There’s a ton of content marketing tools and services out there, vying for your attention (and your wallet).
But which are the best?
Which content marketing tools offer the most bang for your buck and can help you get the job done efficiently and effectively?
In this handy guide, we’ll help you answer these questions. You’ll find tools to help you at every stage of the content marketing process, from content creation to content management and beyond.
Let’s get started.
The 21 Best Content Marketing Tools in 2020
- Google Docs
- BuzzSumo
- HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator
- Ahrefs
- Evernote
- Trello
- Grammarly
- CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
- Pexels
- Piktochart
- Canva
- Loom
- Wordable
- Convert Pro
- Social Warfare
- Buffer Publish
- MailerLite
- ConvertKit
- Hunter
- BuzzStream
- Google Analytics
1. Google Docs
Offering exceptional flexibility and versatility for creating, editing, and (with Google Drive) storing your content, Google Docs is a tool widely used by content marketers big and small.
How Much Does Google Docs Cost?
It’s free for personal users.
Google Docs is included in Google’s Business G Suite (affiliate link), which is available in three pricing tiers (per user):
- Basic: $6/mo
- Business: $12/mo
- Enterprise: $25/mo
Discounts are available for annual payment.
Standout Features of Google Docs
A web-based word processor, Google Docs lets you create and edit your content seamlessly across devices.
You can simply and quickly format and style text, add links and images, and work together remotely on documents with friends, colleagues, and clients in real-time. All your changes are automatically saved as you type, with access to previous versions through revision history.
Quick Takeaway
This easy-to-use word processor offers “work anywhere” flexibility for creating great content (even offline using the Google Chrome browser), as well as integrated cloud storage in Google Drive and real-time collaboration on documents. Best of all, it’s free.
2. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo’s powerful research tools allow you to see what readers in your niche are looking for and engaging with, and provide the data on which to develop a winning content marketing strategy.
How Much Does BuzzSumo Cost?
BuzzSumo is available in four pricing tiers, all offered with 7-day free trial:
- Pro: $99/mo
- Plus: $179/mo
- Large: $299/mo
- Enterprise: $499+/mo
Discounts are available for annual payment.
Standout Features of BuzzSumo
Search for terms or phrases and quickly identify content that’s performing well. Identify the influencers in any topic or industry. Track comments and trends so you can respond rapidly and capture opportunities.
Quick Takeaway
This powerful tool supports every stage of content strategy, from initial research of niche and tribe; getting content ideas and headline inspiration for your posts; and keeping track of the trends and activity of the key players in any niche.
3. HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator
If you ever find yourself running short on new content ideas for your editorial calendar, the blog ideas generator from HubSpot has you covered.
How Much Does It Cost?
HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator is a free tool. You can get 5 blog ideas without an account, but to get more (up to 250) you’ll need to sign up.
Standout Features of HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator
You can go broad, entering just one keyword, or get increasingly specific by entering up to 5 nouns in the Generator search field. Ideas are delivered in seconds.
Quick Takeaway
The HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator lets you quickly find new topics for your content calendar. Also worth exploring is AnswerThePublic (free or pro), which provides a slightly different (and more visual) approach to content idea generation, focusing on a question and answer format.
4. Ahrefs
Ahrefs delivers 3 powerful SEO research tools in one interface, helping you understand how your competitors are gaining high rankings — and what you need to do to outrank them.
How Much Does Ahrefs Cost?
You can get a 7-day trial for $7. Thereafter, Ahrefs is available in four pricing tiers:
- Lite: $99/mo
- Standard: $179/mo
- Advanced: $399/mo
- Agency: $999/mo
You get a discount of 2 months free for annual payment.
Standout Features of Ahrefs
With its various SEO and keyword research tools, Ahrefs allows you to gain a complete SEO profile of your and your competitors’ websites. This includes which featured snippets they own, as well as the keywords they rank for (and you don’t).
You can see which pages bring the most search engine traffic, which have the most backlinks and social shares, and which websites link to the target site.
Quick Takeaway
See the exact keywords for which your competitors rank in organic search. Analyze the extent and quality of their backlinks. Then use the information to do better.
5. Evernote
This feature-rich, multi-device, note-taking app provides a single, searchable container for all your notes, ideas, lists and reminders.
How Much Does Evernote Cost?
- Basic plan: Free
- Premium plan: $7.99/mo
- Business plan: $14.99/mo
Note: Paid plans offer additional features and functionality.
Standout Features of Evernote
With Evernote you can create notes with rich text formatting and to-do lists with checkboxes; clip from the web; add voice memos; and attach PDFs, receipts, files, and documents. You can sort and organize information by date, title, or tag, and the app’s powerful search feature even recognizes text in pictures and handwritten notes.
Quick Takeaway
More than simply a note-taking app, Evernote enables you to gather everything you need in one place and know that all your notes, lists, and clips are backed up, organized and accessible.
6. Trello
Trello uses boards, lists, and cards to offer a simple but highly visual and flexible project management tool for individuals and teams.
How Much Does Trello Cost?
- Personal: Free
- Business Class: $12.50/mo (or $9.99 if paid annually)
- Enterprise: $20.83/mo for up to 300 users
Note: Paid plans offer additional features and functionality.
Standout Features of Trello
Trello combines drag-and-drop simplicity with exceptional flexibility and at-a-glance clarity on project status.
Create as many tasks and lists as you want, and organize the project in any way that meets your needs.
Quick Takeaway
Trello helps you organize projects of any size. Checklists, due dates and calendar view (or iCal integration) help to ensure deadlines are met. Extra functionality, such as third party integrations and collaboration tools for larger teams, is available with the paid plans.
7. Grammarly
Grammarly (affiliate link) is a powerful and feature-rich grammar checker that helps you keep your writing free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.
How Much Does Grammarly Cost?
- Basic checker: Free
- Premium (advanced writing feedback): $11.99/mo billed annually
- Business (for teams): $12.50/mo/member billed annually
Standout Features of Grammarly
Clear, easy to use, and customizable to your writing goals (academic, conversational, etc.), Grammarly is an extremely versatile checker. It operates almost wherever you write — in your browser (for example, Google Chrome, social media posts), as a desktop app, and in MS Office.
The free version picks up typos and basic grammatical errors. Grammarly Premium scans for good sentence structure, writing tone, plagiarism, and more.
Quick Takeaway
As a content marketer, the last thing you want is spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes in your writing. This customizable and versatile grammar checker helps you eliminate them.
8. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
Quick and easy to use, the free headline analyzer from CoSchedule helps you write effective headlines for your post.
How Much Does it Cost?
Free to use, in exchange for contact details.
Standout Features of CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
Gives your headline a percentage score based on analysis of the overall structure, grammar, and readability. In addition, it provides suggestions, as well as length analysis.
Quick Takeaway
Craft headlines that’ll receive more clicks with this in-depth headline analyzer. You’ll also see a preview of how your headline will look in Google search results and email subject lines.
9. Pexels
Make your post stand out with images from Pexels’ huge resource of hi-res photos and videos that you can use anywhere, for free.
How Much Does it Cost?
Free for personal and commercial use.
Standout Features of Pexels
Download images directly without creating an account. If you have a (free) account, you can “like” photos, follow photographers, and curate collections of images. Search any term to find the image you need quickly and simply, and with the “Discover” feature you can search existing collections and recommendations.
Quick Takeaway
Find the perfect image (or video) for any piece of content with Pexels. Or, if you need something more on the artsy side, try Unsplash. Both sites offer thousands of hi-res stock photos that free for commercial or personal use.
10. Piktochart
No design experience? No problem. Create eye-catching infographics, social media graphics, flyers, posters, and more with Piktochart.
How Much Does Piktochart Cost?
There are 3 plans available:
- Free (limited functionality)
- Pro: $24.17/mo (billed annually)
- Pro Team: $82.50/mo (billed annually) for 5 users
Standout Features of Piktochart
There are hundreds of professionally designed templates to help you get started. Use the simple drag-and-drop editor to edit fonts and colors, and add your own text. In addition, fully customizable and interactive charts and maps, and thousands of free icons and images, help you tell your story clearly and powerfully.
Quick Takeaway
Piktochart helps you maximize engagement with striking visual content, even if you have no design experience. And Piktochart infographics are fully searchable for enhanced SEO to help your content get discovered.
11. Canva
Create brilliant “image with text” headers for your blog and social media posts with Canva’s versatile and easy-to-use graphic design platform.
How Much Does Canva Cost?
- Canva is free
- Canva Pro is $9.95/mo paid annually, or $12.95 paid monthly
Standout Features of Canva
Drag-and-drop editing simplicity and thousands of image templates provide exceptional design flexibility and productivity to create high-quality visuals for your marketing campaigns. You can also share content directly to many social platforms.
Quick Takeaway
Canva offers a multi-faceted online design tool, with no watermarking and thousands of templates and images to achieve the look and format you want — with no Photoshop skills needed.
12. Loom
Combining face and screen video recording with audio, Loom makes it easy to create quick, personal videos ready for sharing via email, social media, YouTube, or as an embedded video on your website.
How Much Does Loom Cost?
- Basic: Free (access to 25 videos)
- Pro: $8/mo if billed annually, $10/mo if billed monthly
Standout Features of Loom
Versatile and easy to use, Loom is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, and as a Chrome extension.
Pro gives you access to unlimited videos, as well as drawing-tool and mouse emphasis; HD (on Mac); ability to add buttons, links and files to videos; and analytics.
Quick Takeaway
With no watermarks or restrictions on how long you record for or how many videos you make, Loom’s ease of use and low cost puts the engaging power of personalized, conversational video within the reach of all content marketers.
13. Wordable
With Wordable, you can write your posts in Google Docs and then transfer them to WordPress with a single click — no more copy/pasting or re-formatting in the WordPress editor.
How Much Does Wordable Cost?
- Solo (1 user, 1 WordPress site): $19/mo, $190/yr
- Pro (5 users, 5 WordPress sites): $49/mo, $490/yr
- Pro Plus (25 users, 25 WordPress sites): $99/mo, $990/yr
There’s a free trial period and unlimited exports with all plans.
Standout Features of Wordable
Exports your Google Docs formatting intact to WordPress, including header tags, images, and even tables. Integrates seamlessly with a collaborative workflow: write as you normally do and work together with your team inside Google Docs.
Quick Takeaway
Wordable saves an enormous amount of time — no more copying, pasting, and then re-formatting your posts in WordPress.
14. Convert Pro
Easy-to-use, fast, reliable and mobile-friendly, Convert Pro (affiliate link) is a powerful plugin for WordPress that helps you convert your website traffic into email leads.
How Much Does Convert Pro Cost?
- Convert Pro only: $99/yr or $399/lifetime
- Agency Bundle (Convert Pro plus an additional suite of tools, including Astra Pro and Schema Pro): $249/yr or $699/lifetime
In both cases, the license is for use on an unlimited number of sites.
Standout Features of Convert Pro
Convert Pro’s drag & drop editor makes it easy to position text, images, and other components. Numerous font, color, style and shape options allow you to personalize all aspects of the design. Advanced A/B testing helps you optimize content.
Quick Takeaway
Convert Pro offers a unique and feature-rich set of lead generation tools, including multi-step calls to action, on-click and exit-intent popups, page-level targeting, and more (such as geo-location targeting) to help you build your list.
15. Social Warfare
Social Warfare (affiliate link) is a powerful WordPress plugin that allows you to fully customize your share buttons for social media so you maximize social sharing and engagement.
How Much Does it Cost?
- Social Warfare: Free
- Social Warfare Pro:
- Single Site: $29
- Up to 5 Sites: $89
- Up to 10 Sites: $139
- Unlimited: $349
All licenses are billed yearly, with an automatic 30% renewal discount.
Standout Features of Social Warfare
Over 5,000 potential style combinations to match the social share buttons to your website. The buttons are fast loading, can be placed anywhere, and are fully responsive to device and screen size.
Quick Takeaway
Social Warfare is an advanced social sharing plugin that includes buttons for all the top social networks, “click to tweet” quotes feature, and content protection through the Frame Buster plugin that prevents people inserting their own call to action.
16. Buffer Publish
Buffer is a popular social media scheduling tool that offers a clear and simple-to-use dashboard, as well as tailored post and advanced calendar scheduling, so that you can be organized, consistent, and effective in your social media marketing.
How Much Does Buffer Publish Cost?
Buffer Publish is available in 3 paid tiers, billed monthly or annually, as well as in a free plan:
- Free plan: 3 social accounts, 10 scheduled posts at a time, 1 user
- Pro: 8 social accounts, 100 scheduled posts, 1 user for $25/mo (or $144 if billed annually)
- Premium: 8 social accounts, 2,000 scheduled posts, 2 users for $65/mo (or $663 if billed annually)
- Business: 25 social accounts, 2,000 scheduled posts, 6 users for $99/mo (or $1,010 if billed annually)
All plans have a 14-day free trial.
Standout Features of Buffer Publish
When you add a URL, you can immediately see how the post will look in the social media accounts you’ve connected, and it’s easy to customize post content for the different social media platforms. Available integrations make for efficient content curation.
Quick Takeaway
Buffer Publish enables efficient and effective social media marketing with additional brand-building power offered through Buffer Reply, for social listening and engagement, and Buffer Analyze, an in-depth analytics tool.
Note: Hootsuite is another leading player in the social media management space. Depending on your specific needs, it’s another solid choice.
17. MailerLite
MailerLite (affiliate link) is a well-structured email marketing tool that makes it easy, even for beginners, to create beautiful landing pages, opt-in forms, and emails to build and serve their list.
How Much Does MailerLite Cost?
MailerLite is free for up to 1,000 subscribers.
The free plan enables you to build landing pages and start mailing your first 1,000 subscribers, but excludes live chat support, free newsletter templates, and certain other features.
Premium plans start at $10/mo for up to 1,000 subscribers, rising in increments per subscribers. Premium plans offer additional features and unlimited emails per month.
Standout Features of MailerLite
Easy to use drag-and-drop editor to create striking emails and landing pages with a wide selection of responsive templates for inspiration. You can also A/B test up to 5 landing pages, and auto-resend messages to non-openers, with a different subject line, new content, or an added personal message.
Quick Takeaway
MailerLite keeps it simple but offers plenty of in-app help, useful features, and digital marketing tips. Ideal for small businesses and solopreneurs, the free plan lets you get started at minimum cost.
There are, of course, many service providers in this space. Larger, more data-hungry marketing teams may want to check out solutions such as MailChimp or GetResponse, or this next tool we’ll discuss.
18. ConvertKit
ConvertKit (affiliate link) is a streamlined email service provider that packs a punch but keeps it simple with features specifically designed to meet the needs of creators and bloggers.
How Much Does ConvertKit Cost?
Free plan: Allows you to get started with Landing Pages and Forms to build your list. You can send email broadcasts to up to 1,000 subscribers.
Paid plan: Unlocks all ConvertKit features, from $29/mo for up to 1,000 subscribers, cost rising in increments to unlimited numbers of subscribers. You get 12 months for the price of 10 when you pay annually.
Standout Features of ConvertKit
Simplifies email marketing by combining powerful marketing automation with an easy-to-use interface.
When creating email sequences, it’s easy to switch between sequencing and editing in a single window — no clicking in and out of multiple pages. It’s also easy to select recipients for broadcasts by segment, tag, or other custom fields for targeted marketing.
Quick Takeaway
If you are a creator or blogger not seeking to create highly-illustrated emails, ConvertKit could be the ideal email service provider for you — it keeps things simple with just the features you need to build and market to your list.
19. Hunter
By helping you find contact info for the right person to email for pitching, link requests, and more; Hunter is an extremely powerful tool for online marketing lead generation and outreach.
How Much Does Hunter Cost?
- Free plan: 50 requests/mo
- Starter: 1,000 requests for $49/mo
- Growth: 5,000 requests for $99/mo
- Pro: 20,000 requests for $199/mo
- Enterprise: 50,000 requests for $399/mo
Discounts are available on all plans if you choose annual billing.
Standout Features of Hunter
Hunter’s Chrome extension (shown in screenshot above) makes domain searches almost instantaneous. Returns not just email addresses, but the person’s role in the company, helping you identify the most appropriate recipient for your outreach.
Quick Takeaway
This user-friendly marketing platform discovers and verifies professional emails in moments, enabling you to gain valuable lead generation data quickly and easily supplementing, for example, information from LinkedIn profiles.
20. BuzzStream
With BuzzStream you can do all your outreach — research prospects, find email addresses, send outreach emails, automate follow-ups, and track performance — in one CMS (content management system).
How Much Does BuzzStream Cost?
- Starter: 1 user, 1,000 contacts, $24/mo
- Group: 3 users, 25,000 contacts, $99/mo
- Professional: 6 users, 100,000 contacts, $299/mo
- Custom: 15+ users, 300,000+ contacts, $999/mo (starting)
All plans offer a free trial period. Premium plans offer additional features. You get 1 month free if you pay for 12 months in advance.
Standout Features of BuzzStream
BuzzStream’s Discovery tool makes it easy to find influencers and important bloggers in your niche. With the BuzzMarker Chrome extension, you can add websites, people, and links to your BuzzStream account with one click.
Quick Takeaway
Once you are adept on the platform, BuzzStream makes outreach much faster and easier than doing everything manually. This is particularly helpful if you are doing outreach at scale.
21. Google Analytics
See where your traffic is coming from, which keywords are your best performers, which of your pages are most popular, how much time visitors are spending on your site, and more with Google Analytics. And you can do it in real-time, and for free.
How Much Does It Cost?
It’s free.
There is also an enterprise version, Google Analytics 360, with additional features.
Standout Features of Google Analytics
The extensive range of standard dashboards provides at-a-glance insight into all the key areas of website and online marketing performance. Ability to customize dashboards to analyze specific data. Provides reliable data to guide website optimization and business development.
Quick Takeaway
This cloud-based analytics platform enables businesses of all sizes to learn how visitors are finding and using their website. And then, based on real data, take action to improve site performance and your inbound strategies.
Which Content Marketing Tools are Your Favorites?
So there you have it. Our picks for the 21 best of the best content marketing tools in 2020.
Nearly all the tools we’ve listed offer either a free plan or a free trial period (or are free altogether). So you can try them out at little or no cost.
Which are your favorites?
And have we left out any tools that you love using? Let us know in the comments.
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