Top 10 content marketing tools you need

The right content marketing tools can help you achieve your goals better, faster, and with ease. But there are just so many! What are the best tools to use for content marketing that you should consider?

Lucie Simonova

Published on Sep 1, 2022

Top content marketing tools you need

Are you looking for ways to spice up your content marketing strategy with high-performing tools? Or maybe you’re just on the lookout for alternatives to content tools you already have? 

Either way, in this article, we’re bringing you the top 10 content marketing tools that can help you prepare, produce and promote stellar content to your audience.

What is a content marketing tool?

Content marketing tools are pretty self-explanatory—you can simply imagine them as tools used in content marketing that can help you achieve your goals better, faster, and more efficiently.

There are tons of them out there related to all the different areas of content marketing, and it’s only up to you to decide which content tools you want to use.

Usually, marketers use a whole lot of them simultaneously for different purposes. There are content marketing tracking tools, tools for creating images and other visual aids, tools to help you promote or optimize your content, and on and on it goes.

Because there are so many, the following list of tools offers you a selection of the ones you should consider.

Top 10 content marketing tools you should have

One of the first steps of content marketing should be creating a solid tool stack that will support your marketers and help you carry out your marketing strategy successfully. 

Take a look at the following list of tools used in content marketing that can help you prepare, optimize and publish first-class content to wow your audience.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free content marketing tool that every marketer should have in their stack. In a nutshell, it helps you better understand your website traffic and your audience and user behavior.

Tracking the metrics and the activity on your site is crucial to ensure a successful strategy. Where do your users come from? What pages are the most popular? Which channels drive the most traffic? Those are all questions you should know the answers to.

What else can you do with Google Analytics?

  • See how many users are currently browsing your site
  • Learn what devices the visitors use
  • Discover the interests of your audience
  • Check your page loading time
  • Track your marketing campaigns
  • Track your ecommerce performance

With Google Analytics, you can also track the path visitors take through your site from the very first page that made them come to the last one that made them leave. And the list goes on.

Analytics.google.com

2. Grammarly

Grammarly definitely belongs among the best content marketing tools, according to many. Whether a native speaker or not, everyone benefits from good proofreading to produce mistake-free writing.

Grammarly checks your spelling, corrects your grammar, and allows you to consider suggestions for better word choice, proper formality level, or tone.

No matter the site or desktop application, Grammarly can help you produce social media posts, emails, and articles written in an efficient way, without repetitive language, and error-free.

You can get Grammarly for Windows and Mac, install Grammarly’s browser extension, or the Grammarly Keyboard to get real-time suggestions directly on your mobile phone.

Best content marketing tools - Grammarly
Grammarly.com

3. Semrush

Semrush is a great tool to use if SEO is something you care about. It can help you bring traffic to your site by doing proper keyword research; boost the rank of your pages with the on-page SEO checker, or help you find opportunities to strengthen your backlinking.

SEO is not where it ends with Semrush. What makes it so great are also other features you can use in different areas, such as advertising or market research. With Semrush, you can easily track your rivals and stay ahead of your competition with the competitor analysis and PR monitoring tool.

Interested in PPC or social media marketing as well? Semrush has got you covered so that you can do everything from one comfortable platform.

Semrush.com

If Semrush doesn’t feel like the right choice for you, you can try checking out some popular alternatives like Ahrefs or Moz.

4. Canva

Canva is a beginner-friendly design tool that doesn’t require professional experience to create thumb-stopping visuals for your blogs, videos, podcasts, or social media.

If you’re looking for ways to spice up your visual content on different platforms with tons of customizable templates, Canva is one of the top content marketing tools out there.

Here is just a selection of things you can design in Canva:

  • Presentations
  • Collages
  • Graphs
  • Logos
  • Banners
  • Invitations
  • Infographics

Apart from visual content for your online channels, you can also create calendars, business cards, posters, or flyers for print.

What’s really great about Canva is that even with their free plan, you can still design anything—no design experience needed.

Free marketing tools - Canva
Canva.com

5. Buffer

Are you aiming for a solid social media presence? Are you looking for a better way to plan, organize, and publish your social media posts? Then it might be the right time to consider Buffer.

Buffer offers an easy-to-use dashboard to manage all your posts for your channels in one place. To really grow your brand on social media, you can measure the performance of your channels, individual posts, and even hashtags.

After analyzing the performance of your content, you can create customized reports and share them with your team. Don’t forget to engage with your audience by answering the comments straight from the dashboard.

Best content marketing tools - Buffer
Buffer.com

6. Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop certainly doesn’t need an introduction. It’s a household name in the world of graphic design, and for a very good reason. 

With Photoshop, you can edit images, design custom materials, or just crop photos. That said, if your skills go beyond the basics, Photoshop really allows you to unleash your creativity for online as well as in-print visual materials.

Adobe.com

7. Unsplash

Unsplash is another excellent free content marketing tool. These days, you can barely imagine content marketing without imagery. Of course, there is the ever-popular iStock, but did you know that you can find beautiful, high-quality images for free?

When searching for the perfect photo, you can get inspired by trending searches, topics, and collections to power your blog posts with images from creators from all over the globe.

Content marketing tools - Unsplash
Unsplash.com

If Unsplash doesn’t feel like the right choice, you can try checking out other alternatives, such as Pexels or Pixabay. 

8. Hotjar

Hotjar is a great tool to use if you want to understand how users actually experience your site. Using surveys or real-time suggestion boxes, you can ask them right at the moment if the content satisfied their needs and whether they found what they were looking for.

With Hotjar’s famous heatmaps, you can visualize user behavior by gathering data on how users scroll on your site and where they click. This can help you analyze how people interact with the CTAs you use and if they get noticed.

Discovering what attracts attention and what gets ignored can help you make the necessary changes on your site.

Content marketing tools - Hotjar
Hotjar.com

9. Zapier

Zapier enables you to connect apps and automate repetitive tasks to save you valuable time. How does it work? 

When an event happens in one app, Zapier signals to another app to perform a specific action. For example, when a new article gets published, you can automatically post about it on social media. Or, when you get a new e-mail from a lead, you can automatically notify your Sales via text.

If you feel like you struggle with efficiency at times, it might be a good idea to consider adding Zapier to your tool stack.

Zapier
Zapier.com

10. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a multi-purpose tool used for monitoring performance metrics and content research. 

It can help you explore high-performing content for your niche, look into topics currently trending on different platforms, or find the right influencers for your brand.

Stuck in the brainstorming phase? You can use the Content Ideas Generator to find timeless topics for stellar evergreen content or explore the structure of top-ranking headlines

In online marketing, checking your competition is crucial. With Buzzsumo, you can easily track your competitors with their monitoring tool to stay ahead of the game.

Content marketing tools - Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo.com

What are the best content marketing tools for you?

Are there any tools you love to use that you didn’t find on our list? Do you know any free content marketing tools that should be a must for every marketer out there? Is there a blog marketing tool that deserves more attention?

We’d love to hear about them! Connect with us and let us know on TwitterLinkedInFacebook, or Instagram!

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