The internet is a huge platform that welcomes every business with open hands. No matter, you are a startup or already an established brand. The internet has given authority to all brands to establish their online presence.
You can leverage the internet to publish content and build your brand online. Yes. Content Marketing is one of the cost-effective and reliable ways to promote your business online.
So, how do get started? Promoting your content/Content Outreach is not something that starts once your article is published. It should start even before you start writing the article. Focusing on your target audience while writing and concentrating on the keywords will help you write high-quality content. Writing high-quality content is tough. Editing is also tedious and ends up taking more time.
We always agree. But, what if you are writing high-quality content and no one is reading it? It makes no difference at all. Your brand will still be invisible to your prospects. For that reason, experts say that brands should spend more time promoting their high-quality content even more time than writing the content.
It is even more true when you do business in a highly competitive niche. You would need something extraordinary to stand out from your competitors and get noticed by your prospects.
Promoting your content over the internet is entirely a different ball game. It requires different tools from writing the content itself. Using the right content marketing tools will help you promote your content more easily and efficiently.
However, it is quite overwhelming to choose the right tool amongst the numerous content marketing tools. We are here to guide you with the 20 best apps worth trying for your content outreach. Read on to know in detail about the apps and how to use it to your advantage.
- Google Sheets:
To run a successful content outreach campaign, you would be collecting many details. Right from prospects, influencers and strangers as well. Google Sheets is an ideal place to store all such details and keep track of them. Google Sheets is similar to any other spreadsheet like Excel and it lets you export data in spreadsheet formats.
Now, all you need to do is set up fields and give appropriate headers. Fill in all the details of the prospects under the headers and update as you contact them. This way, you can use your Google sheet as a temporary CRM for managing your outreach campaign.
You can add or remove a few columns as every business requirement differs. Start using Google Sheets for your content outreach campaign.
- Linkclump:
Linkclump is used for opening multiple links at the same time. If you intend to open many links from a single page either for researching a few topics or link placement opportunities for your content, Linkclump is for you. It is a free chrome extension that works like a charm.
After installation, you need to hold shift, then click and drag over the list of links. It will open all of those links in new tabs. However, if you don’t want to open the links, you can copy and save them for future reference. Thus, Linkclump will help you research quicker and build links faster.
- Buzzsumo:
Buzzsumo is one of the useful tools for content outreach. It allows users to find the most popular content by topic or by the website. Also, it helps them in finding influencers for promoting their content.
Buzzsumo’s content research tool allows you to find the top-ranked content shared in the past 24 hours, weeks, months, and years. Such insight will let you understand what kind of content is more likely to succeed. It will also help you find link placement opportunities.
All you need to do is to enter your terms in the content research tool. Buzzsumo will show the list of content with most shares across Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. From the list, you can contact the authors and website owners of the content and request them to share your content on their platform. It will not only drive relevant traffic to your website but also get you a powerful backlink. Content with a backlink always claims to top the search engine results.
Another tool from Buzzsumo is amplification. This tool lets you know the most influential bloggers/ journalists. By entering keywords related to your niche, you will get the top ranking Twitter accounts for it. You can further connect with the influencers and share your content with them. If they find your content relevant and useful to their audience, they will consider publishing it.
- Ahrefs:
Ahrefs is the perfect tool for backlinks and SEO analysis. The tool lets you analyze a website link, keywords rankings, and SEO strength. Also, it helps you evaluate your competitor’s keywords and their backlinks. By identifying your competitor’s marketing strategy and improved keywords, you can drive better traffic to your business. Ahrefs is widely used to conduct keyword research for Google, YouTube, and Amazon.
- WordPress:
WordPress comes in handy for content marketing purposes. It is the most popular Content Management System that lets you make any website of your choice. It is an open-source CMS, and you can either self-host or host your site via WordPress.com. It has various plugin architectures and a template system. And it lets you customize any website to fit your business, blog, or portfolio. Bloggers widely use this as they can customize the platform as per their choice. Many big brands like Time Magazine, The New Yorker, prefer WordPress to power their websites for its robust features.
- Google Docs:
Google Docs is like a home to Content Marketing. It is the platform where all the words get constructed before going online. It’s every content marketer’s first choice as it is quite easy to draft articles in Google Docs. Also, you can easily upload Google Docs directly to your Content Management System (CMS).
- Airstory:
If you are looking to take your content creation to the next level, Airstory is for you. Are you feeling overwhelmed to switch between Google Docs and Google Drive? or Do you open hundreds of tabs open for research? Consider using Airstory for your content creation. It is an excellent word processing tool that allows you to save quotes, images, and multimedia and lets you drag and drop it into any application you write. It is ideal for writers who are into long-term content like books/ebooks.
- Grammarly:
It is quite natural to make spelling or grammar mistakes for anyone, even if they are proficient in English. Grammarly is like someone having an eye on your content. It points out the mistakes and suggests new words to use. It is one tool that every content creator relies on before publishing their work online.
- Yoast:
Yoast is the WordPress plugin for SEO that helps your website meet the technical SEO standards. Right from optimizing your content for keywords to previewing meta descriptions, URLs, or suggesting relevant internal links, Yoast does all that for you. It is a great plugin that has 4.9 out of 5 stars in the WordPress marketplace.
- Vidyard:
Vidyard is an online video platform for businesses. The platform helps you host, share, and promote video content on your website. It allows businesses to connect with viewers through personalized video experiences. Video content receives maximum engagement from the audience and helps your business reach the next level.
- Loom:
The loom is a video messaging tool. It lets users share their messages as instantly shareable videos. Ideal for work purposes; it is great for communicating quick questions or explaining concepts to other team members. The app encourages effective and faster communication in the workplace.
- Trello:
When you are into Content Marketing, you need to organize and manage many things to keep the process going. Trello is one of the best project management tools used by millions of people for several purposes. It is a perfect editorial calendar tool that minimizes confusion, organizes tasks, and tracks progress.
- Airtable:
Airtable is another project management tool that is a combination of Spreadsheets and Databases. The app is used for various purposes, like any other collaboration tool. However, when it comes to content marketing, the app helps in two major purposes. One is for editorial calendars, and the other is for influencer management.
- Google Analytics:
Google Analytics is a free web analysis tool from Google that lets you analyze your website traffic. Its data-driven approach does half the work of your marketing team. It uses technology to bridge the gap between the customer’s needs and your products. In short, Google Analytics lets you make a good business website for your target audience and industry.
- HotJar:
HotJar is an excellent tool that uses both analysis and feedback tools to analyze your website. While the analysis tool lets you know what the users do, the feedback tool lets you hear what the users have to say. Knowing both useful insights helps you improve user experience and get a high conversion rate as well.
- Google Optimize:
Google Optimize is a free online split-testing tool from Google that easily integrates with Google Analytics reports. It is used to experiment with different ways of delivering your content. The tool allows you to test variants of web pages and see how they perform. Optimize facilitates three types of testing like A/B testing, multivariate testing, and redirect tests. It also monitors the results and recommends the best variant.
- Mutiny:
Personalization and customization are the future. People prefer tailored experiences more than ever. Mutiny allows you to personalize your website content based on the customer’s activities. The app analyzes your visitors and recommends the best audiences for personalization. For example, you can target visitors who read three blog posts promoting specific products or visitors clicking specific CTA buttons repeatedly. Mutiny is the perfect tool for B2B or eCommerce.
- Thestocks.IM:
Attractive visuals and appealing images are part of good content marketing. Thestocks.IM has various free stock photo sites, including Unsplash and Pixabay.
- Canva:
If the stock image doesn’t fit in, Canva is right here for your rescue. However, you need to have extraordinary graphic design skills. Anyone can design with Canva. This tool works perfectly for all kinds of content marketing visuals like social media posts, blog cover photos, Twitter cover photos, etc.
- Adobe Photoshop:
How about having your own imagery, and you are good at graphic design as well? Then Photoshop comes in handy for you. It is great for editing pictures, creating images, and so on. You can use such photoshopped images as your Facebook photos, blog cover photos, and for any marketing purposes. With a little practice, photoshop can take you a long way.
Conclusion:
Try utilizing these effective apps to promote your content. These apps can simplify the process for you. Right from tracking prospects, researching the target audience to generating leads. When you understand the marketing nuances and use the right tools, your content will get maximum visibility. That, in turn, builds your brand online and drives huge traffic for your business.
Vipinraj Nair is the Founder and CEO of Cypherox Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a leading web & mobile app development company. He loves to write about the vital role of web development for different industries, custom web development, digital marketing, website cloning, mobile app development, and the latest technology trends.