“Traditional marketing talks at people. Content marketing talks with them. – Doug Kessler”
In this digital era, content is a significant part of any successful marketing campaign. But it is difficult to post valuable content consistently. Because there are days when you are blank, and your creativity just gives up.
However, your brand can’t afford those days. It consistently needs meaningful content to connect and grow.
And for days like that, you need content pillars so that your brand doesn’t suffer.
In this blog, you will learn
- What are content pillars?
- Why do you need them & how can they help you establish an impactful brand presence online?
- How to find your content pillars?
What are content pillars?
Content pillars are 3 to 5 key topics around which your brand creates content. Your brand broadly covers a single topic and then there are the topics related to that head topic.
Every brand and every business needs different pillars. What’s best for one, may not work for another.
For example, if you have a beauty brand then your content pillars can be self-love, self-care, etc because that’s how you can build a relationship with your target audience.
However, if you have a business that helps people and companies in their marketing strategy, then self-love won’t be an ideal pillar for you.
So, when you are selecting your content pillars, remember that your brand is built on these topics, therefore they must reflect your brand’s values, purpose, and general tone.
Also, keep one thing in mind, each pillar should depict the kind of content your target audience wants to see and connect with.
Why you must have content pillars?
1. No more guessing around
We know you dread those days when you have to plan out what to post. There is so much guessing around and it is soul-sucking
But do you know creating killer content isn’t hard? You only need the right approach + content pillars, and half of your work is done.
They make it easier for you to plan your content. Because when you have specific buckets in which each content piece should fall, you never get short of ideas, and you quickly create relevant content.
2. Easy Navigation
In 2021, 82% of marketers were actively using content marketing. That’s a 72% increase from 2020!
As more and more content is being produced every day, you just cannot create content that is splatter in all directions, without any organization.
To excel at content marketing, your content needs to be organized and easy to navigate
Content pillars help you do that. Content pillars present information in a systematic way that is easy to navigate.
Once a person lands on the pillar page, they will be shown links to the topic cluster- other topics related to it, therefore increasing their chances of spending more time at your website.
For instance, someone might be looking to learn copywriting for free, and they end up at your website. After they have read articles about it, they click on another relatable article on how to write killer headlines, then five copywriting exercises for beginners, and so on.
In no time they have spent 30 minutes or more on your pages!
So, when they want to invest in a copywriting course, whose course they will remember? To whom will they give their hard-earned money?
The correct answer is YOU.
3. Better SEO ranking
A single high-ranking blog can boost the ranking of your other linked blogs.
How?
Everyday Internet is bombarded with content, and it confuses Google’s algorithm regarding what ranking should they assign to your site.
Content pillars clear this confusion for Google.
When your content revolves around specific pillars, Google finds it easy to quickly give its users what they are looking for, and in this process, it ranks your site better than others.
4. Customer-Focused Content
The only way to create killer content is by knowing your target audience like the back of your hand.
When researching your target audience, dive deep into their pain points, and what they want. Then, create content that is focused on helping them and solving each and every issue.
But this is tough. You don’t know where to begin with!
That’s when content pillars come to your rescue. They help you understand your niche and audience clearly. With their help, you can build trust and grow your audience at a rapid rate.
Plus, when you keep posting relatable content that solves your target audience’s problems and adds value, you build a loyal audience that later turns into loyal customers.
How to create the best content pillars for your brand?
Now that you know how powerful content pillars are, it’s time to create your own pillars.
And how would you do it? By following a solid strategy.
As we’ve already discussed that different brands need different pillars but regardless of your industry or clients, there is a specific approach to building content pillars that work for everyone.
1. Understand your target audience
To succeed at content marketing, you must clearly understand who you are talking to.
Because, what’s the point of posting content when it’s not giving the target audience what they need and want?
So, to understand your audience, build an ideal client/customer avatar by studying their-
- Challenges and pain points
- Goals and values
- Objections
When you are doing this make sure you be as specific as possible. Pretend that your target audience is one person having these things and then dive deep into them.
Now to create effective content pillars, ask some key questions-
- Where does my target audience spend their most time?
- What keywords are there in their search history?
- What content has always worked well with my audience?
- What kind of educational, humorous, valuable topics are they into?
- How can my content help them?
You can find their answers by looking at what your target audience is
- Talking on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
- Sharing on Instagram
- Discussing on Quora and Reddit
These answers will lead you to the heart of your target audience. And then you will create content pillars that attract them to your brand and turn them into customers.
2. Know your competitors
Market research is incomplete without competitive research because knowing your competitors is as important as knowing your target audience.
When you know what your competitors are doing, and what their strengths and weaknesses are, then you can position your product or services better.
For doing competitor research pick out your 5 top competitors-
- See if their website is user friendly
- Check the reviews they are getting
- Which social media platforms are they using?
- What kind of content is working for them and what is not?
After doing this, record what you love about their marketing and what areas need improvement.
Learning from your competitors will help you create the perfect content pillars for your audience.
But remember one thing, don’t let the comparison get to your head. Don’t copy their content because not only its ethically wrong but also it presents you in a bad light in front of your audience.
Take inspiration from your competitors, post original content, and grow your business.
3. Audit what’s working for you and what’s not
Now that you know your target audience and competitors, it’s time to audit your own website and social media handles.
Observe your analytics.
Check what has worked the best for you? What kind of content did your target audience share the most? What was the most and least engaging content?
By knowing this you can quickly filter out successful and unsuccessful content.
Now build your content pillars revolving around the successful content and the kind of content your audience is looking for.
4. Plan out your content
After understanding your target audience, and competitors and auditing your website & social media accounts, it’s time to exercise those content pillars.
Collect the ideas related to your industry and put them into specific groups. If some of your ideas don’t fit in any group then keep them for later use. Currently, focus on building strong content pillars for your brand.
Content pillars that are full of ideas, questions that lead you to good content, and better conversations with your target audience.
Conclusion
You are finally all equipped to ace content marketing.
Now that you know how easy it is to create valuable content with content pillars, it’s time to create your own content pillars.
Remember, the only way to create solid pillars is by prioritizing your audience and understanding them like your best friend. Later, tackle all their problems with empathy.
Use competitors to learn. Look inwards your website and social handles to grow.
We hope now you will never run out of creativity and make content work for you.
Leave a Reply