Ever wonder what you’re going to write about when it comes to your blogs, emails, and social media? It feels a little more like pulling out teeth. And if you’ve been thinking too long about it, you’re probably falling into writer’s block – the death sentence for writing.
That’s why we create content pillars – to make the content creation process so much easier.
Writing is difficult enough. Make the process simpler when you learn how to create content pillars.
What Are Content Pillars?
So what are content pillars? Content pillars are general topics of which you are an expert on, and they support your overall brand.
For example, I may be an expert in stand-up-paddleboarding or SUP (I’m not, by the way). But does SUP align with FocusCopy? No! In fact, you’d probably be really confused as to why I’m talking about SUP.
At FocusCopy, our content pillars are:
- Copywriting and content writing
- Marketing
- Entrepreneurship
All of these support what we do as a brand and we can splinter them into many different subtopics.
When & How To Use Content Pillars
You’ll want to use your content pillars for just about anything product, marketing, sales, and content related. Content pillars are a great test to see that whatever you release into the marketplace aligns with your brand.
You won’t see FocusCopy releasing any SUP courses, but you may find various copywriting courses. You may also find future workshops that help you grow your revenue.
See below for an example of what your content pillars could look like. You see how there are multiple topics underneath each pillar that we can tap into.
Steps On How To Create Content Pillars
It’s one thing to show what content pillars are and how to use them, but it’s an entirely different thing to create them for your brand’s success.
Identify Your Target Audience
First, you need to know who your target audience is.
What are their pain points? What problems do they wish would disappear or resolve themselves? And what do they care about or need to know about?
Figure out what really drives your target audience to move forward.
Remind Yourself Of Your Expertise
Then you need to reconnect with yourself. What are you an expert in? What inspires you or interests you? Why do you care about what you’re interested in?
The best content pillars are those that you’re familiar with. You don’t need to do a whole lot of research when writing about those topics. You simply know.
Reflect Whether Your Expertise Matches Your Branding Statements
Take your newly (re)identified expertise and determine whether those topics align with your branding statements. Your branding statements may include your mission statement, vision statement, unique selling proposition, value proposition, and company description. Does your expertise align with your brand?
Summarize Your Expertise Into Big Topics
Take the topics that you claim to have expertise in and start to categorize them. For example, my expertise may lie in the following:
- Email marketing
- Marketing automation
- Customer journey
- Funnel building
- Conversion copy
- Website copy
- Content marketing
- Blogging
- Content creation
- Female entrepreneurs
- Personal development
- Perfectionism
All of that is great, but how can we group them together? It may look like the following:
- Copywriting
- Conversion copy
- Website copy
- Content marketing
- Blogging
- Content creation
- Marketing
- Email marketing
- Marketing automation
- Customer journey
- Funnel building
- Conversion copy
- Entrepreneurship
- Female entrepreneurs
- Personal development
- Perfectionism
Test Your Content Pillars
Lastly, test your content pillars. Does your target audience care about them? Can you quickly create content around them? Do these pillars support and enhance your brand?
If the answer is no, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Ready To Create The Content For Your Content Marketing?
Creating the content pillars is the first big step to creating a strong content marketing strategy. But the execution of the strategy is where most fail to deliver. If you want to release valuable content that resonates with your target audience, let’s start the conversation. Schedule a discovery call with our team today.
