If you're not always sure what to post on social media, it's so frustrating for you
to execute content efficiently and you're not sure how to attract the perfect audience,
I HAVE AN EASY SOLUTION FOR YOU.
Today, I'm talking about content pillars and how you can use them to quickly plan posts
that resonate with your audience.
Ready?
Let's do this!
Hi my lovely humans, it's Natalia, welcome to my channel where I share super actionable
ideas on content creation for entrepreneurs and creatives.
And today, I'll be sharing with you a great tactic to always know what to post, serve
your audience to the fullest and make your content creation process a breeze.
We're talking about CONTENT PILLARS.
You might have heard of this term before, because it is a bit of a marketing buzzword
these days, but if not, fear not, I'm hear to explain exactly what they are, why they're
important, how to identify them and how to use them strategically to up your content
game.
1.
What are content pillars
People call content pillars so many different things.
They are called content categories, content buckets, content pillars etc.
But essentially they mean the same thing.
These are the specific subjects that define your business and that resonate with your
audience.
Your content pillars should be clearly defined, focus around your business and what you offer
and signal to your audience what you are all about.
Now, let me tell you why they are so important to have
2.
Why are they important
- First of all, they make your life easier which I'll explain later on when I talk about
how to use them in your content creation so make sure to watch till the very end.
- Secondly, with content pillars, you can easily diversify your content so it doesn't
feel repetitive or boring to your audience.
Plus, you touch on all the different sides of your business in your content so nothing
gets left out.
- My favorite reason why you should use content pillars in your marketing is because they
really help you identify your niche and differentiate you from the crowd.
With these different categories, you stay on point and discuss all the crucial subjects
your audience if interested in and you are serving them in a way that's unique to who
you are and what your business does.
At the end of the day, by identifying your content pillars, your followers know exactly
what they can expect from you and your content is no longer all over the place.
- And finally, they're a great way to make sure you always have something to talk about
and rarely run out of ideas.
Again, you'll see very clearly why that is later on.
3.
How to identify them
In short, you do it by thinking about your business in the context of your audience.
- Start with the general category your business or brand sits at and all the different things
you offer.
What is the overarching theme and what are all the various sides of your business?
Then, think about what parts are forming that big subject.
For example, if you're a personal trainer, your main focus will be health & fitness.
But that's a very broad subject and there are so many things you could be talking about
there.
Starting with the obvious, you could talk about exercise and nutrition.
Then, you'll have various options depending on what you specialize in, what your personal
focus is set on and what kind of a client you want to attract.
This could be motivation, building muscles and achieving goals for people who want to
feel powerful and fuel their daily lives through exercise.
It could be weight loss and health psychology for those who want to reduce their body mass.
For people who want to find balance and heal themselves you could talk about mental health
& mindfulness.
And if you're a physical therapist as well as a personal trainer, you can include subjects
like injuries, rehab and recovery.
Of course your business may have different nuances to it, and it's best to tie it all
in with what you offer.
For example, if you do nutrition plans, it's important to talk about nutrition in your
content.
- You might have noticed I mentioned focusing on what kind of a client you want to attract
there.
Really take your time to think about who you're talking to through your content.
This should be outlined in your overall content marketing strategy and if you don't have one,
you need to check out this video here.
Speaking to the right people is crucial because that's the only way you can get actual results
with what you put out there.
Analyze your audience and make sure you know what interests them and what pain points bother
them so that you can be the one to alleviate them with your content.
If you only approach your content by thinking about the multiple sides of your business,
you risk hearing crickets on a daily basis.
Only by creating pillars that resonate with your audience can you really provide value
which in my opinion is what drives businesses forward.
And if you're already creating content, you can use that to your benefit and check your
analytics to see what content subjects perform best.
This can be a great indication as to what your audience enjoys most.
You can also ask them!
If you have a few ideas for content pillars, you can post these as a this or that poll
on your Instagram Stories for example.
Now, before we move on, let's talk about HOW MANY content pillars you need.
Well, here is where the opinions really differ and there are many approaches.
Some people advise having 3-6 while others preach about identifying AS MANY AS YOU CAN.
With the minimalistic approach, your content is very focused and your online presence seems
a bit more niched down which can arguably help you target the best people.
When your platform of choice is Instagram, some marketers say 9 to 12 is a great option
because they correlate with your feed grid.
Basically, when a person visits your profile, they tend to glance at your latest 9-12 posts
and your content pillars could be represented through the images you choose to post.
I tend to say around 6 pillars is enough to make your really focused but ultimately, the
decision is your own and will depend on what your business is about.
Make sense?
Great, let's move on to how you can put your pillars to good use.
4.
How you can use them
Now that you have your content pillars identified, your life is about to become so much easier.
They're a gateway to create content efficiently and consistently.
What you want to do next, is to lay them all out in columns on a piece of paper or in a
digital tool.
Now is the time to think of 10-15 different ideas for each of the pillars that you could
be discussing in your posts.
Sticking to the personal trainer example from before, you could have:
Now that you have all those different ideas, think about how often you want to post.
Let's say for this business, I'd like to post 5 times per week.
I can simply allocate each day for each content pillar and that makes the process almost effortless.
And by the way, this is how you can decide how many content pillars you need as well.
If you're posting every day, simply identify 7 different content pillars and your weekly
content plan is set.
For this one, we can talk about motivation on Monday, exercise on Tuesday, leaving out
Wednesdays, let's go for nutrition on Thursday, mindfulness on Friday and weight loss on Sunday.
Get a weekly spread in front of you and choose what schedule works for you best.
Then, it's only one step away from a fully fleshed out Content Calendar.
Simply allocate your different ideas from each pillar which we brainstormed earlier
and VOILA, your content plan is ready.
This way, you can create posts IN ADVANCE and schedule them which frees up all that
time for you to focus on your business.
Make sure you have a day set out for yourself to always add ideas to your content pillars
and plan content in intervals.
Now tell me, what content pillars have you identified for your business?
Let me know in the comments below what they are and how you're going to use them in your
marketing.
I have a video all about how I set up a content calendar so you can watch it next.
And by the way, my platform of choice is Notion but I share the whole process which is universal
so whether you want to use a pen and paper version, a physical planner or a digital tool
like Google Sheets or Trello, it's still going to be useful to you.
If you're not sure how to identify what your audience wants to hear about, check out my
content marketing strategy video where I explain in detail how to build an effective one yourself.
Subscribe to my channel for more content like this and if you're a fan of the content pillar
strategy, hit that like button.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you...
next taaam!