Content marketing is an integral part of every online marketing strategy, whether you’re in the B2C or B2B market. According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, only 16% of B2B marketers don’t have a content marketing strategy, and another 4% are unsure. Compared to B2C marketers, only 12% of marketers don’t have a strategy, and 8% are unsure. When it comes to a documented strategy, 32% of B2B marketers and 37% of B2C marketers have one. 48% of B2B and 44% of B2C marketers have an undocumented strategy. Even small business owners, like freelancers, should have some kind of strategy to promote their products and services to their audience.
ClearVoice
ClearVoice is web-based software for content creation and management. It makes it possible to plan your content, hire the appropriate writers to address you needs, manage each piece of content as it is delivered, and distribute it accordingly.
You have access to a large database of trending articles, and you can see the content performance to help you decide how, where, and when to include the trend in your own strategy. Set your budget, enter project details, and allow the software to match you with freelancers and other creators. You’ll assemble your own reliable team before you know it.
The central tracking system means you won’t have to run multiple platforms to manage your content and the team creating it. You can manage the content, along with internal and external teams. You can edit collaboratively, and keep brand guidelines and personas in place for everyone, while also automating freelance payment. The API allows you to publish content directly to WordPress and other content management systems. If you’d like, you can use ClearVoice services to distribute your content with paid and earned media. Pricing information is not available, as users are advised to schedule a demo on a test drive before signing up for a paid plan.
MyBlogU
MyBlogU is a community of bloggers and writers who work together to brainstorm content ideas, share media assets, help each other get cited, and find and share content and more. It’s easy to get quotes for sources, share your expertise with other writers to get quoted, and more. It’s a completely free content marketing community.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a content marketing tool that allows you to analyze what content performs the best for any topic. You can also see what is working well for your competition, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. And, there are tools to help you find the best influencers to help promote your content so it has a better, wider, reach. Pricing starts at $99/month for one to five users, which is ideal for bloggers and small teams. Other plans are priced at $299 or $699 a month and include additional users, alerts, trending feeds and exports for easier planning.
Make My Persona
Make My Persona is a free tool from HubSpot that allows you to quickly and easily create customer personas. With customer personas for each segment of your target audience, it’s easier to develop the content that is part of your strategy, and determine the best places to put each piece of content.
It’s an interactive tool that asks you questions about your ideal customer to help you build out the persona. At the end, you’ll get an editable Word document based on your answers, that you can edit and expand on later, as you gain data from web analytics, sales, and more. It’s even possible to select an image to make the persona more real, and easier to relate to, so you can craft the content as if you were speaking directly to the person.
EditFlow WordPress Plugin
EditFlow is a free WordPress plugin that is a great option for blogs with more than one author with a team of editors who must look over the content before it goes live. With it, you can manage your editorial calendar, create custom content statuses, leave editorial review comments, and more. Modules are available so you can customize the plugin to meet your needs, adding the ability to view your content budget, organize users by function or department, and more.
ContentMarketer
Content Marketer is a suite of three tools that can be used together or independently to make your content marketing strategy work for you.
- Connector: This tool, priced at $9/month, allows you to schedule and send personalized outreach emails with your Google accounts. It includes templates, tracking, and even automated follow-ups, allow you to connect with influencers to share and promote products and content.
- Notifier: This tool, priced at $9/month, allows you to find mentions in your posts and notify the people you mentioned. The aim of this tool is to increase your shares by letting you tweet to those people and let them know you mentioned them.
- Marketer: This tool, priced at $49/month is an influencer finder, or an all-in-one tool to help you promote your content.
No matter the size of your budget, content should be a major part of your marketing. When content is informative and engaging, it can set you apart from the competition – but creation is only one piece of the puzzle.
