5 Easy Steps to Creating Content Pillars for your Business

We usually talk about how Ads should be the marketing driving force of any business, and don’t get me wrong - they’re a game changer - but every business needs content. 

Whatever sector you are in, building a brand that people know, like and trust is key to the success of your business and great content is the key to this.

73% of B2B marketers think that blog posts are the most effective type of content to impact people who are in the awareness stage of the customer journey, yet only 27% think that their company is very successful or extremely successful at this, so there’s significant ground to be made on content. (The Content Marketing Institute)

Using a pillar system helps keep content creation focused and effective; it requires you to boil down the core message and the core audience, and then build a range of high quality content to effectively reach and resonate with your target audience. 

Your pillars are the load bearers of your content and communicate what is at the heart of your business. Imagine you were building a large structure, these pillars (or cornerstones) need to consist of the critical distinct areas that you specialise in; the content which establishes you as a go-to source of information within your industry. Around these core pillars you can add in other content which adds value at the time.

Here’s our 5 step checklist to creating your pillar content. 

1. Your business “raison d’être”

Why does your business exist and who does it serve? The easiest way to think of this is like an elevator pitch for your business, it should be compelling and specific and communicate what your business stands for. 

This can (and in all likelihood should) change over time, and as it does you’ll update the pillar content accordingly.

2. Identify your ideal client 

If you are going to speak clearly to your audience you need to understand them. We revisit this with every client we work with regardless of how established their marketing funnels are. Building out detailed personas of who the person is that they’d most like to connect with, their demographics, interests, shopping habits, brands they love, websites they visit, their goals and motivations. We give them a name and sense check every piece of content that goes out, confirming if [insert persona name] will find it informative, entertaining or engaging. 

3. Understand their key needs

Getting to grips with their most pressing pain points, empathising and offering a solution to those (that fits with your raison d’être) is really the goal of your content pillars. 

So how do you understand their needs? Research. There are all sorts of tools that can be deployed but in essence you are looking to use your analytics to see what is currently working, look closely at your competitors messaging and socials.

Also checking in on reviews and feedback (particularly anything negative!) and tuning into your frequently asked questions will reveal what your audience are looking for and/or missing.

4. Structure your content pillars. 

You will have great ideas, based on the above, for cracking content, so now you just need to pay attention to the structure. 

What format will get your audience to tune in - from original research and white papers to checklists, how-to guides to worksheets, stat heavy or creative heavy - there’ll be a format that you gravitate towards, but just make sure you are thinking of the end user rather than yourself. If in doubt - test and measure! 

Remind yourself of point 1 and ensure that you have a consistent tone of voice with your audience.

The Headline is crucial - it needs to entice people to get to the good stuff, so ensure it’s catchy and informative. 

Make sure that your articles flow well, and are easy on the eye with paragraph breaks, headings, infographics, images and bullets breaking up masses of text. 

Think about any call to action or hooks that you want to incorporate based on the next step that you want them to take but remember that building affinity, awareness and authority all take time.

5. Promote

Once you have content pillars in place you can build peripheral content around it and develop your comms further, but promote and use this core content wisely and it’ll serve you well. Ensure you are sharing it regularly, linking to it from all your comms and sponsoring paid ads to increase its reach. 

High quality pillar content delivers lots of value, it might need the occasional update but in essence it will be an evergreen resource for your business marketing. Getting your core content right is an investment in marketing that will pay off time and time again.