Your guide to understanding content pillars
Hearing the words “Content Pillars” might have you rolling your eyes.
It seems like it’s such a “buzzword” in the marketing industry right now. 🙄
Everyone’s ranting and raving about how content pillars “SAVED” their social media strategy (Okay, Gina…calm down).
And you’re sitting there thinking, “Okay, but what the hell are these ‘Content Pillars’, and why are they such a big deal? 🤷🏻♀️”
I am 100% against gatekeeping successful social media strategies.
I’m terrible at keeping secrets – so today, I’m spilling all the tea about exactly what these elusive “Content Pillars” are and how to make them work for your business.
Grab the crumpets!
“Content Pillars”
“Content buckets”
“Content categories”
WHATEVER you wanna call ‘em, they’re the bomb.com…okurrr 🎉🎉🎉
What Are “Content Pillars”?
Okay, so let’s get into it:
Content pillars: are categories in which you organize your social media content topics so that you can easily and quickly create content that will:
✅ Attract your ideal customer
✅ Reach your target audience
✅ Make sure that your content is working HARD for you.
Content pillars completely eradicate the need to produce content for content’s sake.
Why Content Pillars?
There are a lot of theories about how many content pillars a business “should” have.
Some say three, some say seven, but honestly, that choice is up to you. Recently, I’ve found my magic number is sticking to five pillars.
And trust me…I couldn’t survive without them. I’d be ripping out my hair like a madwoman.
Because whenever I go to create content I know exactly where to start.
I can just take a look at my five pillars and see which one needs a little attention and start there.
If I can’t fit content into one of the existing pillars it’s a really good sign that whatever I’ve come up with is not going to serve my purpose.
It’s a sign that I probably won’t reach my ideal target audience and provide valuable content
Having these pillars saves me SO. MUCH. TIME. ⏰ and if you know me…time is money chile!
I come up with content ideas much quicker and never waste time on content that won’t serve my ultimate goal.
Yes, while maybe I’d like to make some fluffy little posts about my new Netflix obsession (it’s You btw), content pillars remind me to save that for my stories.
My Five Content Pillars
Like I mentioned before, I use the five pillar method.
This is what I use in my own business, my clients’ businesses, and what I like to teach.
My reasoning behind this is to have one pillar for every day of the week.
“BUt JeNnIfEr thErE Are SEvEn DAyS iN a WeEk! 🤨 🤨 🤨”
But a girl’s gotta take her time for self-care (Plug Su Beauty)! 💅🏻
I want my weekends to play with my dog, so I just stick to a five-day workweek for both myself AND my clients (unless there is something specific you need me for on #SundayFunday).
And each of these five days has a specific pillar.
And friends, I like to think there’s some Freudian knowledge behind this.
Each pillar is aligned with a specific day based on how I think my audience will receive that content at that point in their workweek.
How to Come Up WIth Pillars For Your Biz
Like I said before, I am totally against gatekeeping successful social strategies.
What I recommend doing to come up with content pillars for your own business, is to take a look at the content you are already producing.
(The content that is working, of course…don’t waste my time or yours shawty!)
And try and categorize it into various pillars.
It’s all about turning it into a system that can help make your content creation process that much simpler.
Pro Tips For Your Sales Pillar
The reason why I keep harping on this sales pillar is that it is probably everyone’s LEAST favorite pillar – but perhaps the MOST important.
Here’s a little social media sales secret for you👇🏻
Your customer or client has to see what you do and who you are at least seven times before they make a purchase.
SEVEN TIMES.
So if you are avoiding being “salesy” and only posting once a month about your products you are gonna have to wait SEVEN months to make a sale from someone.
Don’t self-sabotage by staying away from the sales pillar out of fear of being too “salesy”
This sales pillar doesn’t have to be boring or salesy to be successful.
You can absolutely have fun with it. 💃🏻💃🏻
You can create memes, share testimonials, video reviews, and MORE, and pitch your products and services in a variety of creative ways.
Don’t bore your audience to tears in an effort to sell to them!
I sincerely hope this clears up all the confusion about what content pillars are and how they can literally save lives!!
They save mine every week!
There’s nothing I want more than for your content strategy to get easier and more streamlined.
I promise you that content pillars are an *essential* step to making that happen. ✅
Remember to start with the content you’ve already got going and don’t forget to include a sales pillar!
It’s time to STOP dreading content creation and START using content pillars.
Content buckets?
Content categories?
WHO CARES.
Call it what you like.
They are LIFE CHANGING. ⚡⚡
Looking for more content strategy solutions?
Book a FREE consultation call with me to discuss your social media strategy
Also what would be a Soraya Janae Blog without a FREEBIE! Check out my Content Pillar Worksheet!