Tools are only as effective as the skills of the person using them.
In a world of digital marketing that’s 24/7 with ubiquitous connectivity from anywhere, anytime, marketers’ need for tools is greater than ever. Content Marketing in particular offers a competitive landscape where the effectiveness and efficiency offered by the right mix of tools can make the difference between feast or famine.
There are many categories for content marketing tools since content and consumer pursuit of information are the backbone of the web experience. Here are some of the content marketing tool categories that come to mind (not too different than a high level list of marketing tools actually).
- Content Planning
- Content Research
- Content Creation
- Content Curation
- Content Distribution
- Content Promotion
- Content Optimization
- Content Measurement
- Content Reporting
Obvious content marketing tools include the class of enterprise platforms and services that many large brands are using including Contently (content marketplace), Kapost, NewsCred, Skyword and Percolate (content marketing software), UberFlip (content marketing automation), new content marketing platforms like the one from Curata and much anticipated tools like Cintell (customer intelligence).
Wisdom of the Crowd – I’ve published lists of content marketing tools here in the past but these sorts of resources warrant regular updates. In addition to the near-daily pitches I receive and my own research, I reached out to my network on Facebook for new content marketing tool suggestions.
The result? An A to Z list (and then some, 45 tools in all) of new and many not so new but highly useful content marketing tools to help you solve content planning, creation, promotion and measurement challenges. This is by no means a comprehensive list but it is a collection of the content marketing software companies that are top of mind amongst my own social network.
Atomic Ally – Content scoring tool to customize for specific audiences.
Buffer – Content promotion scheduling, analytics and team collaboration.
BuzzSumo – Content social media research, alerts, links and influencer discovery.
Canva – Web based visual content design tool with stock photos.
CoSchedule – Content editorial calendar plug-in for WordPress offering workflow and analytics for blog posts and social shares.
Curata – Content curation and content marketing platform.
DashThis – Create a content marketing dashboard marketers will actually use and execs will understand.
DivvyHQ – Web based editorial calendar with content planning and workflow.
Evernote – A multi-platform app that captures text, images and video synchronized to the cloud and across devices.
Flipboard – Create a curated online magazine.
Grammerly – Grammar checker app for the Chrome browser.
HemingwayApp – Web based, dynamic text editing tool.
Jing – Desktop software to create content recorded from your computer screen as images, animation or video.
Kapost – Content marketing platform.
Keywordio – Find topics in demand on search engines.
KISSmetrics – Connects all data to a person. See the entire customer journey —across campaigns, web and mobile.
Leadfeeder – sales lead generation tool for B2B companies that shows you which companies visit your website and what they do there.
Leadin – WordPress CRM & lead tracking plugin with analytics.
MeetEdgar – Social content scheduling (by category that recycles shares).
NewsCred – Content marketing software.
Oktopost – Social media content distribution tool for B2B.
Over – Mobile app for adding artwork and text with creative fonts to images.
Piktochart – Web based infographic creation tool.
Prismatic – Social content recommendation tool.
Qzzr – Create and embed quizzes in your content.
Resonance – Content retargeting tool.
Scripted – Written content marketplace.
Scoop.it – Content curation, blogging and social promotion platform for small businesses.
Scrivener – Mac software for structuring, writing and editing long documents.
SEMRush – Discover what topics and keywords are driving traffic to your competitors’s content.
Share as Image – Microcontent creator and sharing tool for Chrome that turns text into an image.
Shareist – Research, curation, scheduling, and page creation tools for social media channels, blogs, and email newsletters.
ShowHows – Tool for making embeddable content focused on step by step instructions.
SlideBatch – Curate embeddable “batches” of any kind of content or media with customized layouts that display on any device
SlideShare – Content hosting and lead generation.
Sniply – Share other people’s content in a way that drives traffic to your own content.
Trello – Visual organization tool.
Uberflip – Curate content, design an experience and convert with offers using this embeddable content hub.
Videolicious – Easily create videos using a mobile phone with easy social sharing and centralized dashboard for review and publishing.
Viraltag – Pinterest marketing tool and platform.
Word Swag – Mobile app for adding text with creative fonts to images.
X – What? There’s no content marketing tool that starts with the letter “x”? Seems like a nice marketing opportunity!
Youzign – Basic web-based tool for creating marketing graphics: facebook covers, twitter covers, YouTube channel art, infographics.
Zemanta – Content ad platform for amplification.
Other content marketing tool resources:
- Ultimate List of Content Marketing Tools – Curata
- The Best Content Marketing Tools for Efficient Marketers – Buffer
- 7 Content Marketing Tools to Improve Your Productivity – CMI
A big part of compiling this list of tools was a group effort – participation marketing in action! Thank you to these fine folks from my Facebook network for their content marketing tool suggestions!
Andrew Davis, Brian Fanzo, Bhupesh Shah, Kelly de Vooght, Ian Cleary, Marc Meyer, Robyn Tippins, Bas Van Den Beld, Jay Baer, Tamar Weinberg, Teri Ross, David Brown, Kristi Hines, Lisa Picarille, Ashley Combe, Kristie Wells, Cari Bugbee, Shel Holtz, Tom Martin, Susan Emerick, Janette Speyer, Angie Schottmuller, Ann Handley, Martin Jones, Susan Beebe, Kimberly Reynolds, Corey O’Loughlin, Stephanie Losee, Cindy Turrietta, Bernie Borges, and Susan Bratton.
What content marketing tools have you discovered recently that really WOW you?
