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Creating engaging, results-driven customer content can be challenging. Whether you find it difficult to brainstorm ideas that will resonate with your target audience or struggle to capture their interests, needs, and pain points with valuable content, you’re far from alone. Luckily, there’s a myriad of content development tools available to meet your specific content needs.
But, which ones are best for you and your business? We’re glad you asked!
Our expert content team has rounded up the ten best content development tools to make your content journey a breeze. Whether you’re in the market for proofreading, editing, quick-video generation, or SEO-ranking insight, we’ve got you covered. That way, you can spend less time researching and more time doing—so your customer base gets more of the content they deserve.
What are Content Development Tools?
According to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 86% of marketers believe that content marketing is one of the most important strategies for success.
However, only 20% would rate their organization’s overall content marketing approach as proactive. That’s why more and more business professionals are adopting content development tools as a way to take action.
But taking action means, first, developing content. Content development entails planning, creating, and editing content that is to be published. This content should encompass a variety of content types (written copy, images, and other multimedia) that ultimately work together to achieve specific business goals.
These pieces of content should serve one or more of your business goals. Regardless if those goals are in the name of driving revenue-driven or brand-building, you must ensure that all of your content aligns with them. Luckily, content development tools exist to make bridging that gap that much smoother.
All content development tools, in some way, aid in the creation process of certain content outlets (i.e., your blog, social media channels, etc.). The tools assist you in developing content in various formats, whether it be audio episodes for podcasts, ads for social media channels, articles for blogs, or videos for YouTube channels. These tools can also be less channel-focused and more geared towards the actual art of content creation, as they empower you to quickly design graphics or search for trending topics to write about.
Top Content Development Tools For Content Marketers
- Ahrefs
Every SEO content development strategy should incorporate rankings for relevant keywords, whether those be industry buzzwords or run-of-the-mill marketing tactics. For reliable insights, industry professionals turn to Ahrefs. Unlike most platforms, it eliminates the uncertainty of these rankings and even goes as far as showing you how they measure up to those of your competitors. That means companies that use Ahrefs have a direct advantage over those that don’t.
While Ahrefs can be used for basic SEO research, there’s a myriad of features that users can rely on to improve their ratings, too. With Ahrefs, you can handle in-depth projects like performance reports and set their delivery cadence, so you’re able to stay updated on how your content is performing at all times.
Most users utilize Ahref’s keyword research or site analysis tools, but the platform’s Top Pages and Content Gap reports are gaining popularity amongst users. The Top Pages reports giving users insight into how they can analyze the most valuable pages on a website, while the Content Gap reports reveal how your competitors rank for subjects or topics you’re not covering.
- Buzzsumo
There’s no overstating how crucial content research and tracking performance metrics are to your content development strategy. With Buzzsumo, you can eliminate the stress of tracking how your content performs while staying on top of your competitors. Additionally, Buzzsumo also allows users to find influencers and monitor any business-driving activity happening online.
Ultimately, Buzzsumo is second to none when it comes to deciphering topics and content types that will reward users with measurable results—and seeing how your competitors stack up along the way.
- Yoast
To date, implementing SEO strategies has never been easier. And with Yoast, it’s only getting easier. The platform is a WordPress plugin for SEO that allows users to optimize their content for a specific keyword. With Yoast, users can also preview and edit meta descriptions as well as URL slugs, abstract away technical SEO tasks, and suggest internal links. It’s SEO optimization simplified for the masses.
If you’re looking to score a healthy website ranking this year, then you’ll need to commit to optimizing your content today. Check out the Yoast SEO workout guide to see which important routine SEO tasks can help you identify optimization opportunities, such as hard-to-find, unlinked content on your website.
Additionally, having a site structure that accommodates visitors and that Google can scan and comprehend is just as important. With Yoast SEO Premium, users get powerful internal linking tools that give guidance on how you improve your site, from internal linking suggestions to ready-made blocks.
- Grammarly
The results and credibility of your content directly lie within your editing and proofreading processes. This makes the period of time after your writers submit their copy and before going live with it mission-critical. Grammarly reduces the chances of missing punctuation and misspelled words while also recommending alternative phrases for better clarity and readability.
Furthermore, Grammarly will rate your content with a readability score. This score is an indication of how easy your content is to read for different audiences. With the help of Grammarly, you will soon gain the confidence and skills required to write highly engaging, proof-perfect, and digestible content that will drive customers to act.
- Giphy
Regardless of how you prefer to pronounce it, we all love a good GIF. That’s why business professionals are leveraging these fun, tidbit-sized pieces of content to engage their audience.
And with GIPHY, users can select and choose one from a collection of pre-made GIFs, or can even craft their own using a video they made or one from YouTube.
Basically, there’s no shortage of editing options, and with the ability to embed your GIF hosted via Giphy or download the source file to upload elsewhere, your content will surely stand out.
- Unsplash
Without a subscription to stock image platforms like Shutterstock or a healthy photography budget, you can find yourself spending hundreds of dollars for a single image.
Thanks to Unsplash, however, users have access to a comprehensive stock collection of high-quality photos and images that are free to use and share under the Unsplash license. Long gone are the days of endlessly scrolling unlicensed Google image results that don’t fit your needs.
What makes Unsplash unique from every other free image-sourcing platform, you asl? Well, creators from around the world can upload their images to the platform, giving users access to a wide-ranging gallery of imagery sourced from around the globe. Anyone with a valid form of ID can choose from various free, unique photos for their content.
- VismeChart
VismeChart has streamlined the art of chart-making by boasting a simple drag-and-drop designer that allows anyone to make presentations, infographics, charts, and quick videos. Up your content game by adding custom-designed chart visuals to your blog posts, social media posts, or other content that drive backlinks and credibility. Charts are the best way to translate complicated, boring data into visually appealing educational material, after all.
The best part of VismeChart is that anyone can use it. Whether you need to create charts, infographics, short videos, and or presentations, VismeChart’s intuitive, the drag-and-drop designer sets business professionals up for sales success. They can enjoy access to the platform’s features by subscribing to Visme’s free subscription plan.
- PiktoChart
Another way to translate insightful information into engaging customer content is through infographics. Infographics are one of the most popular ways to visualize data and to use as a part of your content development strategy.
With PiktoChart, you can deliver professional-looking infographics without any of the required design skills. Additionally, you can incorporate backlinks by creating superb and share-worthy infographics in your niche. Try PiktoChart’s free plan or explore their Premium plans that start at $24 per month.
- Canva
Canva is streamlining how we design our presentations for social media posts, infographics, resumes, newsletters, logos, YouTube intros—you name it. Not only does Canva aim to save your team invaluable time creating content, but it also strives to spare you from having to shell out for more expensive, less-encompassing digital design tools. Additionally, it comes with stock elements, a photo library, and an almost overwhelming array of templates. Rest assured that no matter the occasion, Canva has what you need.
Best of all, Canva is as user-friendly as the graphic design game gets. With no special skills required, absolutely anyone can make respectable graphics for their content marketing. Start with one of their templates or create a new design from scratch. If you can drag and drop, you can create stunning visuals with Canva.
- Veed
Editing videography is no easy feat, as it requires a number of technical skills that can take months to learn. That’s no longer the case thanks to Veed, which enables users to easily edit video content, add visual effects, and translate videos and audio files. For those just branching out into content development, Veed is the perfect tool to quickly and easily edit, crop, and add subtitles to your videos.
While some users have experienced glitches using the platform, most say Veed is a reliable platform that saves time when it comes to manually adding subtitles to videos.
Partner With ScrollReads for the Best Approach to Content Development Tools & Strategy
With an endless list of content development tools, you may be wondering how to keep up with the demand of crafting engaging high-quality content while still running your business
ScrollReads has you covered! We strive to empower you to focus on your business and forget the headaches and risks of running a content department. We operate as an extension of your marketing team.
Experience our high-touch dedicated team of content marketing experts that work with you to achieve your content goals with incredible high-quality blog content.
ScrollReads helps you realize how to increase your content output with the power of our expert team of content marketing strategists and content production staff.
Access our free Content Marketing playbook to take the first step in a content-development-driven future and contact us to learn more.
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