05 Sep Top 5 Content Marketing Resources You Need(ed)

How to get your Content Marketing Done … And Stay Sane

Written by Daniela Cavalletti

5 min read

Oh, there are so many excellent resources out there, to help you develop and nail your content marketing strategy … if only you knew where to look! Has 2017 been another year of good intentions to spruce up your content marketing, but it all just seemed to get too overwhelming once you searched?

Google anything to do with content marketing resources and the amount of information that comes flooding back is extraordinary. You can easily waste hours skipping from article to article, getting sidetracked with those ‘What do they look like now?’ pics and cute kitten videos (we know you do!) and not coming off really any the wiser.

So start with our top five suggestions below because these are content marketing resources that we use regularly and find super useful. Now, in 2018, and no doubt well beyond.

Try These Top Content Marketing Resources

#1. Social Media Scheduling – HootSuite and Buffer

Nifty social media management apps like Buffer or Hootsuite will allow you to easily post all your messages across your different social networks from one handy, single dashboard. Your blog posts, curated content and the other interesting content you find on the net.

And that’s great for ‘setting and forgetting’ your regular social media schedules in order to drive traffic, connect with others and save time. Both support Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn, and for Hootsuite, you can add Instagram (Buffer currently only allows for reminders for Instagram scheduling), YouTube and quite a few others.

Buffer keeps it simple: you schedule and publish content. With Hootsuite you can not only post content on multiple platforms at the same time but also engage with it by retweeting, replying and responding directly out of the application. They both offer analytics and recommend the best times to post. A great addition to your content marketing resources.

Love that automation.

#2. Graphic Design − Canva

Discovering this great tool can be a life-changing experience for those of us who lack an artistic flair. Even if it’s not your core skill, there may be times when you’re called on to create graphics or a simple design to go with your content marketing. Whether it be a website banner, blog image, brochure, breakout for a newsletter, or as a feature of direct email or mail campaign. Canva has a whole range of pre-sized templates that can easily be adapted with font variations, borders and your own images. Adding graphics to your content provides that extra oomph in communicating with an intended audience. Highly recommended and the best part—like many of the content marketing resources listed here—it’s free (yay!).

#3. Content Inspiration – Google Alerts and Feedly

If you are trying to churn out 12−15 blogs a month to keep up with a relentless social media schedule, there may come a time when you run out of subject ideas, especially if you are in a niche market. But fear not! Inspiration is just a mouse click away, starting with the following content marketing resources:

• Google Alerts: This keeps you up-to-date with the latest news in your industry and what people are discussing. Tailor it to subjects related to your business and receive information from across news sites, forums, blogs and … virtually everywhere. Great content ideas abound by simply entering in keywords and phrases, with the relevant posts sent to you by email daily (or any frequency you prefer). Best of all you can ‘cyber-spy’ on that big-noter from your competitor company and find out what (s)he is saying and where.
• Feedly: Another great source of blog fodder, this allows you to create your own collection of content publishers you are interested in. Organise their pearls of wisdom by topic and easily access articles in the one place.

#4. Project Management Platforms – Asana and Trello (And a Bit of Slack)

Content needs to be planned … or it will never get written (sound familiar?). Your blog posts, white papers, content curation, case studies or any other marketing content will pass through a number of stages from idea to posting (and re-purposing).

Anyone working on a team project, and who relies solely on email for communications, knows that it can become difficult to keep track of the details even for the most organised mind. Banish the whiteboard and unwieldy email-trails and get onto one of these free content marketing resources post haste.

Project management apps, like Asana and Trello can transform your world into one smooth sailing. Managers and team members can clearly see and quickly access task responsibilities and project statuses. Attachments, comments and deadlines (with relentless reminders – beware!) can all be managed through the one system. Seeing who is working on what, might need help or has missed a deadline will give you back the power of avoiding being thrown into chaos. Both Trello and Asana use a card/post-it note type system with tasks simply clicked and moved into different categories that you nominate, e.g. ‘for review’, ‘completed’.

And if you’re managing a virtual or large in-house team or complex SEO content plans, try out Slack. It’s a team messaging system that will bring clarity and structure back into your communications (bye-bye email!). Look forward to fewer time-consuming meetings, and less internal email.

Highly recommended.

#5. Headline Analyser – Coschedule

Never underestimate the value of an eye-catching, strong headline. Cut-through is important and this headline analyser from CoSchedule is one of the great little content marketing resources to give you a bit of a boost. It allocates a headline score, assessing your blog post or other digital content’s header for emotional and power words, and how common your words are. It also looks at the length, structure, and some other great stuff. If you want headlines that cut through and pack a punch give it a go. Definitely a little content marketing resource diamond that you will use again and again.

May The Force be With You

See? Getting your content marketing ducks in a row can become a slick process. Once you know where to start, and then keep the content piece flowing smoothly through its stages; from mere idea to completion.

And even on to repurposing! Why not make a video of your blog article? Or a podcast? Perhaps you can compile a bunch of them into an ebook or free resource on your website? The opportunities are endless.

You may have missed out using our top five content marketing resources in 2017. But if you start playing with these apps and process now, you can be all ready to roll for the new year. Your very busy life will just be that little bit easier and more efficient.

And your content? It’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

These are just some of the effective content marketing resources we have up our sleeves. Want to find out more about how to plan, polish and publish your content marketing ideas on time and with ease? Contact us now and we’ll have a chat.