​​Strong content marketing is one of the most important assets any small business can have in this digital age. Creating engaging content that your customers want to read and share builds a brand’s reputation and boost conversion or leads. The only problem is that it can be hard to know where to start when you’re just getting started. After all, there are hundreds of different tools out there designed to make content creation easier.

But before we get into the tools and platforms to try out, let’s first talk about why content marketing is so important in today’s digital world.

What Is Content Marketing — and Why Do We Need It?

One of top ways to promote your business is through content marketing. Content marketing is a strategy that helps businesses connect with their audience through content creation, distribution and promotion. The goal of content marketing is to establish trust, position your business as an industry leader and ultimately drive more traffic to your website (and ideally more sales). One way you can do all of these things is by using one or more content marketing tools. These tools are built specifically for small businesses and organizations looking to implement a successful content marketing strategy.

Top Content Marketing Tools

BuzzSumo

Buzzsumo is a great tool to have in your content marketing arsenal. The tool allows you to search popular keywords so that you can discover new, highly-engaged influencers in a specific industry. Its primary function, however, is identifying top performing content through its content insights feature. 

Simply enter a website URL or keyword into Buzzsumo’s search bar and it will quickly provide you with related topics that are trending across Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. You can then use these insights to generate ideas for your own content creation efforts.

But that’s not all. Buzzsumo also lets you search a database of relevant influencers that you can connect with and build potential partnerships.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a marketing software suite with tons of tools to help you better plan and execute your content marketing strategy. At its core, HubSpot can be used as an all-in-one marketing platform that includes a CRM (customer relationship management), email marketing, SEO tools, social media integration, landing pages and much more. 

HubSpot makes it easier for you to have all of your marketing assets all under one roof — from the content you’re promoting to your customer data. 

Yoast

This handy WordPress plugin makes it easy to write SEO-optimized copy that readers will want to click on. What does the Yoast plugin do? This nifty tool makes sure that your site (WordPress or not) meets the highest SEO standards. And if your site currently isn’t meeting those standards, Yoast will provide you with suggestions on how to best optimize your copy and improve readability.

But Yoast doesn’t stop at WordPress. The tools also offers plugins for Shopify and several other integration options to ensure that no matter which platform you use, you can have access to live SEO help.

WordPress

There’s a reason 43% of websites have been built on WordPress. Bloggers, commerce shop owners, and businesses have all taken advantage of the ease in which you can build a site from the ground up on this platform. But WordPress can do so much more. In addition to offering simple site templates, WordPress also offers thousands of add-ons and SEO tools that allow you to grow your audience and conversion potential exponentially.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a must-have tool for business professionals who need to create and publish content with exceptional grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It helps writers enhance their work by checking over 250 types of errors, including punctuation mistakes, word choice errors, subject-verb agreement issues, and more. Install the plugin and have real-time grammar help right at your fingertips. Grammarly’s free online editor allows users to edit documents in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Anyword

As the term might suggest, strong and successful content marketing takes a lot of, well, content. Creating all of these content assets can take up a lot of time and budget — and for a lot of businesses, taking this time out of their days isn’t an option. That’s where Anyword comes in. Anyword’s AI Copywriting Platform hosts number of different features, including tools that generate blog posts, 

But Anyword goes well beyond just content creation. Anyword’s powerful AI assigns each piece of copy created on the platform a Predictive Performance Score. This grade predicts how well that copy will perform — before you even go live. What does this mean for you? Well, you can now say goodbye to the guesswork when it comes to picking the right copy. Test the AI waters by signing up for their 7-day free trial.

Content Marketing, Made Simple

While it’s true that successful content marketing requires a lot of time and effort, you don’t have to be a pro to get it right. These six tools will help you create engaging content, increase brand awareness, and turn leads into loyal customers.

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