The next stage in building out. Your Instagram itinerary is figuring out your content pillars and your Niche. Once you have a crystal clear idea of who your ideal audience is which you would have developed from the last videos exercise. Then you're ready to really hone in on what your Niche and what your content pillars are and all of these things are slowly building up to get us to the point where we're going to be ready to develop your content strategy, which is super exciting.

So you probably have heard the terms Niche and content pillars flying around in the online marketing world, but let's just take a moment to really Define what they mean, and I'm also going to pitch you on my slightly different perspective on how you determine a niche because it's probably different than what you've heard before. Okay. So let's start off with Niche. So essentially your Niche on Instagram or on any other online platform is the topic or subject area that you are known for other common words that you might use Four Niche is first of all Niche if you're American, but I'm not I say Niche but other than Niche you could also call it your industry your area of expertise in the world of online content creation.

We often tend to think of niches as like established categories or genres. For example, like the beauty Niche or the travel vlogger Niche and well that's definitely a part of the story of what a niche is. It's really more than that. It's more complex than just choosing your genre or choosing your kind of topic. You could be a part of a mainstream Niche like that like beauty or travel but depending on how you need your offer is or how specific your ideal audiences you very well could be in a niche all of your own at the end of the day. Really your Niche is what people are gonna know you for try to kind of think of it like this if you were walking down the street and somebody who'd seen your content. Online saw you they might say. Oh, hey, that's the insert your Niche here girl. So for example for me people be like, oh, that's the Instagram strategy girl. You see what I mean? A niche is what you offer to the world. It's what you're remembered for. It's not necessarily something generic like Beauty Guru or travel vlogger. It's like your special sauce what people know you for so that's a niche.

Now, Let's talk about content pillars content pillars are the core pieces of your content strategy that when combined all together essentially add up to your Niche. This might be slightly different way of thinking about content strategy for you because like I said, a lot of people think of niches as these Grand genres are categories that you select and then once you choose okay, I'm a beauty Guru now you come up with your content pillars, which are just gonna be more specific versions of beauty content, but that's not the way that I like to think about it. I have a slightly different philosophy, which is your content pillars are the main functions the main ways that you provide value to your audience. And then when you kind of summarize or you find the common themes among those pillars that your Niche I think the best way to explain this is through an illustration. So let's head over to the whiteboard.

So let's just take a second to go back to that metaphor of thinking about your Instagram strategy as a building. Let's imagine that the found Motion of this building is your target audience. Because ultimately all of this content is created for these people. They are the reason behind this all we need to make sure that we design every last part of our content strategy to put people first. Now your target audience might have a few different but related interests that drawback to your expertise your interests and ultimately what you're offering. These will be your content pillars. Okay, and finally your content pillars are holding up the roof of our content strategy, which is your Niche the way I think about content strategy is your Niche is kind of the culmination of all of these pieces. You have to build your building from the ground up you establish your target audience based on your target audience you come up with your content pillars and your pillars of course are based on what your target audience is interested in and how those interests connect with what you want to offer and then ultimately that's your Niche.

Basically what I'm saying here can be summed up in this your Niche will be the result of your content pillars which are the results of your target audience rather than your content pillars being determined by your Niche. I think it might be helpful if I talk you through a concrete example here. So let's use my van life account Katie and Dana Van as an example. Process if we were doing this the traditional way and kind of starting with our Niche like we selected that category. Okay. We are going to be van life vloggers. Now, let's come up with our content pillars using that traditional process. I might come up with content pillars like how to convert a van how to plan a van trip best van trip destinations the pros and cons of Van life and Van life Vlogs, which is like fine right like those are okay content categories, but they're a little bit blah and they really are focused laser focusing on Van life. But if we really think about our target audience and we kind of flip the script and we use My Philosophy for determining your content pillars and we start with that target audience. What we'll realize is that target audience actually has a variety of interest that aren't just Family Life van life. In fact, most likely they are not yet van life or so, they might have other avenues for finding Our content and the secret about using this approach is you're going to be able to come up with content pillars that have a little bit more variety which is going to be more fun and satisfying for you as a Creator to make any way. It won't feel quite so assembly line repetitive.

Okay, let's talk about the target audience of Katie and Dan in a van. We're probably looking at creating content for young adults in their 20s and 30s who are excited about travel but also care about sustainability and alternative lifestyle options. They may be see themselves as minimalists and most likely value experiences over things and they don't care so much about society's expectations for Success. They love being outside. They love seeing new places having new experiences and they're not afraid to rough it a little bit. Okay, so thinking about this as our foundation now, let's come up with some content pillars that might suit that target audience. We might make content about how to live sustainably in a van plant-based meal planning for Van life the best cheap. Ventures to take on your van in Canada, maybe even some challenges or Adventure Vlogs or finally maybe how to work from the road as a digital Nomad. Now, these are more specific more intriguing and they allow you to connect with your target audience on a more personal level. Plus it allows for many different avenues for your audience to find you. Maybe somebody finds you because they're looking for plant-based, you know, easy recipes somebody else finds you because they're looking for digital Nomad lifestyle content, but all those people still have that interest of living sustainably in a van van life in general and the biggest benefit is that as a Creator you don't get burnt out because you're not just creating variations on the same exact topic but in five different ways, you have five unique paths to connect with your target audience.

So once you have that target audience as your base and those content pillars based on your target audience now, you can really think of what is my Niche then so in the case of Katie and Dan in a van the niche might be sustainable. Van lifestyle now what we're getting somewhere. Okay. So with that being said, hopefully that's really Illustrated this process for you. Now, let's go through a few other quick examples that might be a little bit more relatable to your personal Journey than you know, my van life account. You can also follow along with an exercise in your course workbook. We've got a template that looks just like my little Doodle but it's for canva and you can label your target audience your pillars and your Niche and I recommend saving that and adding it to your course workbook so that you can look back on it and reflect on it when you're creating your content later.

Okay, the first example that we're going to look at is a musician named Jazz. Yes, I've made this up these examples are fictional, but I know that they're kind of based on categories that I've heard my audience talk about interest in so Meet Jazz. Okay, so jazz is a raw and real female singer and songwriter. She writes songs about her struggles with insecurity her love life and she performs them acoustically. She's known for her sincerity and her gentle Vibe of Storytelling. Okay. So who is Jazz's ideal audience? Honestly, probably Young lgbtq Folks. Maybe they've got an alternative style. They probably drink oat milk lattes and also listen to Phoebe Bridgers. So with that target audience in mind the content pillars that we might dream up for jazz could include body confidence funny dating stories poetry aesthetic film photography. And of course her original music. So taking into account this target audience these pillars Jazz's Niche would be soft alternative lifestyle and music. So hopefully that gives you a sense of how a musician might be able to come up with content pillars that aren't just constantly Sharing covers or original music. It's about thinking about what kind of content does my ideal follower like to see in their feed and can I create that content? So maybe film photography isn't really related to Jazz's music but it's the kind of thing that her audience Vibes with okay.

Let's talk about another example. This one is an indie Beauty brand named petal, which I personally think is adorable. If you're out there looking for a name for an indie Beauty brand feel free to steal it. Okay. So pedal is a sustainable small Beauty brand that offers makeup that feels like skin care and is good for your skin. So the target audience of petal is gonna be women in their 20s and 30s who care about the environment love beauty and skincare and are probably all over the clean girl trend on tiktok. Okay, that is their Vibe. So content pillars based on this target audience might be Wellness Beauty tutorials inspirational quotes skincare education, like I'm thinking breaking down exactly what ahas and bhas are. And sustainability slash environmentalism based on this target audience these content pillars we can say that the niche for pedal is going to be sustainable Beauty. So again, you can see how a product-based business doesn't just have to make every single piece of content a promotion for one of their products a tutorial on how to use it. No, it can be content that Their audience wants to see so even if inspirational quotes and you know Wellness or whatever aren't directly tied to the products that pedal is offering they can post about it because it will keep their audience engaged with them and also help draw their ideal customers to Their audience.

Okay, now let's talk about our third example a professional organizer named Laura. So Laura is the Queen of Clean. She's obsessed with helping other young women get their homes. Looking great and feeling great and she offers consultations and home organizational services. So let's talk about Laura's target audience. Probably women. In their 30s and 40s who are established in their careers and have a bit of a budget to spend on luxury services like home organization. They've got Pinterest boards full of light and Airy Farmhouse interior design inspo. They're probably also moms and I'm thinking that they do Pilates on the weekends. Okay, they're that kind of productive. But obviously they struggle with organization So based on this target audience Laura's content pillars might be interior design in SPO organizational tips and tricks mom life habit building and decor ideas. So if we take that target audience multiply it by those content pillars. The result is the niche of organized and cozy living. So again, you can see how a service provider does not need to make every single piece of content just about her services and why they're helpful and why you should hire her but instead she can create content that's more fun to make and will attract the kind of people that probably will want to hire her.

Okay, so hopefully all these examples really show you how You can take your target audience and turn it into content pillars that is ultimately going to be a more effective strategy for you, but also a more fun strategy for you. So now that we've created your ideal audience Avatar and then we've used that to develop your content pillars in your Niche. Your Instagram itinerary is complete the trip is planned y'all and now it's time to leave on your adventure. So I will see you over in lesson three