As a content marketing agency, we need to deliver damn good content that helps clients crush their KPIs. To do this, we use some of the best content creation tools out there to get results and do marketing better.
While tools aren’t drivers of a great content marketing strategy, having the right ones can make your life a lot easier, speed up processes, and help your campaigns succeed.
To help you discover the best tools out there, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best content creation tools for different types and stages of content creation.
We’ll dive into content creation tools that’ll help you:
The best tools to nail research
Every successful content marketing campaign starts with thorough research.
You need to know what your audiences are consuming, where they’re consuming it, what stage of the funnel they’re at, and what solutions they need.
You also need research to create content that meets Google’s E-E-A-T standards.
Fortunately, you’re not stuck with just a good old Google search to get the learnings you need. Here are some great research tools that can give you deep insight into what direction to take.
1. Semrush
Semrush is one of the leading keyword tools for content creation. It’s a highly comprehensive SEO tool that’s also pretty easy to use.
With Semrush’s organic research, keyword magic, and topic research tools, you can generate a ton of content ideas and even take inspiration from what your competitors are doing.
Bonus: Other paid SEO keyword research tools you can look at are Ahrefs, Buzzsumo, and Moz. There are also free but limited tools like Google Search Console and Google Keyword Planner that you can explore.
Stop building links. Start building trust. Go inbound!
2. AlsoAsked
Ever seen Google’s ‘People also ask’ box? It’s a great way to get a nearly unlimited number of queries related to your target keywords.
AlsoAsked.com simplifies this process by collecting data from ‘People also ask’ and creating visual query maps.
For example, if you type in ‘SEO’ as a keyword, you’ll find what else people want to know about SEO.
Based on the map you see, you can do extensive keyword research to find out search volumes and ranking difficulty. You can then get fresh content ideas that drive traffic.
Bonus: Answer the Public is also a fantastic tool you can use to get similar results, though you’ll need to pay to get unlimited searches.
3. Google Trends
A very valuable and free research tool is Google Trends.
One of the ways you can use Google Trends is to observe upward and downward search trends. For example, let’s compare trends for some of ContentNinja’s services.
We find that over a five-year period, relative interest has remained largely stable, with a slight increase from 2020 onward. This means interest is consistent and not time-based, and it may be worth creating content around these buckets.
Another way to use Google Trends is to find and download related queries for certain keywords.
E.g. for the query ‘inbound marketing,’ these are some related queries that are popular or are seeing a big increase in search frequency. Lots of content ideas to explore here.
Google Trends also helps you capitalize on what’s currently trending. Check the ‘Trending Searches’ section to see if there are topics you can create content around that’ll be relevant to your audience and business.
Bonus: You can even compare how your search terms are faring on YouTube. You can then dive into related queries and topics and create a list of topics you can potentially make video content around.
Also Read: How to Use Google Trends for SEO
4. ChatGPT
While Google search is still going to be one of the major ways you conduct research, another brilliant way to get content ideas and topic angles is through ChatGPT.
For instance, say you want to create content around the role AI can play in marketing. By asking ChatGPT relevant questions, you can find ideas that you can then explore further.
You’ll still have to go back to Google and subject matter experts to ensure that your research is accurate and coherent, but ChatGPT can give you a good starting point.
As tempting as it may seem, please don’t try and get entire articles written by ChatGPT. You’ll get a coherent outcome, but this content is likely to be very boring and won’t really have the valuable insights your audience is looking for.
Bonus: Try using ChatGPT to find analogies you can use to explain concepts to a five-year-old. You can even use paid AI writing tools like Jasper and Rytr to find content ideas and inspiration.
Content creation tools to write great stuff
Text is a core component of most content marketing strategies. After all, it’s what helps you rank on search engines.
To create content that adds value and drives conversions, you need content writing tools that get the job done right.
Here are some of our favorite content creation tools that are easy to use and help you create phenomenal content.
5. Google Docs
As a content marketing agency, Google Docs is one of our most loved and most used content writing tools.
Google Docs makes content writing and collaboration very easy. But its features are what we’re most impressed by.
For instance, did you know Google Docs has a multilingual voice typing feature that even lets you add punctuation marks very easily?
You can even create custom formatting and templates, use keyword shortcuts to speed things up, integrate add-ons, translate content, and do much more.
Bonus: You can also use Hemingway Editor to write and edit blogs. What makes Hemingway one of the best content writing tools is its ability to actively help you write better by color-coding writing issues, identifying areas for simpler writing, correcting grammar mistakes, and more.
6. Grammarly
Grammarly is one of the best freemium content creation tools that you can have in your toolkit.
We are huge Grammarly fans and use it to create grammatically correct and authentic content with just the right tonality.
Grammarly is often seen as only a writing tool to correct grammar and punctuation. But you can do so much more with it.
You can rephrase sentences to make them more logically coherent and succinct. You can also adjust your writing tone, run plagiarism checks, collaborate within teams, and create custom style guides.
Bonus: While the free version is pretty good, Grammarly Premium’s advanced features can prove very valuable in the content creation process.
Also Read: Top 5 Online Paraphrasing Tools to Make Your Content Unique
7. Headline Analyzer
CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer is a great tool for creating kickass headlines that attract readers.
For example, one of the proposed titles for this blog was ‘Essential Content Creation Tools for Marketers.’
We entered the title into Headline Analyzer, which then scored our headline in terms of effectiveness and SEO. It also displayed a detailed analysis of how the title can be improved.
A good practice to get the most out of this tool is testing 4-5 headline variations to see what’s likely to work best.
Bonus: MonsterInsights’ headline analyzer is also a great tool to perfect your blog titles. The tool also shows you word banks across categories to help you come up with a killer headline that gets clicked.
8. Revoldiv
Ever sat through hours transcribing a podcast, interview, or webinar for content repurposing? With Revoldiv, you don’t have to.
Revoldiv is a free AI content creation tool that converts audio into text quickly and accurately. You can then extract the juicy bits from a transcript and convert it into a blog or social media post.
Here’s the transcript of a short video we made around Google’s featured snippets. It took about 5 minutes to transcribe the 60-second video, and the output was accurate.
Bonus: Otter.ai is also a great but freemium AI transcription tool that can make transcribing audio and videos much faster.
Content creation tools for captivating visuals
Marketers work closely with designers to attract and engage audiences with stunning visuals.
But not every marketing team has design support. And teams that do can be stuck managing briefs and designer bandwidth to execute even small changes.
So, why not speed things up and get some of it done yourself? Here are some fantastic design tools to get you started.
9. Canva
Canva is one of the most popular graphic design tools for marketers. That’s because its free version offers a great number of functionalities, and it’s super simple to use.
You can create infographics, social media creatives, video thumbnails, newsletters, logos, reports, and a lot of other visuals to tie your content together.
Canva also has a vast stock photo library and many design elements to play with, including a massive range of fonts. You can even upload your own content and collaborate with others on the platform.
Bonus: Adobe Express is another useful graphic design tool that you can use to get a lot of design work done quickly, like creating video thumbnails and removing backgrounds from images.
Must Read: 17 Graphic Designing Tools to Ease Your Work
10. Freepik
Need high-resolution stock photos and vector graphics? Find it on Freepik.
Freepik gives you a wide range of high-quality images and illustrations to choose from and add to your creatives. You can even download 3D models, backgrounds and textures, and fonts.
Freepik also has a huge collection of templates for different types of creatives.
Bonus: Unsplash and Pexels are two other fantastic tools to get stock photos. For vector images, you can use VectorStock or Pixabay. You can also use Flaticon to get free icons, symbols, and stickers for your creatives.
11. Photopea
Photopea is an amazing and completely free online editor that supports PSD, XCF, XD, Sketch, and CDR file formats. It’s basically a slightly limited alternative to Adobe Photoshop that can be used on any browser or desktop.
If you’re not used to Photoshop, there can be quite a learning curve, but the platform has a simple UI and is frequently updated by the developers.
A downside here is that because the software is free, there are display ads that run on the page, which can be a little distracting.
12. Datawrapper
If you’re creating content that has a lot of numbers and statistics, don’t just stick to text; visualize data to condense information into a format that’s more easily understood.
A free tool that can help you visualize data is Datawrapper. With Datawrapper, you can create different types of charts, graphs, and tables in a static or responsive format.
You can even customize your graphs and charts as you like and add supporting content that adds context to data.
Bonus: Piktochart and Infogram are other great data visualization tools that can take your content to the next level. Infogram is particularly impressive and has many readymade templates you can work with.
13. Lunacy
Lunacy is a terrific design tool that’s great for even advanced levels of UI, UX, and vector graphic design. It’s free for personal and commercial use and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
As content creation tools for marketers go, Lunacy can be a little advanced for those who don’t have a lot of professional experience with design.
Bonus: Penpot is a free alternative to Lunacy and is a fantastic design tool. Sketch and Figma are two popular paid alternatives to Lunacy and are used by professional designers.
Content creation tools for outstanding videos
Most brands winning the customer acquisition and engagement game are investing in video marketing.
Why? Because if done right, videos can drive engagement and conversions and deliver ROI far better than other channels. In fact, about 83% of marketers generate leads with video content.
Producing great video content doesn’t necessarily need professional editors working behind the scenes. Marketers can use video content creation tools and get the simpler stuff done themselves.
Here are some free and paid video editing tools to get started.
14. InShot
Need an easy-to-use but feature-rich video editor that doesn’t leave a watermark? You’ll want to try the InShot video editing app.
InShot lets you upload and stitch videos to make them look a lot more professional. Check out this video on ‘Pillar Pages’ that we made on InShot.
You can upload and edit videos of any dimension, add graphics and animations, slow down or speed up the runtime, overlay video clips, and images, and add funky effects that make your videos stand out.
You can also download videos at different frame rates and resolutions.
Bonus: ShotCut and HitFilm Express are other free video editing software that can be used on desktops.
15. Veed.io
Veed.io is a freemium video editing tool that you can use for a lot of basic editing work and adding music, photos, clips, and effects to videos.
A very useful function of the Veed.io tool is as a subtitle generator. The platform use AI to automatically add subtitles to your videos. You can also convert audio and video to text.
Veed.io also lets you record videos and convert them into other formats. There’s also a teleprompter feature that can come in handy while reading scripts.
16. DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is a brilliant and free video editing software that marketers can use as an alternative to Adobe Premier Pro.
The software combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio post-production.
DaVinci Resolve does have quite a learning curve and is best suited for marketers who have advanced video editing requirements.
You can always learn how to use the software with tutorials on Blackmagic Design’s YouTube channel.
What’s next?
You’ve found a comprehensive list of content creation tools. But what do you do with it? How do you know what tools you need to start using?
First, prioritize your marketing activities. What’s something you want to get started with immediately, and what can wait?
Then, create a budget. A lot of the tools we’ve mentioned are free, but many of them follow a freemium pricing model—you’ll need to pay to access the juicier features. Here, it’s worth remembering that not every free tool out there can do as good a job as a paid tool.
Once you have a priority list and a budget, you can start exploring relevant tools and their alternatives. Compare pricing plans, read reviews, and explore learning repositories and communities.
Then, shortlist the tools you want to use, and you’re good to go!
Content marketing is tough. But you don’t have to do it alone. Get help from the Ninjas!
