Letters form words, words form sentences, sentences form content, and content forms our perception of the world. You may not pay attention to the amount of information that surrounds you on a daily basis: Ads urge you to buy, news informs you about global events, email connects you to colleagues, and direct mail sends you offers for local businesses.
It only catches your eye, though, when the B2B content marketing is done right. High-quality content can generate leads, decrease marketing costs, increase direct sales, and improve brand loyalty.
To utilize content marketing as one of the sharpest tools in your lead generation efforts, your words should be clear, concise, and compelling. To help with your B2B content creation, we’ve gathered twelve most useful content marketing tools that will sharpen your writing, save time, and ignite new ideas.
Grammarly is a web tool (that also comes in the form of a Google Chrome extension) that scans your writing for any grammatical, spelling, and semantic errors. Ordinary spell-checking tools usually focus on just spelling, while Grammarly takes context into consideration.
Not only is it great for long-form content but it’s also helpful in spell-checking your cold emails. Mistakes and typos in your B2B content lower your brand authority, which can result in a preconceived opinion about your services. Grammarly works like a second pair of eyes, yet you still need e to scan through its suggestions because, just like any AI, it can make mistakes too.
There are various pricing options for this tool, but you can start with a free version first.
Useful for: Content writers, paper writer online, copywriters, and SDRs
Editing your content can be tricky: It’s easy to lose touch with reality when you spend so much time on it. While Grammarly works as you work, the Hemingway Editor is a copy-paste type of editing tool that analyzes your B2B writing, grades it, and prepares recommendations for sharper material.
While Grammarly may offer more sophisticated words to use instead of “great,” Hemingway (just like the namesake writer) opts to stay on the path of simplicity.
You can use a free web version or purchase the desktop version.
Useful for: Content writers and copywriters
The primary task of bloggers is to write continuously and keep the audience interested in their topics. To stay on top of things, use BuzzSumo, a social media analysis tool that analyzes what people talk and share in your industry. It is meant to keep up with the trends and influencers in your field.
It offers competitor research, alerts for new posts from certain companies, and alerts for the usage of specific keywords. BuzzSumo can be very useful for planning your B2B content strategy in advance.
The price range for this tool starts at $79.
Useful for: SEO specialists and content marketers
Keywords are vital for curated marketing content. When selected right and used in a proper amount, it makes your work visible in the search engine, read more, and as a result, ranked higher. To get the best aid in the keyword search, you might want to check out AnswerThePublic. It’s a very visual tool that delivers more “human” results than its competitors.
It is free yet has a limited number of queries you can search per day. If you are interested in long-tail keywords, you might as well try Keyword Tool. It’s also free but offers a paid Pro version with analytics and keyword searches for each social media network.
Useful for: SEO specialists
On average, blogs with relevant images receive 94% more views compared to articles without images. If you’re interested in design, Canva can become an excellent tool for producing simple visuals and infographics, leaving your design team to perform more high-level tasks.
Canva has templates and layouts, so it’s pretty easy for a newbie to create a solid image. It also has an option to choose a template up to the distribution channels: a banner for LinkedIn or a square pic for Instagram.
Canva has tons of options to choose from and it’s free.
Useful for: Designers and content marketers
When you know the keyword yet still feel like you need some help finding the right topic, you can use Hubspot Blog Topic Generator. It has a straightforward interface where you enter a noun keyword, and it helps with generating ideas. It is free yet needs registering for a more extensive scope of results.
Once you’re done with your title, you can run it through Coschedule Headline Analyzer, which will rate your headline and make recommendations if needed.
Useful for: Content marketers and bloggers
Repeating the same word over and over again can make your text look stuffy and boring, so sometimes, you need to find synonyms that will fit contextually. To help you with that, use Thesaurus, an online dictionary.
It can be set to a synonym (also provides antonyms) and definition search. It also has a word-of-the-day rubric to broaden your lexicon. It’s free and easy to navigate.
If you want something similar with a different interface, you can try Alliteration.me.
Useful for: Content marketers, copywriters, and bloggers
Yoast is a website SEO optimization tool that analyzes your website and makes suggestions on content optimization for better authority in search engines. It helps to resolve both technical and non-technical SEO problems.
One of the helpful features for B2B content writers is that it analyses the blog’s content and offers what links can be included in the article. Although, the downside of this tool is that it’s only compatible with WordPress.
Useful for: Content marketers, SEO specialists, and bloggers
Trello is a project management tool that is meant to ease the collaboration on various content forms. On average, making one blog post involves several specialists: SEO, content writer, editor, designer, and social media manager.
Trello offers cards to represent each project: You can add participants there, set tasks and deadlines, and track every change made. There even is a more complete version with Trello power-ups. It makes content planning easy, and it’s free.
Useful for: All marketers
Ahrefs is an SEO tracking tool that monitors your competitors, reasons why they rank high, and your progress as well. It provides analytics on keywords, backlinks, and traffic.
It can be used prior to creating B2B content and afterward for tracking its performance. It has various pricing options starting with $99 yet offers a trial week for $7.
Ahrefs is a top tool for generating content ideas and keyword research. It has a smartly organized keyword database that includes all necessary metrics.
One of my favorite functions is the “Content Gap,” which helps to get topic ideas from other sites in the niche. Besides being a great help with keyword research, Ahrefs has one of the best “Content Explorer” sections out there.
—Christina Pigol, SEO Manager at CIENCE
Useful for: SEO specialists
Social Champ is a comprehensive social media management tool that streamlines the process of managing multiple accounts. It features scheduling, auto-posting, social media analytics, collaboration tools, post library, and a social media inbox.
With Social Champ, you can simplify the process of managing your social media accounts, get insights into audience and content, and save time for creating new content.
Pricing starts from $29 per month along with a free plan.
Useful for: Social media managers, marketers, and influencers
Did you know that 45% of B2B buyers say interactive content is one of their top three preferred content types? Surveys are one of the ways of incorporating interactive content into your marketing strategy.
With Survey Monkey, you can create surveys that raise brand awareness, gather feedback, and unveil common customer trends or problems.
One more way to find out what your audience thinks about the topics you are interested in is by asking a question on Quora.
Useful for: All marketers
As a B2B marketer, your goal is to produce content that will resonate with the target audience and keep their attention long enough to remember your company’s name or become a potential customer. Hopefully, these tools will help your marketing team save valuable resources and optimize your content to perfection.