This blog post has been researched, edited, and approved by expert Hannah Peake. Join our newsletter below to get our free marketing guides.
“From zero to hero” – this phrase isn’t just a catchy saying; it embodies a journey, especially in the digital marketing world where the game is constantly evolving. Hey there, my name is Brad Smith, and over the past eight years, I've propelled over 5,000 businesses and nonprofits into the online sphere, unlocking growth and fostering digital presence.
Your digital presence is like a living, breathing entity – it needs consistent nurturing. Just last year, I decided to step back and take a break. The consequence? My visitors, leads, and sales experienced a noticeable dip. It was a stark reminder that in the digital world, consistency is key to maintaining and growing your audience.
Whether you’re a newbie in the digital space or you’ve been playing the game for a while, you know that acquiring leads and customers is no small feat. But if you are in the phase of audience growth, kudos to you! Persist in your journey, for the ultimate goal is to amplify your audience, extending your reach, and thereby aiding more individuals.
Today, I’m here to shed light on a robust strategy that has not only been a game-changer for me but also has the potential to transform your content creation process: Pillar Content.
This strategy has empowered me to churn out three pieces of content per day while investing just about an hour a week on it. Intrigued? Let’s delve deeper into how you too can leverage pillar content to streamline your marketing efforts efficiently.
Pillar content isn’t just a strategy; it’s an efficient approach that takes a singular idea and multiplies its impact. Imagine this: you have one central idea to focus on, and all it takes is you and your team to expand, extrapolate, and multiply that idea throughout the week.
The essence here is not to scatter your efforts but to harness the power of one robust idea and let it permeate through your content strategy.
Understanding and leveraging the potency embedded in pillar content is paramount in disseminating your brand message. Consider this analogy: envision yourself as a college professor, with an audience - your students - hanging on to your every word. Your specialization, that one thing you excel at, becomes the focal point of your discourse.
Reflect on those one, two, or perhaps three things that you excel at – areas where you can truly make a significant impact, where your expertise can genuinely assist others.
Contemplate these strengths and commence a journey where you coach, teach, and establish yourself as an online expert in that domain. This is where pillar content becomes instrumental. Identify those three or four things that you are exceptionally proficient at.
Once you’ve pinpointed your areas of expertise, the next step is to utilize them as topics on a weekly basis, anchoring your content strategy around them. These topics, or pillars, will serve as the foundation upon which your other content pieces will be built, providing a structured and cohesive narrative to your content strategy.
In the upcoming sections, I’m going to walk you through how you can implement this and truly leverage pillar content in your marketing strategy!
The simplicity and efficacy of pillar content lie in its focus, and our first tip centers around this principle: Create one topic per week.
his approach not only aligns your content strategy but also ensures that your messaging is cohesive and targeted. You might choose to sit down weekly to establish this, which personally has proven beneficial for me.
Why weekly, you might ask? Because throughout the week, as I interact with clients, I am bombarded with a myriad of questions. Often, there’s a common thread or a recurrent question that emerges.
This becomes a goldmine for content creation, as addressing these questions not only provides value to your audience but also positions you as a solution provider. I take one of these frequently asked questions and mold it into the topic for the following week.
Alternatively, if you prefer a bit more structure and less frequent planning sessions, you might opt to sit down once a month and carve out four topics for the upcoming weeks.
The objective here is to think: what are the pain points, queries, or interests that your current customers or peers are expressing? Utilize these as a springboard for your content topics.
Don’t forget, tools like Google can be your ally in identifying common questions or needs in your niche. Explore what people are searching for and identify where you can lend your expertise.
Once you have your topic, the next step is to answer that query or address that need comprehensively in your pillar content piece, thereby establishing yourself as an authority in that domain.
The second tip emphasizes the importance of authenticity and relatability in your content: Create a piece of content in your own words. The medium you choose to express yourself is pivotal.
While many opt to articulate their thoughts through a blog post, it's vital to select a platform that resonates with you. If writing isn't your forte, perhaps creating a video is more your style. However, if being in front of the camera doesn’t sit well with you, crafting a social media post might be the way to go.
Regardless of the medium, the key is to use your own language and remain in your comfort zone. Whether it’s through a blog post, video, social media post, or even an email, your expression should be genuine and in your own voice. Your coaching style, your teaching methodology, and your way of assisting others should shine through your content.
Strive for authenticity and a natural flow in your content. While AI and various tools can be valuable in content creation, when establishing your pillar topic, it’s crucial that the initial piece emanates from you – unfiltered and genuine.
So, typically, that’s a blog. Whatever your chosen platform ends up being, ensure it becomes a repository of invaluable, helpful, and educational content.
You’re the expert – embody that in your content. Teach, enlighten, and provide insight, for this will commence the journey of building value with your audience. When your audience perceives the genuine, expert-driven value in your content, not only do you enhance your brand’s credibility, but you also lay down the foundation for a relationship built on trust and expertise.
The third tip revolves around efficiency and scalability: Build a small team or enlist the help of a virtual assistant.
Once you've crafted that original piece of content, whether it's through your own words, copywriting, or a video, having a team or an assistant can substantially amplify your content production and dissemination efforts.
This original piece becomes the seed from which numerous content pieces can sprout. If you've penned a blog post, a team or assistant can help repurpose that content into various formats, such as social media posts or emails, thereby maximizing its reach and impact.
If your initial piece is a video (which I personally find to be an optimal starting point), your team or assistant can utilize that to create a plethora of content pieces, such as blogs, social media posts, and emails. The beauty of starting with a video lies in the wealth of content that can be extracted and repurposed from it.
Remember, as you utilized your own language in crafting the initial pillar content, your team can use that as a foundation to create additional content pieces, ensuring consistency in language and messaging across various platforms and formats.
This ensures that your authentic voice permeates through all the content pieces, providing a coherent and genuine narrative to your audience.
Tip number four focuses on visibility and presence: Be everywhere. The essence here is to take that one meticulously crafted topic and disseminate it across all possible platforms, thereby maximizing its reach and impact.
You’re not merely publishing content; you are establishing a ubiquitous presence, ensuring that your message permeates through various channels, reaching diverse audience segments.
The objective is to become omnipresent, to emerge as the online celebrity, educator, and expert that people instinctively turn to in their times of need. When you are consistently visible, providing value and solutions, you not only build credibility but also become the expert that individuals will eventually want to hire.
Eventually, this pillar content can also be morphed into ads when you’re ready to invest in paid advertising. This ensures that the authentic and valuable content you’ve created doesn’t just serve organically but also amplifies its reach through paid channels, thereby maximizing its impact and ROI.
Tip number five zeroes in on an oft-overlooked aspect of content marketing: Be patient. The journey of leveraging pillar content and seeing tangible results in your marketing efforts is not an overnight saga.
It’s crucial to acknowledge and accept that while the seeds of content are sown today, the fruits will be reaped over an extended period of growth and nurturing.
An interesting snippet from a recent case study with a couple of clients underscores this principle. In this study, I assisted them in hiring virtual assistants for their businesses, aiming to amplify and multiply their content efforts.
The results were encouraging – they witnessed a growth of about 7 to 10% in just a month or two. This immediate growth, while uplifting, is merely the tip of the iceberg in the grand scheme of things.
Y
es, you will observe growth initially, and yes, it will oscillate, moving up and down. But the key is to zoom out and observe the trajectory from a long-term perspective.
Envision where you could be in a year, two years, or even three years. Whether it’s for your business or nonprofit, the growth will continue, and it will multiply.
People will share your content, comment on it, and their friends and family will see it. Referrals will come in, and conversations about your brand will start permeating various circles.
When individuals are ready to hire or donate to your nonprofit, they will revert to you – because you’ve been omnipresent, you’ve provided consistent value, and you’re the one they remember.
As we wrap up this insightful journey through the labyrinth of pillar content, I extend an invitation to you: Join my Grow Game Plan. Every Friday morning, at 9:00 AM, I delve into tips much like the ones we've explored today, providing you with tangible, actionable insights to elevate your marketing game.
My pillar content isn’t just restricted to these sessions – it's metamorphosed into a course form where you can quite literally copy and paste everything I teach.
We traverse through the realms of social media, emails, pillar content, blogs, videos, and even delve into using AI to automate all of these, ensuring your content strategy is not just robust but also efficient.
You can explore all of this and more here. The platform serves as a repository of knowledge, strategies, and practical tips, all aimed at catalyzing your content creation and marketing efforts.
And when you’re ready to kick things up a notch, I’m here to assist you in setting up a team, infused with the power of AI, to help you automate all of this, ensuring that your content strategy is not just potent but also sustainable in the long run!
I hope this guide has provided you with valuable insights into leveraging pillar content for efficient marketing. Remember, the journey might be intricate, but with the right strategies, a dash of patience, and a sprinkle of automation, the possibilities are boundless.
Feel free to explore more, join the
game plan, and when you’re ready, let’s set sail together on this enthralling journey towards content marketing excellence!