On this episode of the Christian Business Advantage Podcast, I was privileged to chat with The Boss Lady in Sweat Pants, Allison Scholes, and she shared the power of marketing using content pillars.
Alyssa: I have found that keeping content pillars in mind when developing my content has helped me to strategize and focus my content creation efforts so I wanted her to come on the podcast and share some of her expertise around content pillars.
Introduction to Allison Scholes: The Boss Lady in Sweat Pants
But first, Allison, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Allison: My name is Allison Scholes and I am a content creator, coach, and podcaster. I have a show social media for mompreneurs. I have gone from being a hobbyist blogger to having a dynamic business. I say hobbyist because back then I was making no money from my blog. But now I’m creating, coaching, and podcasting and I love what I do.
Alyssa: You and I have been friends a really long time and I’ve enjoyed learning from you, specially about Instagram.
What is a Content Pillar?
But my favorite thing I’ve learned from you is about content pillars. Can you give your definition of what a content pillar is?
Allison: Yeah! I love talking about content and I love creating content. If you’re going to have a business you have to create some sort of content whether that’s audio, visual, or written form. I think a lot of people get overwhelmed when it comes to getting in the creation mode and putting themselves out there; pretty much telling the world what they do.
They’ll start talking about everything and anything under the sun and we’ve learned through experience with social media and marketing that this is not the way to go about it. You really want to hone in on what your niche is and what you do really well. The easiest way to do that is to come up with content pillars for your business.
Basically, content pillars are just the fundamental topics that you talk about as you create content for your business. You may have heard the term as “content buckets” or “content categories,” but basically it’s the overarching focus of your business.
Content Pillars and Paper Writing Analogy
Think back to your high school days when you had to write a paper or essay. You’d start with that introduction paragraph and each paragraph after that would have a main topic sentence. The main topic sentence is like that content pillar and all the details go after that topic sentence.
Example 1
One example, if you look at my business, my content pillars are going to point back to anything that has to do with either personal branding, content creation, Canva graphics or visuals, and then Instagram for business.
Example 2
As another example, let’s say we have a health or wellness coach out there wanting to market on social media and build her website. She’s going to have to come up with some content pillars so that she can become the authority in her industry around those pillars. Health and wellness is a very broad industry so she’ll want to choose some pillars around what she’s really good at within that industry. Maybe for her it’s education and supplements, dialing in on nutrition and focusing on women in menopause and how the nutrition effects you in menopause. Maybe she’ll also talk about recipes that will help women during menopause and what supplements they should be taking.
As you can see the content pillars are going to focus you within your industry and help you become the authority in your niche.
Example 3
Let’s do another example. A fitness coach would be similar. If the fitness coach wants to stand out they’ll have to come up with some content pillars. Maybe focusing on macro counting and workouts you can do at home under 20 minutes. That kind of thing.
See how content pillars really helps you to zone in on your genius within your niche?
Alyssa: Yes, absolutely! It is about who you are as a brand. If you, yourself are the brand, it helps to share personal things that go along with the niche that you’re in. If they’re a fitness coach you could share your own fitness journey which can make your brand more personal and relatable while still staying true to your content pillars.
Allison: Yes. Absolutely!!
How To Develop Your Content Pillars
Alyssa: The next question I have is how do you decide what your content pillars are. Can you give us some ideas on how to narrow down a broad topic into content pillars?
Allison: I love this question! I’m going to really simplify it for those who are listening. All I want you to do is ask yourself this question: What do you want to be known for when people interact with your content? That’s all you need to answer. As far as how many pillars: no less than 3 but no more than 4 or 5.
What you want to do with your content is to go deep.
Example
Using my pillars as an example: when someone interacts with my content, I don’t want to be known as the Instagram gal. That’s too broad. I want to be known as the content creator. I want people to think, “she’s going to help me to create content for Instagram or how to use Canva for content creation.”
You just have to answer that one simple question: what do you want to be known for when people interact with your content?
Identify Your Zone of Genius
Alyssa: Oh I love that! That helps us narrow it down if we’re stuck! I don’t want to be known for everything. I tell people all the time, you can’t be everything to everyone. But you can be an expert in your niche area. So that helps us to narrow those things down.
Allison: You have to go back to your zone of genius. What are you a genius at? It’s okay to think of yourself that way. I want you to go with what you LOVE to do and don’t shy away from that. I don’t know everything about Instagram. I know it well. But I don’t want to know everything about Instagram because that platform is changing day after day after day. But my zone of genius is creating content for that platform. I create Canva content and visuals and I know how to stand out on that platform.
How can you go deep within your overall niche and your industry? That’ll help you to develop your content pillars.
How Content Pillars Help You Market on Social Media
Alyssa: Makes good sense! My last question is: How can using these content pillars help you to market your business on social media?
1. Build Authority
Allison: First of all, sticking to your content pillars will help you build authority and it’ll attract the right people to your business. Because when people start interacting with your stuff, they’re going to know exactly what you’re about. They’ll keep coming to you for what they need because they know you have what they need. Don’t worry that this is all I talk about because that’s what you want to do. You won’t run out of content and you’ll just keep going deeper. There will always be questions to answer in your audience and there will always be changes to discuss. It’ll help you build authority.
2. Become Recognizable & Memorable
The other cool thing is that if you stick to your pillars it’ll make you recognizable and memorable. People begin to associate you with your content pillars. They begin to think of you when they have an issue or a question around what you are known for.
3. Attract The Right Audience
Sticking to your content pillars helps you to attract the right audience. But a word of caution and what I see happening often, is that people will let comparison cause them to deviate from their content pillars. We used to talk about comparison and I want to add on to that. A lot of people are doing content comparisons. They’ll be watching how someone else is doing something and seeing them do something and they’ll think “maybe I need to add that to my content or show up the way they are.” This tempts us to deviate from our pillars. When we do that, we’re no longer attracting the right people to us. We end up lost in the sea of content out there without standing out.
It Takes Time But Will Pay Off!
I want to emphasize the important of sticking to the content pillars. Even if you feel like it’s taking a long time. It takes time to build that authority. It’s going to take a long time, anywhere between 4-9 months to really get the ball going and become recognizable. It’s all about the long run when it comes to social media. It is not an overnight success.
Alyssa: I’m glad you said that! It really is a marathon and not a sprint. I’ve learned that the hard way over the years. You have to stick with it, be consistent, and keep putting out that content. We just finished a series on this podcast about content repurposing. When you stick to your content pillars, content repurposing becomes even easier!
Where to Find Allison Online
I wanted to give you the chance to tell everyone, if they’re curious about you, where they can find you online.
Allison: You can hang out with me in Instagram @allisonscholes or listen to my podcast: Social Media Mompreneurs or check out what I have to offer on my website: bossladyinsweatpants.com
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Christian Business Advantage Podcast!
STAY CONNECTED
I have a Facebook group for Christian authors, speakers, and coaches. It’s called The Christian Business Advantage, and each month I do a FREE training around the third Thursday of each month. Please come join our group, and you will learn tips and tricks for your business.
