Top Rated Content Marketing Tools

 

Content marketing has become a highly competitive field, and having the correct tools can help you do the work better and more efficiently.

Effective marketing requires a good strategy for content and being able to create and use distinct types of media for each audience, with specific messages correctly aimed at them. However, it’s interesting to note that 63% of companies lack a documented content strategy.

There are videos, social media posts, blogs, photography platforms, and many other options for marketing your business, and studies show that 70% of customers prefer to learn about new products through content, instead of traditional techniques of advertising.

Luckily, there are plenty of excellent tools out there that can dramatically boost the effect of your marketing efforts on content. Here are the top 10 of them.

Tool #1 – MarketMuse

 

 

Description From The Developer: MarketMuse is the AI content intelligence and strategy platform that transforms how you research, plan and craft your content.

The MarketMuse Suite improves content quality, automates SEO keyword research, instantly performs content analysis, prioritizes content recommendations.

Our summary Of The Tool:

You’ve heard the phrase “content is king,” and tried to apply it to your business, but perhaps it’s not performing as well as you expected. This is where MarketMuse comes in handy.

An AI content and strategy platform, it’s designed to analyze content and help improve its overall quality, whether it’s on an ecommerce site or a standalone blog that you’re hoping to monetize.

 

Automated research is one of its primary functions, and it’s a real time saver. It evaluates articles and determines which terms will help improve organic search results.

The content strategist function shows where existing content is strong, but also where it’s lacking and weak.

This tool also helps create content briefs, so if you outsource the work, writers know how to effectively write copy that’s tailored to specific websites and topics.

Knowing where and what the competition is, is a critical component for website content. MarketMuse helps identify the competition and offers research capability to make sure you improve your search rankings.

Data-driven suggestions and research that provides subtopics are two tools that also help optimize content for the best results.

No matter what type of content, whether it’s short-form or long-form, MarketMuse combines several intuitive tools into a single app that every business, no matter the size, should use.

Tool #2 – BuzzSomo 

 

Description From The Developer: BuzzSumo gives you insight into what content is working, and the influencers amplifying it.

BuzzSumo’s advanced social search engine finds the most shared content for a topic, author or a domain.

Our summary Of The Tool: 

Driving traffic to a website is tough, particularly with the amount of competition today. However, BuzzSumo can help businesses stand apart from the crowd with its arsenal of tools that are tailored to content success.

When it comes to content, it’s not all the same. Quality matters, and it has to be relevant in order to be counted by Google.

Low-quality content can get a website blacklisted by search engines, so doing it right the first time pays off.

 

BuzzSumo makes it easy for business owners to discover what type of content is performing well with its powerful insights tool.

The social search engine function not only finds relevant content that’s performing well, but it also pinpoints the most shared and those that have gone viral, to make it easy for business owners and marketing agencies to capitalize.

The instant search feature dates back 12 months, making it easy to find content that was relevant within a specific time frame.

Additionally, its powerful platform gives insight into share activity spanning across all the most popular social media sites. Users can also view the social shares for backlinks to judge their successes.

“The best evergreen content is the holy grail of content marketing. It’s that article that consistently ranks well in search and drives 65 percent of your site traffic, even though it was written in 2011.”
–Jacob Warwick (Founder of ThinkWarwick Communications)

BuzzSomo also makes it simple to filter out specific types of content, such as giveaways, interviews and videos with its advanced filtering feature. These, along with content curation and the find influencers feature, mean content takes on a whole new meaning.

BuzzSumo subscriptions range from $99 to $499 per month, depending on the level companies subscribe to. There’s a 20% discount for paying yearly instead of monthly.

Tool #3 – AnswerThePublic

 

Description From The Developer: AnswerThePublic offers consumer insight for PR in the age of Google. Simple visualizations of data are shared to prompt a conversation on how you could start answering your public better. By creating content that’s useful, funny, or inspiring.

Our summary Of The Tool: 

Marketing is critical to any business and with AnswerThePublic, public relations are simplified. But how do you know which terms to use to draw the correct audience to a website?

The answer is easy: you use simple tools like AnswerThePublic to create content that’s tailored specifically to a niche.

 

The basic version of AnswerThePublic is free, and it’s designed for bloggers and those who don’t need to do a lot of monthly searches for content ideas.

Its use is throttled, so results are slow and users won’t get the more important features that help create even higher-profile content. However, it’s still very useful as a free tool.

Users enter a search term and AnswerThePublic shows the most commonly searched terms, breaking them down into questions, comparisons, prepositions, related and alphabetical.

Users who decide to buy the pro edition will pay $99 per month for the tools that include comparing data, searching for results based on language and location, saving reports and searching for high-resolution images.

Other popular features include the ability to add unlimited team members to the tool, which is ideal for marketing agencies, teams, PR professionals and those in the professional SEO field.

Users can also hide the unwanted sections so they only get relevant results and hide individual suggestions to get exacting information.

Tool #4 – Sniply

 

Description From The Developer: Sniply adds your custom call-to-action to any page on the web, allowing you to engage your followers through every link you share.

People use Sniply to drive conversions from every piece of content they share. You can drive traffic to your website, downloads of your app, registrations for your event, customers for your service, and more.

Our summary Of The Tool: 

The term “going viral” is so mainstream that just about anyone who searches the web or uses social media knows the lingo.

In order to go viral, content has to be shareable, and have a call to action — that’s where Sniply comes into play.

 

Sniply’s main goal is to help businesses drive conversions through content. Call-to-actions come in many different forms.

For many, it’s a clickable link in a blog, article or buying guide. Others take it one step further and implement features that make the content stand out.

That’s what Sniply helps accomplish. Its features are designed to catch the reader’s attention and draw it to where it has the most impact.

There are six snips within the software: button, form, text, image and hidden. The snip is a bar that pops out to draw the reader’s attention to an image, button or text that links directly to a website.

The form snip lets viewers sign up for a mailing list and the hidden snip isn’t visual, but still encompasses Sniply’s intuitive features.

Since every business is different, it makes sense that Sniply offers a variety of customization tools.

These make it easy to choose the colors that tie in a company’s brand as well as customize the placement and the way the links appear.

Sniply is more than just appearances, it also has several data gathering tools including analytics, conversion pixel and A/B testing.

“Sniply is a conversion platform. In a nutshell, it allows users to add a call-to-action to everything they share.”
–Patrick Armitage (HubSpot Marketing)

Analytics show how successful snips are, where conversion pixels track the types of actions viewers take on a website. A/B testing looks at variations to improve conversion chances.

All of these features become even more beneficial when they’re connected to various apps. Sniply connects with powerful tools such as Hootsuite and Mailchimp, and it’s easy to install on several browsers.

Plans start at $29 per month for basic features and go all the way up to $299 per month for agencies who need the more robust features.

Tool #5 – Society of Professional Journalists

 

Description From The Developer: SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry through the daily work of its roughly 6,000 members; works to inspire and educate current and future journalists through professional development; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press through its advocacy efforts.

Our summary Of The Tool: 

Journalists looking for a community of like-minded folks will find what they’re looking for at the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

This community is focused on protecting the First Amendment rights of its members and offers all sorts of perks for those who sign up.

 

In addition to discounted services including those on auto insurance, hotels and various stores, SPJ offers other benefits.

Conferences and training programs help members grow as a writer, while the employment and career center provides job opportunities and tips for landing a journalism job.

Members also have access to the Journalist’s Toolbox that provides a source of tools to help members research and develop content, as well as provide insight on how to make pieces better, particularly when it comes to specialized topics such as weather, suicide and people with disabilities.

 

This toolbox is comprehensive and easily accessible to help journalists improve their craft, and best of all, it’s regularly updated.

Joining the Society of Professional Journalists comes with an annual membership fee that ranges from $20 to $75 for the year, depending on the type of membership purchased.

Those who want to buy a lifetime membership can do so for $1,000, exclusive of local chapter dues.

Tool #6 – Help a Reporter Out

 

Description From The Developer: HARO provides journalists with a robust database of sources for upcoming stories and daily opportunities for sources to secure valuable media coverage.

HARO connects journalists and bloggers with relevant expert sources to meet journalists’ demanding deadlines and enable brands to tell their stories.

Our summary Of The Tool: 

Sources are what make journalists credible, so it makes complete sense that Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is of valuable support to those in the field. The website brings sources and journalists together to help create accurate reporting, no matter what the topic.

 

Not just anyone can participate and subscribe, however. There are extensive rules that HARO has in place to help protect the integrity of both journalists and sources. Failure to abide by these rules can lead to the subscription being canceled and losing access to the site.

The best part about the service is that HARO can do the sourcing for the journalist, sending out pitches on the journalist’s behalf, so they can focus on the most important part — writing.

The website has connections to over 800,000 sources as well as 55,000 bloggers and journalists.

“I cannot recommend HARO highly enough! Prior to joining Velo, I ran a digital marketing firm and utilized HARO extensively for several years to identify opportunities for clients in a range of industries.”
–Crystal McFerran (Marketing Director for Velo IT Group)

HARO offers four different subscription plans: Basic, Standard, Advanced and Premium. The Basic plan is free to use while the Premium, which is the highest level, runs $149 per month.

Each level has different benefits including text alerts, the ability to search online and tailored support.

Tool #7 – Crowdfire

 

Description From The Developer: Crowdfire helps you discover and schedule content, and manage all your social accounts from one place.

Crowdfire is a powerful social media tool used by businesses and individuals all over the world to drive social media engagement and growth.

Our summary Of The Tool: 

When it comes to marketing and social media, it’s important to streamline, because it can easily become a full-time job for business owners.

Crowdfire helps with four different areas: content, publishing, analytics and mentions.

 

Content curation is one of the biggest features that Crowdfire helps with, as it has the ability to curate articles and images for all types of social accounts.

Users simply enter the type of content they’re looking for and Crowdfire does the rest. There’s also a customizable RSS feed that makes it easy to pick a simple feed and let the tool do the rest of the work.

Sometimes, visitors don’t want to read an article, but they’re drawn to eye-catching photos. For this reason, Crowdfire offers image curation that users can share on Instagram.

Publishing across multiple platforms can be challenging. Crowdfire simplifies it by making it possible to publish on all social media sites from a single location.

Users can even pre-schedule posts and get an overview of whether or not they’ve got enough content to post for the upcoming week.

 

The analytics feature offers performance and engagement metrics, so business owners and marketing agencies can see which posts are performing well versus those that aren’t.

Detailed charts also show the historical performance.

Response time is critical for any business and with the mentions feature, businesses will never miss another message. Employees and management can even reply instantly with text, videos and images.

Crowdfire has several plans in place for users that range from basic, which is free, to VIP which costs $74.98 per month and is tailored to agencies and large businesses.

Tool #8 – JustReachOut

 

Description From The Developer: JustReachOut’s software allows you to find the most relevant journalists, influencers and bloggers as well as reasons why they’re interested in your story.

Their team has the experience necessary to make your PR campaign a resounding success. JustReachOut offers PR software and outreach strategists all in one.

Our summary Of The Tool: 

Growing a business is all about reaching the right people at the right time. JustReachOut connects business owners and marketers with journalists, bloggers and other content producers that have the talents the business owners need to promote their brands.

This PR software helps compile a list of influencers along with journalists who have the skill to promote a particular type of business.

 

JustReachOut can also connect management with press opportunities in which a journalist needs an expert within the niche to craft accurate content. The writer will give credit to the business, effectively promoting it for free.

JustReachOut’s guidance feature makes it easy to personalize pitches with a good conversation starter that’s sure to set it apart. Video lessons teach how to craft new PR angles and there are plenty of templates to create an email pitch.

“In a matter of just a few months we 3x-ed our traffic through PR outreach as we built relationships with Mashable, Lifehacker,Forbes, Gizmodo and others.
–Adam Zais (CRO at Wistia)

After the pitch is created, the pitch engine makes it simple to send them to qualified experts and even receive analytics on the pitches and each one’s performance.

There are three plans for subscribers to access this software. Simple Outreach is the cheapest option at $199 per month. Advanced Outreach costs $399 per month and Guided Outreach costs $699 per month. Those looking for an annual subscription, should contact JustReachOut for special pricing that’s available directly through the company.

Tool #9 – Getmemedia.com

 

Description From The Developer: Getmemedia.com is a business run by marketers for marketers and their agencies. They help you create the best marketing campaigns for your brands in two ways: by being the place to find marketing, media and sponsorship solutions, and to build your knowledge of marketing and media disciplines. 

Our summary Of The Tool: 

Part of the beauty of marketing is that there are so many approaches to take. But sometimes it makes for difficult decisions when it comes time to choose a strategy. This is where Getmemedia.com can help.

 

The purpose of Getmemedia.com is twofold: first, it’s to give marketers and business owners access to a database of marketing ideas and case studies to back up their successes. It’s not just tailored to the local blogger, though it’s extremely beneficial for them.

TV, local and national press, radio stations and publications can also benefit from the site’s in-depth database. The second purpose is to educate its users about the different disciplines when it comes to media and marketing.

The Get Me Insight program even brings the training live to a company’s office or headquarters.

 

 

Users don’t have to worry about biased results, either. The solutions that show up during a search are based on relevancy to the search terms, not by media outlet. The site accepts registrations from both marketers and media owners.

The service is free for marketers, but they do need to sign up for an account. Media owners have to pay for the membership and it’s necessary to send an inquiry form through the site in order to get pricing information.

Tool #10 – Designrr

 

Description From The Developer: Designrr transforms your blog posts, podcasts, videos and PDFs into eBooks, show notes, dynamic flipbooks, transcripts, PDFs and blog posts. Creating fresh content is hard, repurpose the content you already have and boost your traffic and leads by reaching new audiences.

Our summary Of The Tool: 

When content becomes outdated, it can be hard to decide what to do with it. Designrr brings a new approach to marketers, website owners and management teams. Rather than scrap old content in favor of new, the software makes it easy to repurpose it into usable information that can benefit a company or website in new ways.

 

Designrr is an all-around service that benefits multiple types of users including, but not limited to: content marketers and agencies, eBook, video and YouTube creators, small businesses and podcasters. It’s a versatile tool that works with most media to make the process painless and efficient.

The user starts out by importing content from any number of sources such as social content, video and audio files, eBooks and blogs.

“We use Designrr everyday for getting more traffic & reach from our podcasts & videos. For us it’s the ‘Zapier’ of content.”
–Rob Stanley (MORECUSTOMERSFASTER.COM)

Once the content’s imported, it goes through the editor where the user can customize the content and save as a draft. After editing it’s time to customize it with a theme and then tweak and tune the eBook by adding a cover and page numbers.

Once it’s done and ready to publish, it can be uploaded to any type of site or even downloaded to a computer or laptop. Because it’s saved within the software, it’s easily accessible.

Currently, Designrr is available for a single upfront price rather than a monthly subscription.