There’s no “right way” to make content. But there are definitely some best practices that can help you achieve your goals faster. One of these best practices is establishing content pillars.

Content pillars are the blueprint of your content. This eliminates the "what should I post?" question. 

Content pillars keep your content consistent, interactive, and engaging and that’s all great in theory but if you’re just getting started, how do you even decide what your content pillars should be?

1.  Find  Your Target Audience

→ Analyze Your Customer Base and Carry Out Client Interviews.

→ Conduct Market Research and Identify Industry Trends.

→ Analyze Competitors.

→ Define Who Your Target Audience Isn't.

→ Analyze Competitors.

→ Continuously Revise As You Grow.

2. Determine their pain points

→ Start with General Evergreen  Pain Points (Money, Happiness, Health & Freedom)

→ Look At Reviews

→ Conduct a Survey

→ Social Listening

→ Talk One-on-One with Your Clients

3. Determine how you can help them

→ Track Customer Journey

→ Determine Points of Improvement

→ Strategize Solutions You Can Provide

4. Know how your brand/business supports them in a unique way.

→ Know Who You Want to Work With

→ Develop Unique Solutions For Your Clients

→ Lean Into Your Strengths

 

TLDR; First you need to know your target audience. Then you need to determine their pain points. Once you’ve done that then you need to determine how you can help them. Finally, decide how your brand will stand out and support them in a unique way.

Now that you know what your clients need and how you can help them you should have a better idea of what types of content you can be creating. Now it’s time to narrow it down.

For example, say you own a local restaurant.

Your 3 content pillars could be:

1. Food & Drink 

2. Community

3. Values

Under each of those content pillars, you could have subtopics that would go into further depth like:

1. Food & Drink 

• Your all vegan options

• Use of all natural ingredients

• Locally sourced specialty beverages

2. Community

• Host local events

• Meet the team

• Showcase the customers

3. Values

• Plantbased & planet forward

• Clean energy

• Community driven

You can have anywhere from 3 - 6 content pillars. Give each of those pillars 3 - 6 subtopics and then under those subtopics, you can create a variety of content based on behind-the-scenes, products, services, industry news and relatable posts around your niche.

Now go forth and make fabulous content!