Content pillars are a key concept in content marketing, which is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.
One of the goals of content marketing is to drive profitable customer action, and content pillars are an effective way to organize and structure your content so that it is effective at achieving this goal.
What are content pillars?
A content pillar is a broad, overarching topic that is relevant to your target audience and aligns with your business goals. It is a subject that is important to your audience and that you have expertise in.
For example, if you are a fitness coach, your content pillars might include topics like nutrition, exercise, and healthy living.
Content pillars provide a framework for your content strategy. They help you to create a cohesive and consistent message, and they make it easier for you to plan and create content that is relevant and valuable to your audience. Each content pillar should be supported by a variety of subtopics, or sub-pillars, that provide more detailed information on the subject.
One way to think about content pillars is as the main categories in a library. The content pillars are the broad subject areas, like science or literature, and the sub-pillars are the more specific topics, like biology or poetry. In the same way, a content pillar provides a broad framework for your content, and the sub-pillars provide more specific information within that framework.
For example, if one of your content pillars is nutrition, some sub-pillars might include healthy eating habits, the benefits of different types of diets, and common nutritional myths. These sub-pillars can then be further broken down into individual pieces of content, such as blog posts, videos, or social media posts.
Important points to consider when it comes to content pillars:
- They should be closely aligned with your business goals and objectives.
- They should be based on thorough keyword research to ensure that they are aligned with the needs and interests of your target audience.
- They should be broad enough to provide a wide range of content opportunities, but specific enough to provide clear guidance for your content creation efforts.
- They should be flexible enough to adapt to changes in your business and the needs of your audience.
- They should be supported by a solid editorial calendar and content production plan to ensure that you are consistently creating and publishing high-quality content that aligns with your pillars.
Advantages to creating content pillars for your business, including:
- Improved focus and direction: Content pillars provide a clear focus and direction for your content marketing efforts, ensuring that all of your content is aligned with your business goals and objectives.
- Better alignment with your audience’s needs: By conducting thorough keyword research, you can ensure that your content pillars align with the needs and interests of your target audience. This can help to improve the relevance and engagement of your content.
- Increased content opportunities: Content pillars provide a broad framework for your content creation efforts, allowing you to generate a wide range of content ideas and opportunities.
- Improved consistency: With a solid editorial calendar and content production plan in place, you can ensure that all of your content aligns with your pillars and is consistently high-quality.
- Increased efficiency: By focusing your content efforts on a set of core topics, you can avoid wasting time and resources on irrelevant or unimportant content. This can help to streamline your content production process and improve the overall efficiency of your content marketing efforts.
Creating content pillars requires a deep understanding of your audience and their needs and interests. It also requires a clear understanding of your business goals and how content can help you achieve those goals.
Once you have identified your content pillars, you can use them to plan and create a consistent stream of valuable and relevant content that will engage your audience and help to drive profitable customer action.
