No matter how advanced our social media marketing strategies become, they will always have content at their core. The style and tone of our creations dictate our brand identity, our audience, and our success. In recent years, we’ve had to raise the quality of our social media posts while pumping out more content than ever before.
Content pillars have been the cornerstone of many successful social media marketing strategies, and it’s worth understanding how they work. Let’s take a look at what these pillars are and how you can leverage them for higher social media engagement.
Table of Contents
What’s a Content Pillar?
There are two main ways to define a content pillar. Some people use the narrow definition of any substantial and informative piece of content on a specific topic or about a specific theme. You can break this large piece of content into derivative sections that can be posted independently.
The broader definition looks at a content pillar like a pillar of your brand and social media strategy. You can call it a content bucket or a content category, but the bottom line is that they’re one of the few broad topics your brand will consistently discuss and amplify. Most companies have three to five content pillars that they use to reinforce their brand message.
It doesn’t have to be something literal like a feature you offer in your products. It can also be an idea you want your brand to associate with. For example, Nike uses empowerment and inspiration aside from their traditional athletic focus as a content pillar for marketing. They’ve adopted that message and created products that support it. Nike has led the market in athletic clothes for plus-sized women and shouldered the burden of female empowerment in the sporting world. This gives them a consistent topic for content creation that promotes their product, their message, and their brand.
How Do You Pick a Content Pillar?
Considering you’ll be using this theme for a while, you want to put some thought and research into content pillars for your brand.
Finalize Your Brand Identity
The content you create mustn’t clash with your business practices and your brand message. Use all the information at your disposal to figure out what your company stands for and then reinforce the idea. Alternatively, you should take into account the content your customer base likes most and align yourself with that theme.
Align With the Audience
Market research is your best friend when it comes to business decisions. Conduct a survey, analyze your competitors, and rank the existing content online in terms of engagement. Once you have all the numbers in front of you, you’ll be able to recognize popular trends and noticeable gaps in the market. Leverage this data to create a brand that melts into the status quo and takes a chunk out of the market share. Alternatively, pick something that disrupts the market and drives people to you. Either way, customer desires should rank pretty high on your list of priorities.
Create Pillar Content
For each theme that you create, develop high-quality cornerstone content. Companies often use a landing page for content that ranks highest on Google Search to direct traffic to their website. Most of the short-form content you create should originate from this pillar or reference it in some way.
Improving Your Marketing Strategy with Content Pillars
Here is how you can improve your marketing strategy with content pillars:
Consistent Messaging Across Platforms
Consistency builds customer loyalty. If customers are confident you won’t change your business practices or your message, they’re more likely to return. Content pillars make sure you’re consistent because the source material for all your content stays the same (your cornerstone content, usually a redirect to your website).
You may have heard the term ‘omni-channel marketing’ recently – it refers to a company’s presence on multiple marketing platforms. Content pillars allow for seamless integrations of a marketing strategy across all social media platforms, your website, and your email marketing strategy. A strong and consistent content pillar is an asset for all your marketing efforts.
SEO Optimization
Search engines are designed to reward focused and well-organized content. When you have a centralized theme across your website and your social media, it makes it easier for the engine to understand and index your content. You can leverage this concept for a higher ranking and drive more traffic to your content.
Audience Engagement
If you follow the right steps, your content pillars will reflect the popular mindset of your audience. In doing so, you create a roadmap for your customers to engage with you and your content. You can foster deeper connections with the customers and build customer loyalty. It gives you a chance to cater to the audiences’ specific needs. If they begin sharing your content to demonstrate their own beliefs, you get free advertisement and become an industry thought leader.
Any marketing strategy worth its salt recognizes the central role social media plays in e-commerce nowadays. You should be looking for ways to make the most of this marketing device. Content pillars can become the backbone of all the content you create and protect your brand from inconsistency. Even if you don’t market on social media, content pillars help you maintain a consistent brand message.
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FAQs
- What are content pillars in marketing?
Content pillars are broad themes or topics that a brand consistently focuses on to create valuable content and reinforce its core message.
- How do content pillars improve social media engagement?
By creating consistent and relevant content around specific themes, you help your audience connect with your brand, fostering deeper engagement and loyalty.
- How many content pillars should a brand have?
Most brands use between three to five content pillars, focusing on key topics that align with their values and audience needs.
- Can content pillars help with SEO?
Yes, a strong content pillar strategy helps with SEO by organizing content around focused themes, making it easier for search engines to understand and rank.
- How do I choose the right content pillars for my brand?
Start by understanding your brand identity and audience, then use market research to identify themes that resonate with your target audience while reinforcing your brand message.
