Digital tools to take storytelling to the next level!

Here are 7 essential content marketing tools that every marketer should use!

Fortunately, there are thousands of content marketing tools and resources which can help you build brand awareness and create content that resonates with your audience.

However, with a plethora of content marketing tools at our disposal, picking the right tools can be a challenge.

This article will help you figure out which tools are the most essential for your content marketing needs.

1. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

Your blog post headline is the reason why people will click to read your article.

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer shows you exactly strong your headlines are, removing any guesswork on your part.

This free tool will evaluate your overall headline quality and rate its ability to result in social shares, increased traffic, and SEO value. It helps you maintain the right balance of common, uncommon, emotional, and power words in your headlines. Aim for a minimum score of 70 for all your headlines to ensure that it gets enough traction on social media and search engines.

2. Canva

Canva is a web-based design tool which allows you to create impressive graphics in all kinds of different formats (social media, infographics, email headers, etc).

It’s delightfully simple and you don’t need a design background to create graphics on Canva.

Although there is a paid version of Canva, the free version has all the essential features to help you create professional graphics for your blog, website, or social media campaigns.

3. BuzzSumo

Coming up with interesting ideas for creating content can be a gruelling task. This is where a tool like Buzzsumo can help you.

With Buzzsumo, you can discover which content is performing the best in your niche.

Enter any topic into the Buzzsumo search box and within seconds, you will be presented with the most shared content on any topic, including a breakdown by social platform. You can also filter by content type (article, infographic, video, etc.).

With Buzzsumo, you can give your readers exactly what they want. Identify which topics related to your business are garnering the most attention on social media and create your own version of it. Ensure that the content you create is better than the one that is trending.

4. Yoast SEO

When it comes to SEO plugins on WordPress, Yoast is easily the gold standard.

Yoast SEO is an all-in-one SEO tool which makes handling of all the basic aspects of On-Page SEO look simple. You can set the title and meta description for your web page, check keyword density, optimize your images, and do much more. Apart from optimizing your on-page SEO, you can also use this plugin to take care of the technical SEO aspects such as editing your robots.txt file and creating XML sitemap of your website.

While there is a premium version of Yoast SEO available, the free version provides all the essential features most bloggers and marketers will need.

5. Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

Do you want authority backlinks from sites such as FastCompany, Inc, Mashable, and Huffington Post? Then you need to sign up for HARO.

HARO is one of the easiest ways to generate high quality backlinks from authority news sites.

Here’s how it works:

1. Sign up for HARO as a source here.
2. You’ll receive three emails per day on weekdays from reporters looking for sources. Look out for source requests relevant to you and your niche
3. Respond with some helpful content and your credentials

If your content adds value to the reporter’s article, you’ll get a mention in a top authority news site. Truly an invaluable resource, considering it’s totally free.

6. Hemingway App

Ernest Hemingway was known for his unique writing style. He often kept his prose simple, crisp, and avoided complicated syntax. Wouldn’t it be great if you could send your content draft to Ernest Hemingway for a quick check before posting it online? Since that is impossible, the next best thing to do would be to use Hemingway App.

Hemingway App tests the readability of your content and suggests changes where your writing is too dense.

To use it, simply paste your text, and the tool will indicate your mistakes by highlighting them in different colors (yellow and red). With Hemingway App, you can tighten up your prose, clear the highlights, and then share your work with your audience.

7. Buffer

Content marketing is ineffective when not used in conjunction with social media. When it comes to scheduling content across different social media channels, Buffer is a must-have tool in your toolkit.

It allows you to connect all your major social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and more recently, Instagram) and manage them from one place.

The best feature of Buffer is that you can schedule posts to be shared ahead of time. Once you set a schedule, you can add posts to your queue.

With a tool like Buffer on your side, sharing content on social media is fast, easy, and effective.

Over to you

Hopefully, after reviewing these 7 content marketing tools, you have a fair idea which ones are the right fit to your current requirement.

Have you used any of these tools in the past? Which are your favorite and essential content marketing tools? Please let us bees from the hive know in the comments section.