4 Things I Learned Building My First Content Pillar

Have you ever taken on a task or project you thought was bigger than your capabilities? I have. I recently took on a project not knowing if I could make it happen, a project where there was a real-life opportunity for me to fall on my face. **Spoiler Alert: I didn't fail.

Even better than not failing, I learned a few things. And, instead of simply moving onto the next task, I'm taking a moment of reflection. Reflection is a way to create space for personal growth and professional development, and it's free. Bonus.

The Pillar Approach to Content Creation

The task sounded simple: create a pillar of content. A content pillar is substantial and informative, usually materializing in the form of an eBook, guide, or report. The idea is that once created, the pillar can be broken down into subsequent blog posts, social media content, custom graphics, and many other smaller pieces of content to fuel your various channels. 

As someone whose primary role is content creation, I was immediately drawn to the idea. Could the pillar approach to content creation be the answer to generating high volume, quality content for all of our clients? That remains to be seen. But in the meantime, here's what I learned building my first content pillar. 

#1: Building a Foundation Requires Planning

If you ask someone who's never built a house what the first step is, they might say building the foundation. They're wrong. The first step to building a house is planning. Before the groundbreaking comes the blueprint. And once confronted with the blank page, I knew I needed to plan.

Thanks to a beautifully laid out campaign, I had a pretty good idea of what content pieces (blogs, infographics, checklists, etc.) were meant to come from the pillar. Using these as my guide, I listed each piece of content and grouped them into three separate categories. Then, I reordered each group into a logical progression. Representing each piece of content that would be seeded by the content pillar in my foundation reinforced the pillar's key purpose. 

#2: Being "On Board" and Executing are Two Very Different Things

I was drawn to the pillar approach to content creation from the first time I heard of it. The process and the methodology spoke to a professional pain point of mine: not having enough time to craft substantial, quality content in high enough volume for our clients. What I saw in the pillar approach was a solution. Maybe not the solution, but I was willing and excited to try. 

That initial excitement was quickly replaced by apprehension and self-doubt. It can be all too easy to assume a new idea, approach, or theory will solve a current problem. Within the reality of execution, the content pillar loomed larger than it had in theory. I'll keep this revelation close to my heart the next time I recommend a new process or theory to someone whose role I don't necessarily understand. 

#3: I can Translate Uncertainty into Fuel

When those ideas of uncertainty crept in, I had to remind myself that it was ultimately my decision how I responded to them. I could let self-doubt derail my progress, I could start scrolling through Instagram, or I could dig in and get to work. Realizing only one of those options would get me where I needed to go, I got to work. 

Turns out, understanding the content pillar was a piece of content with a greater purpose than being just a piece of content made the actual writing much easier. I knew each section of the content pillar would be broken down into a blog, eNewsletter content, and social posts, along with some smaller offers and custom graphics too. As far as the pillar itself, knowing it would be a helpful document for the people who downloaded the eBook (in this case, the pillar was an eBook) added an extra bit of purpose to push me through. 

#4: The Pillar Approach was about Reallocating the Effort, Not Creating Ease

Building a content pillar never felt easy. In fact, I still feel a reverberation of inadequacy or two when I think back to that day and a half where I poured everything I had into a project I believed in. Overall, the response has been great. My team, and my tribe, has positively and enthusiastically responded to the eBook, the client was impressed by the final product, and my fingers are crossed that the ideal audience will find value in it.  

Since building the content pillar, I've written a handful of blogs and an infographic derived from its contents. Guess what? It's been awesome. While I cannot overstate the amount upfront effort creating a content pillar requires - the subject matter knowledge, the audience understanding, the context and purpose it serves within the campaign and within the industry it represents - I can speak to the value its already shown in time and effort saved during content creation. 

As the pillar continues to serve its intended purpose throughout this current campaign, I intend to take notice of the ways it performs both internally as a content source document and externally as a campaign offer. And I also plan to write about it. Stay tuned.