What is a Pillar Content Marketing Strategy?

What is a Pillar Content Marketing Strategy and How Can it Improve Marketing Outcomes?

Content marketing has been shown to increase customer engagement and retention, thereby enhancing sales and business outcomes. Reaching these objectives, however, is highly dependent on a business’ ability to engage with the right audience. Diversifying the content you produce based on a targeted pillar strategy can improve engagement and the overall success of your marketing program.

What Is a Pillar Content Marketing Strategy?

A pillar content strategy is designed to help you diversify your content around topic clusters. Pillar content is defined as any content piece that answers a complete audience query. It is then supported by content written about closely related subjects known as content clusters. 

Each pillar is based on the most pressing issues or questions your audience has about your business or industry. For example, at FNBO, we know that building successful communities is a top concern for our customers, so we have identified the topic as one of the overarching pillars in our content strategy.

How Do You Setup a Pillar Content Marketing Strategy?

Defining your content pillars requires an extensive knowledge of your customer base. Researching internet search queries using a tool such as Ubersuggest or Moz, will alert you to the topics your customers are researching online. However, you’ll also want to align your pillars to your unique company differentiators. 

At FNBO, we started by determining what are company stands for and the value we want to deliver to our customers. This provided us with five overarching themes on which we could build our content. These topics became the pillars of our content marketing strategy.

We then identified questions and subjects surrounding each pillar that would provide our customers with valuable information. These became our topic clusters, allowing us to explore each pillar concept in depth while greatly diversifying our content library.

For example, one of our pillars is based on FNBO’s commitment as a community partner. Sub-topics could include various pieces of content around issues such as corporate responsibility and going green.

The point here is to dig deeply into each content pillar to develop your topic clusters. Then, consider going even deeper, further separating each of your content clusters into topic subsets. 

By taking this approach, you are diversifying your content in a way that meets your customer needs for information and also displays your depth and breadth of knowledge on the topics most important to your audience.

What are the Benefits of a Pillar Content Marketing Strategy?

Pillar content is designed to do two things. First, it provides extensive value to the reader, increasing audience engagement with your brand. Last, it helps your business gain search engine rankings, a critical factor when it comes to getting your content in front of your audience.

How Can a Pillar Content Marketing Strategy Help with SEO?

According to Hubspot, 75 percent of people stop looking at search results beyond the first page. That’s why it is important for your content to rank high for your topic. 

A pillar content strategy can help you do this through the diversity of content you create on each pillar topic. By linking internally between these pieces, search engines recognize your site as an authority and rank your content higher. In fact, the majority of marketers link to 5 different pieces of content within a single blog post or article.

By creating a diverse array of content, you are also building a solid brand reputation as a thought leader. The more detail you can provide on a content pillar, the more your brand stands out as an authority. 

To continue generating results, however, it’s important to revisit your pillar posts and topic clusters periodically. Audience interest can shift from year to year, so regularly updating these pieces will ensure your content continues to rank and build your brand.

Overall, a pillar content strategy is designed to elevate your company as an industry leader on a series of topics to enhance customer acquisition and retention efforts.