tool for identifying trends. To make sure your content is coherent, it’s best to focus on just a few topics, no more than 10. Too many topics can cause confusion and inconsistent messaging. It’s better to choose a specific theme and strive to become an expert in it.

Find relevant keywords

Your content should primarily provide value to your audience. However, it’s also important to ensure that it’s search-engine friendly. You can achieve this by identifying relevant keywords that your audience uses to search for topics related to your content. Creating a list of these keywords is a crucial element that can help improve your Google ranking.

Don’t ignore your competitors

Unfortunately, your company is not unique (with some exceptions), and similar content already exists on the Internet. Nevertheless, you certainly have some qualities that set you apart. Communicating them to your audience should be your priority. But to do so, it is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of your competitors who are posing a direct threat to you. Analyzing your competition can help you identify areas of interest to your audience that have not yet been fully explored, thus creating a thematic gap. Filling this gap can enable you to create valuable content that makes you stand out from the competition.

Follow recent trends

While it’s important to have well-defined content pillars, it’s also possible to adjust them to reflect the current interests of your audience or to align them with emerging trends. Keeping an eye on social media can help in creating engaging posts that will capture your audience’s attention. This simple approach can assist in developing a relevant and effective strategy.

One effective strategy is to choose a few industry leaders or top influencers and follow them on social media. The goal isn’t to copy their practices but to stay up-to-date with news and trends. You may also want to learn more about how social media works and the algorithms that govern them. Understanding the platform you use every day can help you better align your content with current trends. Additionally, it’s worth following interesting industry blogs and reading current publications on related topics.

Content pillars example

While the theory is important, it can be overwhelming to put it into practice. That’s why we’ll provide a step-by-step guide to creating content pillars for your business. Let’s say you run a small photography business and you’re looking to increase your online presence. You want to share engaging and helpful content with your audience, but you’re not sure where to start. The first step will be to prepare a list of topics.

Concentrate on the primary areas of interest for your customers and choose 3-4 groups. In our example, these could be:

• Photography “behind the scenes”
• Practical tips and tricks
• Showcasing your work

The above groups will let you create a roadmap for your content creation. With them, you can build a content calendar and never again wonder about what to write. Simply add a few points to each topic at the start. If you don’t have any more ideas, don’t worry – give yourself time. Additional topics will come to you over time, or they may arise from interactions with your audience. Keep in mind that the people you are targeting with your content are also a great source of ideas. Here are some examples of how you could expand on the initial topics.

Photography “behind the scenes”

• Explain how to prepare a scenography
• Tell me about the tools you use every day
• Demonstrate the photo editing process
• Show me how to run a successful photo shoot

Practical tips and tricks

• Show how to take an interesting themed photo with a phone
• Present tips on posing
• Suggest what to wear for a photo session to look good

Showcasing your work

• Show interesting shots you managed to take
• Show the effects before and after photo editing

After you’ve listed the interesting topics, create a specific schedule for publishing them. You could assign a number to each topic and, for instance, publish content related to the photographer’s work every Monday. Remember to involve your audience in your efforts by creating surveys or leaving some space for questions.

Summary

Defining content pillars is a way to establish a clear and specific strategy for your content creation. By doing so, the content you produce becomes more meaningful not only to you but also to your audience. Your audience will receive personalized content that caters to their needs and interests. Content pillars will help you navigate a highly competitive market and identify untapped opportunities.

Read also: 4 differences between content marketing and copywriting.

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