28 Powerful Content Marketing Tools for Skyrocketing Your Results
As an agency that has built our entire business around creating exceptional content and delivering outstanding SEO results, we at IncRev know a thing or two about the tools that can truly move the needle when it comes to content marketing.
In fact, we’ve leveraged many of the tools on this list to grow our clients’ website traffic to over 500,000 monthly visits and beyond.
This carefully curated selection covers the full spectrum of content marketing needs – from in-depth keyword research and SEO optimization to design, analytics, and user behavior tracking. What unites all of these tools is their ability to dramatically amplify the impact of your content marketing efforts. When used strategically in combination, you can expect significant boosts in traffic, engagement, and conversions from your content.
Let’s dive in and explore the 28 best content marketing tools that can take your strategy to the next level:
1. Semrush
Semrush is the Swiss Army knife of content marketing and SEO tools. Its robust functionality makes it challenging to fully describe in just a few paragraphs.
When we’re uncertain about which keywords or topics to target for our clients, we start by analyzing their competitors’ websites and ranking keywords using Semrush. This gives us an actionable blueprint for creating high-impact content.
Semrush provides an unparalleled understanding of where your content strategy stands in relation to the competition. It highlights content gaps and opportunities, allowing you to quickly prioritize topics that will move the needle.
We use Semrush as the foundation for our entire content marketing program. Beyond keyword research, it’s invaluable for backlink analysis, traffic audits, and content planning. After identifying target keywords, we leverage the SEO Content Template to build comprehensive briefs for our writers.
Before publishing, we run each draft through the SEO Writing Assistant for final optimization checks. The Position Tracking tool then allows us to monitor keyword movement in search results and gauge the effectiveness of our strategy.
Pricing: Starting at $125/month
Standout Feature: The Keyword Gap tool
This feature quickly reveals content strategy gaps and provides actionable insights to help you catch up to and surpass competitors. It allows us to rapidly refine our approach to generate highly relevant, rank-worthy content.
The Bottom Line: Semrush is an indispensable all-in-one platform for scaling your content marketing efforts effectively. Its comprehensive toolset is essential for any serious content marketing program.
2. AI-Powered Apps from the Semrush App Center
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing content creation, but many AI tools operate in silos or lack proper context. Semrush is rapidly changing this with its impressive suite of AI-powered content creation tools. Here are some of the standouts we’ve found particularly valuable:
AI Social Content Generator
As content quality standards on social media continue to rise, the demand for higher quantity and frequency also increases. This tool allows you to produce both high-quality and high-volume content, including videos, at scale.
AI Writing Assistant
This app has streamlined many of the writing steps that previously slowed down content production. It assists with ideation, maintaining consistency in voice and tone, plagiarism checks, and provides writing support throughout the process. Compared to other AI writing tools, this one is particularly well-suited for SEO-optimized content.
ContentShake AI
Subject matter expertise has become increasingly important in light of Google’s algorithm updates. This app helps significantly in that regard. Whether you’re leveraging your own expertise or interviewing subject matter experts, ContentShake AI helps you incorporate relevant knowledge that AI auto-populates, enhancing the quality and authority of your content.
Instant Video Creator
YouTube is arguably the best platform for content creators outside of their own websites. This AI video app streamlines the process of repurposing blog content into engaging videos. It assists with editing and even helps with translations, saving enormous amounts of time and resources.
Pricing: $24-$60 per month
Standout Features:
- Text-to-video capabilities in the AI Social Content Generator
- SEO-focused writing assistance in the AI Writing Assistant
- Seamless integration of facts, statistics, and images in ContentShake AI
- Auto-generated AI voice-overs in Instant Video Creator
The Bottom Line: To empower your team and scale content creation processes that were previously impossible to automate, these Semrush AI apps are worth serious consideration. Integrating your favorites into your workflows can dramatically enhance your content program, benefiting from their tight integration with Semrush’s industry-leading SEO capabilities.
3. QuestionDB
Coming up with fresh, engaging blog post ideas can be a significant challenge. That’s why we’re excited about tools like QuestionDB that simplify this process. It’s a straightforward tool that helps you rapidly generate dozens of blog post ideas based on real user questions.
To use it, simply enter a topic you’re interested in writing about. QuestionDB then scours the web for questions people are actually asking about that topic, providing you with a wealth of content inspiration.
Pricing: Free or $10/month
Standout Feature: “Sort By” functionality
While QuestionDB defaults to sorting questions by popularity, the ability to sort by “Topic” is particularly useful. This organizes results into different categories, giving you a high-level overview of what people want to know about a subject.
The Bottom Line: QuestionDB has quickly become one of our go-to tools for discovering new blog post and YouTube video topic ideas. For websites focusing on question-based keywords, the $10 per month plan offers excellent value.
4. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a comprehensive content marketing toolkit that covers everything from topic research to brand monitoring. It’s like a Swiss Army knife for content marketers, packed with features to enhance your strategy.
While BuzzSumo offers a wealth of functionality, it remains intuitive and user-friendly. Its features and pricing are geared towards professional SEOs and content marketers looking to take their efforts to the next level.
Pricing: $79-$499 per month
Standout Feature: “Content Research”
Despite the addition of numerous features since its inception, Content Research remains BuzzSumo’s most valuable tool for content creation. It excels at helping you quickly find proven, engaging content ideas.
The Bottom Line: For serious SEO and content marketing professionals, BuzzSumo is a powerful ally that’s well worth exploring.
5. Mixkit
High-quality visuals are essential for engaging content, especially on platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Mixkit offers a treasure trove of free HD stock videos, eliminating the need for expensive video production.
With approximately 100 HD videos available for free and 10 new additions weekly, Mixkit is an invaluable resource for content creators looking to enhance their visual content.
Pricing: Free
Standout Feature: “Categories”
The well-organized category system makes it simple to find the perfect video for your needs, saving you time and effort in your content creation process.
The Bottom Line: Mixkit consistently delivers high-quality stock footage that can significantly elevate the production value of your content.
6. TopicRanker
Climbing the search engine results pages (SERPs) quickly without investing excessive time in keyword research and link building is a common challenge. TopicRanker addresses this by providing an in-depth list of easier-to-rank search terms, sorted by factors such as:
- Thin or outdated content
- Title tag mismatches
- Poor readability scores
By simply entering your website URL and a broad topic of interest, TopicRanker analyzes your domain to understand its niche and delivers a comprehensive report within about 15 minutes.
The report includes an actionable list of keywords highly relevant to your niche, sorted by ranking difficulty. This allows you to identify under-optimized areas in existing search results and develop strategies for creating superior content.
Pricing: $47 – $103 per month
Standout Feature: “Suggest Seed Topics”
This feature is a game-changer for overcoming creative blocks. When you’re stuck trying to generate new keyword ideas, the app does the heavy lifting by suggesting fresh topics relevant to your business.
The Bottom Line: TopicRanker is carving out a unique niche in the content marketing space, and we anticipate it becoming a staple tool for many SEO professionals. Its ability to identify quick wins and uncover valuable keyword opportunities makes it a powerful asset for any content strategy.
7. SquidVision
While most analytics tools can tell you how much traffic a blog post generates, it’s far more challenging to directly attribute revenue to specific content pieces. SquidVision fills this gap by offering granular insights into which aspects of your landing pages and blog posts result in new customers.
Similar to heatmap tools, SquidVision generates snapshots of your blog posts and tracks clicks on the page. What sets it apart is its ability to attribute each heatmap to verified sign-ups and payments.
This means you can literally see how much revenue every blog post has generated, allowing you to replicate the structure of your best-performing content. SquidVision helps identify underperforming CTAs or areas where users drop off, providing invaluable conversion optimization insights.
Pricing: $49-$199 per month
Standout Feature: “Revenue Bubbles”
Hovering over any revenue bubble on a heatmap generates a larger bubble with a detailed breakdown of clicks, trial sign-ups, and revenue for that specific button or link.
The Bottom Line: SquidVision is an exciting new entrant in the content marketing and landing page optimization space. Its ability to provide revenue attribution on heatmaps is a game-changer for content ROI analysis.
Note: As of this writing, SquidVision only integrates with Stripe and Shopify users.
8. CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer
It’s no secret that your headline plays a crucial role in content performance. But how can you assess the quality of your headline before publishing? Enter CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer.
This tool scores your headline based on various factors like length, sentiment, and structure, providing valuable insights for optimization.
Pricing: Free
Standout Feature: Actionable Suggestions
Unlike many headline analyzers, CoSchedule’s tool offers specific, actionable recommendations to improve your headline’s effectiveness.
The Bottom Line: We highly recommend running your titles through this tool before publishing posts or sending newsletters. It’s a simple yet powerful way to enhance your content’s click-through rates.
9. SimilarWeb
Understanding your competitors’ online performance is crucial for refining your own strategy. SimilarWeb provides insider data on your competitors’ top pages, keywords, and traffic sources.
Pricing: Free or Enterprise pricing
Standout Feature: “Referrals”
This feature allows you to see the exact sites sending your competitors the most traffic, offering valuable insights for your own outreach and partnership strategies.
The Bottom Line: SimilarWeb is an excellent tool for competitive analysis. While we wish they offered a straightforward monthly plan for more extensive data access, the free version still provides valuable insights.
10. ShareThis
Encouraging social sharing is a key aspect of content distribution. ShareThis offers sleek, customizable social sharing buttons that can significantly boost your content’s reach on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites.
Pricing: Free
Standout Feature: ShareThis WordPress plugin
This plugin makes it incredibly easy to add professional-looking social sharing buttons to your WordPress blog.
The Bottom Line: If you’re looking for an easy way to encourage social sharing of your content, ShareThis is an excellent choice.
11. Buffer
Timing is crucial in social media marketing. Buffer simplifies the process of scheduling your social media posts to ensure they go out when your audience is most likely to engage.
Pricing: $15-$199 per month
Standout Feature: Analytics
Buffer’s analytics feature allows you to see which posts garnered the most attention in terms of clicks, retweets, and overall engagement.
The Bottom Line: As long-time Buffer customers, we can attest to its ease of use and reliability. It’s an excellent tool for managing and optimizing your social media content distribution.
12. Canva
Visual content is increasingly important in digital marketing, but creating high-quality visuals can be challenging without professional design skills. Canva bridges this gap by making visual content creation accessible to everyone.
With Canva, you can quickly create everything from Instagram posts to presentations using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
Pricing: $12.95 per month
Standout Feature: “Templates”
Canva offers a wide range of beautiful, pre-designed templates for various social media platforms, making it easy to create professional-looking visuals quickly.
The Bottom Line: After testing numerous online image editing tools, we’ve found Canva to be one of the best, especially for creating social media visuals.
13. Content Idea Generator
Overcoming writer’s block is a common challenge in content creation. Portent’s Content Idea Generator is a fun and useful tool for brainstorming engaging blog post titles and content ideas.
Pricing: Free
Standout Feature: Tooltips
The tool doesn’t just generate title suggestions; it also explains why different elements of the headline work, helping you understand the principles of effective headline writing.
The Bottom Line: While not every suggestion will be a winner, this tool is excellent for sparking creativity and overcoming writer’s block.
14. Followerwonk
Identifying and connecting with influencers in your niche is crucial for expanding your content’s reach. Followerwonk simplifies this process by helping you find influential Twitter users in specific areas of interest.
Pricing: $29-$79 per month
Standout Feature: Social Authority
Instead of just ranking users by follower count, Followerwonk’s Social Authority metric provides a more nuanced view of a user’s influence based on engagement and other factors.
