How to Create Content Pillars for Instagram?

Unlock your phone and open Instagram. How many posts are genuinely relevant to you?

Partly, it may be just because of the people you are following and the things they post. But when it comes to brands and their Instagram accounts, one of the challenges they face is maintaining relevancy through their marketing strategy. However, some processes can help businesses become relevant on social media.

Thus, how can a brand organize its content so that users can properly and constantly engage with it? Well, this is where content pillars come in. In this article, we will discuss how to create content pillars for Instagram and what are some of the best practices in this process.

What Are Content Pillars?

Content pillars include some topics or concepts that help marketers organize their online content. Furthermore, content pillars are created by considering a brand’s essence and goal so that they can present them to the online audience.

Regarding social media, Instagram’s content pillars can assure marketers that their content is focused on what matters to the company they promote. Thus, regardless of your channel, content pillars will help you organize your content better.

Content pillars are great for Instagram, where you can share unique behind-the-scenes photos and videos of your performances. The success of your efforts to maintain authenticity on Instagram strongly depends on creating content that reflects your brand’s fundamental values and objectives.

The Benefits of Using Content Pillars for Instagram

Content pillars are truly helpful when it comes to organizing a brand’s posts, and this is because it is one of the best ways of staying relevant and following an advanced marketing strategy.

Diversify Your Posts

When using content pillars for Instagram, you can follow more topics. This way, you can diversify your content while focusing on some of the most important things about your brand. For instance, if your brand sells sweets, you can post guides about how to create various products and about combining your products with various drinks.

Test Multiple Topics

It is excellent if you plan to be authentic through your Instagram posts. However, when you have a way of testing what works best for your target audience, it is better. And content pillars can help you do that.

For example, when you promote programming courses, some users may be interested in your teachers, while others may want to see some funny content regarding programmers. Content pillars allow you to realize what works best for your audience.

Plan Meaningful Content

Once you test various topics to find what suits your Instagram account, your content will be meaningful for every interested user who will see your profile. And this will only bring benefits, for sure. Your content may bring more sales and website traffic, too.

Creating Instagram Content Pillars Step-by-Step

As we mentioned, including content pillars in your Instagram strategy will have many benefits. And if you are wondering how you should do that and where to start, let’s take an example and create Instagram content pillars for an online light fixtures shop.

Outline Your Audience

When creating content pillars for Instagram, it is essential to be aware of whom you are addressing. This way, you will be able to create content that is relevant to the users you are trying to engage.

Thus, after researching users’ interests, demographics, and your main marketing strategy, you can conclude. For instance, your audience may include two groups:

People aged between 25 and 34 years old, newly married, interested in home decorating, interior design, and following hashtags such as #interiordesign, #home, #homedeco, #furniture, and #architecture;
People aged between 35 and 44 years old, mostly women, working in the interior design industry, following real estate pages and furniture shops.

Check the Insights

One of the most important steps to follow when creating content pillars for Instagram is to review analytics, and this time it is not about numbers but trends.

Instagram insights may be beneficial when trying to decide what you will post, as they can tell you more about what your users’ interests in the app are and how you can refine your marketing strategy accordingly.

Thus, after shaping your audience, you check the insights and find out that users engage with posts displaying minimalist designs. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a content pillar about minimalism and what products you can offer for such rooms?

Match Instagram Content to Other Channels

Your Instagram content should suit the audience you have created, indeed. However, your overall online activity has to follow some general topics, regardless of the channel you are focusing on at the moment.

For instance, if you have some ongoing sales on your website and you advertised them on Facebook, it is not professional to talk about your new minimalist collection on Instagram, even though you learned that your followers are primarily interested in this style.

Thus, take things one step at a time, and after the sales, you can start posting about your new products. This way, you will also organize your content to be easily digestible.

Create a Content Plan

After creating an audience, finding more about your followers and potential newcomers through analytics, and aligning your Instagram content to other channels’ posts, it is time to create your content plan.

Although the content pillars may alter according to the company, Instagram accounts generally focus on some of the following content pillars:

Behind the scenes;
Team member takeover;
Products news;
User-generated content;
Customer feedback.

To create Instagram content pillars that will be veritably relevant to your followers, try to learn which ideas can be reproduced for your brand.

For instance, some “behind the scenes” posts may help customers choose your light fixtures for their homes. This kind of posts may answer some of their main questions, including how your team works on the projects, how your products are built, and even what an overall sales process looks like (from talking with an advisor to choosing the best products, all the way to setting up the products).

Plan your content pillars in advance and stick to them as much as possible. Maintaining a sense of authenticity on Instagram relies heavily on creating material that reflects your company’s core beliefs and goals.

Best Practices

When building content pillars for Instagram, try to be mindful of the importance of influence, trustworthiness, distinctiveness, and relevancy. This way, not only will your strategy help in growing your brand’s Instagram account, but it will increase sales, too.

Be Influential

Competition is not new to any business out there on the market. And when you want to improve your results, you have to come up with something that will make users choose you over other brands available.

Thus, be influential. Persuade users into following you and then buying your products. This is a long-term process, and those who understand how important it is to have influence in the online space will see some results, too.

Increase Trust

Impulse buying can indeed bring some sales to the table. But most brands cannot see success by targeting impulse purchasers only. Therefore, you should try your best to increase potential customers’ trust.

A user who learns that a brand is trustworthy will most likely stay loyal and may even recommend it to others.

Be Unique

Almost every business has an Instagram account these days. If we think of the top 100 brands, 90% are active on Instagram. Furthermore, according to Instagram’s insights, there are over 200 million business accounts on the platform.

Thus, in a world full of Instagram posts, create content that will make users stop and think “Wow!”.

Be Relevant

Having a profile full of “Instagramable” content is excellent. Nonetheless, it should be relevant, too. Make your posts tell stories and align your Instagram content pillars to your goals and beliefs. This way, users will find your brand relevant, making it easier to purchase your products.

Key Takeaways

Content pillars for Instagram can help a brand increase authenticity and diversify its posts. Furthermore, they allow marketers to learn what types of content work best for their followers.

If you plan to create Instagram content pillars, try to focus on the targeted audience while reviewing insights and aligning your Instagram content to the brand’s activity on other online channels.

When following a content pillars-based plan for Instagram, remember that it is