Tools for creating and optimizing content
I’m going to talk about two tools that our team uses to improve the speed and efficiency of writing, editing, and publishing our blog articles. I’ll then discuss how we use these tools to create the best possible experience for our readers.
By using this tool, you can have your blog post written, edited, published, and even promoted on social media without ever leaving the comfort of your WordPress admin panel.
Content Creation Tools Chrome
Digital content rules the internet, but actually creating it can quickly become overwhelming. You start with an idea, end up changing it altogether during your research—it’s easy to get lost.
Luckily, you can make the content creating and planning process a breeze with the right content creation tools. Using the right ones helps content creators speed up the process, gain insights, and produce better-performing content.
Where to start?
No need to search all over the web to pick up the tools that will level up your content strategy game. I rounded up the best content creation tools for dedicated content creators like you. As a content creator, I find these tools quite resourceful, and I believe so will you.
Let’s make sure you create killer content every time.
best content creation tools cover
Here is a shortlist of the best content creation tools (free and paid):
CoSchedule Headline Studio
Grammarly
Canva
Giphy
AnswerThePublic
Copy.ai
Demio
BuzzSumo
Audacity
Visme
Feel free to jump through this article from the table of contents below.
Table of contents:
Content Planning and Research Tools
- Google Trends
- AlsoAsked.com
- AnswerThePublic
- Semrush Topic Research Tool
- BuzzSumo
Written Content Creation Tools - Grammarly
- CoSchedule Headline Studio
- Copy.ai
Podcast and Audio Broadcast Tools - Audacity
- Alitu
Video Creation and Webinar Tools - Animaker
- SoapBox
- Veed
- Loom
- Demio
- Biteable
Visual Content Creation Tools - Canva – Online Graphic Design Tool
- GIPHY
- Piktochart
- VismeChart
- Unsplash
Bonus
Even Perfect Content Needs to Be Promoted
Frequently Asked Questions
What are content creation tools?
What are the essential tools for a writer?
What are the best free content creation tools?
Content Planning and Research Tools - Google Trends
Google Trends
With Google Trends, you can understand the popularity of a keyword, search term, or topic among Google search users. Considering that the majority of web users use Google, you can find trending topics in your niche.
This tool is also useful for gaining a competitive advantage in your industry and being the first to jump on a new trend.
Pricing: Free
- AlsoAsked.com
AlsoAsked keyword research tool
As a content marketer, I find AlsoAsked quite resourceful when doing keyword research for blog posts. You simply need to enter a search term, select a language and region. AlsoAsked gives you a visual map of all related questions it scrapes from Google’s People Also Search section.
Moreover, it can multiply the questions generated in the first results. You can export the results in CSV format with the Lite plan. Otherwise, this tool is free for limited use.
It’s an excellent content tool to sketch out the outline of your content around SEO.
Pricing: Free for 10 searches a month.
- AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic content creation tool
AnswerThePublic works in a similar way with AlsoAsked. It is a keyword tool that visualizes search questions and suggested terms. Once you enter a topic, select a location and language, it lists all possible questions around question words like “why, when, what, how, which, etc.”
It gives you results as questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabetical, and related. You can save the visualization as an image or export it in CSV format.
Pricing: Free to use with limitations. Upgraded plans start at $99/mo.
- Semrush Topic Research Tool
Semrush topic research tool
SEMrush Topic Research Tool is a great tool to quickly come up with content ideas and plan out your content effectively. You just enter a topic and target location, then it provides you with potential ideas around the main topic.
Moreover, it allows you to enter a domain to find content on.
Pricing: Price plans start from $99.95 per month, but it also comes with SEO, content, social media, and PPC tools.
- BuzzSumo
Buzzsumo content idea generator
BuzzSumo is another content creation tool that is helpful in generating content ideas. This tool pulls popular posts based on keywords. It comes with a bunch of filters to narrow down the results based on language, location, journalist, date, and more.
The results can be sorted based on their total reach in social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can also set custom filters to further narrow down the results.
BuzzSumo has a free Chrome extension as well.
Pricing: Free for 10 searches a month. Paid plans start at $99/mo.
Written Content Creation Tools
- Grammarly
Grammarly grammar checker tool
Grammarly is my go-to grammar and spelling checker tool. If you want to rank on search engines and provide a better user experience for your readers, your content should be error-proof.
This tool checks your content for grammatical errors, misspelling, plagiarism, as well as the tone of your content. It also has a Chrome extension, which comes in very handy when typing something on almost all web platforms.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $29.95/mo.
- CoSchedule Headline Studio
Headline Studio tool for content creators
This one is another one of my favorite content creation tools. CoSchedule’s Headline Studio analyzes your content’s headline and gives a score to it based on different factors like SEO, emotional words, uncommon words, word count, clarity, and more.
You can use it to optimize your headlines and craft the best-performing ones to rank higher on search engines and drive organic traffic to your site. In short, it is a simple yet powerful tool for your content creation process.
Headline Studio has a Chrome extension as well.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $9/mo.
- Copy.ai
Copy.ai copywriting software
This one is for lazy content creators (guilty as charged 😬) or whenever you feel lazy to write everything from scratch. Copy.ai leverages artificial intelligence to reduce the time and effort you spend on copywriting. Essentially, this tool writes your copy for you.
It makes sure the copy it generates sounds as authentic as possible. You can tweak the content you like among the choices it provides. What can Copy.ai write for you?
Product descriptions
Blog posts
Social ads
Startup copies: brand voice, motto, value proposition, etc.
Email copy
Sales Copy
Social media captions
Pricing: Free trial available. Premium plans start at $35 per month.
If you haven’t tried this tool yet, I suggest you go and test it out on its free trial. An alternative to this tool that is also worth mentioning is Ryter. It is relatively cheaper for $29/m with a yearly plan. But copy.ai excels in many ways compared to Ryter.
Podcast and Audio Broadcast Tools
- Audacity
Audacity voice editing software
If you have recorded your voice for a podcast or a video and it sounded like a dying frog, Audacity is the right tool for you. Audacity is a free, open-source, multi-track audio editing and recording software.
You can use it to record live audio, edit it (reduce noise, adjust speed, etc.), and export it.
Pricing: Free.
- Alitu
Alitu voice recording and editor
Editing is often the most tiresome part of podcast creation. You will probably want to spend your time on recording rather than editing. However, you also need to make sure the sound quality is the best.
You can use Alitu to record, edit, and publish your podcasts without any audio editing skills. It automatically cleans your audio and makes editing easy as pie.
Video Creation and Webinar Tools
Especially in recent years, video content marketing has left other forms of content collecting dust. Don’t get left behind; hop on trends with these simple video creation and webinar tools.
You might also like: Popup Video: How To Add One To Your Website (No Coding)
- Animaker
Animaker video making tool
Animaker is a simple, drag-and-drop video-making tool. Used by over 10 M people to create awesome videos, Animaker is a popular tool to streamline your video-making process. Animaker users also include leading brands like Amazon, Nokia, and Unilever.
Features:
Video making, GIF and short video making, Live video editing
Ready-made templates
Character builder to spice up your videos
Extensive facial expressions for the video characters
Auto lip-sync for the characters
Animation studio
Pricing: Start at $10/mo with a yearly plan and $20/mo with a monthly plan.
- SoapBox
Soapbox video content creation tool
Another video-making tool worth mentioning is Soapbox. It is a Chrome extension by Wistia, a video hosting service. With Soapbox, you can create and share videos in your browser window without needing any technical skills or experience.
The extension also comes with the split-screen view feature, which allows you to record your screen and webcam simultaneously.
Pricing:
Free Plan available Solo Plan starts at $300 per year.
- Veed
Veed video editor tool
Veed is a simple online video editor tool that allows you to add subtitles to your videos, edit video content, translate videos, transcribe audio files, and add visual effects. It is a perfect choice to edit, crop, and add subtitles to your videos quickly with ease.
It has some glitches and takes too long to load every now and then, but it works just fine to save time from manually adding subtitles to videos.
Pricing: Free plan available for quick projects under 10 mins with watermark. The basic plan is $18 per month with a monthly subscription.
- Loom
Loom video recording tool
Loom is a streamlined video sharing and recording tool that comes as both a Chrome extension and a desktop app. What can you do with it? You can record your screen, your webcam, or both simultaneously.
Additionally, this tool lets you crop videos and send them to your colleagues through a link. Loom is a go-to tool for either video messaging with colleagues or recording and downloading your videos.
I came across some glitches on its desktop app, but still, it’s a time-saver. AND it has a free version of up to 25 videos and 5 mins per video. If you plan to shoot tutorials or review videos of digital tools for YouTube, then Loom can be the one you are looking for.
Pricing: Free for up to 25 videos. The Business plan starts at $8/mo with an annual plan.
- Demio
demio webinar software
Demio is a hassle-free webinar software for marketers. This tool provides a no-download webinar experience for your audience. It comes with fully customizable webinar domains, featured colors, and more.
Features:
Live presentation with real-time HD streaming
Your audience can attend with one click in the browser.
Create customizable registration pages
Add custom form fields to collect info from registrants
Embed the form anywhere
Send automated email notifications
View, manage, and export contacts
Pricing: Start at $34 per month with an annual payment plan. 14-day free trial available.
- Biteable
Biteable video making tool
Biteable is another powerful video creation and editing tool. It has a forever-free plan with limited features. What you can create with this tool ranges from social media posts and digital advertising to animation and promo videos.
It comes with a huge video templates library for your use.
Pricing: Free plan available. Premium plans start at $29/mo with a monthly plan and $19/mo annually.
Visual Content Creation Tools
We live in a visual world. It is more so when we dive into the digital world. In fact, studies show that the average attention span of an internet user lies somewhere around eight seconds.
To keep your audience engaged with your content as long as possible, you’ll need to enrich it with visual content like GIFs or infographics. Here are the best visual content creation tools you’ll ❤️ using.
- Canva – Online Graphic Design Tool
Canva visual content creation tool
It wouldn’t be wrong to say Canva’s popularity blew over recent years. And it’s clear to see why.
You can design almost anything with Canva, including presentations, social media posts, infographics, resumes, newsletters, logos, and YouTube intros. What makes this tool amazing is the way it streamlines the designing process and makes it easy for just anyone.
It saves your time and money spent on expensive designing tools. Additionally, it comes with stock elements and a photo library, as well as a wide range of templates for every need.
Pricing: Free plan available. Premium plans start at $9.99 per month.
- GIPHY
GIPHY gif maker tool
If you think GIFs are fun to use in blog posts, you can look for GIFs on the internet’s best-known GIF database GIPHY. It can integrate with multiple apps and make GIF sharing simpler than ever.
It also allows creating your own GIFs. Just upload a video or photo and set the animation speed. Your GIF will be good to go in no time!
- Piktochart
Piktochart infographic making tool
Infographics are still one of the most popular ways to visualize data and to use as a part of your link building strategy. You can drive backlinks by creating superb and share-worthy infographics in your niche.
That’s where Piktochart comes in. You can design professional-looking infographics without needing any design skills with Piktochart.
Pricing:
Free plan available. Premium plans start at $24 per month with monthly payment and $14/mo annually.
- VismeChart
Visme free chart maker
Need to create charts that will rock your data and statistical contents? VismeChart is what you’re looking for. By adding customly designed chart visuals to your blog posts, social media posts, or other content, you can drive backlinks and credibility. Charts are a perfect way to visualize complicated and boring data.
Designing them on Visme is incredibly easy for anyone. You can create charts, infographics, short videos, and presentations on Visme’s intuitive, drag-and-drop designer. The best part is its free plan covers a lot of features.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $25/mo with monthly payment.
- Unsplash
Unsplash free stock photo database
Stock photos come in handy every now and then. Unsplash provides a rich stock library of high quality images and photos free to use and shared under the Unsplash license. The platform has over 207,000 contributing photographers and generates 17 billion photo impressions per month.
Bonus
Ubersuggest – Free keyword research tool
Hemingway Editor – Grammar checker
Trello – List making application
free online content creation tools
When it comes to the fast-paced world of digital marketing, content is still king – perhaps more so than ever.
Although somewhat of a buzz phrase back in the earlier days of SEO, this is a term that holds an incredible amount of value, especially when you consider the sophistication of today’s consumer. No one wants cheap clickbait thrust under their noses, people want to be dazzled, informed, inspired, and engaged.
As a marketer how do you achieve such a feat? By creating amazing content, of course.
Content marketing leaders experience 7.8 times more site traffic than non-leaders. What’s more, superior content marketing drives higher conversion rates. How can you afford not to create more content?
With so much to do and so little time, creating regular content that offers value, as well as a solid ROI, can seem impossible, but these top 5 free content marketing tools and resources are here to help…
Pablo
When it comes to content marketing, imagery is vital. In fact, according to a recent study, 37% of marketers confirmed visual marketing was the most important form of content for their business, second only to blogging.
Pablo provides content editors with a quick and easy solution for image production.
Today’s consumer scans pages on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, which means to grab their attention, using eye-catching visual imagery is a must.
Instagram has around 400 million active users worldwide, and counting. If you’re looking to create stunning visuals for your Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter campaign, Pablo is what you need.
Developed by the folks from Buffer, the platform’s accessible layout means you don’t need to be a professional photo editor to create eye-catching assets for your blog articles or social posts, and with pop-up tutorials to help you throughout, you can create a host of top notch images with ease.
Pablo allows its users to choose and edit images from its own Creative Commons library, as well as upload their own images and add text to enhance their pictures or add a clear-cut call to action.
Pablo not only saves time but it has enough functionality to create professional images to complement your content marketing efforts with ease.
Unsplash
Used by award-winning writers like Deepak Chopra to industry giants like Apple, Unsplash has come a long way in three short years.
Imagery is vital to your content marketing efforts.
As we’ve established, imagery is vital to your content marketing efforts, and if you’re looking to source the best high-resolution stock photos for your social media accounts, blog posts, or promotional campaigns, this resource is gold dust.
Not only is the imagery available eclectic and top quality, but Unsplash’s easy to navigate interface is a joy to use, and it’s blog is packed full of exciting news and valuable insights.
Google Drive Research Tool
Thorough research is essential for producing marketing campaigns that offer value, niche information, and inspiration.
Google Content Research Tool.
Not only will a poorly researched blog post result in a weak piece of content that will increase your bounce rate; it will also seriously harm your credibility.
According to research, for millennials, brand authenticity is second only to loyalty discounts in importance when choosing businesses to support.
Google Drive’s Research Tool is a brilliant resource to help you create killer content that provides value; is backed by credible sources and boosts your brand authenticity,
If you’re using Google Docs in your Drive, you can conduct searches without having to navigate away from your window, saving time and making it easier to cite your sources as you work.
By clicking ‘Tools’ in the menu bar and choosing ‘Research’ from the drop down menu, you’ll be able to take advantage of this slick functionality and create award-winning blog content quicker than ever before.
As a side note, another great free way to streamline your content research is by using Google’s site:search function. Site:search allows you to search for information from a particular website rather than sources from the entire web. This will provide you with a template from which to work (site:websiteexample.com search query).
EpicBeat
Studies suggest that 80% of people never read past the headline of an article or email subject line.By writing a strong headline that grabs attention and promises value, you stand a greater chance of consumers sticking around to see what you have to say.
At the heart of a dazzling headline lies a strong idea or concept. But, sometimes finding inspiration for fresh ideas can prove tricky.
A free and incredibly powerful alternative to BuzzSumo, EpicBeat is a content marketing tool that finds you great content to study based on a particular search term. By displaying top performing content based on a certain subject, you’ll be able to see what works best with consumers in your niche and be inspired to produce great content.
EpicBeat is packed full of useful features and boasts excellent tutorials to help its users get to grips with its interface with ease; it’s also great for content curation purposes. And as 80% of marketers share third-party content to improve company visibility and buzz, this tool is an essential part of any content marketer’s toolkit.
Also, if you need a quick and straightforward way to generate exciting blog titles based on simple keywords, Portent’s content generator combines beautiful design with an easy to use interface. Just punch in your topic and take your pick. The platform even gives you quick tips and resources to help you write your article.
Portent’s content generator is easy on the eye and as simple as it gets.
Biteable
Did you know that including a video on a landing page, can increase your conversion rate by up to 80%, while adding a video to an email can increase your click-through rate by a whopping 200-300%.
Biteable is great for creating short form video content for social media.
Also, 90% of users say that product videos are helpful when it comes to the decision-making process.
If you’re hungry for creating head-turning video content for a social media drive, product promotion, Vlog, or promotional campaign, Biteable is hard to beat.
With hundreds of different templates, visual styles, animated scenes, photos or live action videos to choose from, you don’t need to be a professional filmmaker to use Biteable – and the results are amazing. You can also add your own content to give your video a personal touch, and include elements like text, static photos, different colour schemes and sound clips. The platform comes complete with a host of music clips that you can add to your video in seconds.
The free content creation tools featured above are without a doubt, our top picks for any budding content marketer. To offer you as much variety as possible, here are a three other content creation tools that will help you in your quest for digital marketing success.
Hemingway App: An intuitive tool that will help you write clear, crisp and succinct sentences.
Canva: Create banners, murals, and impressive visual assets for your campaign in a matter of minutes.
Evernote: A collaborative organisational app that will help you refine, plan, organise, and prioritise your content marketing efforts.
Around two million blog posts are published on the internet every day and if you want to produce content that cuts through the noise and earns you results on a consistent basis, a mix of strong digital marketing skills and these free tools, will ensure your long lasting success.
Want to understand where to focus your content marketing efforts? Read our guide to defining effective buyer personas.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out other publications to gain access to more digital resources if you are just starting out with Flux Resource.
Also contact us today to optimize your business(s)/Brand(s) for Search Engines