60% of marketers create at least one piece of content each day.
70% of companies actively invest in their content marketing strategy.
78% of companies have one to three content marketing specialists on board.
Why?
Well, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing. And yet, it generates three times more leads.
Cool, isn’t it?
But content marketing is challenging.
You cannot just decide to jumpstart your content marketing strategy with no planning. It is a long term effort. A detailed part of your search engine marketing plan. And it involves both creating content and delivering it to the targeted audience.
And the content cannot be blah. It has to be valuable and relevant to your audience. And consistent.
Now, creating and delivering valuable, relevant, and consistent content can’t be done alone. Other than a team, you need some tools to help you out.
And if you look online for content marketing tools, you’ll get lists that tell you to use 20, 40, or even 50+ tools.
Do you need all of them? No.
Tools are meant to save time and money. And help you get the most out of your efforts. And juggling through multiple tools would be counterintuitive.
So, here are ten tools that will come in handy at every step of your content marketing strategy.
Get ready to curate killer content and deliver it to the right audience at the right time with the right tools.
1.BuzzSumo – Do The Ground Research
Before you start creating content, you need to know what people want to read. What kind of content do people share? What type of content is being created for the keywords that you want to target? Answers to these questions help ensure you create content that is actually needed. And content that will yield results.
BuzzSumo helps you do that.
You can get valuable content insights from BuzzSumo. And make sure that your content is in line with what you need to get results.
You can start with a 30-day free trial to explore the functionalities. And then you can pick from premium plans starting at $79/month if paid annually. Find detailed pricing here.
BuzzSumo also helps you do a competitor analysis and find influencers but we’d suggest specialized platforms for that. This brings us to our second tool…
2.Ahrefs – Get on Level Playing Grounds with Your Competitors
The Ahrefs homepage paints a clear picture of what it does.
It is, indeed, a complete SEO toolset. A favorite of SEM companies and even content marketers.
Find keywords, monitor what your competitors are doing, and also check backlinks with Ahrefs. And once you are done with creating and marketing your content, you can use it to track your own progress.
You can get a 7-day trial for $7 to take it for a test drive. And then choose from multiple plans that range from $99/month to $999/month.
Alternative – If you are not comfortable in using Ahrefs, SEMrush is an alternative that you can pick. It comes with pretty much the same features. Check out their premium plans here.
3.Grammarly – Write it Right
BuzzSumo ensures you write on the right topics. And Grammarly makes sure your content is error-free.
Inadvertent errors, spelling mistakes (we know they are just typos, but still!), and even punctuation goof-ups cost your brand more than you’d imagine. It is always better to proofread what you write. And Grammarly is an AI-powered tool that does the proofreading for you.
It also comes with a browser plugin and a plugin for Google Docs that highlight errors as you type. You can use the free version for basic spelling and grammar checks. Or go for premium plans, details about which can be found here.
However, remember to take Grammarly’s suggestions with a pinch of salt; it is a machine, after all.
Bonus Tip – If you really want to make your content stand out, you can use the Hemingway Editor to polish your content. And use Copyscape to make sure your content is 100% original.
4.Trello – Keep your Team Together
Content marketing is not a one-person job. You have a team of multiple experts on board. Writers, proofreaders, social media managers – content marketing involves a lot of people. And everyone needs to be on the same page. And even if you have a physically spread out team, you can manage them all with Trello.
With Trello, you get an instant productivity boost.
It comes with useful features like cards, lists, and boards. Everyone knows the overall content marketing plan. And it helps schedule and streamline content writing, posting, promoting, and analyzing.
Trello has a lifetime free plan with limited functionalities and paid options too if you have growing needs.
5.Canva – Make your Content more Engaging with Graphics
Before you post all the words you can come up with, wait.
With a predominantly web audience, you are dealing with a bunch of lazy readers. They need content that is attractive and easily digestible. But that doesn’t always happen if you have only words.
Add images to your content and instantly give it an upgrade.
You can use royalty-free images from Pixels or Unsplash or buy images from Shutterstock. But it is always better to use original photos and graphics.
And Canva is the platform that can help you do that.
Unlike Photoshop, it does not require tech skills or years of experience. This free tool comes with premade layouts. And all you have to do is drag and drop elements and you are done. Plus, Canva also lets you create content for different social media platforms. You can create images that are the perfect size for a banner or an Instagram post. No need to crop or resize it later.
Need more than what the free plan offers? Check out the pro plans here.
6.UberFlip – Improve the Content Experience for Your Audience
The content experience throughout the buyer journey significantly affects your content marketing campaign. And UberFlip lets you stay on top of your game. With a suite of content marketing, lead management, and sales enablement tools.
It has a bundle of stellar features that let you stay in control of your buyer’s journey. You can manage campaigns, track conversions, schedule post publishing, and even categorize and group your audience.
Offer your audience a positive content experience with UberFlip.
Read more about how their pricing works here.
7.MailChimp – Build Readership with Email Marketing
Once you have written your content and planned your strategy, you also need readers, right? And the best and most effective way to get readers is email marketing. Yes, even in the era of social media, emails haven’t lost their charm.
According to DMA Marketer Email Tracker 2019, for even $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average revenue of $42.
And MailChimp is the best email marketing tool on the market that will make sure your emails land in the right inboxes. And is read.
With MailChimp, you can build a list of subscribers and an email list. And you can also measure and monitor metrics like open rates and click rates. Plus, MailChimp also comes with email automation tools. With the automation features, the right emails get triggered based on user action.
Explore the functionality with a free plan and go with premium options when you are ready.
8.MashShare – Get Social Shares
Email marketing is an important part of your content marketing strategy. But don’t forget social media.
Add attractive and inviting social share buttons to your content with MashShare.
It is a plugin that comes with ‘Click to Tweet’ and ‘Select and Share’ add-ons too. This helps make sure that your content is getting organic shares on social media. And social shares translate to a broader reach and more lead generation.
The basic plan that comes with 8 add-ons costs €36. The highest plan with all 12 add-ons comes in at €339.
9.HootSuite – Stay on Top of Social Media
MashShare would take care that your content gets shared online by users. But you also need to have a social media strategy. However, that doesn’t mean you have to spend time doing it on your own.
HootSuite will help you do that.
You can schedule posts on more than 35 social platforms. And make sure the content is automatically posted at times when the engagement rates peak.
You can start with a 30-day free trial and then choose from the paid plans.
10.Kred – Find the Right Influencers
Content marketing is not a solo effort. In today’s day and age, social media is ruled by influencers. And if you want to make sure you have a team of influencers promoting your brand, use Kred.
There are several other places to find influencers, but Kred goes one-step ahead. With Kred, you can also create an ‘influencer’ status for yourself.
This significantly increases your credibility. And with more trust, you get more loyal customers.
And you can do all this for free.
In case you feel your needs have expanded, you can choose from the brand plans that start at $100/month.
Content marketing is a long-drawn process. And it can significantly help you boost your online presence, brand awareness, and lead generation.
While these tools will help you with content marketing, an SEM agency like Uplers would help you do it without breaking a sweat.
For one, they already know their way around these tools. This way, you don’t have to navigate the learning curves of multiple tools.
And agency experts also have hands-on experience in implementing content marketing strategies.
If you want to make sure your content marketing strategy is on point and you are still able to focus on other things, hire SEM experts
OTS News on Social Media