Using Content Pillars to Drive Traffic Through Consistency
Struggling to create social media content or other types of marketing posts is common for digital marketers. It is also normal to feel uninspired at times. Unfortunately, the digital marketing space and your competitors won’t wait for you to catch up. Having content pillars you can refer to is beneficial, as they help you stay organized and consistent. Content pillars also help create quality content for your audience.
What is Content Pillar?
Content pillars are essentially 3 – 5 selected topics that your brand, business, or blog will discuss consistently. Also called content buckets, they are specifically picked topics that your marketing content revolves around. Having content pillars helps digital marketers understand their niche. Showing expertise in specific topics also helps grow your audience and make you an industry leader.
Having content pillars also makes it easier for digital marketers to plan marketing content. Instead of scrambling last minute to find a good topic, use content pillars to build your content calendar.
How to Drive Traffic Through Content Pillars
Driving organic traffic is a challenge for most digital marketers. While other marketing strategies can help boost social media and website traffic, digital marketers should also explore the effectiveness of content pillars in increasing organic traffic. Below are a few tips for using content pillars.
1. Find content for your pillars
Having a content pillar means you’ll always have somewhere to refer to for ideas anytime you feel uninspired. However, to enjoy this, you should have a strong content bank for your marketing campaign. Therefore, you should have a document with different sections for your content pillars. You should also update your ideas in each section monthly.
Having a content bank means you won’t have difficulties thinking about your next Instagram caption, Facebook post, and Twitter update. You can find inspiration for your content pillar sections from:
- Analytics – evaluating your analytics is a great way of identifying the best-performing content. You can identify topics and content that resonate well with your target audience. Take note of your best-performing social media posts, captions, visuals, and hashtags. Use these insights to guide your future posts.
- Follow industry trends and news – industry news and trends are also a good source of ideas for your content pillar sections. Pinterest and Google Trends are good sources of trending topics. Google Trends can help you identify the most searched topics in your niche. On the other hand, use the Pinterest search tool to search for trending content in your industry.
- Listen to your audience – you can also get content inspiration by listening to your target audience.
2. Plan your content calendar
Creating and planning your content calendar for weeks or months in advance can also help you increase traffic through consistency. Your content calendar should take note of the following:
- Important dates – take note and include content for key events, such as holidays or event launch days, to your calendar. You should create additional content to promote or support such events.
- Plugging macro content – you should also plug in macro content, such as long-form blog posts, podcast episodes, and YouTube videos.
- Don’t forget micro-content – slot in micro-content, such as Facebook and Instagram posts. Micro content is shorter and easier to create than macro content and other long-form posts.
The Bottom Line
The importance of having a content pillar in digital marketing cannot be ignored. Like other digital marketing strategies, your content pillar should accommodate both evergreen and timely content. Evergreen content remains relevant for a long time, which makes you a static resource. On the other hand, timely content covers upcoming topics, breaking events, tech updates, and scientific discoveries.