- What is a content pillar?
- Key elements of content columns. Examples
- Content type How-to
- Content type What is
- Content type Guide
- How to define the main elements of social media content
- 1. Target audience
- 2. Analytics of the presence channels
- 3. Create your own content clusters
- 4. Where to find ideas for content groups
- 5. Content plan: how to create it
- Bottom line
Have you ever heard the phrase “Content is the king”? Then you work in digital. Content is king, that’s right. But not all 100% of the content created in the world is viewed by users.
Content is created to be consumed. And for it to be used, the content must be visible. This is the task of SEO promotion.
And SEO specialists can help. In this article, we will analyze how to do it. Let’s talk about content pillars and how to find and create them.
What is a content pillar?
A successful marketing campaign that generates revenue is based on content. Both paid advertising and organic search results are focused on it. A user comes to a page with content that provides them with a useful answer to the question they entered in the search.
The business strategy focuses on topics, not keywords. And our task is to create topics that will attract visitors. And then to branch out the main topic, highlight its components and reveal them. Create valuable content around one main topic. English-language sources use the term content pillar.
A content pillar is a meaningful and informative piece of content on a particular topic or theme that can be divided into several sections or fragments to provide even more material.
An example: a guide where you can make a separate article from each step.
A content pillar, in simple terms, is a large piece of content that can be transformed into many smaller pieces of content.
Thus, one large article can easily be broken down into narrow blog posts, infographics, video posts, emails, social media posts, etc. to reach and engage different users across different channels.
The content segments you create should correspond to:
- brand goals;
- the values it represents;
- brand voice;
- positioning in the marketplace.
It’s important to remember that each pillar should represent the type of relevant content your subscribers want to see.
Types of content:
- commercial;
- educational;
- aimed at creating a community;
- entertainment;
- one that engages.
Regardless of what type of content is being created: an informational guide on a blog or a landing page for a product group, in order to convert it to a purchase, the main page or article must be optimized for a specific keyword or phrase that satisfies the user’s intent.
Key elements of content columns. Examples
Depending on the goals of content marketing, there are 3 main formats of content segments:
- how to;
- what is;
- guide.
Let’s look at examples of each and see how they work.
Content type How-to
The How-to format provides step-by-step instructions for going through any process. In the end, the user will be successful – a ready-made formula for work, a certain end result. And here is the author of this content format acts as an expert.
The How-to format is aimed at an audience with informational and transactional intentions. This way, you will attract more traffic to your website, because How-to requests are among the most frequent.
Let’s take an example from our blog – an article about stickers on Telegram. Here is the details:
- described the process of creating a sticker;
- gave us 3 ways to draw it;
- told how to upload your own sticker pack to Telegram.
We shared our experience and collected all the important information in one place.
The article is ready to use — take it and do it. Or you can go further and write a separate, more detailed article on each method of creating a sticker. For example, make a rating review of apps for creating stickers on each OS: iOS and Android.
Content type What is
A long-form article is a great candidate for the lead role in the cluster. After all, the What is format covers the topic in detail. If the chosen topic is quite complex, it can be divided into separate topics and subtopics. This will create a cluster of articles united by a common topic.
Let’s take our article “What is Internet Marketing” as an example.
For each H3 subheading, we have a separate large topic or even more that reveals the essence of the subheading:
- What is contextual advertising? Types;
- What is SEO and why do you need search engine optimization?
- Social Media Marketing: the main points;
- What is Email-marketing.
Then, from each large topic, we made separate subtopics about narrower concepts. The result of the what is format is knowledge on a particular topic.
Content type Guide
For the Guide format, the web page should provide an authoritative overview of the topic with various elements and pages that link to it. What it can be: sub-topics and supporting elements, any blog articles, links to resources or products, related questions, FAQs, or videos grouped around the main topic of the main page.
For example, our article “Video on Instagram: a complete guide to video in the feed, stories, live streams, and reels”.
For each content point, we have a separate blog post that explains the issue in even more detail, helps you familiarize yourself with video formats, and contains the most valuable thing — ideas for implementation. As a result, the user receives tips on how to create a video and how to implement ideas. That is, a ready-made video.
By adding images, videos, infographics, each cluster is optimized for its specific purpose. In addition, visual elements are also well suited for publishing on social media, email newsletters, and other channels to promote the main topic of the content.
How to define the main elements of social media content
Content clusters on social media are crucial when it comes to the fidelity of social strategy implementation.
We offer 5 steps to building a content strategy.
1. Target audience
We start by looking at the target audience. Someone has to use the content we create. And we need to know this consumer.
For selected audience groups, we need to provide relevant content on a regular basis to keep users’ attention and give them what they need. Otherwise, they will go to competitors. This means minus visits, minus traffic to the site, and ultimately a decline in search rankings.
What kind of information do we need:
- data on what users like;
- which of our products find the greatest response;
- the pain points of our audience;
- how our content resonates with our audience.
We have to speak the same language with the audience, in their language. And each social platform may have its own adaptation of messages to subscribers. For example, your Instagram and TikTok are aimed at the TikTok generation, while your blog and LinkedIn are aimed at millennials.
How to get data about your audience:
- conduct a poll using the built-in sticker Poll on Instagram;
- view previous audience analytics data;
- experiment with new types of content and see the effect;
- analyze competitors’ content and write out their working topics;
- review sales data to understand which content influenced the time spent on the page and what exactly led to lead generation and conversions.
In Google Analytics, information is presented in the form of a map of user interactions with the site (an example from our case study on the promotion of an Irish pub in Basel).
Constantly tracking audience needs and optimizing your content plan are your clear steps to implementing your content strategy in dedicated channels of communication with users.
2. Analytics of the presence channels
Analytics data provides primary information about content. Analytics will show what is popular among the audience, which topics work and which do not.
Track your best and worst blog topics and social media posts. Use built-in social media analytics tools.
If the goal of your presence is to increase brand awareness, analyze reach and engagement. If the goal is conversion, then in addition to engagement, look at clicks and conversions from posts and stories.
- conduct research on competitors, see what resonates with its target audience;
- Track the effectiveness of your social media content on a convenient schedule (daily, weekly, quarterly, etc.);
- track the effectiveness of publications — which ones resonate and which ones fail;
- compare the performance of your blog and social media channels. It may be that there is no point in working in some networks anymore.
Check the comments on a regular basis to find new ideas for content. Write down everything interesting and promising.
3. Create your own content clusters
By the third step, we had figured it out:
- what content the audience wants to see and what information our users are looking for;
- how our products and services can meet the needs of different audiences;
- what content works better than competitors’;
- which content formats resonate best with different target audiences and on different platforms;
- what are the pain points of your audience.
Now we determine how and what kind of content we will create to meet the needs of our audience groups. Each presence platform can have its own content plan.
Let’s take the blog of the ITForce marketing agency as an example.
What Analytics tells us about the topics our audience was interested in in August:
- 6 articles about Instagram;
- 4 — about Telegram;
- 2 — publications about Google courses and products.
The rules and operation of search algorithms and social networks change literally every month. And in order to be in trend or retain existing subscribers, you need to be aware of changes related to websites and social platforms. That’s why publications about social media and how to work with them are in demand.
Information on content formats:
- 7 are how-to articles;
- 3 publications in the guide format;
- 1 what is article.
The How to format is the most popular. This is a completely practical topic, so its popularity is understandable. This is followed by guides and course selections for professionals.
What about future topics? We assume that we should cover our work on Instagram and Telegram. And what about article formats? How to make both have better attendance.
Now let’s take a look at the upcoming subtopics.
How to make an Instagram profile header – add a specialization to the end and get a new subtopic. Or we will tell you in great detail how to properly design a profile bio for different businesses, because users have the most problems with the bio section.
How to create and promote a Telegram channel – you can add a specialization, you can make 2 separate detailed guides on How to create and How to promote, or you can also create a case study (of course, if you have worked with Telegram), where you can provide analytics data that will confirm your expertise.
The Google Analytics 4 setup checklist is an extensive topic, and it is advisable to write a separate article on each of its points.
So, how many content clusters do you need for your website? This is up to you to determine, based on the data you’ve collected. Alternate content formats, but focus on the most traffic-oriented ones. The same applies to social media, where you should take into account your content format: photos or videos, stories.
4. Where to find ideas for content groups
We collect the conclusions from the previous paragraphs of the guide and use them in our work:
- top topics from the past (data from Google Analytics) – writing information that is relevant today or creating a longer and more detailed series of content with a main topic;
- competitor strategy – testing competitors’ ideas in publications and stories;
- help from services – researching keywords and matching them with our content;
- answering questions from the audience in the comments under the publications and the Direct.
Earlier, we wrote a detailed article with 10 ideas for content sources. But keep in mind the current situation. There is a war in Ukraine. Some topics may not be relevant today. We told you how to work with a content strategy after February 24.
5. Content plan: how to create it
Now it’s time to break the formed clusters into separate subtopics, write them, and schedule publications in each channel.
What about content groups? You can alternate between post and service categories: SEO, Paid Advertising, SMM, Content Marketing, ASO Promotion, or you can write about the most relevant first. Outline the main topics, but leave room for hot topics and newsworthy events.
For algorithms (both search engines and social networks), it is important to keep the platform (website, social network) up to date. This is how the algorithms understand that the blog has not been forgotten, the site is updated, and search engines visit it more often. The ranking of a website in search engines depends on its updatability.
Your content plan can be written down in a paper notebook, Google Sheets, a publication planner, etc. For example, this is how our content plan for the ITForce blog looks like. We use Google Sheets:
We have a separate tab in the table for future blog topics and ideas.
How to create a content plan for social media? A social media audit will help you with this. How to conduct a social media audit and what types of content should be in your profile? Our step-by-step guide will help you develop a content strategy for social media.
Bottom line
To summarize. A content group or cluster is the main topic of a content block. It is the basis of the structure of related subtopics. Then your ideas and imagination work.
To identify the main topics, we use the built-in analytics of the website and social networks. We take the working headings of competitors’ blogs or posts and make our version better.
We involve subscribers in the work on the platforms. We rely on the portrait of our audiences. The main content is created for them, for users. And it must meet both the user’s content and the requirements of search engines.
