How to Choose Content Pillars From Your Positioning
Why Topic Brainstorms Produce Category Content, and a Method That Produces Yours
Short answer
Choose content pillars by working backwards from your positioning. List the buyer beliefs your positioning needs to be true, turn each into a recurring theme you can keep proving, and keep three to five. Then drop or reshape any pillar your competitors already post about in the same way.
1. What is a content pillar, and how is it different from a message pillar?
A content pillar is a recurring theme you publish about. A message pillar is a reason your value proposition is true. Content pillars carry message pillars to an audience; they are not the same list.
- Content pillar
- A recurring theme a brand publishes about on purpose, chosen so that repeated posts on it build one specific belief in the buyer over time.
- Also known as: content theme, content bucket
The confusion between the two causes most weak pillar sets. A message pillar such as "setup takes a day" is a claim. Publishing that claim twelve times a quarter is an advert on repeat. A content pillar is the territory in which that claim keeps getting evidenced from new angles: setup stories, migration mistakes, a timed walkthrough, a customer describing their first week.
If you have a messaging hierarchy, keep it. The pillars in it tell you what must be proven. Content pillars decide where and how often it gets proven in public.
2. Why start from positioning instead of a topic list?
Because topic lists come from what is easy to post, and what is easy to post is the same for everyone in your category. Positioning is the one input your competitors do not share.
Run the brainstorm version and you get tips, product updates, team culture and industry news. Those are formats and sources, not themes. Worse, they are what Veltrix and Norvane post too, so a reader scrolling past all three brands learns nothing about why yours is different.
Positioning, in the sense April Dunford describes it, is built from competitive alternatives, unique attributes, the value those attributes enable, the customers who care most, and the market category you choose to compete in [s1]. Each of those components implies things a buyer has to believe before they choose you. Those beliefs are what pillars should be built on.
3. How do I turn positioning into content pillars?
Write the beliefs your positioning needs, turn each into a theme you can keep proving, test each theme against three questions, then keep three to five and give each a target share of the calendar.
Plan on ninety minutes with the person who owns positioning and the person who will publish.
- Paste the positioning statement at the top. Use the current, agreed version. If there is none, write it first: pillars built without positioning turn into an argument about topics that is really an argument about strategy.
- List the beliefs a buyer must hold to choose you. Write them in the buyer voice, one per line. "Doing this in a spreadsheet costs more than it looks." "Switching tools will not lose my history." Aim for six to ten before cutting.
- Rewrite each belief as a theme you can keep proving. A belief is the destination; a pillar is the road. "Spreadsheets cost more than they look" becomes a pillar about the hidden cost of doing it by hand, evidenced differently every time.
- Test every candidate against three questions. Can we produce at least two posts a month on it for a year? Does it lead to a belief that favors us specifically? Would a buyer who never buys still find it useful? Drop anything that fails one.
- Keep three to five and weight them. Assign each surviving pillar a target share of the calendar. Weight by what the positioning most needs right now, not equally. The belief blocking the most deals gets the biggest share.Add a small open slot outside the pillars for news and reactions, so real events do not push out planned themes.
4. What does a finished pillar set look like?
Four pillars, each with the belief it builds, the proof types it draws on, the formats that suit it and a target share. The belief column is what separates this from a topic list.
Say your company sells online booking and client-management software to small service businesses, and positions against running bookings from a paper diary or spreadsheet and against heavier suites such as Sondera. Here is the pillar set that positioning produces.
| Pillar | Belief it builds | Proof types | Formats that fit | Target share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The hidden cost of doing it by hand | The paper diary and the spreadsheet cost more time than they look | Time logs, before and after, reader replies | Text posts, carousels | About 30% |
| Cutting no-shows | No-shows are a process problem, not bad luck | Reminder templates, reminder wording, small data from your own product | Carousels, short video | About 25% |
| Built for small service businesses | Enterprise suites are overkill for a salon with three chairs | Customer stories, side-by-side workflows | Single image, video testimonial | About 25% |
| Switching without losing anything | Moving bookings and client history is safe and quick | Migration walkthroughs, timed demos | Screen recording, text | About 20% |
Notice what is missing: no "tips", no "team", no "product news". Those still get posted, but inside a pillar. A product update about faster imports belongs in "switching without losing anything", and it reads better there because it has a reason.
5. How many content pillars should a small team have?
Three to five. Fewer than three and the feed gets repetitive within a month; more than five and no single pillar gets enough posts per quarter for anyone, you included, to notice it.
Do the arithmetic before you commit. A team publishing four posts a week has roughly fifty posts a quarter. Split across five pillars that is ten each, which is enough to evidence a belief. Split across eight it is six, which is a sprinkle.
Should every pillar get an equal share?
No. Equal shares assume every belief is equally important to winning, which is almost never true. Weight the pillar tied to your most common objection highest, give the others enough posts to stay alive, and revisit the weights each quarter against what the sales conversations are actually raising.
6. How do I check pillars against what competitors post?
Read the last month of each main competitor feed and tag their posts with your pillar names. A pillar they already cover in the same way needs a sharper angle; one nobody covers is either an opening or a sign buyers do not care.
This is a thirty-minute exercise per competitor, and it catches the most expensive mistake: spending a quarter on a pillar that Veltrix has owned for two years. If Veltrix posts weekly about "cutting no-shows" with the same reminder-template angle, your version either needs a different proof (your own no-show data, say) or a different pillar.
Three outcomes, three moves:
- Covered the same way by two or more competitors: keep the belief, change the proof or the audience, or demote it.
- Covered differently: keep it, and make the difference visible in the hooks.
- Covered by nobody: test it for a month. Silence can be an opening, or a sign the belief does not matter to buyers.
The content gap analysis guide covers this comparison in more depth, including how to separate a real gap from a topic nobody searches for.
7. When should content pillars change?
When the positioning changes, when a belief stops blocking deals, or when a competitor takes over the territory. Not because a quarter ended or the team is bored of the theme.
Pillars should be stable enough that a follower could name them after a few months. Changing them every quarter guarantees nothing builds. Reviewing them every quarter is different: keep the set, adjust the weights, and replace a pillar only when its reason for existing has gone.
Key Takeaways
Pillars come from beliefs, not topics
List what a buyer must believe to choose you, then make each belief a theme you can keep proving from new angles.
Content pillars carry message pillars
A message pillar is a claim. A content pillar is the territory where that claim keeps getting evidenced in public.
Three to five, weighted by need
Fewer gets repetitive, more spreads too thin. Give the pillar tied to your biggest objection the biggest share.
Tips, team and product news are formats
They still get posted, but inside a pillar, where they have a reason to exist.
Check pillars against competitor feeds
A pillar two rivals already cover the same way needs a different proof, a different audience, or demotion.
Review weights quarterly, change pillars rarely
Pillars that change every quarter never build the belief they were chosen for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
- Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It April Dunford, January 2019.Widely used positioning method that breaks positioning into five components.
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