More than 88% of B2B marketers utilize content marketing tools (1) as part of their marketing. Are you a part of that? Then you are probably aware of all the benefits it offers.
If you are not, it is only a matter of time.
While no content marketing tool can replace talented humans and a solid strategy, you can certainly get the job done easily, better, and more efficiently with the right tech stack.
There are over hundreds of content marketing tools available today. Some of them are cheap or free, while some are pretty expensive. They also offer different purposes, from production to content creativity, promotion, optimization, and more. Nonetheless, the content marketing technology space is growing year-on-year (2).
The market looks quite exciting since it is highly likely for you to find a suitable software solution if you have any issues. Those countless tools at your disposal will make things more successful for you.
But at the same time, it can also be quite overwhelming. How would you know which of the tool is worth trying out of hundreds of available tools?
Today, let’s clarify those choices for you. Whether you have only started using content marketing or have been using it for a while, we have outlined the best content marketing tools you will need in 2021 to get the most out of your energy and time.
Content Marketing Tools for 2021
1. Grammarly
Correct Spelling and Grammar
No readers will trust you or engage with your content if you make grammar and spelling mistakes, regardless of how hard you market your content.
And since a normal spell checker can’t always analyze writing for any grammar mistakes or consider context, you need Grammarly (3).
While you can’t catch every writing mistake you could make, Grammarly is an excellent tool to proofread your content before posting. It catches grammar mistakes like word usage, overused words, squinting modifiers, and more.
You can also install Grammarly for Chrome (4) to edit your writing no matter which window or tab you are in without having to exit or visiting the Grammarly site.
2. Airstory
Airstory is a powerful platform for writers who are looking to step up their writing and collaboration games.
We often find ourselves moving between Google Docs, Google Drive, Evernote while also having hundreds of tabs open for research. Now it is time to look into Airstory (5).
It helps users save images, quotes, and multimedia. You can drag and drop your multimedia files into any application, making Airstory an incredible tool for collaboration and writers working on longer content.
3. WordPress
WordPress is the most extensively used CMS across the globe. As of 2020, it powers about 40.6% of the internet (6).
WordPress, at its core, is an open-source CMS that allows users to host and create websites. One can self-host or host his site through WordPress.com. It has plugin architecture and a template system that allow users to customize their website as per their needs.
4. HubSpot
HubSpot provides several content marketing tools, with many of them being free to try including form builder, popup tool, chatbots, and all-in-one WordPress plugin.
Besides free tools, HubSpot also offers a CMS (7) to create a growth machine and allow users to centralize everything to a free CRM. It means that HubSpot offers solutions to each level of a company’s growth, helping users to build and expand their content marketing program.
5. Yoast
Yoast (8) is among the best tools for writing SEO-focused content.
You can also consider it an “all-in-one” WordPress plugin for SEO that enables users to do pretty much everything, including previewing, optimizing content for a keyword, editing URL slugs and meta description, abstracting technical SEO tasks, and recommending relevant internal links.
Yoast has more than nine million downloads and a 4.9 out of 5-star rating in the WordPress marketplace. We can also say that everyone we know who uses WordPress also uses Yoast.
6. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo (9) is one of the best content marketing tools to know the industry’s trending content, what your rivals are writing, and their marketing strategies.
It reveals the topics one should write about and help find influencers in the industry to market your content. Buzzsumo also allows you to get content insights by finding what content was most shared across social media platforms and run analysis reports.
You can also seek influencers who are industry leaders in different areas, check their content, and plan an outreach from there. It also gives content alerts for content that mentions your keyword and when a competitor posts new content.
You can also track your challengers’ content performances and compare their results with your performance.
Since the tool is pretty useful for editorial planning and scheduling, one can organize his findings before even drafting a blog post.
7. Evernote
Evernote is among the perfect content marketing tools for a better way to brainstorm for future content and stay organized. It enables you to share your ideas with your entire team and collaborate.
You can find Evernote (10) across all devices and a great place to add all the data you find via your research with the first resource, BuzzSumo. Meaning, it allows you to access all your information at any time from your laptop to your smartphone.
8. Kred
There is always more work than producing the content and praying people to read it when it comes to content marketing.
Kred (11) allows you to find and connect with influencers who can amplify your message across social media platforms. It measures your influence through analyzing Twitter and Facebook activity, so you can reach out to influencers who can most impact your business.
And, unlike other influencer tools, Kred allows you to create your influencer status to enhance your online presence.
We can also consider the tool as a great resource for building trust and credibility. When more people know who you are, they will be more willing to click on your content and engage.
9. Trello
Most businesses proceed towards content marketing with an entire dedicated team to the subject. Trello (12) is the right tool for you to take teamwork to the next level with lists, boards, and cards.
It offers great productivity and organization resource to schedule writing, posting, and sharing. You can also leave messages for your team members and share content in one place, so there is no doubt about your game plan.
Trello has an easy layout, making it easy to stay focused and get started.
10. Ahrefs
Ahrefs (13) is another of our favorite content marketing tools for tracking the keywords rankings, analyzing competitors’ keywords, traffic, and more.
Every time you think that you have mastered Afrefs’ full functionality, to your surprise, it will present you with new delightful features. It offers reports like “top pages,” which allows you to analyze the most useful website or pages, or “content gap,” enabling you to see what your competitors rank for that you don’t.
11. ClickFunnels
Businesses with an internet presence need to create a sales funnel, whether they are focusing on consumers offline or online.
A sales funnel illustrates the journey that takes visitors, turns them into leads, and becomes sales. You can use these funnels to increase your business’s average order value.
If you start making a funnel from scratch, it will take you hours to do it. However, with ClickFunnels (14), you will be able to do it much quickly and efficiently.
Its easy drag-and-drop platform also makes it so great. One can build a convertible sales funnel within minutes. Their templates also make this process faster as they are designed by the site based on what has worked for others.
12. Canva
When you share your latest content, you want to make sure that it has some high-quality images. However, Photoshop is not always fun or cheap. Plus, it can take forever to design something with such professional software.
Luckily, we have Canva (15).
Canva offers pre-built layouts and templates, so it takes no time to create something for your readers.
Select different layouts that are designed for the platform you want to post. For instance, a social media banner template is sized to be a banner, while a template for an Instagram post is sized for Instagram.
You can use the platform to create eye-catching images to post on your social media platforms to get more online exposure. It is also among excellent content marketing tools for crafting illustrations across all your content.
13. HootSuite
Coming up with content and then sharing across different social media platforms is great for your brand, but it also takes a ton of time.
Enters HootSuite (16).
It allows you to manage your social media posts ahead based on their peak engagement hours.
With HootSuite, you can schedule your content at the best times without manually sharing it at those hours. You can connect the tool with over 35 social media platforms.
14. Get Response
In recent years, email marketing has been key to bring ROI and customer retention. Though it costs much more to gain a new customer than keep a present one, companies have only started to realize it.
GetResponse (17) is among the best content marketing tools, ahead of other email softwares. It uses automation to trigger emails and events based on the recipient’s actions or a certain time frame.
15. MailChimp
MailChimp (18) allows you to access your dashboard from both desktop and mobile phones.
It offers countless features at a fraction of the price. You can build an email list with subscribers and track them with MailChimp. You can also monitor average open and click rates, average email subscribers, and unsubscribe rates.
16. Uberflip
Uberflip (19) is one of the best content marketing tools for improving your site’s content experience and performance.
It is primarily a collection of valuable content marketing, account-based marketing, lead generation, and sales enablement tools.
You can use the platform to manage your blogs, e-books, videos, and more from one central place. Additionally, the platform also allows you to create content hubs and sales streams so your visitors can interact with your brand consistently without any interruption.
17. Vidyard
Vidyard (20) is a video marketing platform that helps users to host, promote, and share video content on their websites.
It also offers a sales solution to help users close more accounts and a marketing solution. You can use its video analytics, run A/B tests, personalize videos, and gate videos at a certain frame to get leads.
18. Loom
Loom (21) is a simple tool but offers powerful use cases that are way beyond content marketing. It allows you to create, share and edit screen share videos, allowing you to create and embed technical walkthroughs tutorials.
19. Airtable
Airtable (22) is among the best content marketing tools available in the market today. Even though it is a little more complicated, it is also customizable.
One can consider it as a mixture between Trello and spreadsheets. While there are several uses of Airtable, we especially like it for two features; editorial calendars and writer/influencer management.
20. HotJar
HotJar (23) is one of the most excellent experience analytics tools out there. It offers qualitative tools like on-site polls, session replays, and surveys.
Where Google Analytics can help you with user behavior’s “where” and “what,” HotJar can help you start with the “why.”
Additionally, it also offers some quantitative tools like heat maps. It allows you to get visuals of where your visitors are scrolling and clicking.
Wrapping Up
While these content marketing tools won’t save a bad product or bad content marketing strategy, they will undeniably assist you in getting the job done effectively and faster.
There are several more content marketing tools available out there, other than those listed in the article. Each of these tools will help you with content marketing one way or another. You can pick the ones you wish to try and see which of them brings the best result.
These content marketing tools aim to get the most engagement out of your content without spending a huge amount of energy and time.
Regardless if you are accomplished or only starting in the content marketing world, these content marketing tools are crucial to take your content engagement rates to the next level.
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