In recent years, the numbers of online marketers have increased astronomically because online platforms are the best ways of reaching out to a large number of people within a short time, not to mention they are also somewhat cheaper compared to traditional methods.
This has resulted in increased competition as never before, but using the right marketing tools can help you beat your competitors and maintain your high rankings. If you have a blog or a website, the one thing you need most is more visitors.
With a great deal of content on the website, it is hard to determine what your target audience wants or searching for. Imagine the amount of time it will take you to go through all the blog posts and social media platforms trying to find out.
Luckily, there are over hundreds of marketing tools available that are designed to analyze the web and assist you in reaching your target audience in the most effective way. It doesn't matter the type of business you are doing; you are sure to get a tool(s) that will serve your specific needs.
In this article, we will share 10 Essential tools for content marketing.
Do You Need Content Marketing Tools?
When it comes to content marketing, the most important things you need to focus on are your customers, content creation, SEO, curation, and distribution. When you get these things right, the results will be worth it.
You will have more sales, excellent lead generation, and high audience engagement. Therefore it is apparent that any dedicated online marketer should have at least one or two content marketing tools.
Here are some of the best tools for content marketing that you can bring to your online campaign and take your business to the next level.
1. SEMRush - An all-in-one Marketing ToolkitThis is the leading SEO tool for content marketing, with over 5 million users. With this tool, you can optimize your website as well as write contents that search engines like!
With the information that you will get from this tool, you can create optimized content to attract traffic or change a few technical aspects of your website to obtain higher search rankings.
SEMRush will not only give you suggestions for keywords or phrases but also tell you how hard it is to rank for a specific phrase or keyword.
The tool has many features some of which include;
Domain analysis
To perform domain analysis, all you have to do is to input the domain URL in the ' Domain Overview' section, and it's done!
Some of the things that you will be able to see include;
- a monthly number of visitors
- the number of external links pointed to the website
- paid search traffic
- and competitors.
Generally, you will see how your URL is performing in the search engines. You can use this information to improve your SEO.
Keyword research
The idea behind keyword research is to understand how many people are searching for a specific term or keyword on search engines, and getting suggestions for similar words or phrases.
To perform keyword research in SEMRush, enter the keyword to the ' Keyword Overview' tool and the following will be displayed;
- difficulty score of the keyword
- List of sites ranking on it
- monthly number of searches
- related keywords
- and many more
Now, to get suggestions, there is a ' keyword magic' option that you can utilize to generate words or phrases related to your keyword.
Rank tracking
This tool is essential as it allows you to keep track of how your website is performing in search engines regarding a specific keyword.
A detailed report will be generated on how your site is ranking. You can also do the same for your competitors to compare and see where you need to improve to outrank them and stay ahead.
Backlinks
This tool allows you to search for backlinks which you can either do by performing a backlink audit or backlink analysis. To perform backlink analysis, you need to enter the domain name and be able to see all the backlinks associated with it.
SEMRush SEO writing assistant
This is one of the unique features of SEMRush that makes it stand out. This tool allows you to check the originality of your content using plagiarism checker features.
Also, the tool analyzes the SEO quality of your content by comparing keywords to your top ten competitors on the Google search.
Your articles' readability will also be analyzed, and you will be given suggestions on how to improve them to make them easy to read.
Site audit
This tool is also one of the strongholds of SEMRush. It looks for issues in your websites that are dragging your site down.
This may include duplicate content, missing headers, or keyword stuffing, among others. Utilizing such information can help you rank your site at the top.
If you are looking for a one-stop-shop for content marketing tools, I highly suggest you try the SEMRush.
How much does SEMRush cost?
- Pro plan: $83.28/mo if billed annually ($99.94 if billed monthly)
- Guru plan: $166.62/mo if billed annually ($199.95 if billed monthly)
- Business plan: $333.28/mo if billed annually ($399.95 if billed monthly)
- Enterprise plan: Custom plan
Buzzsumo is another great content marketing tool out there. Every feature has been specifically designed to help you research and analyze thousands of articles and social media posts to see what is performing best.
Use Buzzsumo to create, amplify and evaluate meaningful content that your target audience can relate to. You will be able to see what the world is sharing in real-time and spot a breaking story before it goes viral.
Another intriguing feature of this tool is the availability of millions of social profiles where you can find the right person or company to promote your content. You can use the powerful web analysis tool to track the mention of your business or product.
With Buzzsumo, you will be able to track what your competitors are doing and therefore helping you to remain on top of the game.
How much does BuzzSumo cost?
All plans have a 30 days free trial.If you are running more than two online businesses or you are a busy person, so to speak, the amount of information that you need to organize can be overwhelming.
With Evernote, everything will be simplified.
If you want to organize and share your notes in a professional way, this is the tool for you. The tool will allow you to capture, manage memories, thoughts, projects, and even to-do-list so that you don't forget anything.
It allows you to scan images, write notes, and even record voice notes. Perhaps the reason why Evernote is so popular among content marketers is that; you can access your documents and projects on any device even when you are offline.
If you ever lose your phone you don't have to worry, all your notes will still be intact and safe. The user-friendly interface is also another reason why you should use Evernote for your content marketing campaigns.
How much does Evernote cost?
All plans have a 30 days free trial.4. Kred - Measure your online influence
Kred is also one of the best performing online content marketing tools that will increase your influence online and make you more noticeable.
With the Kred engagement profile, you can boost your own identity and collaborate with other top influencers on the network.
The tool assigns scores to the influencers by analyzing their social media platforms' activity (Twitter, Facebook, etc.).
One great thing about the tool is that there is always room to build and improve your social status. Also, you can always measure your online influence to know how you are doing.
Some of the benefits of using Kred include; influencer verification, NTFS engagements, and Kred's score API, all these will help you to build credibility and trust for your brand.
Trello is a web-based platform with tools specially crafted to help businesses in defining and managing projects. It also has features that allow users to create and organize project activities according to their needs.
A user can easily update the status of each task as either 'to do', 'doing' or 'done' when the task is completed.
Trello also features an advanced carding system that enables timely communication between team members working on a project. Members can interact by sharing files, documents, photos, or sharing links to several cloud storage solutions.
The free plan has several features, including unlimited lists, cards, and team boards.
Upgrading to a premium plan will offer you a ton of unique features such as unlimited file upload size, unlimited power-up boards, integrations with other applications like Bitbuckeck and Evernote.
The premium plan also features a SAML 2.0 security feature that allows for secure Single sign-on, file encryption, and an end to end encryption.
How much does Trello cost?
The business plan has a 14 days free trial.Canva is a web-based graphic designing tool that can be used to create a diverse collection of graphic designs, including social media posts, banners, flyers, presentations, advertisements and business cards, just to mention a few.
One of the things that set Canva apart from its competitors is the fact that it has a fantastic user interface optimized to give any graphic designer, beginner or otherwise a great experience. The tool has thousands of templates that users can easily edit by dragging and dropping design features to suit their needs.
What I love most about Canva is that even with a free account, you still get access to thousands of design templates and amazing editing tools. However, you will need to have a premium account to unlock all the editing tools.
Unlike other graphic designing software, Canva does not require users to download additional software. All you have to do is create a free account and start creating refreshing designs and grow your brand awareness.
How much does Canva cost?
There is a Canva Pro Free trial for 30 days.If you often write a lot of content, you are bound to make some grammatical and typos errors.
But don't worry, this is common.
When it comes to fixing your grammar and spelling mistakes, no editor can do better than Grammarly.
Whether you are crafting a professional email, blog post, submitting a paper, or writing a book, having professional proofreading software can be a lifesaver.
Grammarly will monitor and check your online writing to ensure that your final text is clear and error-free.
The editor analyzes your content and displays your text's overall score, which represents the quality of your document. Other details that will be displayed include word count, reading time, and readability score.
Each of the information displayed is an indicator of how good or bad your document is and what you need to improve on to have a great document.
To utilize the editor, you can use three of the following; browser extension, Microsoft Word and Outlook plugins or download app.
The editor is available in two different versions; free and premium version.
The free version has limited access; for example, you cannot use the plagiarism detection system. On the other hand, the premium version comes with the full package, including vocabulary enhancement suggestions.
You will never go wrong with Grammarly as your writing assistance. If you want to have confidence in all your documents and texts, Grammarly is the tool to use.
How much does Grammarly cost?
Invideo is a web-based video editing tool that is designed to help individuals and businesses in creating relevant and appealing videos and animations to market their brands.
The editor has thousands of regularly updated video templates that you can easily customize to suit your needs.
The tool has a friendly user interface that does not require any prior knowledge for editing videos; all you have to do is insert your media and start creating your video.
One unique thing about these video templates is that they come preloaded with free royalty songs!
You can also use the article to video feature to create catchy videos for your brand by inserting a link to an article then the editor will guide you in creating your video.
How much does InVideo cost?
- Basic plan: Free (export up to 60 videos per months with watermark)
Pexels is one of the world's most popular stock images website offering its users millions of high-quality stock photos and videos. These photos can be used to create Facebook and Google ads, digital marketing, blog posts, and much more graphic content.
The website features stock images that are free to download and to use even for commercial purposes without any risks of copyright infringement.
It also has a rich collection of video files that users can edit and customize into graphic content that addresses their needs.
When it comes to ease of use, Pexels has one of the easiest user interfaces. Finding graphic content is easy, all you have to do is type the name of the image you want, and it will give you a list of all the matches.
How much does Pexels cost?
AWeber will provide you with the best email marketing services. The app is user friendly and comes with plenty of templates you can use.
Are you running on a low budget?
Don't worry; there is entirely a free version of the app if you have a list of fewer than 500 subscribers.
This tool will allow you to create a mailing list, design newsletter, automate your email responses, and view and analyze your email campaign statistics.
With such information, you will always know what you need to improve on to effectively reach your audience.
Some of the key features of AWeber include;
- A landing page builder.
- A phone, email, and live chat support feature.
- Third-party integration
- Importation and hosting mailing list.
How much does AWeber cost?
- Free plan: Up to 500 subscribers
Conclusion
Businesses are spending a fortune in marketing their products on social media and the internet at large.
This makes it hard for startups and brands to compete fairly due to their limited budget. However, with the right content marketing tools, you can easily grow and strengthen your brand name without spending too much on marketing.
This can be achieved by creating relevant graphic content like images and videos about the brands, using publishing tools to create great articles and posts about the brand, and tracking consumer trends in the market.
That's it. Now you know what are the essential tools for content marketing.
Which software or tools are your favorite? Do let us know in the comment.
