tools

You’ve gotta have the right tools for the job. That’s a truth humans have experienced since the introduction of the wheel. The caveman who used a hammer and chisel surely got the job done faster – and better – than his neighbor with chipped teeth. Another way to word this philosophy? Work smarter, not harder. If you’re a business owner, this is your new mantra (if it wasn’t already). Now, how about some tools to make the content marketing part of it all easier? The Right Tools Make Your Content Marketing More Effective (Read: Possible) Running a business is a lot of hard work. It doesn’t matter if you’re managing a corporation of 100+ employees from a mahogany board room or running a scrappy insurgency of “me, myself, and I” from your breakfast nook. It requires work…and planning…and operation costs…and salaries…and IT…and marketing…and analytics…and R&D…and, and, and. Yet, intelligent and creative business owners and managers find a way to make it work. People find new ways to streamline manufacturing, budget for overhead, and effectively market every day. They do it by creating or utilizing the right tools. The Importance Of Online Presence: That’s An Understatement Mintel’s 2015 Online Shopping report shows that 70% of American consumers shop online. That’s over 200 million people, all contributing to the $1.5 trillion done in global e-commerce sales. If you’re not going digital with your business, you’re shortchanging your business. The catch is that people have to know you’re there before they can care – or register, purchase, donate, sign-up, re-post, or even click through to your site. And you can’t just expect any old online presence to pay dividends. The right online presence – crafted with the right tools – will make the difference. And that difference is huge. Chitika, an online advertising firm, studied millions of clicks and determined that people click on only first page results a whopping 94% of the time. Sarah Wai, of Tribute Media, says effective online presence is obtained with “social media presence,” “search engine prevalence,” and content. So without further ado, let’s plunge into our top 10 picks for these categories: Content Marketing SEO & Social Media Content Marketing: Your Go-To List of Top 10 Tools Content marketing can be summed up like this: It’s a way to build your brand for a specific audience so that they will take action on what you’re offering (convert on a service or product). That may sound simple, but the moving parts required to make that process work are incredibly complex. Optimization, tracking, metrics, split-testing, and other business best practices can be hard to keep track of. That’s where these 10 content marketing tools come in handy: 1. BuzzSumo. This all-in-one monitoring tool offers content research and insights, studies influencer activity, analyzes competitors, provides real-time alerts concerning keyword searches and shares, and so much more. We absolutely love this tool and use it constantly, both for our own content and clients. BuzzSumo helps people understand influencers on the web by being able to follow and compile a list of influencers, and differentiate between topics and domains. Read my guide on how to use BuzzSumo. 2. Qualaroo. Gain qualitative information on web content by moving beyond traffic analysis to understanding the intent of website visitors. With Qualaroo, customized, targeted questions are deployed at every stage of your website, from home page to “deep in your conversion funnel.” Content marketers can easily use Qualaroo’s insights to intelligently adjust their online content to better user experience and drive higher conversion. 3. Typeform. This gorgeous and fun tool makes boring forms a work of art. A simple and intuitive drag-and-drop user interface allows people to build informative, thorough, and appealing websites across all media platforms. Tablets, smartphones, laptops – Typeform is programmed to perfectly interact with a mobile world. Typeform’s Basic plan is full of features and absolutely free. 4. Optimizely. This is a powerful, sweeping testing platform helps content marketers deliver truly personalized digital experiences to their visitors and consumers. Optimizely makes it easy to test multiple variables across multiple pages, so marketers can truly understand how even the smallest of changes affects individual visitor behavior. A 30-day free trial is available. 5. CrazyEgg. This interactive analytics algorithm shows site owners exactly where visitors are clicking, how far they’re scrolling down the page, the number of clicks on any element of any given pages, and more. That means you can see what’s working and what’s not. Easy and fast setup allows users to immediately get up and running with CrazyEgg. Plus, all plans are free for the first 30 days. 6. UserTesting. This is a unique testing service that actually provides site owners with audio, video, and written feedback. UserTesting works hand-in-hand with companies to create customized tests that record real users interacting with the company’s web content on any platform or device. See exactly why site visitors confirm or abandon purchases; how they react to photos, videos, and other media assets; and conduct A/B testing for winning variables. 7. Google Docs/Sheets. Everyone uses Google Docs. But very few people probably use these tools to their full potential. Content is not only readily available to teams and organizations through Google Docs, it’s also highly-customizable. Users can create brand-specific layouts and designs. Sheets offers more than just Excel-style columns. It’s customizable as well, works across all platforms and devices, and always saves your work. A feature that many people forget to use with Sheets is the Explore panel, that helps users gain insight from summaries or selected columns. 8. ContentMarketer.io. With an umbrella of three separate tools named Connector, Notifier, and Marketer, ContentMarketer.io is all about getting your content seen. Connector helps build loyalty with personalized outreach emails. Notifier instantly reaches out to influencers you’re mentioning in your content, building important networks and relationships. Marketer finds influencers interacting with your content. Plus, if you know the creator of the tools, Sujan Patel – well, he’s really cool 😉 9. ClearVoice. Dynamic and easily shareable editorial calendars help users organize what’s next and search what content has worked in … Read more