Top 10 Free Tools for Content Marketing

Content marketing is on demand. More and more business is investing into this marketing strategy because it simply works and provides high ROI. According to a CMI research, B2B companies are spending 28% of their total marketing budget on content marketing and 76% are going to publish more content in 2016.

Know more about: Content Marketing!

But as it is in demand, executing and making it successful is a challenging job. If you have no solid plan and right tools, then you most probably will lose the game. Below is the list of top 10 free tools that can help you to make your content marketing process smooth and fast.

Top 10 Free Tools for Content Marketing

1. Trello

Used for: project management

Content marketing is a team work. And to run a team, you need a system where you can manage team members, set tasks, due dates, make discussion and much more.

Trello is a web-based project management application that can help you to direct your content marketing plan. For every project, you can create a board and list down everything related to that project up there.

With a basic free version, you can do:

• Create unlimited boards, list, cards, attachments etc.
• Basic power-ups feature like calendar, card aging, and voting.
• Add new members to the board
• Assigning task

and more

Another alternative of Trello is kanbanchi.

2. Hubspot Blog Topic Generator

Used for: generating post ideas

Generating post ideas with promising headlines always become a challenge. According to a research, producing content consistently is one of the major challenges in content marketing for B2B companies. Though, it is better to research, brainstorm and generate post ideas beforehand. But if you have nothing, then this tool is a lifesaver.

Hubspot blog topic generator is an online application – or says an algorithm – that will suggest you post headlines based on your given keywords. You just need to enter 3 nouns related to your niche and click the button. You’ll get 5 headlines enough for the whole week. If required, tweak them a little bit and make them more promising.

Other similar tools are Portent title maker tool, tweakyourbizz title generator, and seopressor blog title generator.

3. Google

Used for: researching

Researching is an inevitable and important part of content marketing. You do keyword research; find related stats, new studies, top related articles and much more. That’s how you can make you post outstanding. And there is nothing better than Google for online research.

If you know how to use advanced search operators of google, then most of your research can be done through Google.

With Google you can:

• Search academic studies in google scholar
• Search in a specific website using site: operator
• Search specific title using intitle: operator
• Search related articles using related: operator

and much, much more.

For a complete list of operators, read this guide.

4. Hemingway App

Used for: editing

Best pieces are not written. They are the result of editing. The bad news is that there is no perfect editing software, but some good ones are available. Hemingway’s online interface is one of them.

Hemingway app is an online application that can help you to make your post simple, clear, and easy to consume.

Using Hemingway, you can:

• Improve your post readability score
• Identify and eliminate long and complex sentences
• Remove unwanted adverbs
• Identify passive voice and turn it into active voice

and more

5. Word2CleanHTML

Used for: clean HTML

Writing in a word, doc, or any other application put extra styles and tags into your document. Copy your content to the editor and then removing those extra styles and tags is a hectic process.

Word2CleanHTML is an online application that clean up your document and give you a clean html. You just need to copy your content to the editor, click the button and done.

Using Word2CleanHTML, you can:

• Remove unwanted tags and styles
• Change <b> tag to <strong> tag
• Change <i> tag to <em> tag
• Remove empty paragraphs

and more

6. Easel.ly

Used for: generating infographics

Infographics are best for attracting social share and back-links. More and more marketers are using this content type to get a viral post. But the problem is with designing the infographic post. It is expensive and time-consuming.

Easely is a simple web tool to create professional infographics using drag and drop technology. You can create a powerful infographics within few minutes using its free icons and images.

With basic free version of Easely, you can:

• Use 60 free images
• Add freely available objects
• Use 10 fonts available for free
• Add free shapes and charts

and more

7. Canva

Used for: designing

To make your article appealing, you need something more than words. Designing is an important part in content marketing. It holds your readers and make your long articles easy to consume. You can say thousands of words, without even writing them, through a picture.

Canva is an online graphic design software you can use to create beautiful graphics, presentation, covers and more. It provides drag and drop facility and have thousands of free icons and layouts.

With Canva you can:

• Create new images
• Crop images
• Add text to your photos
• Enhance your photos
• Add icons to the image

and much more.

8. Skitch

Used for: taking screenshots

Every then and now, you need to take screenshots to make your points clear. Though there are many screenshots taking software in the market, but either they are paid or complicated.

Skitch is an Evernote product for taking screenshots. It is simple and just do what it needs to do.

With Skitch you can:

• Take screenshots
• Annotate them using shapes
• Censor personal information
• Save screenshot to Evernote account

9. MailChimp

Used for: Sending emails

If you want to reach to your audience through emails, then you need a smart emailing system. A system that can handle all your contacts, send your messages with beautiful email templates, and tell you about the response.

MailChimp is an online email marketing service having more than 9 million users. If email marketing is in your list, then you should try this tool. You can save a lot of time by automating the process and result become more positive.

With the free starting up plan, you can:

• Use built-in templates or create a new one
• Grow your email list using free signup forms
• Send 12,000 email per month
• Get free reports and data insight

10. Buffer

Used for: handling social media accounts

Being a content marketer, you need to share post and updates on social media frequently. Mostly multiple times in a day. It would be a painful process if you have to sign-in every time you want to share something.

Buffer is an application that can help you to handle your multiple social accounts from a single window. With having more than a million users, buffer is one of the top social media management application.

With the basic version you can:

• Add Twitter, Facebook, Google plus and LinkedIn accounts
• Schedule your post
• Share any page on Internet (using a browser addon)
• See basic reports and analytics of your post engagement

I hope these tools will help to speed up as well as the quality of your content marketing. Let me know what tools you’re using and share you experience if you’re using any mentioned above.

Article contributed by Munender Singh, a freelance writer and blogger. Click here to hire him.