How to Build a Strong Foundation for Your Content Strategy
Having a solid content strategy for any business looking to attract customers, build authority, and stand out from competitors. But creating great content isn’t just about producing high volumes of blogs, videos, and social posts. There needs to be a thoughtful strategy behind what you create.
That’s where content pillars come in — they provide the organizing framework for your content efforts. Content pillars (also called content buckets or tracks) are the core topics and themes that all of your content ties back to in some way. They ensure your content stays focused on your business goals and aligned with your audience’s interests.
Leanardo.ai prompt == A minimalist, flat design of a website homepage, with each content pillar represented by a unique shape.
What Are Content Pillars?
Content pillars are the main categories or “buckets” of content that are aligned with your target audience’s interests and pain points as well as your business goals. They represent the vital focus areas that your content efforts revolve around.
Some key things to know about content pillars:
They are broad topic areas or themes rather than very specific subjects. Some examples are topics like “Health & Fitness”, “Personal Finance”, or “Home Improvement”. The goal is to have 3–7 pillars that represent the core interests and needs of your audience. Any more can make your strategy too scattered.
Content pillars guide the creation of content like blog posts, guides, videos, and social content. All content ties back to these main themes in some way. They help keep content focused and on-brand rather than disjointed. Everything ladders up to the pillars.
Pillars may be defined around product categories, audience needs, industry niches, or other factors. The aim is to align with audience interests.
Why Are Content Pillars Important?
Having clearly defined content pillars in place provides a variety of benefits:
Allows for better measurement. You can track and analyze content performance by pillar to see which resonates best.
Highlights content gaps. Looking at each pillar helps identify areas where more content is needed to saturate that space.
Provides consistency. Keeping content tied back to the pillars results in a more cohesive experience vs. disjointed content. Guides teams. For companies with multiple content creators, pillars help keep everyone aligned and on track.
Enables flexibility within the framework. While pillars stay mostly consistent, the specific content produced can evolve within each bucket. Simplifies ideation. Having established focus areas makes it easier for writers to brainstorm relevant ideas.
The pillars form the foundation that gives shape and consistency to your content efforts. Without them in place, it’s far more challenging to produce high-quality content tailored to business objectives and audience interests.
How to Define Your Content Pillars
If you want to leverage the power of content pillars, the first step is defining what those pillars will be for your brand. Here is a process to help identify the right ones:
Get very clear on who your target audience is and what their interests, pain points, goals, and needs are. This provides the groundwork for creating pillars tailored specifically to them. Analyze past customer data, conduct surveys and interviews, and compile audience research to inform your pillars.
Evaluate Your Products/Services
Thoroughly examine what products or services you offer. Look at categories, varying use cases and applications, complementary offerings, and essentially how you serve customers. The pillars should intuitively map to what you provide.
Understand Your Business Goals
Keep your overarching business, content, and marketing goals in mind. The pillars should help move the needle on goals around brand awareness, capturing market share, generating leads, etc. Align to objectives.
Analyze Competitors Research competitors and see what content they produce. Look for gaps where you can create differentiated content around certain themes. your pillars don’t have to mirror theirs.
Leonardo.ai image prompt == A minimalist, flat design of a website homepage, with each content pillar represented by a unique shape.
Turning Pillars Into Content
Now that you have well-defined content pillars in place, the question becomes how do you turn those into an actual content strategy? Here are some tips:
Map out pillar-aligned content For each pillar, brainstorm the various types of content you could create — blogs, ebooks, videos, guides, etc. Map out ideas under each one. Look for gaps to fill.
Ensure a mix of formats Be sure to include a variety of content types across the pillars — not just blogs but also videos, tools, webinars, and more. Develop recurring features. Find opportunities for regular features or series under each pillar. These could be columns, Q&As, spotlights on customers, recurring segments in videos, etc.
Balance pillar focus. Aim to publish a fairly even number of content pieces per pillar rather than having all content live under just 1–2 pillars. Spread it out. Have a content calendar. Maintain an editorial calendar to plan and track pillar-based content across different mediums and formats. This helps spot gaps. Optimize over time. Continuously refine your approach to pillars. Swap underperforming pillars, adjust focus areas, and tailor to evolving interests.
Creating a steady drumbeat of content aligned back to pillars provides no shortage of benefits when it comes to engaging your audience. But to maximize the impact, there are a few other aspects of your strategy to consider. Promote the Pillars. Make sure each piece of content clearly conveys what pillar it aligns to through tags, categories, or other indicators on your site. Promote the pillars themselves through links, menus, etc.
Leonardo.ai prompt == A vibrant, hand-drawn illustration of a website homepage, with each content pillar represented by a unique symbol.
Connect Related Content.
Utilize links within content to connect readers to other articles that relate to that same pillar. This strengthens the theme.
By taking a pillars-driven approach to planning and distributing content, you can ensure a focused strategy tightly aligned with business goals. But consistency over time is key to realizing the benefits. Avoid shifting pillars constantly or allowing the focus to drift.
The pillars form the backbone of your efforts with the flexibility to evolve content within their frameworks. Take the time to get them right and then diligently develop high-quality content designed to achieve your objectives. This will lead to stronger engagement, greater brand authority, and a competitive edge.
But pillars alone don’t guarantee success. You need to research your audience and competitive landscape to identify the right ones. Then have a process for developing strong content aligned with those themes. And promote the pillars themselves so readers come to recognize the focused value your brand provides.
With the right pillars as your foundation, it becomes much easier to produce content that educates, engages, and converts. Content pillars should serve as the strategic groundwork upon which your content marketing efforts are built. Take the time to define them and then align your team, creative efforts, production, and distribution around these central themes.
This will transform scattered content activities into a cohesive strategy with a far greater ability to attract your ideal customers and achieve business objectives. So leverage the power of content pillars to build a solid foundation for content marketing success.
Further Steps in Creating Your Content Pillars
Narrow Down Selection Once you have an extensive list of possible pillars, it’s time to narrow it down. Look for overlaps or closely related pillars that could be combined into one broader bucket. Aim for 3–7 robust, distinct pillars.
Name Your Pillars Give each pillar a clear and descriptive name that summarizes the theme such as “Physical Health” or “Sustainable Living”. This helps keep the focus super clear. Describe Each Pillar Write an overview paragraph articulating what each pillar encompasses and what types of content would fall under it. This helps guide content development.
Revisit and Evolve Plan to re-evaluate pillars regularly to see if they need to be updated based on shifting company priorities or audience interests. Pillars can evolve over time.