Choosing the best content creation software depends on your objectives. But no matter which tool you choose, it’s now easier than ever before to create engaging original content. Here are some of the best content creation tools for blog posts, articles, videos, and tutorials.
Tools For Content Creation Ideas
All content starts as an idea. But how do you generate those ideas?
As a professional blogger, I use a range of content creation tools to help generate new ideas. They are:
Google Alerts – Every time-specific keyword or phrase is mentioned on news websites, forums, or prominent blogs, you’ll get a notification via email. This is so useful for blog post ideas, and you can specify exactly what type of results you want notifications about, such as news articles on the keyword ‘floods.’
YouTube – If you’re looking for great content creation ideas, YouTube is king. It’s full of brilliant channels that cover niche topics.
Social Media – Social media is great for content creation ideas because it’s full of people asking questions that you can answer through blog posts or videos. You can track the most popular questions on Quora, Reddit, Tumblr, or even Facebook.
Feedly – Feedly is one of my favorite tools for content creation. It’s an RSS feed reader that lets you organize your favorite blogs on a single page, so you can easily find their latest articles to read or base blog posts on. I use Feedly every day to save interesting ideas from the best online sources and consult them when I’m writing blog posts.
Books – Ok, this one isn’t a content creation tool. But since I like to read books that cover niche topics, I thought I’d include it here too. Why? Because reading books is one of the best ways to get new inspiration for blog content. You can find books about your niche at a local bookstore or on Amazon.com, and I love using my Amazon Kindle to read these e-books on the go.
Content Creation Research Tools
The best content creation software is useless without great research. In order to create content that helps your audience, you need to know exactly what topics they want and which questions they’re asking in relation to those topics.
So how do you get this information? There are a few great tools at your disposal for researching the most popular content ideas on the web.
Google Searches – Before creating a blog post, search for your keyword phrase in Google and see if any of the results are similar to what you’d like to write on. If so, go read those articles too-they’ll give you great ideas for how best to structure your own content.
Google Trends – Google Trends allows you to enter a keyword and see how popular it is at the moment and compare this to previous times. This is useful for identifying current trends you can write about as well as the rising popularity of past trends that may be making a comeback.
Ahrefs – Ahrefs is a keyword research tool, but it also allows you to see the most shared articles from a website. You can also use their ‘ Content Explorer tool, which shows you the most popular content on the web by category, including social shares. This is an excellent way to research topics and see what people are reading online currently.
Frase – Frase will analyze the top 20 pages of Google and show you how the best-performing content is structured. It’s great for creating content that is well-structured because it identifies what people like to see when they read an article.
MarketMuse – MarketMuse is a good SEO tool. Just type in a keyword and see which topics are related. It’s not as comprehensive as Ahrefs, but it gives you the ability to see which keywords are trending now, which is crucial for content creation. I use it to analyze my content to make sure I include the right keywords.
BuzzSumo – BuzzSumo is a content creation tool that allows you to find the most popular articles based on social media shares and links. This makes it great to find blog post ideas or even base entire articles around the most popular posts about a given topic.
Stock Image Resources
Your written content won’t be very effective if the right visual content does not accompany it. Images help to convey ideas more effectively, and they are vital for social media. It’s much easier to build your blog into something beautiful with great photos instead of simply using default text.
Here are a few places you can find great stock images:
iStockphoto – iStockphoto is the most popular stock image site online. They have an entire section just for bloggers on their website where you can find free and paid images.
Flickr – Flickr has a great search feature that lets you filter your results based on the type of license that you’re looking for. You can also use their advanced search to narrow down your results by category and size. Pay careful attention to the license for each image; some fall under Creative Commons.
Pixabay – Pixabay has a great search engine that makes it easy to locate high-quality photos that are free for use in blog posts. It’s great for people who want to create blog posts but don’t have a lot of cash on hand for paid images.
Unsplash – Unsplash allows you to browse their collection of free images based on the time they were uploaded. This is a quick way to determine which images are most relevant for your topic based on popularity and general appeal.
Pexels – Pexels is a newer stock photo website that offers free images with no copyright restrictions. You even get to use the name of the photographer if you decide to include their name in your post.
Image Creations Tools
Here are a few tools that make it easy to create visually appealing images with little effort.
Canva – I use Canva’s premade templates whenever I’m just looking for something simple and quick. It has hundreds of free templates that you can edit or swap out for your own photos and content.
Snappa – Snappa makes it easy to create professional-looking images without any design skills. You just need a picture of yourself or an object, and Snappa will do the rest.
PicMonkey – PicMonkey has a bit less functionality than Canva, but it’s still great for simple image creation. It also lets you access their premium features at a one-time fee.
Content Writing Software
These content creation tools make it easy to write original blog content without the headaches associated with using an editor or having to switch between several different apps.
Google Docs – Google docs is my favorite tool for writing blog articles and books. I can manage all of my documents from a single location, and I always have access regardless of whether I’m on my computer, phone, or tablet.
It also has great collaboration features that make it easy to share work with other people in real-time. What’s awesome about this tool is its ability to turn everything into an easily readable pdf at the push of a button. You can even use their instant scanner to turn printed text into editable digital content.
Grammarly – Grammarly is an online grammar checking tool that will check your spelling and grammar as you write a post. It also lets you know how complicated your writing is so you can ensure you’re using simple language. This
is a great tool for making sure your writing remains reader-friendly.
Write or Die – Write or Die is an online writing tool that features different modes to help you complete your tasks more efficiently. When I’m just looking to jot down ideas, it’s nice to have the freedom of being able to write without worrying about punctuation and grammar mistakes.
Once I’ve finished brainstorming, I can switch over and use their time-based system, which will ensure my writing gets done in a timely manner.
Video Creation Tools
Videos are becoming more popular than ever, and they have proven to be very effective in generating traffic for blogs. Not only do videos make it easier for people to understand the subject matter, but they are much more engaging than plain text alone.
One could argue that adding a video to a blog post increases its value because of the way it helps readers understand and retain information.
Most people aren’t going to read through hundreds of words of the how-to post. However, if you break that same content into a video format, people will take the time to watch it because they are able to retain the information better than reading through a plain-text article.
Magisto – Magisto is a popular tool for creating videos quickly and easily. Their software also auto-uploads the video, so all you need to do is send the link out in an email or on social media.
Screenflow – Screenflow is a bit more complex than Magisto, but it has awesome features, including split-screen recording, zoom tools, volume adjustments, and much more! This is important when you’re creating how-to videos.
Camtasia – Camtasia is another awesome screen and video recording tool. This is a great program for editing and adding music to your videos. It’s also really easy to add text boxes and drawings on top of your footage to make it more visually engaging.
Open Broadcaster Software – OBS is open-source software that you can use to stream live video via platforms such as YouTube and TwitchTV. It’s also compatible with other services like Screenflow, so it becomes easy to record, edit and upload your videos in one place!
Audacity – Ok, while this isn’t video creation software, it’s a good one to know. Audacity is a free tool for recording your own voice and editing it like you would with any other audio file. It offers different features such as muting, noise removal, and much more. This is an old classic that I still use to this day because of its simplicity and power.
Podcasting Software
Podcasting is a great way to connect with people on a more personal level. It’s like having your own radio show, but you can also publish it as a video if you want!
There are plenty of tools out there for both audio and video podcasting, so I’d recommend finding the one that suits your needs. However, here are some of my favorites:
iTunes Podcasts – This is Apple’s free software specifically made for creating and publishing podcasts. While you can now upload podcasts directly from Audacity (see above), iTunes does have an interface that makes it easier to manage your content while keeping track of ratings and reviews.
Garageband – GarageBand comes pre-installed on all Mac computers and is my favorite podcasting software. It’s very easy to use and has plenty of features for creating your audio podcasts.
Lybsin – Lybsin is podcast hosting software that makes it easier to distribute your podcasts. You have to upload the file and then copy and paste the provided code onto your website or blog.
Auphonic – Auphonic is the perfect tool to clean up all your files, add volume adjustments, remove noise and hiss from any audio source, balance out levels, normalize the volume, and so much more.
Social Media Tools
You don’t have to be a social media expert to find success on any major platforms, but you need to have some basic knowledge about the tools and how they can help your content reach new people. Here are a few that I use for my business:
Buffer – Buffer makes it easy to manage your social media strategy. You can schedule posts in advance and have them sent out automatically, or you can schedule them manually when you’re ready to share content on social platforms.
Hootsuite – Hootsuite is another tool for managing your social media presence. It’s a little more comprehensive than Buffer and features an intuitive interface that makes it easy to use.
Content Studio – Content Studio is the social media tool I’m using at the moment. It lets me do more than share or schedule social media posts; it’s a content curator as well.
Hashtagify – This is one of my favorite tools for finding new hashtags and researching conversations. You can quickly find what hashtags people are using on Twitter and then join in on the conversation. It also lets you know which hashtags are most popular for any given search term or topic.
Followerwonk – This one is only for social media gurus who already have a solid following. Followerwonk allows you to analyze followers and relationships between all of the major social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, and more! To use this one effectively (which many don’t), you need to have an established social media presence and a strong following for it to be beneficial.
Pitchbox – Pitchbox lets me connect with influencers and craft the perfect email pitch. It’s easy-to-use, has good features, and integrates perfectly with my Content Studio account.
Analytics Tools
Keeping track of the results of your content marketing strategy is crucial to success online. You need to be able to determine how your efforts are paying off and what strategies are working best. Here is a list of my favorite analytics tools:
Google Analytics – This is by far the most popular tool for tracking website traffic and activity. It’s free too, which makes it stand out from its competitors.
Mixpanel – Mixpanel’s interface is a little more simplistic than Google Analytics, but it still offers plenty of power for tracking web traffic. It also has some additional features that can be beneficial, such as visitor segmentation and A/B testing.
Segment – Segment helps to integrate all of your different services into one location easily. When you connect everything using Segment, you’re able to view all of your stats in one place, which makes things much easier on you.
Heap – Heap can be used to track events in real-time. It’s a great tool for tracking live activity and seeing how many people are engaging with your content as it happens.
Why is content creation important?
One of the biggest reasons I believe content creation is so important is because it brings more traffic to your website.
The whole purpose of content marketing is to attract your target audience, which results in sales.
When you have fresh, new content, search engines like Google will continue to rank you higher in their results which means more traffic for you! It’s a great way to generate leads and sales too. Every time someone reads one of your blog posts or articles, they are exposed to your brand, product offerings, social media accounts-everything.
Blog posts also get indexed by search engines much quicker than traditional ads do. Instead of waiting months for an ad campaign to take effect on your site statistics, good blog post strategies can bring quick results and impact the trajectory of growth for any business instantaneously.
Content creation can also help you to generate leads and sales for your business. People often read a blog post or infographic on a topic that they are interested in, click the links included (or provided through citations like HubSpot), and reach out to your business for more information. If you’ve used your content strategically, you should have conversion tracking set up so that you know exactly what is happening after a visitor reads one of your posts.
Conclusion
Creating amazing content starts with the right tool.
Choosing the right content creation software for your needs is essential if you’re looking to improve your digital marketing efforts, streamline your writing process and gain more time for creating quality content.
With all of the choices available, it can get a little overwhelming when trying to find the right one. Hopefully, this list will help you along the way. Then you can take the next step and look at the content marketing pyramid.