What are content pillars? They’re the three to five core topics your business consistently talks about across your marketing, chosen because they matter to your audience and align with what you actually offer. They help to give your content structure, so you’re not starting from a blank page every time you need to create something.
That’s the short answer. The longer answer is more nuanced and often where people get stuck.
What content pillars actually are
Content pillars, sometimes called content buckets, are the themes that sit underneath everything you write, post or send. Instead of deciding what to talk about from scratch every week, you’re choosing from a small, fixed set of topics you already know your audience cares about.
Most businesses work best with three to five pillars. Any more and it’s easy to lose focus. Any fewer and content can get repetitive. What people often get wrong about content pillars is that they need to be aligned to what you offer, what you believe and who you’re actually trying to reach, not picked because they sound good on a worksheet.
Why content pillars alone won’t fix what’s actually wrong
Most people search “what are content pillars” because they’re stuck. They don’t know what to post, what to send or what to write about this week, and content pillars sound like the answer.
They’re not, well, not on their own anyway.
Content pillars organise content you’ve already decided to create. They don’t tell you who you’re talking to or what you’re actually selling. If that clarity around your audience isn’t there first, you end up with neatly labelled buckets that still say nothing specific. Same vague content, just filed more tidily.
This is the bit most people skip. Before you build content pillars, you need a clear picture of your audience and your offer.
- Who exactly are you talking to
- What do they actually struggle with
- What do you sell that solves it
Once there’s more clarity around these areas, content pillars are easier to create. You’re then naming the four or five things you already know you need to say. But if you skip that step then content pillars become a more organised way of avoiding the real question.
This is also why so many businesses set up their content pillars once, feel briefly reassured and then find themselves stuck again a few months later. The pillars didn’t stop working. They were never the thing doing the work in the first place.
Content pillar examples
There are four core pillars you can use as a guide. If you’re building marketing content pillars from scratch, these content pillar examples give you a solid starting point, whether you’re planning social media content pillars, email content or blog topics.
Audience.
Content that speaks directly to the people you help and the problems they’re facing right now. This is where you show you understand them before you show them anything else.
Solutions.
Content that connects your offer to those problems. Not a hard sell, just a clear line between what you do and what they actually need.
Uniqueness.
Content that shows what you do differently and why that matters. This is where you separate yourself from everyone else saying roughly the same thing in your space.
Brand.
Content about you, your story and what you stand for. People buy from businesses they feel they know, not just ones that show up in their feed.
These four main content pillar examples work as a starting framework for most small businesses building out their marketing content pillars for the first time. You’ll likely split them further once you understand the different stages your audience moves through before they buy from you.
How to actually find your content pillars
Skip the generic keyword tools and autocomplete lists for this bit. The most useful pillars come from what’s already sitting in front of you.
Look at the questions your clients actually ask you, on calls, in person, in emails, in your DMs. Look at what content has already had the best response, the post that got shared, the email that got replies rather than silence. And pay close attention to the thing you keep explaining from scratch to every new client. That gap, the one you repeat constantly, is usually a pillar hiding in plain sight.
This gives you content pillars grounded in your actual business and your actual clients, not a generic list built to suit anyone. The same process works whether you’re setting social media content pillars or building out marketing content pillars for email and blog content.
It’s also worth checking these against your own capacity. A content pillar only works if you can keep returning to it. If one of your four ideas only produces one good piece of content and then goes quiet, it’s probably a one off topic rather than a genuine pillar. Keep the ones you could talk about for another two years without running out of material.
Where this fits with email marketing
Content pillars only earn their keep once they’re feeding something that compounds, and for most small businesses that’s your email list, not just a social media posting schedule.
If you haven’t got a list building system in place yet, start with how to build an email list. And if you’re mapping content pillars into a wider content plan rather than treating them as a standalone task, this guide to building a strategic marketing plan covers where content sits alongside the rest of your marketing.
Once you’ve defined your content pillars, email is where they do the most work. A social post disappears within a day. An email builds a relationship over months and you own that list regardless of what any platform algorithm decides to do next.
FAQs
What are content pillars?
Content pillars are three to five core topics your business consistently talks about across your marketing, chosen because they matter to your audience and match what you offer.
How many content pillars should I have?
Three to five. Fewer and your content repeats fast, more and you lose focus.
Are content pillars the same as content categories?
Broadly yes. Content pillars are the small, fixed set of themes everything else sits under.
What are some content pillar examples I can start with?
Audience, solutions, uniqueness and brand cover most small businesses. See the content pillar examples above for what each one actually looks like in practice.
Do I need separate social media content pillars from my email pillars?
Not necessarily different content pillars, but you may cover the same pillar differently depending on the platform and how your audience uses it there.
How do marketing content pillars differ from a content calendar?
Marketing content pillars are the themes. A content calendar is the schedule for when you publish content on those themes. You need the content pillars decided before the calendar really means anything.
What’s the difference between a content pillar and a pillar page?
A content pillar is a topic theme that runs through your marketing. A pillar page is a specific SEO structure, a single in depth page that other content links back to. HubSpot has a useful breakdown of pillar pages if you want to go deeper on that side of it.
Want an easier way to grow the list this content is actually feeding? Smarter ways to grow your email list is a free download to help you get started.
