Introduction
Choosing your content pillars can seem like a dark art, but it’s really not that complicated. And if you’re reluctant to commit to a set number of things to talk about, remember that you’re not married to them. You can try out your content pillars for 90 days and if they’re not doing anything for your audience, just change them.
Not having a set of topics or themes that you regularly contribute your thoughts on makes it hard to be consistent. Without pillars you’ll be struggling to pull post ideas out of your bum and your content won’t be consistent in messaging, tone or frequency which ultimately, will negatively impact your bottom line.
But having content pillars isn’t about pigeonholing yourself or limiting the things you can talk about. It’s about having a framework. You know when you go bowling and the kids have the buffers up on the side of the lane so their balls don’t keep going down the gutter? That’s what your content pillars are. They are the stabilisers of your content strategy. They are how people get to know you, how you position yourself, how people learn to see you and trust you as an expert in your industry.
Why marketing in hard for coaches?
I know that if you’re a coach, you’ll find it particularly difficult to articulate the transformation your clients experience and pin down the benefits of your work because the work you do and the problems you can solve are so varied. As a coach you’ll be led by your client and often the change is hard to measure but that’s why having this structure is so important for your marketing. Coaching can be seen as fluffy and if you have corporate clients, they’re under pressure to demonstrate the return they are getting on their investment. They need to show value for money so the more specific you can be about the problems you solve and the impact you have the easier it is for them to say yes to you. You don’t need to limit or undersell yourself, but you do need to be clear.
What Are Content Pillars?
Simply put, content pillars are the main themes or topics you talk about in your social media posts, blogs, emails and newsletters that explain who you work with, what problems you solve and what transformation takes place as a result of the work you do. I’m a content marketing coach who helps people attract their ideal clients with compelling content and often they struggle with clarity or confidence around what and how they write.
My content pillars are:
- Fear of judgement
- Fear of failure
- Not knowing what to talk about
- Emotion led marketing
- Fear of rejection
- Fear of success
I’ve chosen these because they are most often the things that stop my clients from being able to market themselves effectively.
Under each pillar I have post ideas that are relevant to my ideal client. For instance, under the content pillar “fear of rejection” I could write a post about how to overcome your fears of being more visible on social media. Under the content pillar “not knowing what to talk about”…I’m writing this blog about choosing your content pillars. See how it works?
Your content pillars could be the common problems your clients experience and that you solve. They could also be your areas of interest, values or expertise. Having topics that you regularly talk about helps your audience understand who you are, what you do and whether you are the right person to help them achieve their goals and overcome their challenges.
Choosing Your Own Pillars
Step One: Investigate
There’s no absolute formula in marketing, just a lot of “test and adapt”. Here are some questions to get you started and help you figure out what topics you should be talking about:
- What difference am I trying to make and what change do I hope to bring about? How will they feel different and what will they do differently?
- What are my clients’ 3 most urgent problems?
- What matters to me about the work I do and how I do it?
You can answer these questions yourself or you can speak to people you’ve worked with and get it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. My advice is to do both. We have a real blind spot when it comes to the difference we make for our clients. We often assume we know what’s best for others and what they need. We can also under estimate and downplay the effect our work is having. It’s always valuable to get an external perspective on where you’re making the biggest difference.
Step Two: Get Organised
Now you’ve got some information you can organise it into categories. Your content pillars need to include things that are important to your clients, problems they want to solve immediately or the things that are preventing them from achieving their goals. They also need to position you as an expert and demonstrate your skills and knowledge and help people decide if you’re the person they’d like to work with.
You could choose some pillars that are specifically about the work you or skills you help develop (i.e., Communication, Influence and Impact) and they include something about you, like your values, integrity or trust. If that’s something that’s particularly important to you about the work you do.
Remember, your pillars are unique to you. Your content is how people reading your posts, emails and blogs will differentiate you from your competitors. If all coaches had the same pillars we wouldn’t be able to tell one apart from the other.
Step Three: Narrow it Down
Hopefully now you’ve got a list of problems and topics that are relevant and specific to your ideal client and important to you. Now you need to whittle it down. I like to work with 6 because this means I don’t get bored of my own content and because different people struggle with different things. If you have too many your messaging will get muddled and confusing.
We are working towards getting known for what you do. When someone says they have a problem you want the person they are talking to to say “Oh, I know someone who can help you with that.” Your content is training your audience to associate you with a specific problem and solution.
Step Four: Test and Adapt
Don’t get married to your content pillars until you know it’s a relationship that’s going to work. Procrastinating over making a decision about what they should be is going to hold you back. Not choosing your pillars is choosing to be vague, inconsistent and unclear. Pick some and test them out.
What topics are getting the hits? What messages are people responding to and which ones are getting tumbleweeds? Pay attention to what’s working and swap out the ones that aren’t. This might be a lengthy process but there’s no such thing as a quick win when it comes to your marketing. This is the foundational work that will benefit you in the long run. Avoiding it means you’ll be scatter-gunning your marketing for the rest of time and that’s the quickest road to disappointment, burnt out and being broke.
Conclusion
Having some structure around your content has many advantages. You’ll find it quicker to write content if you already know what the topic is, you’ll find more ideas popping into your head about the topic and your content will be more interesting, relevant and compelling. The purpose of creating marketing content is to get someone interested enough to read it in the hopes that what you’ve said interests them and prompts them to find out more about you. Make sure your content pillars are things that actually matter to you and are topics you want to write about because I guarantee if you’re bored writing it, they won’t even bother reading it.
If this has helped at all please do get in touch and let me know. If you need some hands on help working this out click here to book a free discovery call.
TLDR: Make a list of the most common questions you get asked or the most common complaints your ideal clients have and start with those as your pillars. Also, read the responses you get on your content as often these comments will give you a deeper understanding of what’s bothering and what’s important to your people. And most importantly, keep talking and listening. People are always talking about their problems, all we need to do is listen.