When developing content for digital marketing campaigns, one of the most important things to consider is the reader. What do they want? What do they need? What do they feel passionate about? These are all questions you need to ask yourself, but ones that are trickier to answer. There are a variety of tools and techniques that can help you better understand your audience’s needs and wants. One of the most effective (and free) tools is content pillars.
What are content pillars? Simply put, content pillars are the building blocks of content. They can be used to structure an article or a blog post. Essentially, they serve as an organizational tool for content creators. Let’s explore how to develop content pillars for your marketing.
What Are Content Pillars?
Put yourself in the shoes of a content consumer for a minute. When you browse social media, you’ll often see posts encouraging you to click a link or watch a video about a certain product. Many brands are using content to grow and engage with their audiences, and they’re doing this by offering value, consistently delivering on brand promises, and connecting with key stakeholders.
This strategy makes complete sense. When you see a post that’s valuable to you as a consumer, you’ll naturally want to click on the link to find out more. At that point, the brand has delivered on its promise to provide valuable content and the consumer has performed a valuable task by taking action.
Why Do I Need To Create Content Pillars For My Marketing Strategy?
If you’re looking to take your marketing to the next level, you’re going to want to create content pillars. A content pillar is simply a set of content strategies, organized around a specific theme, that you use to connect with and engage with your audiences. For example, if you’re using video content to connect with and engage with your target audience, you might want to create a content pillar around visual storytelling or using charts and graphs to illustrate complex ideas.
While creating content pillars is important for any marketer, it’s particularly vital for those who are looking to take their marketing to the next level. When you have clear-cut pillars in place, you can ensure that your content strategies are aligned, and you’re not wasting your time creating content that doesn’t serve a specific purpose. It’s also a good idea to create a content pillar for each major area of your business. For example, you might want to create a pillar for SEO, PPC (Pay Per Click), and content creation, if those are areas of your business.
How Do I Create Content Pillars For My Marketing Strategy?
While it’s important to have a plan in place before you begin creating content, you won’t be able to create content pillars without first having a clear idea of what you’re trying to achieve. Start by identifying the major areas of your business, like SEO, PPC, or content creation, and create a simple to-do list for each.
For each area on your to-do list, you’ll need to think of what content you should create, in order to effectively approach your target audience and grow your business. Once you have a to-do list for each area, you can start to create detailed plan for each content strategy.
Here are some examples of content strategies that you might want to include in your content pillar:
- An informative blog post on SEO
- A short video on visual storytelling
- A podcast on being a successful entrepreneur
- An infographics pack on the different types of consumers you serve
- A cheat sheet for new journalists who want to write about your industry
- An SEO FAQ guide to help your target audience understand the basics of SEO
- A guide to PPC for beginners
The Difference In Quality
One of the main differences between having a few pieces of content and having a full-blown content strategy is the level of effort that went into each one. If you have a few well-written blog posts, it usually means that you didn’t have a clear plan and you just threw some content up on your blog without thinking much about the strategy behind it. If you instead have a content strategy, you’re going to want to make sure that each content piece is of high quality and serves a specific purpose.
If you’re looking to create a blog post, it’s important to consider what kind of quality you need. You might want to hire a freelance copywriter to take care of all your content if you’re not a skilled writer yourself. If your blog post is going to be used to attract potential customers, you might want to hire a professional photographer to take an eye-catching picture of the article.
The Difference In Planning
Blog posts that don’t have a clear plan don’t usually work as well as those that do. A lot of the content that you see on social media consists of sporadic pieces of content that don’t connect with each other. If you want your content to be more effective and be used as a platform to communicate important messages to your target audience, you need to have a plan for each piece of content you create.
When you have a plan for each content piece you create, it’s much easier to be more strategic about the content you generate and how you use it. For example, you might want to create a blog post that’s designed to attract people who work in a certain industry or live in a certain geographic area. That way, when your target audience sees your post, they’ll know exactly what you’re trying to communicate and why you wrote the post.
Include a call to action in each piece of content you create as well. This will help potential customers know exactly what you’re offering and how they can get it.
The Difference In Audience
Your target audience is one of the main factors that determine what content you should create. Each piece of content you create should serve a purpose for attracting and engaging that audience. If you can’t connect with your target audience via social media, you might want to consider creating a landing page or conducting an online survey to get input from potential customers about the types of content you should create.
Your target audience will have different needs and desires depending on their situation. If you want to create content that appeals to parents, you might want to look into content for younger audiences or create a parenting blog.
If your target audience is information seekers, you might want to consider creating an informative blog or a microblog about your industry. Informative blogs aren’t going anywhere, so you won’t have to worry about maintaining them as your business grows.
How Do I Measure The Success Of My Content Strategy?
Blogs that don’t get updated don’t usually get read. If you want to see how effective your content strategy is, you need to measure its success.
If you follow the above steps, you’ll be able to create content that serves a purpose and doesn’t just exist to exist. In the end, you’ll be able to measure the effectiveness of your content strategy the same way you measure the effectiveness of any other advertising or marketing effort: by tracking sales.
The Anatomy Of A Content Pillar
Like most organizational tools, content pillars can be used for a variety of purposes. They can be used to guide the writing process by structuring an article. They can be employed to summarize the main ideas in a blog post. They can be used to outline a product review. All of these examples illustrate how content pillars can be applied in some fashion to content creation. Let’s take a closer look at how they’re put into practice.
To start, divide your content creation project into manageable pieces. For example, if you’re reviewing multiple products, break down each product review into its own piece of content. Each content piece should include a brief overview of the product, why someone might want it, and a summary of the key features. Consider using H1, H2, and H3 headers to create an outline for your content. While this may look like verbose content, it will help you organize your ideas and determine the hierarchy of the content.
Next, make a list of the topics you’ll address in your content. You can use a website like Buzzsumo, Search Engine Journal, or Google Trends to get a sense of the current trends in your niche. Consider using these tools to pinpoint the types of content people are interested in reading and to establish a content strategy.
Why Use Content Pillars?
As you’re probably aware, the world of digital marketing is ever-changing. The way people find relevant information and engage with content is evolving and changing as well. Today, consumers have an ever-increasing amount of choice when it comes to what to read and when. In the age of the influencer, the famous blogger, and the meme, people are used to being able to find content that suits their interests. With the increased popularity of voice-based search, customers can be confident that when they type in a query, they’ll get back exactly what they want.
The challenge for marketers now is determining what people want, not just what they need. If a company doesn’t actively reach out to its audience, it risks becoming obsolete. Fortunately, the demand for marketing content and expertise isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the role of the marketer. This is why marketers should be considering the content pillars for their content strategy.
With the right content and a solid content strategy, marketers can be confident that they’re providing the right message to the right audience at the right time. This, in turn, can boost brand awareness and drive leads and sales.
When it comes to creating content for marketing campaigns, a content strategist might suggest using a process known as content discovery. This is a phase where you systematically go through all the available content and identify the topics that are most relevant to a particular audience. With the information gained from content discovery, you can craft an editorial calendar, choosing which topics you’ll cover and when, based on the best fit between your content and the target audience. Doing this can allow you to create a more tailored message and, in turn, improve the performance of your campaign.
Creating A Metadata-rich Schedule
Whether you create articles, blog posts, or videos, you’ll need to provide adequate detail in your metadata for it to be searchable. This is a set of data about the content that makes it easier for others to find and consume your content. If you have a huge campaign already in the works, you might want to create a schedule for each type of content you’ll be creating and ensure that each piece of content meets the required criteria. This can help you avoid publishing duplicate content and ensure that your content is as useful as possible for your target audience. It will also help search engines like Google and Bing index your content more easily. In creating a schedule, you’ll need to consider several factors including the required word count, the frequency of the content, and the dates the content will be published. If you’re looking for more detail, you can check this Guide from HubSpot on how to create a publishing schedule.
Developing The Right Keywords
When it comes to SEO, keywords are everything. Without them, your content may remain hidden in the depths of the web, accessible only to people with the specific search terms you’ve labeled it with. When developing your content strategy, you’ll need to consider the keywords people are using to find content like yours, as well as the keywords people are using to find your competitors’ content. In developing your lists of keywords, make sure you focus on the terms that are most relevant to your target audience. Once you have a list of keywords you think are relevant to your content, you can begin to build a keyword strategy for SEO. This will help you better manage your content’s searchability. While there’s no exact science to keyword research, performing extensive competitive analysis and analyzing the positions of your top competitors will help you gain a better grasp of what keywords to target and how to use them effectively in your content.
Use Analytics To Its Full Potential
As a marketer, you most likely already use analytics to some extent to track the performance of your marketing campaigns. Analytics provide you with a clear view of how people are interacting with your content, the various platforms they’re consuming it on, and the keywords they’re using to find it. In addition, you can use analytics to track the performance of specific campaigns, allowing you to make adjustments and find the best performing content assets. For these reasons, you should be using analytics to its fullest potential whenever you create content. The more you know, the better you can improve your content strategy.
To use analytics to its potential, you’ll need to consider several factors. First, you’ll need to set up automated reports so you can track specific metrics throughout the year. Second, you’ll need to ensure that the data you’re collecting is of good quality by setting up rules for the collection and screening of the data. Third, you’ll need to take the time to analyze the data you’ve collected and identify trends and opportunities. Fourth, you’ll need to consider how you can integrate the data you’ve collected into future campaigns. Finally, you’ll need to review, evaluate, and iterate your content strategy on a regular basis.
Benefits Of Having Content Pillars
Having content pillars is extremely useful. You can use content pillars to create a framework for your content and easily navigate your way through your blog posts. They can also be used to establish a distinct identity and theme for your content. This article will discuss the many benefits that come with using content pillars.
Organized Layout
One of the primary benefits of having content pillars is that it guides and organizes your content. Since you already established the general theme and layout for your blog, all you have to do is fill it up with content. If you find that your content is naturally flowing and that you don’t have to establish separate themes for each type of content, then this is a good sign that your content is well-ordered and easily accessible. You can also leave a bit of white space at the top of each post to indicate that there is more content to come.
Distinctive Identity
Content pillars are useful in establishing a distinct identity for your blog. They provide you with a clear framework for your content and allow you to easily convey the overall message or theme of your blog. If you want your content to have a specific style and you don’t want to clutter it with other elements, then content pillars are a great option. You can use the content from your blog post to create content that is easy to understand and memorable. Additionally, you can use a tool like AisleRabbit to create and manage product lists, such as the featured products listed below.
Conclusion
With these tools and tips in mind, you’ll be able to develop content pillars for your marketing with ease. When done correctly, this can result in more effective and targeted campaigns that, in turn, can boost lead generation and sales. With some planning and research, you’ll be able to develop a content strategy that helps your business flourish in today’s ever-changing world of marketing.
