Do you find yourself struggling to come up with content ideas? You’re not alone.

Many people find it challenging to come up with content topics that will be interesting for their audience and help them achieve their business goals.

That’s where content pillars come in!

So, today I’m going to explain what content pillars are and how to brainstorm them.

I’ll also give you a few tips on creating better content using your content pillars as a guide. Let’s go…

What are Content Pillars?

So, what are content pillars exactly?

You may have heard of them or been called by other names like ‘content buckets’ or ‘content themes’.

Content pillars are topics or ideas that you can focus on as the foundation of your content strategy.

They act as a guide for content creation and help you create content that is relevant, interesting, and valuable to your audience.

Why create content pillars?

Having pillars can be incredibly helpful for people to help simplify their content planning.

Identifying the core topics you need to create content about makes it easier to have a strong place to begin in your day-to-day content creation.

Not only are they great to have to refer back to when you’re stuck or planning future content. They also help keep you on track by not diverting too far from your key topics.

How many content pillars should you have?

Ok, so we now know what content pillars are and why they’re a great idea to have in place.

But you might be full of ideas and have lots of different things you want to talk about.

Your business may not be a single product, service or industry – so how do you narrow it down?

Well, a great rule of thumb is to aim for 3-5 pillars.

These are, ideally, topics that are related, so it’s not jarring for the audience when you jump from one to the other.

But equally narrow enough that they are specific and valuable.

Types of content to consider for your pillars

Another great way to approach creating content pillars is my ‘type’ of content.

Examples of types of content are:

• Educational (tips, ‘how-to’ guides, etc.)
• Promotional (selling your products/services specifically, promoting a sale, etc.)
• Community (local area, User Generated Content, etc.)
• Entertaining (memes, funny takes on the industry, etc.)
• Inspirational (motivational quotes, inspiring stories, testimonials, etc.)
• Culture (your business’ values, behind-the-scenes, etc.)
• Connection (relatable content, Q&As, etc.)
• Authority (thought-leadership content, positioning content, etc.)

You don’t want to use formats as content pillars, though – so stay away from that. While you do want a variety of formats, e.g. video, graphics, blogs etc., and they are an essential part of your strategy – they are not ‘content pillars’. 

Examples of good content pillars

Your content pillars are important to get right as they will be the foundation of all your marketing going forward.

Deciding on these specific 3-5 pillars can be hard to identify right away.

So if you’re like me, you’d appreciate a few examples to get your brain whirring before you try brainstorming a few for yourself.

Here are a few examples of content pillars for a few different fictional businesses.

Example: Vegan restaurant

An example of a ‘bad’ pillar would be ‘vegan’, as that’s not specific enough.

Instead, ‘vegan food’ might work, or if you only serve a certain kind of vegan food like falafel, then narrow right down to that.

Other pillar ideas may be the local area and community, recipe ideas and behind-the-scenes content.

Example: Zero-waste shop

‘Zero-waste’ in this instance may work as a pillar as it’s already quite a niche topic, but if you can go further.

Ideas are: zero-waste packaging, ‘how-to’ be zero-waste, zero-waste foods, and sustainability.

Example: Piano teacher

Again, ‘piano’ would be way too broad here. Instead, try pillars like ‘behind-the-scenes of piano lessons’, ‘basics of piano playing’, ‘piano tutorials’, and ‘fun with music’.

And lastly, I’ll spill my own pillars!

I have 5, but they sometimes overlap, which I find helpful. Mine are based around my services, as I am a service-based business, so I find this easier for my brain to process. Plus, it’s a handy reminder to promote each of my services regularly.

OK, here are my content pillars:

1. Authentic/ethical marketing
2. Content creation
3. Copywriting/Blogging
4. WordPress / Web Design
5. SEO

How to Brainstorm Your Content Pillars

You should base your content pillars on:

• your business goals
• what your ideal clients are searching for
• and what they’re interested in.

You can also use your service or product themes to help inspire your pillars.

This makes sense as you want to talk about the area they sit in to attract your ideal customers.

Have a look at your competitor’s content for inspiration on what kind of topics come up regularly, and do well with the audience.

Also, make sure to look at your own analytics and insights to see which topics of content have done well in the past, as these may be areas you want to focus on more.

To brainstorm your content pillars, you’ll want to answer these three questions:

What do my ideal clients need help with? (e.g. how to lose weight)

What is important to them? (e.g. eating healthier)

What are they curious about? (e.g. the best way to work out)

Tips for Creating Better Content and Content Pillars:

1. Once you have your content pillars, you can then create a content calendar around it.

The content calendar will outline what content you can create around each pillar and when it will be published.

2. Do make sure all of your content is relevant to your audience and provides value to them.

3. Try using different formats (e.g., blog posts, videos, infographics) to share your content because people want to consume differently.

Some people in your audience will prefer written content, while others prefer video content.

Test it out and see what works best and if a variety makes the most sense for your audience.

5. Include keywords and phrases related to your content pillars in your content to help you rank higher in search engine results pages.

6. When creating content around your content pillars, make sure that each piece of content is linked back to at least one of them.

This will help people understand your content pillars and why they’re essential.

Examples of some great content pillar strategies in action

Laura Belgray of Talking Shrimp

Laura is a hugely successful copywriter focusing on email copywriting, but that’s a pretty broad topic, isn’t it?

Some of her content pillars and main topics are: 

1. Being yourself as an entrepreneur
2. Using the power of your voice
3. Copy that sells
4. Sharing your story

 Her blog posts tie back to at least one of those topics, and sometimes more than one. 

Buffer

Buffer is a popular social media management platform with a great content strategy around its content pillars.

Their content pillars are: 

1. Creating great content
2. Marketing with social media
3. Saving time with your social media marketing
4. Social media advertising and paid campaigns

Creating content pillars is a fantastic way to organise your content ideas and create better content for your audience.

When you have a content strategy based on what your ideal clients are looking for, it becomes so much easier to come up with topics that will be of interest to them.

And when you focus on creating content that provides value, you’re more likely to see results and build your community.