Getting your content seen by the right audience is the goal of any marketer. It’s about creating great content that informs and entertains, but more importantly, it’s relevant.
That’s always been a challenge when creating content. It may be beautifully written but if your audience isn’t looking for it, then it won’t drive traffic or generate leads – even with a data capture asset on offer.
But it’s not just about your human audience, you need to also consider algorithms. That not only means search engines but also social media, platforms that people are now using as recommendation engines.
That’s why you need to create content pillars. They are the foundation of a successful content marketing plan as they help drive organic traffic and rank on search engines.
What are content pillars?
Content pillars are the themes around which all of your content will cluster. They are core topics that are relevant to your business and promote the products or services and values of your company.
The aim of using content pillars is to cover key themes in-depth to demonstrate expertise. You will post these topics on your website, social media and any other relevant platforms to drive traffic.
” To create your content pillars, think about how you want to be perceived as a brand. What are people interested in that you have to talk about? “
Why are content pillars important?
It’s impossible to cover every keyword or key phrase that relates to your audience. What you need to do is cover the topics and keywords that count and convert (and tie into your SEO strategy). Content pillars enable you to do that.
Content pillars are important because they:
- Help you build authority
- Drive organic traffic
- Engage your audience
- Help generate conversions
- Improve search rankings
- Tap into the Google E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) ranking factor
- Help cultivate your brand’s voice
- Attract high-quality backlinks
- Link relevant internal content
Content pillars vs. topic clusters – what’s the difference?
There can be confusion around the difference between a content pillar and a topic cluster (also known as the hub-and-spoke model).
While content pillars (hubs) are the key themes a content strategy focuses on, topic clusters (or spokes) are what links to the core content. These sub-topics dive deeper into different aspects of the content but are connected back to the pillar/hub content (creating the opportunity to create internal links).
For example, let’s say your furniture company decides that outdoor furniture is one of its content pillars. You might create a topic cluster with the pillar page being “The Ultimate Guide to Outdoor Furniture.” Supporting cluster content could include blogs (or spokes) like “How to Choose the Right Patio Set,” and “Top Materials for Weather-Resistant Outdoor Furniture,” all of which link back to the pillar page.
This cluster could look something like this:
How do you create content pillars?
As content pillars are related to searcher intent, it’s important to create your content pillars around your audience. Review your buyer personas to see who you need to talk to and what their pain points are. If you don’t know your personas, start by researching them!
Top-performing content can also help to select your content pillars. Review the content that resonated with your audience. Metrics like click-through and engagement can help you create a picture.
You should also look at performance across channels, don’t just limit yourself to blogs or social media. Use GA4 to see what your top digital marketing channels are and review performance. Paid search or email can give insights you may not be aware of.
Also, consider existing content for your content pillars. If you have a top-performing blog on a pillar topic already, update it to reflect new developments or include new links. Conduct a content audit to see what’s there already.
Keyword research is crucial in content marketing. If you understand what people are searching for and are interested in it can help dictate your content. There are a lot of keyword research tools out there to help (plus some great AI ones…. more on that below).
Make sure to consider search volume and keyword difficulty to know how easy or difficult it will be to rank for that keyword or phrase.
Once you know your audience and understand the content they want, it’s time to develop a content pillar strategy. Identify your pillars (no more than four) as you don’t want to focus on too many topics or dilute your content.
You should then identify sub-topics or topic clusters that feed into the pillar. All of the content should then be linked internally to help build authority and create a linking strategy.
Take time to brainstorm at this stage, not every idea will be a good one, so put the ideas down and then let them sit for a while. Involve other team members or stakeholders that you feel could add to the process or bring a new perspective.
How can you use AI to develop content pillars?
AI is widely used for content ideation and generation. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude can produce content based on any topic based on prompts.
These generative AI tools are also a great way to get started with content ideas, particularly if you are stuck on a topic or experiencing the dreaded writer’s block. You can use them to develop your initial content idea and spur creativity.
To make the best use of AI tools here are some simple guidelines:
1. Start with a strong premise
Have a clear idea of your purpose for the content brainstorm and then experiment with different prompts. The more specific your prompt is, the more focused the chatbot response will be.
Sample prompt:
My main topic is outdoor furniture. Suggest between 3 and 8 content pillars. These core themes will be what all of my content will cluster around, to demonstrate our depth of expertise to both the human audience and content recommendation algorithms such as Google Search and TikTok.
Present the content pillars in a table. The first column header is ‘Pillars’, and each row describes a pillar. The second column header is ‘Topics’. This describes the key sub-topics that comprise that pillar. These may be somewhat like what we would in SEO call keywords. Format the topics cell as a dashed un-numbered list.
2. Use modifiers to extract different results
Ask the AI tool to offer “10 unusual ideas for x” and then “10 creative ideas for x” to see which leads you to the best answers.
3. Ask for a different perspective
Tell it to assume the perspective of a customer, for example, and see how it responds to your ideas.
4. Consider all channels
The AI tool can also come up with ideas for posts for different social media platforms as well as email newsletters..
5. Ask for first drafts
If you have an idea you would like to explore, ask the tool to generate a longer draft. This will help you see any challenges or areas to expand on the idea.
However, don’t let these tools write the content for you. Instead, let them help you organize your ideas, prompt your creativity, and expand your research. In the end, you have to create the final content if you want it to have the human touch and channel the voice of your brand.
3 great examples of content pillars
Here are three examples of content pillars some successful brands are using to direct and amplify their content across channels.
Patagonia
Content pillars: outdoor lifestyle and sports, environmental activism, sustainability
This outdoor clothing company is as well known for its well-made clothes as it is for its commitment to sustainability. Patagonia’s founder is an outspoken and committed environmental activist and this is embedded across the company as its core value.
This appeals to consumers who want to support a company that wants to enhance society and be part of a like-minded community.
Dove
Content pillars: beauty and skincare, empowerment and self-esteem, inclusion and diversity
Dove is a power player in the beauty industry. While it has a wide range of beauty products, it’s the message the company consistently puts out across marketing channels that makes it so popular and successful.
With a focus on building self esteem, empowerment and embracing diversity, Dove creates marketing campaigns that focus on their core values (and content pillars) and often grab the media’s attention. They focus on what their brand stands for and keep that message consistent, understanding that it also helps sell products.
Innocent Drinks
Content pillars: healthy drinks and food, community, sustainability.
Innocent Drinks exploded onto the scene in 1999 with its fruit smoothies, a novelty at the time for many consumers. Its communications on social media and beyond are well-known for being funny and entertaining which gives the brand a recognizable tone and voice.
Along with a focus on health – expanding to produce some foods – Innocent Drinks is committed to the community demonstrated by its hugely successful ‘Big Knit’ campaign to raise money for Age UK. In recent years they have also focused on sustainability becoming a B Corp organization in 2018.
