Let’s Uncomplicate Your Content Pillars Together
My most unpopular marketing opinion is that I don't actually think content pillars are even half as deep as some marketers make out.
Content pillars are useful. We all need them. They're one of the first things I think about when I'm putting together a content strategy because they make planning easier, keep your messaging consistent, and stop you waking up every Monday morning wondering what you're supposed to post this week.
But somewhere along the way they've become known as this complex marketing concept that can single-handedly make or break a content strategy, when actually, it’s not that intense.
They’re just a really really good planning tool.
And when you use them as such, you’ll get way more value out of them.
Let’s get real. What are content pillars?
Strip away all the marketing jargon, and content pillars just a handful of topics you've decided you want to keep talking about.
That's quite literally it.
They’re the foundations of everything you post. The themes and topics you want people to associate you with. The key pillars that underpin through your content, that should always underpin your content, whether you're putting something educational out there, building authority, or selling your services.
They don’t make up your entire strategy, or at least not the way I do them, anwyway.
They’re more like guardrails for posting. They stop you wandering too far off course when you’re jumping on trends, sharing your opinions, or reacting to industry news .
Having clear, defined content pillars make it easy to check everything you post, and ultimately give you permission to focus your attention on the things that matter. So that when something comes up and you’re unsure, you can refer back, then say "no thanks. That’s not a conversation I need to own" where necessary.
Content pillars are how you become known for something.
They have a much, much better use, too. Recognition.
Imagine someone follows you for a month. By the end of that month, they should have a really clear picture of what you're about. They should know what problems you solve, what your expertise is and, ideally, what they'd hire you for.
That's hard to achieve if one day you're talking about productivity, the next day you're reviewing your favourite coffee shop, then you're posting inspirational quotes because it's Monday, then you’re talking about one of your services, before finally rounding off the week with something completely unrelated because it happened to be trending.
Content pillars narrow your focus. They help you repeat yourself, which is a very, very good thing. The best brands repeat themselves all the time. They just find fresh ways of saying the same things.
That's how you become recognisable.
A quick exercise to help you find yours
Lucky for you, finding them can be simple. (It’s putting them to work that get’s complicated. But we’re not there yet).
So grab a pen and paper or your notes app, and jot down honest answers to the following questions:
Who are you?
What do you actually do?
Who do you help?
What problem do you solve?
In what specific area of your work do your expertise actually lie?
Why are you different from the next person doing the same job?
What services or products do you actually want people to hire or buy from you?
Once you've got those answers in front of you, start looking for the themes within them. What conversations should you be having so that your answers above come across to your audience? What three or four topics make most sense for you to be talking about, with the above answers in mind. Mine, for example, are:
Write Better
Sound Better
Show Up Better
Every blog I write, every LinkedIn post I publish, every newsletter I send and every workshop I deliver sits comfortably within one of those three conversations. And they broadly align with the services I offer, from copywriting (write better), all the way to tone of voice work (sound better), and content strategy, training, and consultancy (show up better).
They're broad enough that I never feel boxed in. They’re not handcuffs. I can post behind the scenes from a training day, share my writing desk set-up on my WFH days, jump on an Instagram trend, or react to pop culture news when someone’s ad has gone terribly, terribly wrong. I can show personality.
But they’re also specific enough that they stop me drifting into topics that don't make sense for me. I know I don’t need to share motivational quotes about freelancing, for example, because that’s not the area in which I want to build authority.
What a decent content pillar looks like
There are a few markers of a content pillar that’s worth your while.
It should:
Connect back to something you actually offer
Give you enough room to share stories, opinions, tutorials, mistakes, behind-the-scenes moments and educational content about one specific topic
Be as specific to you and your area of expertise as possible
And crucially, it should not:
Just be about sales. You want to talk about opinions, tips, updates, education around the service or product you offer. The whole pillar isn’t just that you offer it.
Be something you confuse with a format or style of post. “Tips” or “Educational posts” might be formats you try out, but they’re not your content pillars.
Be something you tell the world. Pillars are for you and your marketing team to use internally. Your audience doesn’t need to know about them, they just need to see the results of defining them in action.
The whole idea is that you’re using content pillars to reinforce to your audience exactly what your business does.
What happens when you’ve got them...
Hear me when I say this. Finding your content pillars is only the beginning.
Once you've got them, the real work starts. And that’s where a decent strategy (or strategist) comes into play. You need to work out how those conversations come to life across different platforms, what formats suit your audience, how often you're realistically going to show up, and how to keep your topics fresh.
Think of it like this. Your pillars tell you what you're talking about. Your strategy decides how you're going to make people care.