64 Tools to Improve Your Content Ma

64 Tools to Improve Your Content Marketing Campaigns
26th June 2014 by Matthew Barby
64 Content Marketing Tools
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I spend a large chunk of my time researching, creating and promoting content. As a result, I’ve found and used a load of tools and services to improve the results and streamline the processes involved.

Being the generous bloke that I am, I’m going to share these with you!

The list will be broken down into three sections:

Idea generation and planning
Content creation
Content promotion
I’m not affiliated with any of these tools, but I’ve used all of the tools listed at least once (so they have my seal of approval). You don’t need to be using all of them but I’m sure you’ll find some gems within this list.

Idea Generation and Planning Tools

Instant.ly - on-demand consumer insights from all over the world.

Feedly - RSS reader for storing a feed of all the best blogs within your niche. There’s a great mobile app as well.

Visual.ly - my favourite library of infographics. This is perfect for getting some creative inspiration.

Consumer Barometer - a project created by Google that gives free consumer insights across a whole range of sectors.

Trello - free project management suite that’s great for organising content from multiple authors.

Basecamp - my favourite project management platform that’s incredibly simple to use and can save you a ton of time.

Pocket - save content to read for later with Pocket. Seriously helpful when you haven’t got a lot of free time.

Evernote - organise all of your campaigns and have a central location to store your ideas.

NerdyData - source code search engine (great for data analysis to go into your content).

Quantcast - gather stats on millions of websites.

Balsamiq - easy-to-use design wireframing software.

Contently - collaborative content platform full to the brim with great ideas.

Yutongo - crowdsourced brainstorming and ideas platform.

Google Public Data Explorer - tons of stats and data on all kinds of things!

BuzzSumo - content analysis tool that can give you endless ideas for new content.

Survey Monkey - great tool to run polls and surveys.

Qualaroo - get insights from your website visitors to understand what they want to see from you.

Dribbble - huge amounts of creative inspiration from designers the world over.

Worldometers - real time world statistics.

Content Creation Tools

99designs - huge base of designers that can create all kinds of content for you on a budget.

48hourslogo - design content community. Tell them what you want, say how much you’ll pay and watch as designers bid to work with you.

Grammarly - make srue you don’t have any speling mistackes with Grammarly.

This proofreading gig on Fiverr - this guy is the only reason why any of my content is legible.

Google Fusion Tables - create interactive charts and tables for free.

SlideShare - create and promote online slide shows.

Speechpad - speech to text and video transcriptions (really cost effective).

Infogr.am - simply to use, free infographic creation tool.

PiktoChart - create your own infographics, reports and presentations.

ReciteThis - turn a simple quote into a beatiful-looking image.

Pinwords - overlay text to your images for sharing on Pinterest. Simple, but very effective tool.

Kuler - fantastic colour wheel tool from Adobe. Find which colour work within your designs and create your own colour palette. This is particularly useful when writing up design briefs.

Pressbooks - turn your content into an online book that’s ready to go into Apple’s iBook store, the Kindle store and many more.

Hype My Hangout - create cool Google+ videos to promote your content.

Writtent - hire good quality content writers to produce content for you.

Guides.io - create interactive step-by-step guides.

crowdSPRING - design marketplace to et all kinds of content created.

TagCrowd - create simple word clouds from any text.

Camtasia - screen recording and video editing suite (I use this for my video tutorials).

LICEcap - free software for creating animated gif images.

Resize.it - resize and crop any image.

Print Friendly - turn any webpage into a compressed PDF. This is perfect for when you offer a PDF download of your content.

PunchTab - competition/giveaway platform.

Rafflecopter - another competition/giveaway platform.

Swiftly - cost-effective, small design jobs.

Content Promotion Tools

Wisestamp - custom email signatures that allow you to insert a link to your latest blog post (it pulls in automatically from your RSS feed).

Social Locker plugin for WordPress - allow users to access locked content in return for sharing your article via social media.

MailChimp - email marketing software.

Buffer - social media sharing tool. This is probably in my top 3 most important tools.

BuzzStream - intelligent blogger outreach tool that has tons more features for getting your content seen.

ResponseSource - UK-focused journalist enquiry service.

HARO - connect with journalists and bloggers.

PitchBox - prospecting, outreach and relationship-building platform.

Muck Rack - tool for connecting with journalists and bloggers via social media.

Reddit Advertising - Reddit’s advertising service.

StumbleUpon Paid Discovery - StumbleUpon’s paid advertising platform.

TubeAssist - automated YouTube marketing tool.

IFTTT - connect tons of different tools together to work smarter and more efficiently.

Followerwonk - Twitter analytics and prospecting tool.

Sprout Social - integrated social media management software.

Outbrain - paid content delivery network.

Image Raider - reverse image search engine. Find who’s using your images.

Pinstamatic - Pinterest marketing tool.

Boomerang for Gmail - free app for Gmail to schedule email sending an automate follow-ups. This is a must for anyone serious about outreach.

If you’ve got any awesome tools that you think should be on this list then let me know in the comments below. I’m always keen to find and test new tools!


About Matthew Barby
Matthew Barby is a digital marketing consultant from the UK. You can get in touch with Matt via Twitter or Google+.