Whether you're a business owner, marketer or entrepreneur, chances are you've had to wear the hat of content marketer at one point. Producing online content to stimulate interest in your business and engage your audience.
Content marketing is the creation and sharing of online material including videos, blogs and social media posts that provides insight and value. It's a strategic marketing approach to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. Some business have built their empire off the back of content marketing in lieu of paid advertising, so it is very powerful with the right strategy.
But if you have found yourself posting for posting's sake, then I have a very simple formula to help you redefine your content marketing strategy pillars.
How to Define Your Content Pillars - the 3 Alternative Methods
Your content pillars are clearly defined topics from which all your content marketing stems from. I recommend when you are starting out, or have a smaller audience, you limit your pillars to 3 - 5 max because then you can start to dominate these topics and become the news feed authority for them.
Three way to select your content pillars:
1. Choose topics where you are an expert. This will not only help to build your credibility and authority on these topics, but you will have an endless line of content to share. By producing content only around these topics, you are building your leadership status as an expert in this field and helping your SEO for your website.
Jenna Kutcher has used content marketing to grow her Instagram following to 924K sharing her business strategies, social media marketing and how to run a podcast.
This super successful female business coach has clients all over the world taking up up her online coaching, courses and digital products. Now that she has a large following she also shares content around her core values, family, fertility and body image.
2. Choose products and services that you sell. You can break this into categories or your hero signature products and use your most popular products to attract people to see what else you do. By having a core niche, you become more credible for those few things that you do best and can then use your other products and services as up-sells or value-adds.
Eric Bandholz attributes 100% of the success of Beardbrand to content marketing. 40% of revenue can be attributed to online sales, but because they are a thought-leader from the content they create, it has attracted some big retailers like Target to stock their products.
The signature product, Beard Oil, will soon see them pass the 8-figure-mark. Their content creation includes evergreen solutions like grooming guides, how to use it, how to get it, style tips and inspiration.
3. Look at the platforms where you promote yourself. Anything where you are already producing an abundance of content that you could easily repurpose into shorter-form, snackable content or start to document your experience. This could include live events, podcasts, educational forums, interviews, public speaking engagements, your long-form Youtube content or even a magazine.
Foundr has used this very successfully using their magazine, podcast and online courses to produce micro content that brings people back to the core things they do.
The value they deliver has given them over 2.8M followers on Instagram and an 8-figure business.
"Content is the reason why search exists."
What do people find when they search your expert topics? Are you a newsfeed authority?
At Fruitful Group, our mission to to engage, educate and empower entrepreneurs and business owners to help them scale their business through branding, marketing, digital and storytelling.
If you would like help designing a content marketing strategy that attracts your ideal customers and , book a free consultation with Founder, Shelley Tilbrook, to discuss your business requirements and learn more about our storytelling and content marketing services.
We are here to help your business grow.
