Content that Keeps on Giving: How to Make the Most Out of Your Content Strategy

3 Buckets for Breaking Down Your Content

In the world of content marketing, it’s essential to have a strategy that enables you to produce valuable content that your audience finds engaging and informative. Content can be categorized into three buckets: user-generated content (UGC), pillar content, and evergreen content. Each type of content has its unique qualities that can help your business achieve different goals.

User-Generated Content

User-generated content is an essential component of any content strategy. It refers to content that is created by your customers, and it can be anything brand-specific that they create. UGC can be reviews, photos, videos, social media posts, and more. The benefits of UGC are undeniable, as it can increase brand awareness, build trust with your audience, and yes, even boost sales.

To generate more UGC, you must create moments worth sharing. These moments can be anything that your customers find remarkable, memorable, or unique. For example, when I moved to a different state during the pandemic, my family and I had a stressful experience. We arrived in our Uhaul at our new home late at night, hungry, and without any real food or supplies. This was early pandemic so grocery shopping was a struggle at best and with small children to feed in the morning, we were feeling a bit overwhelmed. However, we when walked through the front door for the first time, our agent, to our absolute joy and amazement, had stocked our pantry and fridge with some essentials (including toilet paper) that got us through the first couple of days. What a relief it was to my family and I. Needless to say, this was a moment worth sharing and I did.

Pillar Content

Pillar content is substantive, informative content that covers a specific topic or theme. It’s typically a long-form piece of content that serves as the foundation of your content strategy. Pillar content can be repurposed into smaller, derivative pieces of content that can be shared on different platforms and channels.

Hubspot’s ultimate guide to the best productivity apps is a great example of pillar content. Hubspot created smaller derivative pieces of content, such as the 13 best portable apps and the 7-minute guide to getting started with Google tasks, that all link back to their main pillar content.

The strategy for creating pillar content is to identify what your pillars will be each month and create topic clusters around that pillar. All of the content should lead the audience back to your website for leads, sign-ups, or phone calls. A great resource for brainstorming ideas is https://answerthepublic.com. It will give you raw search insights direct from the minds of your customers and makes this process so much easier.

Pillar content becomes derivative content that can be shared on different platforms and channels with minimal effort. For instance, a YouTube video can be the pillar content, and you can drive traffic to your landing page by creating a condensed version or a written version of the content, sending out a BombBomb video email with a link back to your page, or running a Facebook ad.

Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is simply content that has a long shelf life. It’s the kind of content that remains relevant and useful for months or even years. It’s an essential part of your content marketing strategy because it can help you cut through the noise and be known for something as a company. Evergreen content will help with SEO and drive consistent traffic back to your website. Plan on spending a little more time and resources on creating good evergreen content, it’s well worth it.

Extend Your Shelf Life

To help cut down on some of the time and effort you are putting in to your content marketing, revisit and repurpose your existing content. Major publications like Business Insider know that only a small subset of their viewers may see content on the first run. Therefore, they change the headline or adjust the article in minor ways and repost it.

To extend the shelf life of your content, look for ways to re-use, repurpose, and rethink what you already have. This will help you cut down on your time and money investment while keeping your content relevant and useful for a long time.

In conclusion, a successful content marketing strategy involves creating content that is valuable, informative, and engaging. By categorizing your content into user-generated content, pillar content, and evergreen content, you can effectively reach and engage your target audience and build a strong online presence for your business.