Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. And welcome back to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, we're talking about content pillars. What are they and why do we need them? But first, here's a quick message from our sponsor.
Melanie
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Esther
Okay. Sounds promising, okay, so far that there's not too many that we need to discuss and talk about. So it won't be a long podcast episode. We're not going to go on for ours. I think if we ever did, our audience would switch off after 20 minutes anyway.
Melanie
Social media content pillars are themes that a brand should look at and focus on to communicate to your audience. One of the obvious ones is the promotional. But I also see that as a credibility pillar as well.
Esther
Okay. When I think of pillars, I see them all the same height. Is that what we're going for here? We're putting the same amount of effort into each pillar?
Melanie
Yeah. The overall strategy should balance on top of all of the pillars.
Esther
No. Yeah, that sounds reasonable. So promotional pillar would be your buy now, 20% discount, things like that. Yeah?
Melanie
But it could also be your credibility, your user generated content. It could be your testimonials, for instance.
Esther
Okay, cool. So another pillar then would be educational. Why do the people Why do they need to buy what you're selling? Why do they need this in their life? What pinpoint is it solving? What benefit is there to them if they buy it? So educating them on what the product is or services, how they use it, why they need it, etc.
Melanie
And I would also see this as the conversational pillar. So you're doing a two-way conversation with your audience and you're explaining to them in a language that they understand how your product responds to their pay-point.
Esther
Okay, that sounds reasonable. So one that our content usually fits into with the podcast is entertainment. So entertainment of, well, it does what it says in the 10, it's entertaining, it's educational, engaging, all in one.
Melanie
Yeah, we call ourselves Edutane, don't we?
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
So we try to incorporate a bit of both.
Esther
So this is the fun side of your business. This is the what goes wrong or what goes right and this behind the scenes and showing people how to use, especially if it's a product, showing them how to use it. It's your how-to videos, it's your people having fun.
Melanie
I would see this as your connection. This is where people are meeting you on a personal level, I think, and you're making yourself a bit more relatable, I suppose, at this stage. People are seeing who you are behind the scenes. I think this would also be the time that you're actually meeting people and doing the selfie photos and group photos. Yeah, that thing I would see would be that part of the pillar.
Esther
Yeah. Another pillar then that some people like to include is community, which is what social media is all about. It's the social aspect of it. It's building your community, building your followers, building those moments between everyone. It's the sharing, asking a question and getting other people to answer those questions, especially in, maybe in our line of work where people have always got questions about social media, digital marketing, web design, ads, etc. It's throwing questions out there and getting the community to help answer the questions.
Melanie
I think you can interpret in different ways, though, Esther, because it's not just Q&A's and that thing. In my head, it's building the community. It's talking about other stuff that matters to them that may not necessarily be you. We've talked about it before, serve, share, and sell. This is where I do the serving and the sharing, and sharing other people's related content that matters to our audience. It doesn't matter what niche we are. We've all got people who buy other products or services connected some way to our niche. Website designers, graphic designers, and social media managers work together on a regular spaces. So I would share that related content to aid and build my community.
Esther
Yeah. Because at the end of the day, what you want with your pillars is to help people and for them to remember you and them to come back to you and buy from you. So using content pillars as a way to build that trust and build that, well, with the fifth content pillar would be engagement. So building that engagement, building that back and forth conversation, building that where they want to share your content because they know and trust you now to know that what you're saying is correct or that what you're selling is of good quality. So they want to share it. They want to help spread the word. So that would be in the engagement part. And you can ask for that engagement by saying, share this with someone that you know that could benefit from this, or it could just be organic and people do it off their own bat.
Melanie
And I think the final pillar for me would be the conversion pillar. Now, the ones I've been outlining here, in case I'm sure a couple of people have copped, these are the five Cs that were promoted by katcha.com, which we spoke about actually at an event last year. They're just a suggestion. We found these different ways of talking about content pillars, and it just depends on what works for you. But if you can understand that there are different ways that this information can be interpreted and also delivered. I love the way you've described that earlier on, Esther, where you were saying, Are they the same height? I agree. I think they should build upon being like a block of your strategy. If you do it right, then you'll have a firm base to build and thrive with your marketing.
Esther
Something that you mentioned there, building on it, it's not an overnight thing. It's not a let's just sit down for five minutes, brainstorm what these are and then run with them. You have to analyse and see what's working as well, because you might go for five pillars when you really only need four or maybe even three, or you might start with three and then see that you need to build up more. So you need to be constantly reviewing what's working in those content pillars And as Kerry said in a recent podcast, sprinkle a little smattering of other things in there. So Kerry was on talking about awareness days. Sprinkle those in as well. You don't have to just stick with the content pillars because you need some cement to keep those pillars going.
Melanie
If you've got this mental image in your head of these pillars, then hopefully it should help you think of different ways to reach your with more interesting and persuasive content, be it through infographics, through polls, through Q&A's, maybe going live. If you take into account that these five or up to five pillars may be relevant for your customers, then it will give you different ways to deliver content that matters to them. Because ultimately, we tend to broadcast, don't we? I do it as well. I have to slap myself every now and then to stop doing it. It. But we all do it. We all broadcast on our social channels, and we've got to stop doing that. We've got to be more social. The whole point of it is to be social. That's why all the algorithms are being re-looked at and updated on a semi regular basis because we are using it all inappropriately. What they want us to do is if we want to broadcast, if we want to use it as a media platform, they want us to pay for it.
Esther
Yeah. And that's It's fair enough because at the end of the day, that's their business model as well. So what you need to remember when you're sitting down to start your content pillars is that they need to be aligned with your business goals as well. They need to be in line with what you're aiming to do and not something that will end up with something completely off. I was going to say skewift. That's probably a very Irish word. But what are you trying to achieve with your social media presence? What type of content will your target audience find valuable? Getting back to that target audience each and every time. Are you aiming to be edutaining or are you going to separate the entertainment and the education into different pillars? Do you want to drive traffic to your website or do you want to keep them on your social social media. Answer to that one, guys, is website. Just in case you were wondering. Revisit your content pillars every month, especially at the start, to make sure that they're still aligned with your overall vision, because your pillar can go wonky if it's not going the way that it's supposed to go towards your goal. And it's okay if they change, that is fine. There's nothing wrong with that.
Melanie
I think they must change, otherwise you can get quite stagnant.
Esther
Yeah. And your brand is constantly changing, and you as a business owner and as a face of a business are constantly changing as well. Your products, your services, they all may change. So your pillars need to change and modify with that, too.
Melanie
I'm glad you said that, because I am my product, and I am changing. I'm getting older.
Esther
And that's all valid. I mean, we had Niamh Hogan talk to ages ago now about her hollow skin care and how it has evolved as she has aged and her skin has aged into different products as well. And that's totally valuable.
Melanie
I suppose As we progress and our brand gets more recognition, we also have to hit different markers as well. So you reach a point where you've got a good presence, maybe on one platform, and maybe it's time to embrace It's a new one. I know some people really hate doing email marketing, but after a few years of getting a good online presence, they start considering the old email area. I'll tell you what, content pillars do you power good in your email marketing, even if you don't feel it in your socials? Because your audience already knows who you are and what you do.
Esther
Exactly. On that point, I just wouldn't desert one platform for another. If you're going to add in another platform like email marketing, add it in. Don't substitute the email marketing for what you've already been doing.
Melanie
No, I wouldn't recommend doing that unless it was maybe... I mean, we've heard of other businesses, haven't we, Esther, that have decided, okay, we're going to throw everything into Instagram for a while because it seems to be lifting off for us. I've had one lady who I trained a couple of years ago now who was doing really, really well on Facebook and Instagram, but didn't know about Google business profile. I showed her Google Business Profile, and honestly, she just left it off. She kept her presence on Facebook and Instagram, so she didn't stop posting or anything. But she threw her all into Google Business Profile, and boy, did that make a difference.
Esther
Yeah, Yeah. Adding things in as you go, you don't need to do them all from the very start, but add them in as you feel comfortable. And even when you don't, step outside your comfort zone and add a few more things in. I've been doing reels If you've been looking at our Instagram, I don't do video.
Melanie
What's the difference it's made? Have you seen our dashboard, our professional dashboard, and our Insights and Analytics, Esther? It's made such a difference.
Esther
Yeah. They love me. What can I say? Anyway, that's it for today, guys. We'll be back next week before Melanie drags me into doing something else on video. We'll be back next week for another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Until then, bye-bye.
Melanie
Bye.
I don't think it's just you. I think it's just video.
Esther
No, I think they're not used to seeing me. They're more so used to seeing you, but definitely I'm the novelty factor.
Melanie
You're the novelty factor. You've been called a lot of things before, but that's new.
