There’s a lot that goes into content marketing, from brainstorming and researching to creating and sharing. These can be pretty overwhelming if you’re new to the game, which is where using some tools can make your life easier. These tools can help you with the different stages of your campaign to not only achieve the right look and tone but also to get more engagement and reach.
Below are my favorite content marketing tools that make it easier to create and promote content. Let me know what your favorite tools are — sharing is caring after all!
SEO Research
- Google Trends (free): Want to capitalize on a trending topic or popular topic? This website is helpful in analyzing trending searches by location and language. The user-friendly graphs show comparisons of different queries throughout specific time periods.
- Google Analytics (free): Not to be confused with Trends! This analytics tool is part of the Google Marketing Platform, and it gathers website traffic data. It helps you measure many aspects of your digital marketing efforts, including ads, social media, and email marketing.
- Google Ads Keyword Planner (free): Using the right keywords is vital in your marketing. This handy platform will not only help you decipher the best words and phrases for your campaign, but will also give you insight into how those keywords hold up over time. Other features include bid estimates for your advertising budget and planning which can be shared with your team.
- SEMRush (free & paid): If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop, SEMRush may be for you. Their tools and reports span from SEO and marketing insights to PPC and campaign management. However, not all features are free! You can still get a lot of bang for your buck, so don’t count out this convenient tool.
- Ubersuggest (free & paid): Looking to gain an edge in your industry? Ubersuggest is a free keyword tool that will help generate more suggestions for strategies in a similar market to yours, along with a backlink checker, website traffic checker, and SEO analyzer.
- Moz (free & paid): Moz offers SEO tools to enhance your marketing. You’ll be able to streamline your SEO, inbound marketing, and link building to make your content marketing effortless.
- SpyFu (paid): Though this is a paid platform, it has an accessible interface that combines useful competitive data through SEO competitor analysis, keyword research, and PPC competitor research.
Writing
- Google Drive: Storing files across devices is crucial for many business owners, and Google Drive offers a safe and easy place to do so. Plus, different team members can upload their own media files, access existing ones, and edit as permitted.
- Grammarly (free & paid): When you’re busy typing away, sometimes the most obscure grammar mistake can slip through the cracks. Grammarly is great for ensuring you stay error-free, but it also gives suggestions for clearer wording, punctuation, and tone check.
- Thesaurus.com (free): Look, we all get stuck on finding a unique way to say the same thing over and over again. Thesaurus.com is there to give you full lists of options so your writing doesn’t become redundant. Or in other words, repetitious, superfluous, verbose… You get the idea.
Plagiarism Checkers
- Duplichecker (free): Duplichecker is a free plagiarism checker, but it’s still comprehensive. You can perform a reverse image search, grammar check, and even a paraphrasing tool.
- Small SEO Tools (free): This is another free option that packs a serious punch. With such tools as a word counter, article rewriter, and MD5 Generator, you’ll have all the bases covered, including a review for plagiarism.
- Copyscape (paid): If you want to search the web for detection of the original text, Copyscape is a perfect tool. It also provides automatic plagiarism alerts, if you’re concerned about stolen content.
Design & Photo Editing
- Adobe Photoshop (paid): Though Adobe has a monthly fee, Photoshop allows a lot of room and creativity to craft top-notch graphics and customizations. You may need a little more experience than most to navigate this app, but the results are well worth the time and effort.
- Canva (free & paid): There’s a reason Canva has so much buzz around it. The user-friendly templates, the variety of content, and the easy-to-use setup create a graphic designer for even the most casual customer! Creating graphics, videos, and other forms of media with this platform is straightforward without losing out on professional quality, and a lot of features are free.
- Pixlr (free & paid): This software provides photo editing and graphic design, ranging from simple to advanced options. You also get a mobile-friendly version, should you need to edit or create on the go!
Many applications and tools are cropping up, day by day, making so many aspects of digital marketing more streamlined and uncomplicated. Though this is just a shortlist of my favorites, I have no doubt these will help advance your business to the next stage.
