Keyword research. Topic research. Content Outlining. Editing. Image creation. Distribution. As a content marketer, delivering value to your audience can be time-consuming and daunting.
Content marketing tools help you automate tasks, collaborate with your team, and improve productivity and performance.
But choosing the right content tools can be challenging, especially with so many options available. In this article, we’ll explore 19 essential content marketing tools to help supercharge your content strategy in 2023.
The importance of content marketing in 2023
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness, generate authority in your space, and drive more qualified leads.
“Content marketing is a unique opportunity to impact brand and performance—while serving as the flywheel for the organization. Content gives everyone something to say,” Tracey Wallace, Director of Content Strategy at Klaviyo, told us earlier this month. “It’s both strategy and service, both brand building and lead generating, both top of funnel and bottom.”
But in an uncertain economic environment, companies often reduce their content marketing efforts.
Ashley Cummings, a freelance writer and marketing specialist, believes this is a mistake. “Content marketing keeps your company front and center online,” she told us. “If you let your content efforts slide, your competitors will win. Online consumers can’t buy from you if they can’t find you.”
Today, 70% of customers typically read three or more pieces of content before engaging with a salesperson.
When we spoke with Will Smith, HubSpot Certified Trainer and CRM Expert at IMPACT, he stressed the importance of connecting in ways that your customers find valuable. “Creating your own content gives you options,” he says. “One piece of content can be broken into smaller parts and distributed across multiple channels, reaching more potential customers in the way they prefer to learn and communicate.”
19 Must-have tools to level up your content marketing efforts
Even the most comprehensive marketing strategy can fall flat without the right tech stack. But using the right software, content marketers can save time, enhance collaboration, and optimize content for success.
Let’s look at the best tools available for content creation, SEO optimization, analytics, visuals, and project management.
Content creation
Every successful marketing strategy relies on an efficient content creation process. AI-powered marketing tools—like Jasper—can simplify your content workflow and simultaneously enhance the quality of your output.
1. Jasper
Jasper is a writing assistant powered by natural language processing (NLP) technology. Using over fifty templates, marketing teams can brainstorm and create fresh content for various platforms—including social media content, blog posts, and influencer marketing campaigns.
Top features:
- Creates original SEO-optimized content
- Ensures your content’s tone and voice are appropriate for your target audience
- Includes more than 25 languages
- Produces visuals in seconds with Jasper Art
- Detailed training courses and access to Jasper’s private Facebook community ensure a short learning curve
Cons:
- Content outputs may require editing
Pricing: 5-Day free trial with 10,000 words. Starter plan starts at $29 per month for 20,000 words. Boss Mode starts at $59 per month for 50,000 words.
2. Grammarly
Grammarly is an AI editing tool that checks your content for grammar and punctuation errors. Marketing teams can also use the Goals feature to optimize content for their target audience and content objectives.
Top features:
- Provides suggestions to enhance vocabulary and sentence structure
- Rates every piece for clarity and engagement
- Plagiarism tool scans content to ensure it's 100% original
- Compatible with various platforms, including Google Docs, email, and social media apps
- Grammarly Business enables creation of a style guide
Cons:
- Suggestions can change the meaning of text—users should review all recommendations
Pricing: Free basic plan available. Premium plans start at $12 per month. Business plans start at $15 per member per month.
3. Hemingway App
Image source: Hemingway
The Hemingway App grades your content for readability. The tool highlights words, phrases, and sentences that may affect your readability score.
Top features:
- Reviews your content for sentence complexity, passive voice, and overuse of adverbs
- Easily imports content from Microsoft Word or other writing platforms
- Includes one-click integrations with Medium and WordPress
Cons:
- Free version only works online, and you cannot save your work
- Does not check grammar or punctuation
Pricing: Free online. The Hemingway desktop app can be downloaded and used offline for a one-time cost of $19.99.
4. Feedly
Image source: Feedly
Content marketing requires your team to stay updated on the latest trends. But keeping up with your favorite publications, blogs, Twitter feeds, and newsletters takes time and effort. Feedly’s AI engine, Leo, tracks insights across the web and highlights relevant content.
Top features:
- Find and organize your favorite news sources and publications
- Train Leo to identify insights that matter to your organization
- Easily share articles and insights with your team
- Create a “board” with relevant content
Cons:
- Takes time to set up
Pricing: Free plan for web and mobile. Paid plans start at $6 per month, billed annually.
5. Waldo.fyi
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Image source: Waldo
It takes time to research and find reliable sources for your blog posts. Waldo enables you to scan search results, accelerating your research process.
Top features:
- Skim articles for specific data points or topics without leaving Google Search
- Removes ads for a cleaner search engine experience
Cons:
- Removes some of Google’s features, like “People also ask” or keyword tags
Pricing: Waldo is free.
6. Fireflies.ai
Interviews can supercharge your content with unique insights. Fireflies makes it easy to record, transcribe, and search your interviews.
Top features:
- Record meetings across any web conferencing platform
- Skim transcripts and add comments or highlight specific sections
- Download or embed transcripts into a webpage
- Track conversations around pain points, pricing, and competitors using custom topic trackers
- Create and share soundbite snippets of your calls
Cons:
- Tool is audio only—currently, there is no way to record video
- Transcriptions may need review or editing
- Limited storage with the free version
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $18 per seat per month.
7. Wordtune
Wordtune is an AI sentence rewriter that helps beat writer’s block. Users type or paste a sentence into Wordtune’s editor, and the tool suggests rewriting options. Wordtune also catches spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.
Top features:
- Rewrites content sentence by sentence, or offers suggestions for an entire paragraph
- Provides recommendations in casual and business tones of voice
- Recommends “Smart Synonyms” based on the context of the sentence
- Simultaneously translates and rewrites sentences into English
- Compatible with various platforms, including email, Google Docs, and Microsoft Word
Cons:
- App does not work offline
- Suggestions can alter the meaning of text
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $24.99 per month.
8. Headline Studio by CoSchedule
Image source: Coschedule
Compelling headlines are crucial to attracting readers. Headline Studio by CoSchedule reviews your headline for length, clarity, and tone. The tool then gives you an overall headline score and an SEO score.
Top features:
- Reviews word and character count for SEO
- Suggests improvements such as increasing length or adding power words
- Users can compare all versions of a headline and see which receives the highest score
Cons:
- Limited to 20 different versions for each headline
- Free version does not include an SEO score
- Pricing can be confusing
Pricing: Free plan available. Headline Studio Pro starts at $9 per month for 5 headlines.
SEO and analytics
A robust SEO strategy gives your content marketing efforts visibility, driving traffic and boosting conversions. Here are the best content tools to enhance your SEO campaigns.
9. Semrush
Image source: SEMRush
Semrush is an SEO and market research tool that helps content marketing teams increase organic traffic and search engine real estate. Its advanced features provide data about keyword volume and difficulty, competitors’ search enginge rankings, and link building. You can also use Semrush’s topic research, content audit, and post-tracking functionality to build a more exhaustive content strategy.
Top features:
- End-to-end research and analysis with a suite of more than 55 content marketing tools
- Easy-to-use keyword research tools for those with less experience
- Brand positioning and content performance monitoring with real-time reports
Cons:
- Free version features are limited
- Paid plans can be expensive
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $119.95 per month. Custom plans are also available.
10. Ahrefs
Image source: Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a powerful SEO tool that provides in-depth performance reports and analyzes competitors’ keywords and traffic. Content marketing teams use Ahrefs to discover conversion-focused keywords, optimize content, and audit the performance of published pieces.
Top features:
- Keyword research for over 10 different search engines
- Gap analysis between your brand and competitors
- Content performance analysis, with a detailed estimate of the number of backlinks your content has acquired over a period of time
Cons:
- Expensive pricing
Pricing: Lite, Standard, and Advanced plans start at $99, $199, and $399 per month, respectively. Enterprise pricing starts at $999 per month.
11. Yoast
Yoast is the number one WordPress SEO plugin. The tool enables you to optimize your content for SEO, improve readability, perform technical SEO tasks, and find relevant internal links for your blog posts.
Top features:
- Color indicators highlight where you need improvement, including where to place keywords
- Preview and edit meta descriptions, URL slugs, and social media snippets
- Internal linking suggestions to enhance your content’s discoverability
Cons:
- Could be better at understanding intent—it can be misleading if you’ve written your copy with several variations of the same keyword
- May be overwhelming for beginners
- Free version only allows you to add one focus phrase
Pricing: Free plan available. Yoast SEO Premium is $99 per year.
12. Google Analytics
Image source: Google
Google Analytics tracks your content performance using metrics like session duration, bounce rate, and total number of users. The tool shows which pages receive the most traffic and how many visitors return to your site.
Top features:
- Analyzes conversion rates and marketing campaign effectiveness
- Shares site sessions, page views, average session time, and bounce rate
- Tracks site visits by traffic sources (eg., social media platforms, search engines, and direct visits) and by geography
Cons:
- Does not comply with EU data protection laws
- Only analyzes up to 10 million hits
Pricing: Google Analytics is free.
Visuals
Visual content maximizes engagement and expands the reach of your campaigns. Visual tools, like video, are quickly becoming consumers’ preferred channels. Today, 73% of customers prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product or service.
The following tools will help you create high-quality visual content.
13. Canva
Image source: Canva
Canva is a graphic design tool for creating high-quality images and videos. Its library of over 400,000 templates makes it easy to produce exceptional designs for any content format, from slide decks and logos to flyers and social media posts.
Top features:
- Extensive library of templates
- Cloud-based storage system allows you to access your designs from any device
- Minimal learning curve
- Pro features like the Content Planner and Brand Kit make collaboration easy
Cons:
- Templates can be challenging to customize
Pricing: Free plan available. Canva Pro is $119.99 per year.
14. Vidyard
Image source: Vidyard
Vidyard is a video marketing platform for hosting, publishing, and sharing video content through your website, email, or social media platforms. With Vidyard, content marketers create interactive experiences, boost SEO, and accelerate the buyer journey.
Top features:
- Multiple integrations so people can watch your videos across various platforms
- Video hubs to collect all your content in one place
- Reporting features to understand content performance
- Chrome extension for screen and video recording
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Users cannot mark videos as private
Pricing: Free version available. Paid plans start at $29 per month.
Project management
With so many moving pieces in a content strategy, it’s impossible to see quality results without streamlined planning and production.
Here are a few project management tools to help automate your workflows and improve your collaboration.
15. HubSpot
Image source: HubSpot
HubSpot is a multi-functional customer relationship management tool (CRM). Features like email tracking and social media management enable marketers to put their content marketing efforts on auto-pilot.
Top features:
- One of the most powerful CRMs, with an easy-to-use interface
- All-in-one solution for multiple channels and content formats (e.g., ads, social media, and email)
- Content analytics tools to help you measure success
- Can be integrated into your existing website or used as a content management system
Cons:
- May not be ideal for small businesses
- Additional costs for onboarding services and technical support
- Certain plans do not offer A/B testing
Pricing: Free tools available. Paid plans start at $50 per month.
16. Trello
Image source: Trello
Trello simplifies collaboration within your team. This project management tool enables you to break down large projects into smaller goals and track your progress.
Top features:
- Customizable boards to keep all critical information and files in a single place
- Easily integrates with other tools and automates workflows
- Simple, easy-to-use interface with unique plugins to streamline planning
Cons:
- Free version has limited features
- May not be the best tool for larger-scope projects
- Limited storage options
Pricing: Free plan available. Standard, Premium, and Enterprise plans start at $6 per month, $12.50 per month, and $210 per year, respectively.
17. Airtable
Image source: Airtable
Airtable is a low-code project management platform that makes it easy to build and customize workflows for your team.
Top features:
- Pre-made templates make it easy to get started
- Organize data with custom views like grid, kanban, calendar, or gallery
- Easily integrate your workflow with other applications
Cons:
- Does not include expense management or budgeting tools
- Comment features are limited
- Limited reporting
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $12 per seat per month.
18. HootSuite
Image source: Hootsuite
HootSuite is a social media management platform for scheduling and publishing content across platforms. The tool acts as a shared workspace for your entire team to create, schedule, and track all your posts.
Top features:
- Connects with over 35 social media platforms
- Track, analyze, and spot social media trends in real time
- Easily monitor and compare all your competitors’ content and social media profiles for better insights
Cons:
- Custom URL shorteners are expensive
- Does not provide Facebook insights
- Expensive analytic reports
Pricing: The Professional plan is $49 per month for one user, and the Team plan is $249 per month for three users, billed annually. Business and custom Enterprise pricing are also available.
19. Loom
Image source: Loom
Loom is an async video messaging tool. With Loom, you can record quick videos to update your team and cut down meetings.
Top features:
- Record both your screen and camera
- Easily share videos with your team—viewers don’t need an account
- Interactive features (e.g., emojis and comments) help keep your team connected
Cons:
- Requires internet access to record videos
- Free version has a time limit of five minutes
- Limited editing options
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $15 per creator per month.
Supercharge your 2023 content marketing strategy with Jasper
The best content marketing tools automate processes and free up time, so you can focus on creating valuable content.
Jasper is the AI content marketing platform that helps you brainstorm and deliver both AI writing and AI-generated art that connects with your audience. With over 50 writing templates, Jasper helps you defeat writer’s block and produce content up to 10 times faster.
Sign up today to see how Jasper can help you optimize your content marketing strategy.
