Let’s face it: content marketing is hard. Every business, from decades-old establishments to enthusiastic startups, are all fighting for the attention of their audience online to grow their businesses. Original, engaging content is of the highest demand ever, and every successful content marketer must find that sweet spot between understanding their audience and creating content that will attract and retain their attention and keep them coming back while at the same time being educational and not too self-promotional. Here are some content marketing tools to guide you through your content creation and marketing process, all the way from coming up with ideas to distributing your message to your target audience.
I am not a user of ALL of these tools, but I do want to especially recommend the content marketing tools that I currently use. I will do so by adding a “*” after the name to let you know.
Content Marketing Tools for Idea Generation
Get your creative content marketing juices flowing with these tools:
Newswhip Spike
It all begins with a search, and sometimes Google may not be enough to give you the insights you need. Enter Newswhip Spike, a tool that not only searches through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest for the most engaging content, but also predicts how what’s popular today will perform in future. That is, you can know what’s going to go viral before it does, and with almost alarming accuracy. Few other content marketing tools provide this service for marketers, and you can start with a free trial to test it out.
BuzzSumo *
BuzzSumo helps you identify the ideal content that will resonate with your audience. You can BuzzSumo’s content discovery solution to discover trending content over time, from 12 to 24 hours, by the social network or domain that’s fueling it. BuzzSumo comes with a research and planning tool shows you the most shared content formats to match your keywords, whether that’s photos, videos or slideshows to help you with your overall content marketing strategy.
I currently use BuzzSumo as the main tool for all of my content curation needs.
AllTop
Whether you’re looking content ideas for tech, sports, entertainment, business, health or lifestyle content, AllTop is an excellent place to start. AllTop is primarily a content aggregator, meaning that it curates the top sources of news all across the internet and presents it to you on one page. For a content marketer, this is a handy tool to understand the hottest topics on the web in real time. AllTop continually updates its search algorithms to keep on top of the fast pace of news on the internet. It gives you a link to the news story, along with all the top comments or conversations about it from social networks, including Reddit.
Portent’s Idea Generator
This is a convenient, straightforward way of generating ideas for the title of your content material. You may have the perfect content idea, but getting the right title can be a headache. That makes Portent’s Idea Generator an indispensable tool for your content marketing strategy. You enter your keyword, hit enter, and this tool offers you a range of titles for your choice. Granted, some ideas generated by this tool can be a bit over the top, so Portent advises you to use the singular version of your keyword, avoid capitalizing, and keep revising the title until you hit perfection. For example, if your keyword is “content marketing,” some titles generated include “Content Marketing in 14 Easy Steps,” and “The Unconventional Guide to Content Marketing.”
Linkbait
Linkbait is a title generator by Content Row that gives you 24 possible content titles every time you hit enter. Just pick out the best one from the list and let your ideas flow. This Linkbait tool works similarly to Portent mentioned above, but with a much more straightforward user interface. Enter the keyword “web content” into Linkbait, and one of the titles generated is “The Most Incredible Article about Web Content You’ll Ever Read.” You’ll never get stuck for titles with these easy tools.
Zest
Zest is a Google Chrome extension targeted towards finding and aggregating digital marketing content. The tool aims to simplify the content curation journey by appearing naturally within the workflow of marketers & writers– instead of typing in a URL for a separate community or subscribing to a daily email, Zest refreshes every time you open a new tab or window in Chrome. All content is manually reviewed by marketing experts to ensure it’s insightful & relevant to the marketing industry. Using the tool’s advanced filters (which even allow you to specify between audio, video and written content) help you find content that speaks directly to your audience.
Inoreader *
Inoreader is an advanced RSS reader coupled with a growing community of users and content curators. Content is organized within the tool in ‘Subscription Bundles’ allowing you to access all content about a specific subject in one-click. Once subscribed you can use their productivity-boosting ‘Rules’ feature which can tag and organize content for you in real-time. Unlike other tools, Inoreader also has a full RSS archive which means you don’t lose old blog posts or articles after a year. If you’re looking for a new RSS tool, Inoreader could the answer.
I am a huge fan of Inoreader and currently use it as my main RSS application.
Content Marketing Writing Tools
Once you have good ideas for content, here’s how to get the words down:
Hemingway app
This free online tool checks your content for grammar and readability. You paste your content onto the page, hit the edit button, and Hemingway will highlight the use of adverbs, passive voice, and difficulty of reading. It offers suggestions along the way, such as what to omit, simpler alternatives for phrases and so on, all to make your writing clearer and bolder. Hemingway gives you an estimated reading time for your article so that you can gauge how long your audience will spend on your content, which is crucial for understanding audience engagement.
Grammarly
Grammarly is another writing tool that helps you polish your writing. Grammarly’s free Chrome extension checks what you’re composing directly on your website and integrates into all sites with which you interact. You can be sure that whatever content you’re putting out there is flawless, from contacting influencers via email to posting content on Facebook and Twitter. Grammarly has an optional weekly progress report to monitor your writing skills as you execute your content marketing strategy. Grammarly Premium offers you the extra option of detecting plagiarism to ensure that your content is 100% original.
Copyscape *
Copyscape is a simple online plagiarism detection tool. By typing in any URL it allows you to check whether or not similar text content appears elsewhere online. Aside from checking your posts, you can also utilize Copyscape to see if your work has been taken or duplicated by other bloggers!
As I have a lot of contributing bloggers on my website, I use Copyscape to ensure that all content is 100% unique. If you work with freelancers or outside services to source content in whole or even partially, I highly recommend that you use Copyscape to ensure that all of your content being published is 100% unique.
Clichéfinder.net
This tool finds and highlights clichés in writing. Just paste your content on the site, and it will identify all the expressions and phrases that might be overused or stale. Why would you need a cliché finder as a content marketing tool? Simple: Original content generates the highest engagement. You don’t want your readers rolling their eyes at clichés in your writing. As you work through your content with Clichéfinder, you’ll become more aware of which words or phrases you should omit or replace, making you a much better writer in the process.
The Most Dangerous Writing App
If your best ideas come when you’re under pressure, then this site is for you. The Most Dangerous Writing App works on a simple premise: keep writing or lose all your progress. You choose the length of your sessions, say five minutes, and you must keep writing until the end when you get a chance to save your work. Pausing for more than five seconds erases everything. It gets you into your writing zone, and it’s perfect for shutting down your inner critic for a moment as you create your marketing content.
Canva *
You all should know that Canva is a design tool for graphic-style content. With Canva, you can design newsletters, infographics, web banners and ads, as well as graphics optimized for Facebook and Twitter. You don’t have to be a graphic design expert to create graphics and banners for your content marketing strategy. Canva makes it incredibly easy to create beautiful, engaging content for your website by providing preset image sizes, endless customizable templates and fonts, and it’s free. If your main content marketing platforms are Pinterest and Instagram where images are king, try Canva.
I currently use Canva as my main graphics editing app.
Easil
You’ve heard of Canva but have you heard of Easil? Easil is a drag and drop design tool that can help polish all your visuals, from social media graphics to posters and even GIFs. While quite similar to Canva, a standout feature of this tool is the ability to load in all the components of your brand’s visual identity and create what’s called a ‘Brand Kit’. This can be major time saver when you have multiple team members or freelancers working on your graphics & want to maintain consistency in your content! Easil also offers the standard free layouts, fonts and images with the option to upgrade whenever you need to. With a variety of pre-made templates for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Easil can definitely elevate your visual content.
Content Distribution Tools
You have your content ready. How will you get it to your key audience? These tools make content distribution a breeze.
AgoraPulse
This tool is your one-stop shop for content distribution. It allows you to post your marketing content across multiple platforms all at once on a regular schedule. So if you’d like a new post on your Facebook page every Friday, for example, you can prepare all your Friday posts well in advance and schedule them to post on your page automatically. That takes out the stress of having to log in to all your separate accounts to publish your content manually.
I currently use AgoraPulse as my main social media engagement dashboard.
Tailwind *
Tailwind is one of the most popular scheduling tools for businesses that prioritize Pinterest and Instagram marketing but don’t want to spend hours scheduling content. There are two main features that set Tailwind apart from other content distribution tools: ‘SmartLoop’ allows you to maximize your evergreen content and schedule reshares of your popular pins in just a few clicks. ‘Tailwind Tribes’ are built-in niche communities where you can share your own content and curate content from other influencer and experts. These two features along with hashtag & posting time recommendations (both based on your specific audience) push this tool to the top of our list.
I currently use Tailwind to manage all of my Pinterest.
MeetEdgar
This tool is similar to Hootsuite, but with a simpler, more interactive user interface. Edgar comes with features such as an unlimited content library, native video support for all your video content marketing, GIFs and photos optimized for Facebook and Twitter, and auto-expiring content for seasonal promotions and other time-bound marketing events. Edgar works with Bitly and Rebrandly to shorten all your links, or their own Ed.gr, with no special setup required. Edgar takes all the technical fuss out of content distribution and makes your marketing life so much easier.
LinkedIn *
Needless to say, can be a major asset in your content marketing and distribution plan. It lends credibility to your business and grows your professional network better than any other social network. On LinkedIn, it’s best not to try and sell something with every post. Instead, share original content like industry updates and useful tips for personal or business growth. Get involved in LinkedIn groups to get your content to engage with a greater audience and find influencers. LinkedIn also comes with SlideShare for all your interactive slideshows and presentations, giving you a little extra style to integrate into your content marketing strategy.
I am on LinkedIn every day … are you? Feel free to connect with me here on LinkedIn and download my free ebook on Maximizing LinkedIn for Business.
CoSchedule *
CoSchedule and their variety of marketing products can be your one stop shop for content management & distribution for everything from daily blog posts to monthly emails. Focusing on their distribution capabilities, the CoSchedule calendar function allows you to see all scheduled content for the month at a glance & assign different related tasks to team members. Need your freelance writer to edit their last blog post? You’re able to note that and see when they’ve completed it, so you know the post is ready to be published. CoSchedule integrates with or has plugins for most content publishing platforms including WordPress (which we use & love).
CoSchedule powers the editorial calendar for this blog.
Boardreader.com
This tool scours forums and message boards for keywords that may be relevant to your topic and share your content with them. You can search Boardreader by either posts or threads, and by date so that you can see the most recent mentions of relevant keywords or topics. Identify which groups on Reddit, for example, that you should target with your content and go get them. The advanced search feature can search keywords by the exact phrase, exact dates, and by a specific website or domain. Boardreader also gives you a handy chart to see how your keywords have been trending over a given period.
Audiense Connect
Audiense Connect analyzes your Twitter community to help you understand and interact with them efficiently and offers specially tailored audiences for any advertising you may have. Set up Twitter chatbots with Audience Connect in a few clicks and automate direct messaging and broadcast chats for your audience to opt into and engage with you. Audience Insights, another one of their products, tracks your audience engagement across all social networks, so you need not restrict yourself to Twitter.
With all these indispensable content marketing tools at your side, create your content marketing strategy with the highest confidence that your content is catchy, optimized for your audience, flawless in grammar and style, and reaches whom you need it to for maximum impact. Before you know it, you will be a content marketing guru!
Looking for more content marketing tools? Check out these other posts we have on marketing tools and free content marketing tools!
So, which of the above are your favorite? Which are missing? Please chime in!
Check out these other content marketing tools you’ll need in your arsenal, in this great infographic from PageTraffic.
Neal Schaffer is a leading authority on helping businesses through their digital transformation of sales and marketing through consulting, training, and helping enterprises large and small develop and execute on social media marketing strategy, influencer marketing, and social selling initiatives. President of the social media agency PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital media to executives at Rutgers University, the Irish Management Institute (Ireland), and the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland). Fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Neal is a popular keynote speaker and has been invited to speak about digital media on four continents in a dozen countries. He is also the author of 3 books on social media, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley), and in late 2019 will publish his 4th book, The Business of Influence (HarperCollins), on educating the market on the why and how every business should leverage the potential of influencer marketing. Neal resides in Irvine, California but also frequently travels to Japan.