When you’re just starting out, marketing can feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks.
digital marketing confusion
You post on social media. You write a few blogs. Maybe you even run the odd ad. But deep down, it feels a bit… scattered. Like you’re constantly doing things but not sure if any of it’s actually leading anywhere.
You’re not alone. The truth is, most people starting out online are missing one simple but powerful step that makes everything else click into place:
A clear set of content pillars, mapped to their customer journey. (I’m about to tell you what these are and why nothing works without them!)
This is the glue that holds your marketing together. Without it, everything else — posting, selling, showing up — starts to feel confusing and random.
Why Marketing Feels Scattered (and How to Fix It)
If your marketing feels all over the place, it’s usually not because you’re doing anything “wrong.” Perhaps you’re focusing on tactics — posting schedules, platforms, campaigns — but without structure tying it all together.
That structure doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, it’s just two things:
- Knowing what you want to talk about (your content pillars)
- Understanding the journey people take from discovering you to buying from you (your customer journey)
When these two work together, your marketing starts to feel focused and intentional — even if you’re a one-person business.
Step 1: Understand Content Pillars
Think of content pillars as the main themes you want to talk about regularly in your marketing. Instead of waking up each day wondering what to post, you have 3–5 core topics that you return to again and again. (Let’s say goodbye to wondering what to post today…)
Your content pillars should reflect:
✨ What your audience actually cares about
🧠 What connects naturally to your product or service
❤️ What you enjoy talking about (because consistency matters)
For example, if you sell collagen supplements, your content pillars might be:
- Education & Science — what collagen is, how it works, ingredients
- Health & Beauty Benefits — skin, joints, hair, nails
- Customer Stories — real results, reviews, testimonials
- Lifestyle & Routines — recipes, daily rituals, ways to use it
- Offers & Promotions — launches, bundles, limited editions
Already, these pillars give your marketing focus. They stop you from posting randomly and help your audience understand what you stand for.
Step 2: Map Your Customer Journey
The customer journey is the path people take from “Who are you?” to “I trust you” to “Yes, I’ll buy.”
Even if you’ve never thought about it formally, this journey is happening in the background of every business:
| Stage | What People Need | Example Content |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | To discover you | Tips, education, lifestyle content |
| Consideration | To trust you | Testimonials, behind the scenes, myth-busting |
| Decision | To say yes | Product demos, FAQs, offers |
| Loyalty | To stay engaged | Recipes, community content, follow-up tips |
Most beginners unknowingly create a lot of awareness content (e.g., tips and pretty posts) but forget about the content that builds trust and helps people take the next step.
Step 3: Match Your Pillars to the Journey
Here’s where things start to flow. When you map your content pillars to your customer journey, your marketing stops being random and starts leading people somewhere.
Let’s go back to the collagen example:
| Journey Stage | Matching Pillars | Example Content |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Education, Benefits, Lifestyle | Blog: “What Collagen Does for Your Skin,” Recipe Reels |
| Consideration | Stories, Education | Customer testimonials, ingredient explainers |
| Decision | Offers, Stories | Bundle promotions, FAQs, “why choose us” content |
| Loyalty | Lifestyle, Stories | Community spotlights, recipes, customer routines |
Suddenly, each piece of content has a clear job. Some attract new people, some build trust, and some guide people to buy. It’s a simple structure that stops you from spinning your wheels.
Every piece of content now has a clear job:
-
🧲 Attract new people
-
🤝 Build trust with them
-
🛒 Guide them to buy
-
💬 Keep them engaged after purchase
This is how you create marketing that works with you, not against you.
Bringing It All Together
You don’t need to become a marketing expert overnight. You just need to give your content a structure that supports your efforts instead of working against them.
👉 Choose a few content pillars that reflect what you offer and what your audience needs.
👉 Understand your customer journey so you can meet people where they are.
👉 Create content with both in mind, and you’ll notice how much clearer and more effective your marketing becomes.
Free Resource
I’ve created a Content Pillar & Customer Journey Mapping Worksheet to help you map this out step by step. It’s simple, beginner-friendly, and will give your marketing the structure it’s been missing. Click here to access it.
Feeling more clear already? By understanding your content pillars and mapping them to your customer journey, you’ve laid the groundwork for marketing that actually leads somewhere. The good news is, this is just the beginning. There are so many simple strategies that can help you show up consistently, build trust, and sell with confidence — without needing a full marketing team behind you.
If you’d like to keep building your skills, explore some of my other blogs for practical, no-fluff marketing tips designed for small business owners and entrepreneurs/ mumpreneurs.
