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The Pillar Content Strategy for Efficient Marketing
Brad Smith • Oct 13, 2023

This blog post has been researched, edited, and approved by expert Hannah Peake. Join our newsletter below to get our free marketing guides.

Here are four simple tips to help you learn about Pillar Content:

  1. Start with What You Know: Begin your pillar content journey by selecting topics in which you have expertise or a unique perspective. Your pillar content should be something you can speak about comprehensively and authentically, establishing you as an authority in that domain.
  2. Consistency is Key: Ensure that your pillar content is consistent in both quality and posting schedule. Consistency helps build a dedicated audience and improves your visibility and credibility online.
  3. Engage with Your Audience: Your pillar content should not be a one-way communication. Engage with your audience through comments, emails, or social media to understand their needs, answer their questions, and build a community around your content.
  4. SEO Optimization: Ensure that your pillar content is optimized for search engines by using relevant keywords, creating high-quality content, and employing a user-friendly structure. This will help your content get discovered by your target audience on search platforms.


Additional Tips about Pillar Content


  1. Repurpose and Reuse: Maximize the use of your pillar content by repurposing it into various formats (e.g., videos, blogs, podcasts, infographics) and sharing it across different platforms to reach a wider audience.
  2. Link Internally: Utilize internal linking strategically within your pillar content to guide visitors to related content, thereby improving user engagement, reducing bounce rate, and enhancing SEO.
  3. Use Data and Analytics: Regularly analyze the performance of your pillar content using analytics tools. Understand which topics and formats resonate with your audience, and use these insights to refine your future content strategy.
  4. Involve Experts and Influencers: Collaborate with industry experts or influencers in creating or promoting your pillar content. This not only enhances the credibility of your content but also potentially expands its reach to a new audience.

The Pillar Content Strategy for Efficient Marketing

“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.


The Impact of Taking a Break


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.


The Challenge of Building and Sustaining an Online Presence


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.


Introduction to Pillar Content


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.

The Concept of Pillar Content

The Concept of Pillar Content

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.


Amplifying Your Brand Message Through Strategic Focus


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.


Identifying and Capitalizing on Your Strengths


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.


Utilizing Pillar Content as Weekly Topic Anchors


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!

Tip #1: Establishing a Weekly Topic Focus

Tip #1: Establishing a Weekly Topic Focus

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.


Leveraging Client Questions as Content Inspiration


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.


Planning Your Monthly Content Calendar


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.


Utilizing Google


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.

Tip #2: Crafting Content in Your Unique Voice

Tip #2: Crafting Content in Your Unique Voice

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.


Embracing Your Own Language and Comfort Zone


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.


Ensuring Authenticity and Natural Flow in 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.


Establishing Yourself as an Expert


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.

Tip #3: Building a Content Creation Team

Tip #3: Building a Content Creation Team

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.


Multi-Purposing Your Original Content


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.


Leveraging Video Content


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.


Ensuring Consistency in Language 


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 #4: Achieve Omnipresence by Being Everywhere

Tip #4: Achieve Omnipresence by Being Everywhere

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.


Establishing Yourself as the Go-To Expert Online


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.


Diversifying Your Content Across Various Platforms


  • Blogging for Google: Craft blog posts, ensuring they are SEO-optimized to gain visibility on Google, thereby driving organic traffic to your website.
  • Utilizing YouTube: Engage with your audience through videos on YouTube, building relationships, and providing a personal touch through the camera.
  • Leveraging Email Marketing: Send out emails to remind your audience of your presence, providing value and gently nudging them back to your website.
  • Being Active on Social Media: Create and share social media posts to enhance your visibility, reaching more people organically, and keeping your audience engaged.


Transitioning Pillar Content into Ads


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 #5: Cultivate Patience in Your Growth Journey

Tip #5: Cultivate Patience in Your Growth Journey

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.


Real-Time Growth: A Case Study


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.


Focusing on the Long-Term Trajectory

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.


Engaging and Being Remembered by Your Audience


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.

Embark on a Comprehensive Growth Plan with Us

Tip #5: Cultivate Patience in Your Growth Journey

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.


A Wealth of Resources and Strategies


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.


Explore Automation and Amplify Your Content Strategy


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.


When You’re Ready, Let’s Automate Together


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!

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