The Purpose of Blog Content Pillars and How To Create Yours
One of the common hesitations I hear from people about starting a blog for their business is that they aren’t sure what to write about.
If you’re guilty of saying those words, just know that I hear you!
Blogs are long form pieces of content, so they do require a bit more writing than a social media post or email.
But typicallyyyy the people who are saying this simply haven’t defined their blog categories or their content pillars yet.
And blog content pillars are one of the five things that I believe every person should define BEFORE starting a blog for their business.
When you define your blog content pillars, you can more easily think of blog topics to write about because they serve as overarching categories for all of your content to fall under.
So, in case you’ve yet to define (or even think about) what your blog content pillars should be, let’s dive into what they even are, the main purpose they serve, AND see a few examples to get you moving in the right direction.
What Are Blog Content Pillars?
To put it simply, blog content pillars are foundational topics or themes that your blog’s content strategy is built around.
They represent the main categories or key areas that your blog covers and give you an easy way to organize and structure your content, so that your audience can easily find what they need at any given time!
This is one of the main reasons that I sing the blog praises over and over again.
Because here’s the thing: you could have the most FIRE content on social media, but after the initial posting, it’s unlikely that one of your followers will be able to find that post again.
And that’s not your fault – it’s just the nature of social media.
Social media platforms weren’t made to be organized and searchable.
But your blog CAN!
The Purpose of Blog Content Pillars
Overall, your blog pillars serve three main purposes:
Organization
As mentioned above, your blog content pillars provide a framework for organizing your blog content under specific themes, making it easier for your readers to navigate and find the content they’re most interested in.
But don’t get it twisted – this comes in handy for YOU too!
Your blogs are meant to serve you for the long haul, which means you can refer back to them over and over again even years down the road.
And having them organized allows you to find your past content more easily and link to it whenever you need!
Content Strategy
Another way to think about your blog content pillars is “content buckets.”
Your blog content pillars essentially guide the type of content you create and allow you to brainstorm topics much more easily.
If you’ve ever struggled to come up with blog topics, it could be because you haven’t clearly defined your pillars – aka your content buckets – so you’re left wondering what to even write about.
But when you have these clearly defined, you know EXACTLY the type of content you want to feature on your blog and you can typically come up with endless amounts of content ideas.
Additionally, having these “content buckets” helps ensure that your blog features a mix of balanced topics that align with your blog's goals and your audience’s interests instead of just writing about the same things over and over.
Brand Strategy
I’ll be honest – prior to this year, I didn’t fully understand what brand strategy meant.
But thanks to my friend Nicole, I now understand brand strategy vs. brand identity AND have implemented both in my business!
Your blog content pillars will typically stem from your brand strategy by reflecting the core themes of your brand, thus helping you stand out in the crowded online space.
How To Create Your Blog Content Pillars
Now that you know what blog content pillars are and why they matter, you might be wondering how in the world you create your own!
While it might seem simple, sometimes it can be hard to brainstorm these for yourself because you’re so close to your business.
One of my favorite sayings is, “you can’t see the label when you’re inside the bottle.”
And what I mean by that is sometimes you’re so wrapped up in the ins and outs of your business that you can’t detach enough to imagine it from your audience’s POV.
This is one of the main reasons that people book 1:1 Strategy Calls with me!
Prior to your call, I define 5-8 blog content pillars for you, so that you can run with them and start creating content for your blog consistently.
But booking a call with me isn’t the ONLY way to create your blog content pillars.
(However, if you want to save some time, it might be the best option 😉)
The DIY Guide To Creating Your Blog Content Pillars
Step 1 – Identify and Understand Your AudienceIf you’ve been in business for a while, you likely already know who your ideal audience is, but if you’re newer in business, you definitely want to spend some time here!
Knowing who you’re talking to is going to be the first step in creating content pillars that actually connect with the audience you’re trying to reach.
Step 2 - Define Your Brand Strategy Remember that brand strategy I mentioned above? Wellll to be honest, it kind of needs to come first.
This is something I DIDN’T do in my business, but if you’re just starting out and you really want to save yourself some trial and error, define your brand strategy first so you have full clarity on your purpose, mission, values, and more.
If you have the ability to invest to work with someone on this, I highly encourage Nicole Burdick!
But if you aren’t at that point yet, Nicole provides some great questions that you can journal on to get more clarity about your brand:
Your Business: What does your business do?
Your Why: Why does it matter to you?
Your Tilt: Why should someone choose you? What's your unique value?
Your People: Who are your people, and what matters to them?
Your Success: What's the overlap between what matters to you (your why) and what matters to them (your people)?
Your Experience: How do people feel when interacting with your brand?
Step 3 – List Broad Topic AreasOnce you have clarity on WHO you’re talking to and your brand as a whole, it’s time to brainstorm some very general and broad topic areas that resonate with your ideal audience.
For this step, consider a few overarching themes/categories and practical areas of interest that relate to your business overall.
In this step, try to list 10 possible content pillars and then you can narrow them down based on what makes the most sense for your business overall.
For example, a copywriter’s list might include:
Messaging
Copy Tips
SEO
Content Marketing
Blogging
Email Marketing
Freelancing
Writing
Websites
Social Media
These are all very broad topics that a copywriter likely has a lot of knowledge around.
But to ensure that each of these remain true to their ideal audience and brand strategy, they’ll likely only move forward with the pillars that directly relate to the type of services they offer or expertise they want their brand to be known for.
For example, if the copywriter doesn’t offer blogging services, that’s a sign they don’t really need to include that as a main content pillar.
Now, that doesn’t mean they can’t ever write a blog that has to do with blogging, but it simply doesn’t make sense for that to be a core pillar.
Instead, they’ll want to narrow down the pillars to reflect what makes the most sense for their business – and the same goes for you!
PRO TIP: regardless of your niche or industry, I always encourage people to also include a Personal or Lifestyle pillar.
You can call it what you want, but essentially this pillar gives you the ability to really blog about anything you want even if it doesn’t directly relate to your business.
To see what I mean, here’s a peek at my personal pillar!
Step 4 – Brainstorm Pillar TopicsOnce you’ve identified your overarching content pillars, it’s time for the actual topics that fall into each one!
This step will be an ongoing process as you continue to create content for your blog, but if you’re starting your blog from scratch, you can plan to spend a solid chunk of time on this first to give yourself plenty of topic ideas to start with.
For your blog content topic ideation, I’m going to point you to my 4 Step Blog Content Planning Process, so you can strategically plan your content accordingly!
Don’t want to do all of this work yourself?
You don’t have to!
My 1:1 Blog Strategy and Planning Call was created for the person who WANTS to start a blog for their business, but essentially just wants to skip straight to the writing.
In this one hour strategy call, together we will:
✔️ Define your blog content pillars, so that you have clarity on what type of content to create
✔️ Set specific goals for your blog, so you can create content accordingly with your ideal client in mind
✔️ Create an entire quarter’s worth (up to 12) blog topics, so that you have a plan to take immediate action with ease