What is one major skill every content marketer should have?
Here’s the answer: content creation.
Content is the backbone of content marketing (after all, how is a content marketer meant to market without content), and every content marketer has an area of expertise when it comes to the curation of their content. Some content marketers focus primarily on infographics, others prefer the use of videos, and–gasp–there are content marketers who utilise all forms of content to market their services. Sounds neat, yeah?
Whatever the case, a content marketer needs to first know how to create content. And while content is versatile in its various forms, creating content can prove to be challenging.
But that’s why you’re currently reading this! No matter the kind of content, there are various tools available to help simplify the content-creation process. Be it tools to help with content writing, content design, or even content research, these tools will be beneficial to all kinds of content marketers in the long run.
Let’s get into it, shall we?
1. Grammarly
What is a content marketer without a powerful spell checker and proofreader?
Imagine this: clicking on a promising blog article and finding it full of typos and grammatical errors. That doesn’t sound very enjoyable to read now, does it? In fact, after seeing such an erroneous thing, the whole blog as a whole won’t seem as promising anymore, will it?
This is why Grammarly exists—to avoid scenarios like this. It’s a powerful tool that can be used to proofread, check the tone of writing, and correct spelling. It even has a feature where it suggests better phrases/words to avoid excessive word repetition and enhance word choice. Great, right?
2. Canva
Canva is a free graphic design tool for making beautiful graphics. It comes loaded with a large number of fonts and a vast selection of predesigned templates that can be edited to suit the type of graphic you want to make, making the graphic-design process way faster.
You want to create a logo? They’ve got multiple logo templates to choose from. Infographics? Just go ahead, pick the template you want, and start editing. Social media posts and covers? They’ve got you covered. In general, Canva has all your visual content needs covered. Heck, with Canva, you can create gifs!
The wonderful thing about Canva? It’s very easy to use and navigate.
Did I also mention it’s free? Enough said.
3. Answer The Public
We’re familiar with what Google’s Autocomplete does, yes? How it gives a list of possible topics you might want to search depending on the specific keyword/phrase inputted? In that same vein, we should also be aware of how time-consuming content research can be when there are several variations of one keyword someone needs to search for.
Answer The Public exists to help with that! This automated autocomplete tool, in addition to being a goldmine of content ideas, assists content researchers to discover the questions people are searching online across different platforms. You can’t imagine that? Well, look at the image above! It literally pulls out every possible search idea audiences are searching for related to your keyword of choice!
4. Notion
Imagine a platform where you can take notes, organise your content, create calendars/reminders, collaborate with team members, build databases, and so much more! Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?
Well, open your eyes and look around; it’s reality. Notion is a powerful project management tool that can be used for many purposes, be they personal or commercial. Content marketers can use this tool to organise their work and even collaborate with team members on many topics. What a wow!
5. Infogram
Well, making infographics will become a whole lot easier once you add Infogram to your content marketing arsenal!
Like Canva, Infogram comes with a wide array of polished-looking infographic templates that can be simply edited to your tastes. In addition to this, it offers a custom template with your brand, colours, logo, and font, thereby making branded visual content much easier to create!
With Infogram, you can also create animated infographics (I know, wow), and it even offers a safe space to collaborate with team members on various projects.
And infographics created on Infogram don’t have to stay there. Nope; you can download all created content and publish them on other platforms.
6. Giphy
We’ve all been there: scrolling through the internet, trying to find the perfect ‘applause’ GIF to add spice and character to your content. Sometimes, this search can prove futile and we end up settling for one that doesn’t fit the mood of the content. If you’ve ever encountered this problem, I’ve got a solution. Look no further because Giphy is here!
This tool hosts thousands of downloadable GIFs. All you have to do is sit down and search the database for the type of GIF you’re hunting for. Type in ‘applause gif’ and watch yourself find that perfect GIF you previously spent hours searching for. You’re very welcome.
7. Pexels
Not all content marketers are skilled photographers and videographers, and sometimes, these content marketers will want to use photos and videos to market their content. After all, pictures happen to be one of the most popular forms of content in the world, yes?
An alternative would be to search for an image or video to use, but alas, images and videos can also be copyrighted. So what do you do in such a situation?
Easy: use Pexels. It has a database containing millions of stock-free photos and copyright-free videos that can be used anywhere, for whatever reason, including your content marketing needs.
8. TinyPNG
The larger the image, the slower the website. This is a fact all content marketers should be aware of.
That’s why this tool is so helpful. It takes an image and compresses it by 40-60%! By compressing an image, you automatically make it faster to load while also reducing its bandwidth, thereby improving your website’s page metrics.
9. Semrush
Content research is essential to every content marketer, and SemRush is the perfect tool to make the process faster and easier.
It has an inbuilt keyword difficulty checker, a backlink research tool that enables one to carry out in-depth research of sites that are linked to your site, another feature that outputs SEO performance and drawbacks, and so much more. With SemRush, one can also keep tabs on competitor sites and their statistics, like domain authority and spam scores.
In general, it’s used to evaluate all your SEO efforts. Amazing.
10. Piktochart
Visualise your data in quick, trouble-free ways with Piktochart.
Like Infogram, this alternative infographic-building platform offers lovely, professional-looking templates that can be edited to visualise your data in quick easy steps. You don’t need design experience to use this; the user interface is friendly for all users, be they beginners or professionals, and it’s very easy to use.
You can also create reports, presentations, banners, and videos—and just try it. I mean, Disney uses it. That’s got to count for something, right?
11. Feedly
Here’s a fun fact: this wonderful tool also happens to double as a content marketing resource.
Related: 10 Content Marketing Resources Startups Need To Check Out.
Feedly is a free, content aggregation service that allows users to collect, organise, consume and most importantly, customise content from various online sources. If this isn’t impressive enough, get this: with Feedly, you can automatically sync to your Twitter account for easy posting. In addition, it also happens to be a keyword tracker and features collaboration tools. What does this mean? With Feedly, you don’t have to skip across applications sourcing for content or sharing content—you can do it all in one place.
In a nutshell, it’s a very versatile tool that you won’t regret adding to your arsenal.
12. Portent’s Content Idea Generator:
Have you ever gotten a fantastic idea for a blog post but somehow found yourself stumped on how to title said blog post?
All content writers know how important a title is to grab the attention of their target audience. This is why Portent’s Content Idea Generator is very useful.
It’s just as they say on their website, verbatim: “Portent’s Content Idea Generator lets you create catchy titles for your next blog post, podcast, or video. Simply type in your subject and the Idea Generator will spin up a creative title and advice on how to take it to the next level.”
Also, the interface is user-friendly and easy to use. You’re going to love it.
13. Anchor
Podcasts are another form of content that can be made simpler by using tools. An example of such a tool is Anchor.
Anchor is a free platform for hosting, producing, sharing, and monetizing podcasts. Its features? It intermingles with key podcasting outlets and audio—oriented audio platforms—the most notable outlet being Spotify–where you can also cross-post on said outlets and platforms.
With Anchor, users can also create videos. Talk about versatility, yeah?
14. Ahrefs
Ahhhh! Ahrefs. Here’s another tool to make content research and analysis much easier.
Ahrefs is a collection of tools that can be used for a vast number of things; SEO research, performance reports, checking keyword rankings, analysing competitor’s website traffic, analysing your website traffic, and–can you imagine–much more!
It sounds too good to be true, right? Trust me: Ahrefs is both good and true.
15. Vidyard
If your preferred form of content is video, Vidyard is one tool you should check out. It’s a free video marketing platform for hosting, creating, sharing, and optimising personalised videos for businesses and search engines.
This tool comes with some handy features. For one, it helps integrate videos with CRMs, electronic mail systems, and social media platforms, leading to smooth uploads of your video content. For two, it has a video analytics section where you can run tests to see how well your video is performing.
16. Pingdom
Slow websites are the absolute worst, and that’s something everybody can agree on. Who likes to sit down and watch a website buffer? Who wants to use a website that’ll take minutes to load when others can load similar content in less time?
This is where Pingdom comes in.
It’s an online tool that focuses on analysing the speed of a website. It also monitors sites and servers on the internet and takes the liberty of alerting site owners if any problems are detected. In a nutshell, Pingdom helps you, as a content marketer, monitor the overall performance of your website, leading to a better user experience for your audience. Amazing, right?
17. Riddle
Quizzes and surveys are perfect ways to boost a user’s engagement with your brand and collect data. With a tool like Riddle, you can do more than just create quizzes, surveys, and poll formats.
For one, it supports integrated marketing, so you can always create your quizzes and share them via connected marketing software. You can also publish quizzes you construct on Riddle anywhere. In addition to this, you can also automatically send personalised marketing messages based on each quiz taker’s responses.
18. Audacity
If podcasts happen to be your jam, Audacity is a tool you should try on for size. This powerful, free audio-editing software makes it much easier to record, edit and upload your voice across various platforms. It also supports a wide range of audio file formats, from WAV, to MP2, MP3, and even Ogg Vorbis.
And get this: with Audacity, you can also convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs. If that isn’t multi-dimensional, I don’t know what is.
19. Airtable
We all love a good collaborative platform and Airtable is a great example of one.
This tool works like a spreadsheet and can be used to collaborate with team members, organise tasks, customise workflow and boost productivity. You can also construct dashboards that automatically pull in the latest information from all your data sources. At its core, it makes it simple to build compelling, custom applications.
20. Unsplash
Like Pexels, this tool houses a large array of high-resolution, royalty-free stock images for content creators of all kinds to use. Content marketers will find this tool helpful in the long run. Unlike Pexels, Unsplash only hosts photos.
21. GrowthBar
GrowthBar is a content marketing tool that focuses on keyword research, SEO optimisation, content creation and backlink analysis. As the name implies, when utilised, positive growth is definitely positive for your website.
22. Yoast
SEO is very important to a content marketer, so we have yet another SEO-focused tool to discuss. Yoast is a WordPress, WooCommerce and Shopify plugin with a ton of cool features: it helps optimise content for a keyword, has colour indicators to let you know if you’ve properly optimised your page, and even goes through the trouble of suggesting relevant internal links.
According to Wikipedia, this plugin has over 5 million active installations and has been downloaded more than 350 million times with over 25,000 five-star reviews on WordPress.org, and really, it’s not difficult to see why.
23. Hotjar
Hotjar is an analytics tool that assists in the optimisation of websites to give users a better experience.
One major feature is its heatmaps. Heatmaps analyse the sections of your website that users engage in the most. That means it monitors the behaviour of users.
24. Buzzsumo
Here’s another tool that content researchers are going to love.
Buzzsumo, in a nutshell, tracks performance metrics and carries out content research to strengthen marketing strategies. It sources popular posts based on keywords and the results can be filtered based on variables like language, location and more! Heck, it even contains a feature where you can identify the right influencers for your brand based on your marketing strategy and brand. And it’s free! What’s not to love?
25. Loom
Millions of experts across large-scale companies like Disney, Apple, and Netflix use Loom, and here’s the kicker: you can too.
Loom is a free, screen recorder and video-creation tool that focuses on the creation and sharing of videos. To share said videos, all you have to do is share your video via its link and all recipients of that link will be able to view the video. It’s also interactive, so it’s a surefire way of keeping you and users connected.
Related: 10 Content Marketing Resources Startups Need To Check Out.
Wrapping up
After scrolling through this list, I’m sure you’re feeling more confident about content creation. It should be no trouble for you to generate attractive user-friendly content now!
But we understand how stressful it can be and that’s why we’re here! Hera Marketing offers a cost-effective and reliable way of meeting all your content marketing needs! Need help generating content? We’ve got you. Need a place to get content marketing resources? We’re right here.
We have worked with over 24 startups to drive conversions through increased community presence and relevant blog posts that we help distribute. To understand our process, book a 15 - 30 minutes meeting with us.
