Setting up B2B content pillars

Plenty of B2B companies produce enough content. They publish LinkedIn posts, blogs, newsletters, cases and campaigns. Yet it feels as though the content has little coherence. There is output, but little recognition or consistency.

That is rarely down to a lack of ideas, but to a lack of structure. Without clear content pillars, content gets made based on whatever is happening at the time. That sometimes works in the short term, but it does little to build long-term brand preference.

Content pillars give direction to your B2B content strategy. They determine which core themes keep coming back and make sure your message stays recognisable. In this article you will read what content pillars are, how many you need, how to translate them into pillar pages, content hubs and cornerstone content, and how to use them for your content strategy and distribution.

The content pillars of your B2B marketing strategy

Content pillars are the core themes your organisation communicates about consistently. They form the substantive foundation of your marketing strategy. Not as a list of loose topics, but as clear themes that fit your ideal customer (ICP), your view of the market (PoV) and the problems you solve. 

A good content pillar is broad enough to create content about for a long time. At the same time, the pillar has to be sharp enough to stay recognisable. “Marketing”, for example, is too broad. “Demand generation for B2B companies with long buying cycles” is much sharper and therefore more usable. You can link blogs, social posts, cases, videos and campaigns to it without running out of things to say too quickly. 

Content pillars work best when marketing doesn't come up with them in isolation. They should stem from your wider B2B business strategy. Who do you want to reach? What problems does that audience face? Where does your view of the market differ? And which themes do you need to keep repeating to become top of mind? 

Point of View (PoV)

Your Point of View is your own take on the market. It is the position that keeps coming back in your communication. Without a PoV, content pillars quickly become generic. You end up writing about the same topics as your competitors, often with the same tips and the same explanations. 

A PoV makes your content more recognisable. You don't just explain what something is, but also how you see it. For Partout, for example, that is the conviction that B2B marketing shouldn't revolve around one-off lead campaigns, but around building brand preference in the right market. You can then translate that vision into themes such as demand generation, shortlist position, content strategy and sales alignment. 

Key challenges

Key challenges are the problems, questions and obstacles your audience is dealing with. In B2B you often deal with multiple stakeholders. A marketer looks at an issue differently from a commercial director, CFO or sales manager. That is why you shouldn't only think about the company you want to reach, but also about the people who influence the decision. Because you want to reach those people too. 

Good content pillars tie in with those key challenges. They help your audience understand a problem better, compare options and build internal support. If your content is only about your own services, you miss that connection. 

Content pillars

Content pillars connect your PoV with the key challenges of your audience. They answer the question: which themes do we need to be known for if we want to be chosen by our ideal customer? 

So a content pillar is not a random topic. It is a recurring theme that helps you claim your position in the market. For a B2B marketing agency, content pillars could cover demand generation, B2B positioning, content strategy and marketing and sales alignment, for example. 

Pillar pages

A pillar page is an in-depth page on your website about one core topic. The page provides an overview and links to in-depth articles, cases or other content (content hubs) that together explore the theme in full. This makes your website more logical for visitors and for search engines. 

Say “B2B demand generation” is a content pillar. The pillar page can then explain what demand generation is, why it is relevant in B2B, how it differs from lead generation and what steps you need to take to get started. Beneath that pillar page sit in-depth blogs on the 95/5 rule, content distribution, LinkedIn, retargeting and metrics. 

Content hubs

A content hub is the wider collection of content around a content pillar. The pillar page is the centrepiece. The content hub consists of all the in-depth content around it. Think blogs, videos, cases, social posts, newsletters and sales material. 

A hub like this helps make your expertise on a theme visible. Not by publishing something once, but by covering the topic from multiple angles. That suits B2B well, because buyers usually need several touchpoints before they trust an organisation. 

How many content pillars do you need?

For most B2B companies, three to four content pillars are enough. More can seem smart, because it lets you cover more topics. In practice, it often leads to fragmentation and a lack of focus. Your message becomes less recognisable and your team struggles to create enough content per pillar. 

Good content pillars need to last. You don't want to run out of angles after three blogs. That is why they need to be broad enough to carry several sub-themes. At the same time, they need to be clearly distinct from one another. If two pillars are too similar, they start to overlap and your structure becomes unclear. 

How can you check for yourself whether you have come up with a good content pillar? Can you think of at least ten to fifteen strong topics per content pillar? Think blogs, LinkedIn posts, cases, videos, FAQs and sales content. If you can't, the pillar is probably too narrow. If you can take it in a hundred directions without a clear line, the pillar is too broad. 

So opt for a limited number of strong pillars rather than a long list of topics. Repetition is not a problem in B2B. In fact, repetition is necessary to become known for a particular theme. 

How do you define your content pillars?

You don't define content pillars by brainstorming fun content ideas. You start with your market, your audience and your own vision. Then you translate those insights into core themes you can use for a long time. 

It helps to work through this process in steps. That way you avoid content pillars that grow mainly out of internal preferences. The best pillars sit at the intersection of what occupies your audience and what your organisation has something meaningful to say about. 

1. Analyse the key challenges of your DMU

Start with the decision making unit (DMU). Who is involved in choosing your product or service? What questions, concerns and objections do they have? And at which stage of the buying process do those questions arise? 

For a B2B software company, for example, a board member may focus mainly on return and risk. An IT manager looks at integrations, security and maintenance. And an end user wants to know whether the solution works well day to day. All of those perspectives provide input for your content pillars. 

Use conversations with sales, customer interviews, keyword research, website behaviour and questions that keep coming up in proposals or demos. Those recurring questions show exactly where your content can add real value. 

2. Define your PoV and your subject domain

Next, you determine what your organisation stands for. What do you see differently from other providers? What conviction underpins your approach? And which topics do you have enough experience in to write about them with confidence? 

Your PoV doesn't have to be extremely sharp or controversial. Above all, it needs to be clear and it has to genuinely fit your organisation. A position such as “content should contribute structurally to commercial growth, not just to visibility” already gives more direction than “we help with content marketing”. 

Then decide which subject domains fit with it. These are the areas where your experience, vision and customer questions come together. 

3. Formulate the core topics that connect your PoV and key challenges

Now you translate the insights into content pillars. A good pillar connects a problem your audience has with your vision of the solution. That creates content that is not only findable, but also strengthens your positioning. 

An example: if your audience struggles with disconnected campaigns that lack coherence, and your PoV is that B2B marketing should build brand preference, then “A strong B2B content strategy for visibility and recognition” could be a logical content pillar. Within it, you can write about content pillars, content calendars, pillar pages, LinkedIn, repurposing and distribution. 

For each pillar, briefly write down what the theme means, which audience question belongs to it and what position you take on it. That stops the pillar from becoming just a label. 

4. Break each content pillar down into sub-themes for your content hubs

Once the core themes are in place, you work them out into sub-themes. Those sub-themes form the basis for blogs, social posts, videos, cases and emails. This way you build a content hub for each content pillar. 

Take the content pillar “B2B content strategy”, for example. Sub-themes could then be: defining content pillars, creating pillar pages, writing evergreen content, content repurposing, content distribution, SEO content and measuring content. Each sub-theme can in turn produce several concrete pieces of content. 

This is how you turn an abstract theme into a practical plan. You not only know what you want to talk about, but also what content you need to make that theme visible. 

B2B content pillars in practice

An example makes this more concrete. Say a B2B marketing agency wants to help companies land on the shortlist of their ideal customers more often. The PoV is that B2B marketing shouldn't revolve around individual leads, but around building brand preference before the moment of purchase. 

Four content pillars could come out of that. 

1. The first content pillar is "B2B positioning to reach my ICP and DMU with my unique PoV on the market". This is about making choices on audience, proposition, Point of View and differentiation. This pillar helps companies articulate more sharply why they are relevant to a specific market.
2. The second content pillar is "Demand generation to grow demand within my B2B audience". This centres on creating demand among companies that are not yet actively searching. Topics include the 95/5 rule, mental availability, LinkedIn distribution and thought leadership. 
3. The third content pillar is "Demand capture to make sure my audience sticks around and becomes a customer". This pillar is about the market that is already actively searching. Think SEO, SEA, retargeting, service pages, cases and conversion points on the website. 
4. The fourth content pillar is "Strong marketing and sales alignment for a real grip on the market". This revolves around alignment between marketing and sales, working with a TAM list, market signals and following up on accounts that show interest. 

Together, these pillars give direction to the entire content strategy. They are broad enough to generate plenty of content, yet clear enough to build recognition. 

Using content pillars for your B2B content strategy

Content pillars only add value when you use them in your day-to-day marketing. They need to come back in your website, content calendar, social posts, campaigns, sales material and reports. Otherwise they remain a strategy document that disappears into a folder somewhere. 

Turning them into execution starts with structure. For each pillar you decide which pages, formats and channels you need. Then you create a plan in which every theme comes back regularly. That is how you build recognition in your market step by step. 

Defining content hubs based on your content pillars

For each content pillar, you build a content hub. That is where all the content around one theme comes together. On your website, that can consist of a pillar page with in-depth blogs, cases, videos and FAQs beneath it. 

A content hub helps visitors keep reading within the same topic. Someone who arrives via a blog about content pillars can then click through to an article about pillar pages, an example of a content calendar or a page about B2B content strategy. That keeps the journey logical. 

A structure like this also sends clear signals to search engines. You show that you don't treat a topic superficially, but work it out from multiple angles. That you are the expert on this theme.

Cornerstone content

Cornerstone content is the most important content within a theme. These are the pieces of content you want to keep using (evergreen), updating and linking to internally for a long time. They are often in-depth blogs, guides or pillar pages. 

Within a content pillar, cornerstone content can serve as the foundation. From that central content you create smaller pieces for social, email, ads or sales. That way you get more value out of one strong piece of content. 

That is useful in B2B, because good content takes time. You don't want to keep starting from scratch. You want to create a few strong pieces and keep using them smartly. 

Evergreen content and fresh content

Not all content serves the same purpose. Evergreen content stays relevant for a long time. Think explanations of content pillars, TAM, SAM and SOM, demand generation or B2B positioning. This kind of content can build traffic and trust for months or years, as long as you refresh and update it now and then. 

Fresh content, on the other hand, responds to current developments. Think a new trend, a change in legislation, an event, a campaign or a recent customer insight. This content is often more short-lived, but it can help you join the conversation about what is happening in the market right now. 

A good B2B content strategy uses both. Evergreen content forms the foundation. Fresh content keeps your communication current. Your content pillars make sure that even topical content isn't random, but ties in with your core themes. 

Repurposing content

Repurposing means reusing existing content in other forms. A pillar page, for example, can be turned into several LinkedIn posts, a newsletter, a short video, a sales document and an ad variant. 

That is not a trick to create more volume. Above all, it helps you repeat your message more often and more consistently. In B2B, not everyone sees your content at the same moment or through the same channel. By presenting one substantive theme in several ways, you increase the chance that your audience picks it up. 

Repurposing works best when you start with strong core content. A superficial blog yields little good derivative content. A sharp piece with clear insights, examples and positions offers far more possibilities. 

Content distribution

Creating content is only half the work. You also need to decide how the right people will see your content. Especially in B2B, where the audience is often smaller and buying cycles take longer, distribution is just as important as production. 

LinkedIn is a logical channel, particularly through personal profiles. Email, SEO, retargeting and paid social campaigns can also help bring your content to people's attention more often. Which channels suit you best depends on your audience and your goal. 

Always link distribution to your content pillars. That way you avoid creating loose posts or campaigns without a clear direction. For each pillar, you can decide which content is shared organically, which content gets extra reach through ads and which content sales uses in conversations. 

Common mistakes with content pillars

A common mistake is that companies confuse content pillars with formats. “Blogs”, “cases” or “LinkedIn posts” are not content pillars. They are formats. A content pillar is about the theme you want to claim. 

A second mistake is that the pillars are too generic. Themes such as “innovation”, “growth” or “digitalisation” say little unless you make them sharper. They could apply to almost any company. Good pillars show what your organisation stands for in substance. Companies also sometimes choose too many pillars. That actually makes the content strategy less clear. You are better off working out three strong pillars properly than half-covering eight themes. 

Finally, content pillars are often not connected to sales. Yet sales knows exactly which questions, objections and misunderstandings keep coming up. Without that input, content is more likely to be driven by marketing calendars than by the real customer journey. 

Getting started with your own B2B content pillars

B2B content pillars give direction to your marketing. They mean you don't have to keep reinventing what you are going to communicate about. You know which themes fit your audience, your PoV and the problems your organisation has something to say about. 

Good content pillars make your content more recognisable. They help you structure your website with pillar pages and content hubs. They provide input for evergreen content, fresh content, repurposing and distribution. That way your content strategy grows into a coherent system instead of a collection of loose outputs. 

Want to know which content pillars fit your market and how to use them to reach the right buyers? Partout helps you sharpen your audience, message and content structure, so your content is not only visible, but also contributes to commercial growth. 

Frequently asked questions about B2B content pillars

1. How do you know whether a content pillar is strong enough?

A content pillar is strong enough if you can create content about it for a long time without repeating yourself. You need to be able to link several sub-themes, customer questions, examples and formats to it. If you can't, the pillar is probably too narrow or too heavily based on a single campaign. 

2. Can content pillars change?

Yes, but don't change them too quickly. Content pillars are meant to build recognition, and that takes time. Adjust them when your audience, proposition or market position genuinely changes, not because you fancy new topics after a few months. 

3. What do you do if your content pillars are too similar?

Then you need to go back to the core of your strategy. Take a fresh look at your audience, the problems you solve and your Point of View. Good content pillars each have their own role within your story, so they complement each other instead of overlapping. 

4. How do you involve sales in defining content pillars?

Use sales as a source of recurring questions, objections and signals from conversations with prospects. Sales often hears where customers get stuck, what doubts they have and which topics are discussed internally. That input makes your content pillars more concrete and more useful across the entire customer journey. 

5. How do you measure whether content pillars are working?

Don't just look at individual views or clicks. Watch for growth in organic traffic within a theme, engagement on social posts, branded search, returning website visitors and the quality of enquiries. If sales notices that prospects already know your vision, that is often a strong sign that your content pillars are doing their job.