If you're not always sure what to post on
social media, it's so frustrating for you to execute content efficiently and you're
not sure how to attract the perfect audience, I HAVE AN EASY SOLUTION FOR YOU. Today, I'm talking about content pillars and
how you can use them to quickly plan posts that resonate with your audience. Ready? Let's do this! Hi my lovely humans, it's Natalia, welcome
to my channel where I share super actionable ideas on content creation for entrepreneurs
and creatives. And today, I'll be sharing with you a great
tactic to always know what to post, serve your audience to the fullest and make your
content creation process a breeze. We're talking about CONTENT PILLARS. You might have heard of this term before,
because it is a bit of a marketing buzzword these days, but if not, fear not, I'm hear
to explain exactly what they are, why they're important, how to identify them and how to
use them strategically to up your content game. 1. What are content pillars People call content pillars so many different
things. They are called content categories, content
buckets, content pillars etc. But essentially they mean the same thing. These are the specific subjects that define
your business and that resonate with your audience. Your content pillars should be clearly defined,
focus around your business and what you offer and signal to your audience what you are all
about. Now, let me tell you why they are so important
to have 2. Why are they important - First of all, they make your life easier
which I'll explain later on when I talk about how to use them in your content creation so
make sure to watch till the very end. - Secondly, with content pillars, you can
easily diversify your content so it doesn't feel repetitive or boring to your audience. Plus, you touch on all the different sides
of your business in your content so nothing gets left out. - My favorite reason why you should use content
pillars in your marketing is because they really help you identify your niche and differentiate
you from the crowd. With these different categories, you stay
on point and discuss all the crucial subjects your audience if interested in and you are
serving them in a way that's unique to who you are and what your business does. At the end of the day, by identifying your
content pillars, your followers know exactly what they can expect from you and your content
is no longer all over the place. - And finally, they're a great way to make
sure you always have something to talk about and rarely run out of ideas. Again, you'll see very clearly why that is
later on. 3. How to identify them In short, you do it by thinking about your
business in the context of your audience. - Start with the general category your business
or brand sits at and all the different things you offer. What is the overarching theme and what are
all the various sides of your business? Then, think about what parts are forming that
big subject. For example, if you're a personal trainer,
your main focus will be health & fitness. But that's a very broad subject and there
are so many things you could be talking about there. Starting with the obvious, you could talk
about exercise and nutrition. Then, you'll have various options depending
on what you specialize in, what your personal focus is set on and what kind of a client
you want to attract. This could be motivation, building muscles
and achieving goals for people who want to feel powerful and fuel their daily lives through
exercise. It could be weight loss and health psychology
for those who want to reduce their body mass. For people who want to find balance and heal
themselves you could talk about mental health & mindfulness. And if you're a physical therapist as well
as a personal trainer, you can include subjects like injuries, rehab and recovery. Of course your business may have different
nuances to it, and it's best to tie it all in with what you offer. For example, if you do nutrition plans, it's
important to talk about nutrition in your content. - You might have noticed I mentioned focusing
on what kind of a client you want to attract there. Really take your time to think about who you're
talking to through your content. This should be outlined in your overall content
marketing strategy and if you don't have one, you need to check out this video here. Speaking to the right people is crucial because
that's the only way you can get actual results with what you put out there. Analyze your audience and make sure you know
what interests them and what pain points bother them so that you can be the one to alleviate
them with your content. If you only approach your content by thinking
about the multiple sides of your business, you risk hearing crickets on a daily basis. Only by creating pillars that resonate with
your audience can you really provide value which in my opinion is what drives businesses
forward. And if you're already creating content, you
can use that to your benefit and check your analytics to see what content subjects perform
best. This can be a great indication as to what
your audience enjoys most. You can also ask them! If you have a few ideas for content pillars,
you can post these as a this or that poll on your Instagram Stories for example. Now, before we move on, let's talk about HOW
MANY content pillars you need. Well, here is where the opinions really differ
and there are many approaches. Some people advise having 3-6 while others
preach about identifying AS MANY AS YOU CAN. With the minimalistic approach, your content
is very focused and your online presence seems a bit more niched down which can arguably
help you target the best people. When your platform of choice is Instagram,
some marketers say 9 to 12 is a great option because they correlate with your feed grid. Basically, when a person visits your profile,
they tend to glance at your latest 9-12 posts and your content pillars could be represented
through the images you choose to post. I tend to say around 6 pillars is enough to
make your really focused but ultimately, the decision is your own and will depend on what
your business is about. Make sense? Great, let's move on to how you can put your
pillars to good use. 4. How you can use them Now that you have your content pillars identified,
your life is about to become so much easier. They're a gateway to create content efficiently
and consistently. What you want to do next, is to lay them all
out in columns on a piece of paper or in a digital tool. Now is the time to think of 10-15 different
ideas for each of the pillars that you could be discussing in your posts. Sticking to the personal trainer example from
before, you could have: Now that you have all those different ideas,
think about how often you want to post. Let's say for this business, I'd like to post
5 times per week. I can simply allocate each day for each content
pillar and that makes the process almost effortless. And by the way, this is how you can decide
how many content pillars you need as well. If you're posting every day, simply identify
7 different content pillars and your weekly content plan is set. For this one, we can talk about motivation
on Monday, exercise on Tuesday, leaving out Wednesdays, let's go for nutrition on Thursday,
mindfulness on Friday and weight loss on Sunday. Get a weekly spread in front of you and choose
what schedule works for you best. Then, it's only one step away from a fully
fleshed out Content Calendar. Simply allocate your different ideas from
each pillar which we brainstormed earlier and VOILA, your content plan is ready. This way, you can create posts IN ADVANCE
and schedule them which frees up all that time for you to focus on your business. Make sure you have a day set out for yourself
to always add ideas to your content pillars and plan content in intervals. Now tell me, what content pillars have you
identified for your business? Let me know in the comments below what they
are and how you're going to use them in your marketing. I have a video all about how I set up a content
calendar so you can watch it next. And by the way, my platform of choice is Notion
but I share the whole process which is universal so whether you want to use a pen and paper
version, a physical planner or a digital tool like Google Sheets or Trello, it's still going
to be useful to you. If you're not sure how to identify what your
audience wants to hear about, check out my content marketing strategy video where I explain
in detail how to build an effective one yourself. Subscribe to my channel for more content like
this and if you're a fan of the content pillar strategy, hit that like button. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see
you... next taaam!
