To say content marketing became a big deal in 2018 is an understatement. From my perspective, content has always been a big deal cause it, you know… pays the bills, but 2018 was the year the internet displayed its collective distaste for stale, boring content.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 66% of U.S. consumers spend more on brands to which they feel loyal. As content marketers, it’s our job to capitalize on that feeling of loyalty and to generate as much trust in our brand as possible.
To do that we must satiate the customer demand for relevant and authentic content, and reports indicate that your competition is doing just that. According to CMI’s annual B2C Content Marketing Report for 2019, a staggering…
“56% of B2C marketers who increased spending over the last 12 months did so in the area of content creation.”
What Does it All Mean?
It means that if you’re not practicing content marketing in 2019, your brand is dead in the water.
You may be hesitant to hire a full digital agency or to develop your own content strategy, but it doesn’t take massive budgets and agency executives to build a successful content strategy.
All it takes is determination, an eye for authenticity and well-crafted pillar content.
What is Pillar Content?
Pillar content is an informative content piece of content (regarding a specific topic or theme) that can be easily broken into related sections, content pieces, and materials.
For example, a long-form content piece regarding “Deep Sea Fishing” can generate derivative content pieces like “A Guide to Deep Sea Fishing: Florida Keys” or “How to Find the Best Deep Sea Fishing Charter in San Diego.”
(Def) – Long-form Content: Content that is longer, more insightful and requires a minimum 1,500–2,000 words.
What does Pillar Content Do
Pillar content enables brands to establish themselves as a trusted resource on a given topic by generating a web of specific content focused around a broader topic. To help you visualize pillar content I’ve included this helpful image from HubSpot.
Brands who utilize a content pillar strategy are essentially killing two birds with one stone; creating credibility, and satiating the audiences need for relevant content.
By focusing efforts around creating a single content pillar, brands can more easily break that content into a plethora of related content pieces like:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Videos
- Emails
- Social Media Updates
- Ebooks
- How To Guides
- Etc.
Pillar content also enables brands to attract different kinds of buyers through different platforms, thus covering all of the relevant content channels.
How Do I Create a Pillar Page?
The pillar content creation process can be broken down into 4 easy steps.
Pillar Topic Selection – Determine who your audience is then select a topic that is highly relevant to them. The topic of the central pillar content piece should be broad enough to write a pillar page AND several more specific keywords related to the broader topic.
Generate Central Pillar Piece – Herein is where you actually write the central pillar content piece. Core pillar content pieces are generally long-form, and include”
- A definition of the topic in the first section
- A bulleted or numbered table of contents
- A specific topic-related keyword for each subheading
- Content that provides an overview of the subtopics discussed
Select Your Keywords – Time for some keyword research to discover keywords with high search volume and which cover different aspects of your topic. Keywords should be used to build working titles for subtopic content pieces.
Create Content Within Your Topic Cluster – Start writing blog posts based on specific keywords from your topic cluster.
Don’t forget to link your subtopic content to your pillar page. Doing so creates a streamlined user experience helps your content rank higher in the SERP.