My Top 5 Content Marketing Tools

It’s that time of year. When the temperatures start to drop, and our thoughts turn to the insanity of the holiday season. But, in our slower, more sentimental moments, our thoughts also turn to the things we’re thankful for. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us, I’m actually thinking even more about the things I’m grateful for on a daily basis.

While we all know that family and friends are the greatest gifts of all during the holidays, as a marketer, I have a few things on my “thankful” list that might not be quite as conventional. So, while I’m eternally grateful for the roof over my head, the wonderful people in my life, and all the things that really matter, here are a few things that make my life easier as a content marketer and as a business owner.

Related Words

Relatedwords.org is one of my favorite things on the internet. Seriously. It’s a simple site that’s not quite a thesaurus. You enter a word or phrase, and the page populates with words that relate to your word in some way. When I’m searching for the perfect word or phrase for a blog or social post, Related Words is a fun tool to get my gears going and help me land on just the right thing.

And, if I’m feeling a bit like procrastinating and dropping down a word-fueled rabbit hole, this is a great site for that too. Just enter any word you like and see where it takes you.

Also of note, describingwords.io and ReverseDictionary.org. You’re welcome. (And I’m sorry if you end up down the aforementioned rabbit hole. It happens to the best of us.)

Canva

My first job is writing. My second job is often making that writing look good. We all know that social posts with graphics and videos catch more engagement than text-only posts. Sometimes, that means I have to create my own images – and make them look decent while I’m at it.

Canva makes this easy. It’s a free online image editing tool with a ton of templates, fonts, stock images, and more to play with. And you can easily upload your own photos and images for your graphics, as well. When I need a picture to make a post pop, Canva’s my first stop.

Hootsuite

In a previous post, I said that you can automate everything in your social media marketing efforts, but you shouldn’t. That doesn’t mean you can’t automate anything. I’d be lost without at least a little bit of social media automation. Hootsuite makes that easy. The free version lets you:

• Link up to three social accounts
• Schedule up to 30 posts ahead of time
• Create drafts of posts ahead of time and make changes on the fly
• Easily move posts around if you decide you want to reschedule them

Asana

From projects for clients to grocery lists, Asana has become a part of my daily life. Sometimes I think of it as my brain’s own external hard drive. Sometimes I think of it as my personal assistant. Sometimes, it’s just a fancy list tool. However I think about it, if it weren’t for this app and my Google Calendar, I’m not sure how I’d get anything done.

My Trusty Notebook and Pen

When all else fails, go old school.

At the end of the day, as much as I rely on technology, and as helpful as these other tools are, I keep going back to my notebook. I’ve mentioned before that I have a love affair with to-do lists. This is where I write my daily tasks. It’s where I jot down notes while on a call with a client. Where I offload things my brain would love to hang onto but probably can’t. Where I map out marketing journeys before I create landing pages and email campaigns. It’s an old friend, and it’s been there for me for years (not the same one, of course, but you get the idea).

And there you go – the tools I use every day, the tools I am most grateful for. What are a few of your favorite tools of the trade?