The long weekend is over and summer is here but you’re not going to stop marketing yourself or your business. I want you to ramp it up while everyone else takes a break or slows down.

One of the smartest things you can do is to create more intentional content using content pillars.

This is content with purpose and content that supports your business development growth, your lead generation efforts and your brand and visibility goals.

Let me explain how I became so focused on content pillars.

I used to post content on a whim whenever I had an idea. The problem with that is that sometimes my content was all over the place in terms of topics, timing and approach.

What I posted often resonated with my network, but it wasn’t intentional or strategic. And it took me a lot of time to create the posts, so it wasn’t efficient for me either.

What I learned to do (and now what I teach my clients to do as well) is to create content with purpose. You can more clearly define your purpose and intention with your content pillars.

So, what is a content pillar?

A content pillar is a subset of topics or themes in your wheelhouse that support your brand and business which create the foundation for your overall content strategy. You should have three to six of them in your overall content strategy.

Content pillars define your niche, guide and speed up your content creation process and ensure that your content is more strategic.

They also help you stay organized, be consistent and create high-quality content.

And most importantly, content pillars enable you to be more intentional about creating and publishing content.

When you intentionally create and curate content around your content pillars you can maximize and streamline your content strategy and marketing efforts.

Each of your pillars could be comprised of different types of content such as blog posts, articles, social media posts, videos, podcasts, email blasts, website content, landing pages, surveys, white papers, infographics, just to name a few.

The thing is, you’re probably already creating content supporting your content pillars, but you just haven’t formally written them out as part of your overall content strategy.

To help you create your own content pillars, here are mine:

• Social media/digital marketing

• LinkedIn

• Content marketing

• Legal marketing

• My Women Who Wow initiative

• Personal branding

• Motivational content/mental health in the workplace

I write only about these topics for the most part – and my content pillars are broad enough to give me some leeway within each topic to do so. Within each content pillar I create subtopics as well.

In addition to your topical content pillars, ensure your content also focuses on:

• Educating: Share valuable information with your audience based on their needs and pain points. Always give without expecting anything in return. Helpful content is the currency of success.

• Entertaining: Post content that is unique, clever, and showcases your personality and expertise. This kind of content will resonate with them more.

• Relating/Inspiring: Show your audience that you understand their struggles. Tell stories. Be relatable and authentic.

This is your first Social Media Butterfly summer homework assignment – define and create your content pillars. Now will you do it?