Content. What is it about this word that strikes fear in the hearts of writers and content marketers everywhere—that keeps me up at night frantically jogging my brain for new ideas and inspiration?
Like most content marketers, I have a love-hate relationship with blogs, emails, social media or really any type of content. Sometimes, it feels like we’re in a honeymoon phase where we can’t get enough of each other, and the words are rolling off my fingertips as if I’m possessed by an otherworldly creative force.
But it’s not all smooth sailing—there are times when I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel and desperately searching for a spark of inspiration. Coming up with fresh, original content ideas, extensively researching new and unfamiliar topics, creating compelling and engaging content, and promoting it in all the right places—it’s never easy.
And it’s even more difficult when you don’t have the right content marketing tools in place. Luckily for you, these must-have tools are easy to find and use—all it takes is some research to find the best ones for your company.
To help you get started, we put together a list of our favorite content marketing tools. Start using these ASAP to take the pain out of content marketing, fire up your creativity and leverage marketing data successfully.
1. Feedly
Our first stop on the content marketing tool list is Feedly, my favorite RSS and blog reader. Feedly is your central source for all the latest trends and news in your industry. It’s a great way to brush up on your skills, see what’s popular and get ideas for a new blog, your next ebook or any content. You can create boards for tech news, onboarding, company culture, sales or whatever trips your trigger.
What I love about Feedly is I can follow all my favorite blogs and news sites instead of going to each site individually. And, if I don’t have time to read an article, I can save it to read later. I’m always opening Feedly on my phone, iPad or computer and scrolling through my feed for inspiration. Give it a try and see if it feeds (see what I did there?) your creativity!
2. Quora
Quora is a place where you can ask a question and get an answer. Pretty simple, right? Think of it as a new-and-improved Ask Jeeves—without the iconic butler.
If you’re fresh out of content ideas, head on over to Quora and see what people are talking about. Are you thinking of writing a blog on web design? All you have to do is type the keyword “web design” in the search bar, and you’ll see everything that’s trending for that topic.
Yes, not every question on Quora is going to make sense for your blog. But, after a little digging, you should walk away with a slew of keywords and blogging ideas.
3. Evernote
I don’t know about you, but I have a horrible memory. I’ll come across this amazing, earth-shattering (ok, maybe that’s taking it too far) blog topic idea, only to forget it 20 minutes later. That’s why I started saving any ideas, blogs and articles to Evernote.
Evernote allows you to save your thoughts, ideas and news articles and access them on any device. I can save an illuminating article on Spuds Mackenzie (don’t judge me) on my computer. Then later, when I have a few minutes to spare, I open the Evernote app on my phone and read to my heart’s content.
Not a fan of Evernote? There’s plenty of other read it later apps you can try out. I’ve also used and liked Instapaper and Pocket.
4. Buffer
Social media is the bane of every marketer’s existence. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest...there’s no end to the number of social media websites your users spend time on. And it seems like there’s a new social media platform popping up every day.
Drafting, scheduling, and monitoring social on all of these networks takes time, especially if you’re logging in to each and every website separately. With Buffer, you can save time by managing multiple social media accounts in one place. It’s quick and easy to use and packed with features.
And the best part? You can schedule social in advance and stay on top of your social media marketing!
5. Hemingway Editor
In a world of scanners and skimmers, you want to make sure your content is readable and engaging. That’s where Hemingway Editor comes in. This free app analyzes your text and suggests changes to make your writing clearer and more concise. Use it to catch any wordy sentences, complicated words or passive voice.
6. Grammarly
Typos and grammatical errors happen to the best of us. You can read a blog or email a million times, and still mix up “your” and “you’re” and forget a comma.
Grammarly can save you the embarrassment of misspellings and typos. After finishing any piece of content, take a few minutes and enter the copy into Grammarly to check for any mistakes or grammatical errors. I downloaded the free Google Chrome extension to make it even easier.
7. HubSpot
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could create, schedule, and analyze all your social media, email, and content marketing efforts on a single platform? It’s possible when you use HubSpot. HubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps your business streamline all content creation and execute the most successful content marketing campaigns.
With HubSpot, all of your content lives in one place. Gone are the days when you had to use 20 different platforms to make sense of your content marketing. It’s fast, easy, and painless to create the content your buyer personas and ideal customers are looking for.
The HubSpot platform gives you an in-depth breakdown of how well your social media, emails, blogs and any content assets are performing. Optimizing your content for mobile and search is a cinch when you use HubSpot, and you can add calls-to-action and forms to easily convert your prospects into leads.
To Wrap It All Up...
At Stratus, we live and breathe everything HubSpot. In fact, we love HubSpot so much, we became a HubSpot partner and reached Platinum Partner status. Using HubSpot has helped us reach—and surpass—our marketing goals, and now we want to help you do the same.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by content marketing, or you don’t have the on-site staff or resources to tackle content creation by yourself, you’re not alone. Let us help you get your content seen and in front of more qualified leads. Our experienced content marketers and writers can help you write the most compelling and engaging copy with your target customers in mind. And our HubSpot certified designers and developers can make sure your content and website look amazing and make the best first impression.
Learn how we can help you solve your toughest content marketing challenges. Schedule a 30-minute inbound marketing consultation today.
