Content marketing and its many moving parts become increasingly harder to manage every year. New content formats emerge alongside new trends in the industry. More competitors start content marketing, which means marketers need to continually up their game. But with the right content marketing tools, managing your strategy gets a little easier.
This comprehensive guide covers the ins and outs of content marketing tools. Discover why you need them, how they work, and most importantly, which tools you should add to your toolkit in 2024.
Table of Contents:
What Are the Best Content Marketing Tools for 2024?
Why Are Content Marketing Tools Important?
How Do Content Marketing Tools Work?
How to Choose Content Marketing Tools
What Should Be in Your Content Marketing Toolkit?
What Are the Best Content Marketing Tools for 2024?
Everyone knows that Google Analytics is a must-have tool. And not every brand can build its own enterprise-grade marketing software from scratch. So, what else do marketing teams need to bring their content ideas to life?
We’ve done some of the research for you to help you enter 2024 as an informed and prepared content marketer. Check out some of our favorite content marketing software and start putting them to work in your strategy:
Meltwater - Social Media Publishing & Analytics
Meltwater - Competitive Analysis
BuzzSumo - Get real-time insights
Canva - Create custom visuals
Trello - Keep track of your projects
GetResponse - Marketing automation
Visme - Content creation and design
Meltwater - Social Media Publishing & Analytics
An alternative to Hootsuite, Meltwater's Social Media Publishing feature within the Meltwater Social Media Management solution simplifies your social media scheduling and community management.
Part editorial calendar part social media publisher, you can use Meltwater to plan, execute, and track your campaigns.
- Get approval for every workflow from everyone on your team.
- Engage with your audience.
- Get post ideas and optimization tips before you go live.
This feature-rich tool packs so much value.
Meltwater - Competitive Analysis
Creating content is about giving your audience something they want or need as well as always being ahead of your competition. With Meltwater’s Competitive Analysis reporting within the our Media Intelligence solution Suite, you can gain an edge on your competitors by benchmarking your performance.
See exactly how you’re delivering value to your audience in relation to your competition. Then, be the first to jump on industry trends to maintain your edge and create a sustainable competitive advantage.
BuzzSumo - Get real-time insights
BuzzSumo isn’t a new tool by any means, but it continues to be one of the most reliable in finding trending topics. The app scours the web in search of what people are talking about and what content is performing well at the moment. You can use this real-time insight to create your own content that has a better chance of getting noticed.
Canva - Create custom visuals
Marketers that want stunning visuals but don’t have designer resources love Canva. This watered-down Photoshop alternative features ready-to-use templates and drag-and-drop editing features. Create custom visuals for blogs, social media posts, infographics, and other content in just minutes.
Trello - Keep track of your projects
To keep your content marketing teams on the same page, Trello makes project management a breeze. Kanban boards and cards can be easily moved based on project timelines, tasks, and team members. Everyone can see at a glance what their roles are, what’s been done, and what’s left to do.
GetResponse - Marketing automation
A powerful yet user-friendly marketing automation platform, GetResponse is like having a whole email department on your team. Create conversion funnels, follow-up emails, landing pages, and more, then put it all on autopilot while staying connected with your customers.
As you’re building up your content marketing suite, keep an eye on the marketing software and tools you already have. Tools that once served a purpose may not always do so. And, as new and better tools come along, it could be worthwhile to change up your approach to get even more from your investment.
Visme - Content creation and design
Visme is an all-in-one content creation and design tool that helps non-professional designers and marketers scale their content marketing efforts. Powered by AI, it helps marketers turn ideas into stunning visuals, including graphics, animations, presentations, forms, landing pages, etc. Whether you are creating social media graphics or designing wireframes and prototypes, Visme simplifies the process with easy drag-and-drop options and fully customizable templates.
Visme’s powerful AI features help you create and market visual content for your website, social media, newsletter, etc. Through Visme's calendar, you can schedule content for your social media platforms.
Why Are Content Marketing Tools Important?
Content marketing tools aren’t a replacement for a solid strategy. Still, they can help lighten the workload and reduce the guesswork involved.
In 2024, we anticipate content marketing tools to become more important than ever. When content marketing was only a practice of best-in-class brands, results were easier to come by. For many, that’s no longer the case.
Everyone from small businesses to solopreneurs and corporations is creating content. In fact, surveys have found that 70% of marketers are actively investing in content, while 42% of companies have a team of 1-3 content specialists.
One of the defining differences between brands that do content marketing really well and those that spin their wheels is their approach. Great content isn’t just well-written, but also trendy, informative, engaging, and optimized for search.
Adding all of these layers takes a lot of extra time and effort. Good content marketing services and tools can help simplify and enhance the process.
How Do Content Marketing Tools Work?
Content marketing “tools” are loosely defined as any mechanism that supports or enables content marketing, content creation, or developing a content marketing strategy. This might take the form of technology, such as a content marketing platform. Or, it might be specific types of content, such as a blog post or video.
Various point vendors (tools that only support a single task) are usually combined in a content strategy. For example, a content marketing campaign might include several pieces of content with calls-to-action, chatbots to help with customer service, and analytics to gauge your impact.
If you’re investing in professional content marketing services, you’ll notice many of these tools are part of the process. Many agencies will offer an all-in-one content marketing platform that handles everything from ideation to execution to analytics.
But if you’re handling your content marketing strategy in-house, you’ll need to create your own toolkit. This means hiring key personnel, such as a social media manager, copywriter, content creators, and a digital marketer, for example. Plus, you will need to choose the best content marketing software to power your strategy.
How to Choose Content Marketing Tools
Selecting content marketing tools can be tricky for many organizations — especially when you factor in budgetary constraints. That's why it’s important to explore your options and figure out what your content marketing strategy really needs and what will give you the most ROI.
Once you know the end goal, you can work backward to figure out what belongs in your toolkit. And if your budget allows, you may even have lots of goals for your content!
Our best advice: Take advantage of free trials. A lot of content marketing solutions will offer a free test drive of a platform, automation feature, or specific tool. Get a feel for how it works, what it’s designed to do, and how it will help you move forward.
Want to increase ROI through content marketing?
Regardless of your budget, content tool selection should be viewed through a lens of ROI. And to figure this out, you first need to set clear expectations from your content marketing.
Want to build trust and authority through content marketing?
Why create content in the first place? Is it to build trust and authority? If so, then you might benefit from a social listening solution and a consumer intelligence tool to see how people already feel about your brand. You might also pour more resources into PR for brand awareness and to shape consumer sentiments.
Tip: Take a look at the best brand management software, platforms, and tools on the market.
Want to increase your search rankings through SEO content marketing?
Do you want to increase your search rankings? If so, then you should focus on SEO tools that enable keyword research, better copywriting, backlinking, and tracking your performance.
What Should Be in Your Content Marketing Toolkit?
Now, let’s jump into specifics: what tools deserve a spot in your marketing strategy? Let’s look at some broad-level categories:
Purpose-built content marketing software or platform
Specific types of content
Content marketing services for lead generation
Analytics dashboard within your content marketing platform
Marketing automation software
Keyword research tools
Content hub (CMS)
Social media posts: scheduling solution
Editorial calendar
Purpose-built content marketing software or platform
End-to-end content marketing software combines several tools under the same interface. It’s designed to help marketers plan, execute, and track the success of every content marketing campaign.
Many platforms have a lot of the hard stuff already figured out, from how to create a workflow to how to audit your campaigns. Plus, all of the tools within the platform are designed to work together seamlessly.
If you use a content marketing service in form of an agency, you will likely have access to content marketing software. Or, they will use it on your behalf.
Specific types of content
Content is the foundation of any content strategy. How else will your content promotion happen?
The types of digital marketing content may vary depending on your target audience, your business, and your goals. Examples of content to consider include:
- White papers for thought-leadership
- Case studies
- Landing pages
- Videos
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Social media posts
Savvy content marketers know how to use one idea to create several pieces of content. For example, if you create a long-form blog post, you could turn sections of that blog post into smaller blogs. Promote each one on social media - voila: you have a social media content idea. Display complex information in a simplified infographic, then add it to the end of your blog post. Then record short videos about each point in the long-form article.
See how quickly and easily you can get more mileage from a single idea?
Tip: Learn how to come up with ideas for content creation
Content marketing services for lead generation
Content for the sake of content won’t help you achieve your end goals, at least not quickly. That’s why many content marketers focus on lead generation content and tools. Ideally, your content will pique interest in a problem that you can solve. Use or other tools to help you keep the conversation going long after the user is done engaging with the content.
Analytics dashboard within your content marketing platform
If you’re not using an end-to-end platform, you will need some form of analytics to track and measure your content marketing metrics. An analytics dashboard analyzes all your most important KPIs, such as
- content reach
- search ranking data
- click-through rates
- conversions
and more.
Marketing automation software
Marketing spending declined in 2023, which also brought about more interest in marketing automation.
AI-powered automation allows marketers to do more with fewer people resources. It’s a useful tool for saving time on repetitive manual tasks. Set up the workflow once and you’re good to go. It’s less prone to human error and will keep working even when you’ve gone home for the day.
Keyword research tools
All the effort you put into content creation is worthless if no one sees it. That’s why keyword research is a driving force behind every content marketing strategy.
Easy-to-use keyword research tools can help you find the best keywords to use in your content. Choose keywords with high search volume, which indicates that people are actively searching for these terms. Then, build your content around those keywords to help you start ranking higher in search.
Content hub (CMS)
A content hub or CMS helps you keep all of your content in one central place. It organizes your assets for your content marketing teams to use. See at a glance the assets available to use, as well as what still needs to be created for your campaigns.
Social media posts: scheduling solution
Whether you’re just on Facebook or have a strategy across several platforms, social media posts can help you stretch your content marketing even further. Use it as an outlet to publish your blogs and drive traffic back to your website. Or, create social-first content for each platform and audience for specific campaign goals.
Tip: of the Meltwater social publishing solution to automate this process.
Editorial calendar
Your editorial calendar is the anchor of your entire content strategy. It's a time-saving content marketing tool that removes a lot of the guesswork for your content creators. Use it to plan your content and events so you always know what you’re creating and sharing next.
Tip: We have created a free annual content calendar template for you to download along with a blog post about how to create a social media content calendar.
When you're looking for a content marketing tool put some focus on the editorial calendar as a feature. Content marketing services like Meltwater have built-in calendars in their social media publishing sections that let you schedule your posts around your content in advance - combine a calendar like this with your content planning.
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