If you’ve seen most Indiana Jones movies, you know that each installment features a number of storytelling tropes: there’s the hat, the whip, and the quest for treasure in a distant locale brimming with blood-curdling creatures like insects, snakes, and rats. Then there’s the protagonist who reluctantly embraces the hero role but gets drawn in by circumstances beyond his control. Finally, there’s the treasure itself. A mysterious object that drives the plot, like the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, or the Crystal Skull.
Content pillars: Because your marketing needs a plot
These familiar and recurring themes aren’t just for the movies; they’re plot devices commonly used in various narratives – including marketing for tech (quick reminder: when you strip away behind-the-scenes work like tracking metrics and managing campaigns, marketing at its core is just a story you tell your prospects and customers). But back to the point – these tropes are used to orient customers around key ideas and emotions, create a sense of familiarity, and guide them through a compelling story that connects with their desires and motivations.
In other words, they’re content pillars. Foundational buckets that overflow into smaller, more targeted streams of content.
Why content pillars matter in marketing for tech?
Just like the storytelling tropes in the Indiana Jones franchise, tech firms establish content pillars, or central topics, that serve as the framework of their content strategy. They give marketing materials structure, boost SEO, and help your brand stay top of mind. But pinpointing those pillars isn’t always straightforward. Software is an intangible, changing service and it can be challenging to figure out whose headache you’re treating and whose headache you’re responsible for. It’s not packaged merchandise like toothpaste or chocolate that comes in clearly defined categories.
Branding collateral that can handle a product identity crisis
Some users are tech savvy, others need to be educated about the application; some want more revenue, others are desperate for better functionalities. If that’s not all, there’s a bunch of wildcards to consider like device variety, connectivity issues and third-party tools. Software often won’t stay in its own lane. It started as a tool for ops teams – now it’s creeping into sales workflows. Developers start with an idea with the goal of boxing it in but then it sprouts in unexpected places. Before you know it, it’s growing its own DNA. That’s precisely why tech firms need content pillars, to anchor their branding collateral in something solid, even when the product keeps shifting.
Anchor brand collateral in product clarity
Tech firms have to reign control over their product. You can’t let it go rogue without a compass. That’s the start of creating effective marketing materials – defining customers whose problems are solved by at least 70% of the way (my own opinion). The second step is articulating content pillars. They serve to help tech firms stay focused and on point by publishing blogs, white papers, eBooks etc. around them. It makes everything tidier. Clearer and more structured. Beyond the organization of content creation, content pillars ensure consistency across platforms and promote cohesive branding collateral.
Brand storytelling starts with clear content pillars
Many tech firms struggle to define their content pillars. They get caught up in the weeds of things and miss the big picture. But if you step back and take a bird’s eye view of what you’re offering, you’ll see a few core messages emerge as the backbone of your brand story. Maybe three, five or more, depending on the complexity of your application and stage development. These are your content pillars, the boiling points of your story. These are the messages that you keep returning to as part of brand storytelling, whether you realize it or not.
How to pin down content pillars without losing your mind
Your content pillars aren’t carved in stone. They’re living, breathing parts of your brand storytelling. As your service offer evolves, your they will change in tandem. Whether you’re just starting out or need to revisit your strategy, hre’s how you can identify content pillars:
- Start with your audience. Re-examine your buyer personas – what do they care about? What keeps them grinding their teeth? If you don’t’ have buyer personas, talk to your sales team, plough through your CRM data and review feedback loops.
- Audit existing content. What’s already working? Blogs, videos, social media posts? Anything with solid engagement is a clue. Don’t just look at your website’s monthly users – what are your best-performing channels? Paid search and email can reveal angles that you haven’t considered. Also, look for alignment between what attracts casual browsers and what converts paying users – it can uncover gaps or opportunities in your messaging. This reminds me of a tech show I attended where a company showcased a life-size DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future, and hired a Dr. Emmett Brown impersonator. The exhibit drew in many people at the stand, but how many of them converted?
- Examine keyword research. Use it validate what people are actively searching for. Look at volume and difficulty – your pillar topics should have real demand but still be rankable in your niche. AI tools can speed this up.
Marketing materials, multiplied (not scattered)
Once you’ve identified what those are, you need to develop a content strategy plan to repeat, reshape, and reinforce these messages over time. Imagine your product helps ecommerce brands reduce cart abandonment. You don’t need 10 totally different angles – you need one clear message, delivered in ten different formats: a landing page, a client testimonial, a how-to article, a social media post, a drip email series, a pitch deck, a quick explainer video, and so on.
Storytelling in marketing: Topic clusters are your cheat sheet
To reiterate, content pillars represent an overarching theme your brand collateral orbits around – the core ideas your brand keeps returning to again and again. They’re hubs where you’re inviting prospects to hang out. Once you’ve identified them, you’re going to define topic clusters (the spokes) that explore and expand on those core themes. According to Digital Marketing Institute, they act as the supporting pieces that dig into specific angles of that main theme. Together, they build structure, give your content depth, and create opportunities for internal linking that boosts SEO without feeling forced.
Pillar content vs content pillars. What’s the difference?
Pillar content is the long-form, in-depth piece built around a core theme – like “The Ultimate Guide to SaaS Onboarding” – and it anchors related brand collateral such as blogs, videos, or case studies. But it does more than organize information. Building around pillars helps you avoid chasing trends that dilute your message. Instead, you create a steady narrative arc that reinforces your brand. Over time, this repetition builds brand memory, the kind that lingers, even after users close the tab and move on to something else.
Topic clusters keep your marketing materials tight
Let’s say you’re a SaaS company, and one of your content pillars is customer onboarding. Your pillar content might be something like “The complete guide to B2B SaaS onboarding.” Around that, you build out topic clusters like “5 common onboarding mistakes (and how to fix them)” or “What great onboarding looks like in a PLG model.” Each of those links back to pillar content, and the pillar links out to them – keeping things connected, clean, and Google-friendly.
Content pillars: Why it’s hard to spot them
Content pillars aren’t categories you can browse on a company’s website. No tech firm is labeling things like “Content Pillar No. 1” or “Content Pillar No. 2.” Sometimes they’re obvious to prospects and customers, but often they’re not and that’s by design. Let me explain what I mean. If a tech firm has four or five distinct products say, a CRM, a project management tool, a billing solution, and a customer support platform – those products often double as umbrella themes, with all the branding and content feeding into them. For example, HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and service hubs each generate their own content streams but ladder back up to a single cohesive brand narrative. Every content pillar doesn’t need to be explicitly stated or immediately obvious – they just need to shape all marketing materials you publish.
Build brand collateral that survives your next feature update
Or take a company with just two products that both aim to fix workflow bottlenecks. One improves team collaboration, the other automates repetitive tasks. That company might define its content pillars not by product, but by benefits – things like productivity, automation, remote work, or time-saving strategies. Using benefits as content pillars is increasingly common for tech firms because product boundaries can blur without obvious segmentation. Features expand, integrations multiply, and users bring their own priorities. Anchoring content in outcomes rather than features keeps messaging sharp, even as the product evolves.
Content pillars are your secret blueprint behind every scroll and click
You can think of content pillars as the publishing industry’s way of classifying books: genre fiction, upmarket, literary, and so on. When you go into a bookstore or browse books online, you’ll never spot these categories. As a reader, you might just grab a book that speaks to you, but behind the scenes, everything from marketing materials to placement is structured around those categories. Content pillars work the same way. They organize your ideas so the right people find what they need without realizing you’ve architected the whole journey for them.
Conclusion: Content pillars keep your brand storytelling locked in
Storytelling in marketing freaks out tech firms because it reminds them of high school literary essays – but it’s actually a powerful tool to connect, engage, and make complex tech feel human. At the end of the day, content pillars are the spine of your storytelling strategy that make everything easier. They help tech firms stay consistent with their marketing materials and build real resonance with the right people.
Whether you’re creating marketing a product suite or a single feature, strong content pillars ensure your messaging doesn’t scatter. Treat them as narrative anchors in a space that’s constantly shifting. If your software keeps evolving, your content pillars will too, and that’s the point. When they’re clearly defined or not, they don’t just organize your content. They help customers make sense of what you offer. Sometimes faster than you’d think.
What’s your take? I’m curious – how do content pillars shape your brand storytelling or marketing materials? Drop your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! And if this post sparked some ideas, don’t forget to subscribe for fresh insights and practical tips on creating branding collateral that makes your prospects stop scrolling and start listening.
