Choosing the right tools and applications can make content creation very fast and easy for startup bloggers and many online marketers.
Creating content that converts is one of the major challenges faced by digital marketers, bloggers and online business owners. Many bloggers and digital marketers often find it difficult to put out fresh content on their blog or website and this can be discouraging and overwhelming at the same time.
Sometimes, you simply lack inspiration and you feel like you don’t have anything to put on your blog or website. Other times you are wondering why your content is not generating so much attention or converting customers to potential buyers or subscribers.
This is quite understandable, most online marketers and bloggers have felt this way or are still feeling this way. Some big businesses and organizations have at one time or the other felt this way.
The good news is that you can improve on this and eventually overcome it. The truth is, content creation is not that easy especially when you don’t know how to go about it.
However, with the content creation tools/software, tip and ideas that will be shared in this blog post, you’ll be able to create compelling and engaging content.
Table of Content
20 Content Creation Tools for Startups
Content Creation and Planning Tools
Image Content Creation Tools
Adobe Creative Cloud Express (Formerly known as AdobeSpark)
Other Content Creation Tools
What is Content
In the field of digital marketing, content refers to a term used to describe any kind of graphic, textual, visual, or interactive element on a website.
Content provides value to a blog or website and attracts users to interact and engage with it. Therefore, if you want people to engage more with your website, make sure you provide high-quality content that will keep them coming back for more. While content marketing on the other hand is an approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Importance of Content
When you create content, you give people a reason to engage with your website and ultimately become subscribers or potential buyers.
There are many ways content is important for bloggers and online business marketers which we are going to explain below.
1. Content informs, educates and entertains your audience
Content tells people about your business and services. It does this by answering some basic questions about your business. This can be in form of a blog post, video, or infographics.
2. Content helps your website or blog rank high on Google
Creating content and posting it on your website and blog can help it rank on the Google search engine. Google algorithm is programmed to recognize good content and the more people engage with your website, the more it ranks on the Google search page.
3. Content earns links from other sites
High engaging and quality content brings people to your blog or website while also earning links from other websites. Links are a key strategic SEO ranking factor that Google uses in ranking your website. Each link represents the authenticity of your website. Therefore, the more backlinks you have, the higher your site will rank on the Google search engine result page.
4. Content converts
You create content to inform, educate and entertain people to ultimately generate sales and new customers or subscribers. Every time a visitor takes an action on your website, it is considered a conversion. That kind of action is what helps your website or blog grow. The first step is getting your content out there, then you can strategize by running ads to get the most out of your content.
5. Content Makes you an Industry leader
By creating content on your blog, you are showcasing your expertise in your particular domain. This establishes you as an industry thought leader. If you are a digital marketer, you can create a blog post on how to set up Instagram ads, how to create viral content, essential tools to improve your content marketing, or any other topics relating to digital marketing. This expertise goes a long way especially when other websites start linking to your content. When you do this, you are showing people that you are an authority in that particular field. And when other people link or mention you in their content that idea is being reinforced.
6. Helps Promote Content on Social Media Platforms
Having a social media account for your business can be of great value to you. With these social media platforms, you can promote your content to a larger and more engaging audience. Share links to your blog post, website product page, and videos of your product on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook and Twitter are good places for promoting your blog post. While Instagram and Pinterest are good examples of where you can promote your video’s content.
Types of Content
- Images
- Videos
- Blog
- Infographics
- Testimonials
- Reviews
- Contest
- Giveaways
- Electronic books (Ebooks)
20 Content Creation Tools for Startups
Content creation involves writing content, designing awesome graphics and images or infographics, and making and editing videos. We have compiled a list of the most useful and valuable tools ranging from texting and imagery and video content tools.
Content Creation and Planning Tools
1.SEMrush Topic Research Tool
Before creating any content, you have to research what you want to put out there. Semrush research is a great tool that can help you come up with quick content ideas and help you plan out your content idea. All you have to do is enter a topic and target location, then Semrush provides you with potential ideas around that main topic.
Furthermore, it also allows you to enter a domain to find content on what to write to inspire your content plan. The SEMrush topic research tool makes it very quick and easy to get potential ideas around your core topic in just minutes. Just enter a subtopic and see related articles and questions being asked in real time.
Cost: Semrush comes with a plan of $99.95 per month which includes SEO, PPC tools, social media tools, and content.
2. Google Trends
Google Trends is another content creation tool that can help users understand the popularity of a search term or topic on the Google search result page. With Google Trends, you can understand how popular a keyword, search term, or topic is on the search result page. With this, you can easily find the highest-ranking keywords or topics in your industry. Don’t forget that Google is the most used search engine in the world.
Bloggers can use this software to see how a particular topic has trended over time and use this data and insight to create content around topics that are relevant in their industry. This tool can help you gain a competitive advantage in your industry by being the first to start a new trend.
Pricing: Free
3. keywordtool.io
Keywordtool.io is a keyword tool that helps content creators generate up to 750 long-tail keywords for any search made. It is a web-based keyword research and marketing tool that uses the Google Autocomplete feature to generate keyword suggestions for you.
With KeywordTool, you can see top related searches on your keywords. It also allows you to see trending keywords and questions on YouTube, Bing, and also in mobile app stores. Once you start getting keywords idea, you can use those keywords for content marketing, PPC campaign management, search engine optimization, and even social media advertising.
Pricing:
- The business plan costs $159/month
- Pro Plus plan costs $79/month
- Pro Basic plan costs $79/month
4. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a content creation tool that is used to generate keywords online. This software offers important and crucial details for a website. This includes Keyword suggestions, content ideas, Site Audits, and more. All you have to do is put the keywords, select language, select source and click on suggest. Then immediately it displays suggestions that suit best to your search term. Ubersuggest also comes with a chrome extension that suggests related keywords and long-tail keywords anytime you search on Google.
Pricing:
5.SEMrush Marketing Calendar
Once you have identified the content that you want to create, you need to map out a solid editorial calendar and stick to it. Planning a content strategy around a calendar will help you be accountable and take the steps needed to regularly drive growth. It is a great way to motivate you to keep on top of a regular publishing schedule, and the SEMrush Marketing Calendar is the perfect tool to help you to do this.
Cost: From $99.95 per month
6. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is another content creation tool for generating content ideas for bloggers and online marketers. Just like Semrush research tools, Buzzsumo helps users figure out a popular post based on keywords. BuzzSumo comes with a bunch of filters to shrink the result based on language, location, journalist, date, and more which is an added advantage over Semrush.
The results gotten can be filtered based on their reach on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can also set custom filters to further narrow down the results. BuzzSumo also has a free Chrome extension as well.
Pricing: Free for 10 searches a month. Paid plans start at $99/mo.
Image Content Creation Tools
7. Canva
Canva is an amazing visual content creation tool that is used by millions of people all over the world. The amazing thing is that you don’t need to be an expert in graphics design to use Canva. Even the least creative people could use it to create stunning visuals across a range of formats.
Canva offers a wide range of ready-made templates ranging from social and blog images to infographics and more. You can use Canva to design almost anything including presentations, social media posts, infographics, resumes, newsletters, logos, and YouTube videos. It streamlines the design process and makes it easy for just anyone.
With Canva, you can save money and time spent on hiring a graphics design expert. Additionally, it comes with stock elements and a photo library, as well as a wide range of templates for every need.
Although Canva should not take the place of your designers entirely, there will be sometimes when you will need to design high-quality graphics (when running ads). Canva works for bloggers and content writers who are putting together quick social media, blog images, or infographics.
Pricing:
Canva comes with a free package, but also has a pro. The pro version goes for about $12.95 per month and custom enterprise pricing for teams of 20 or more.
8. GIPHY
GIFs are another content creation tool that is used by bloggers and digital marketers to grab the audience’s attention. Visuals over the years have proved to be more engaging than text. Therefore, incorporating gifs into your blogging strategy is sure to catch a lot of attention. Sometimes Gifs grab more attention than still images.
With GIPHY, you can upload a video or photo and set the animation speed. Your GIF will be good to go in no time. You can also integrate with multiple apps and make GIF sharing simpler than ever.
Have one team member who can answer your chats and emails at lightning speed with an animated GIF suited for the context? In addition to sparring in chat messages, use Giphy in blog posts.
9. Piktochart
Piktochart is a content creation tool used to create eye-catching, high-quality infographics or presentations. You don’t need extensive design experience to use PiktoChart. Note that infographics are a way to display data visually while using as part of your link-building strategy. You can drive quality backlinks by creating engaging and informative infographics relating to your industry.
Piktochart comes with over 600 themed templates for users to choose from and design professional-looking infographics without needing any design skills with Piktochart. The software can help you convert your numeric data into visual charts that provide a more engaging story of your marketing efforts.
Research shows that there is over 800% growth in infographics search since 2015 and the numbers continue to rise daily. Infographics will undoubtedly become another way for people to consume information in our fast-paced society.
10. BeFunky
BeFunky is a content creation tool that can make your work easy as a blogger or digital marketer. It comes with a variety of features including batch photo editing, collage creation, background removal, and much more. The software offers various templates for various purposes like social media marketing, blogs, and events.
What’s more, it offers a Chrome extension, allowing you to see a list of dropdown images on the upper left toolbar.
With Be Funky, you can double-check for minor details on your image. Again, you can adjust the size of your image to fit various platforms before officially publishing it.
You can also use this tool to edit photos like screenshots once you click the extension icon. Once you click on the extension icon, it takes you straight to BeFunky photo editor.
11. Pablo
Pablo is an image content creation tool designed by buffer for creating attractive social media images. It comes with over 25 different fonts and more than 600 beautiful stock images to choose from while allowing for plenty of customization. Users can also follow an easy workflow and share the content directly on social media or schedule it on buffer when they are through with the design.
Video content creation Tool
12. Animaker
Animaker is a video content creation tool used by over 10 million people to create awesome videos that require basic animation.
Users can add animation into videos with simple in-built characters and templates with drag-and-drop features. It is very easy and quite fun to use and can give you amazing results. Animaker comes with more than 100 million photos and over 1000 templates allowing users a large volume of options to choose from. The software is web-based and users can save their designs in the cloud automatically after creating the designs.
Big organizations like Chipotle, Unilever, Hubspot, Amazon and Nokia have been using animated videos to capture and attract the attention of their audience. Animated videos are now the new tools used by companies to showcase their products and services. Animaker is easy to use by anybody without prior experience in a video animation.
Pricing
- Cost: Free
- Premium Option: Available
- Purpose: Video Editing and Animation
12. Magisto
Magisto is an automated video content editing tool powered by advanced AI algorithms. The AI makes it possible for the software to choose the best part of a video or photo and merges them into exciting, well-crafted brand new video content.
You can also spice up the video by adding music, setting the mood of the video, and adding filters for a more enhanced look. Magisto also allows you to capture images/photos or record videos within the app itself.
Pricing: Business ($419.88/year), Professional ($119.88/year), and Premium ($59.88/year).
The free account allows you to create videos for up to one minute and fifteen seconds and you can also upload ten photos or video clips. A premium account user can create much longer videos and upload more clips. It is compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows
13. Animoto
Animoto is another great video platform like Animaker that allows users to create captivating multimedia. The software comes with a lot of customization options and features. You can create a professional video by adding your video clips/photos with the music, theme, text, filters, and other embellishments offered by the tool. With Animoto, you can turn existing video clips and images into video slideshows.
Their existing storyboard template can help you build a video from scratch depending on how much time you have and your ambition.
Pricing: It comes with a free version. There is also a paid plan that comes at €28 or €69 per month based on your business’s needs. Annual subscriptions offer significant discounts.
14. Adobe CC Express (Formerly Known asAdobeSpark)
Adobe CC Express is a software designed by Adobe systems as a set of three media-creation applications which include spark page, spark post, and spark video. Many users use Adobe CC Express to create videos on Instagram or Facebook. There are also some free materials for beginners who might be having difficulty with the platform.
The application can also sync with iOS mobile apps and allow users to create, edit, and share their visual creations from any device regardless of the time. It comes with an entire collection of built-in templates and design options.
There is also an option of automatic saving where all the designs you make are saved automatically on the cloud space on the web network. Users can import/export the images from their devices and edit them for social media, business, and education.
15. Videoshop
VideoShop is a video content creation tool that lets you add music, sound effects, and voiceovers to your videos. It also allows you to combine and edit clips, and add filters and transitions. This video editing tool comes with other amazing features such as Slow/Fast Motion, Voiceovers, Mergers, Animated Titles, Texts, Display Adjustment, and much more. With Videoshop features like Filters and Transitions, you can choose from a range of great effects to add that extra spark to your videos.
After you’re done making your video, you can share it directly on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. Overall, this video editing tool is extremely easy to use and convenient for first-time users who have little or no knowledge about making videos. You can download the Videoshop app from Google PlayStore.
Other Content Creation Tool
17. Grammarly
As a content creator, you spend most of your time creating copy on blogs and websites. Grammarly can help you with spelling and grammatical errors in your content while writing. It also helps you focus on the tone of your content and check for plagiarism. The application makes sure you avoid any grammatical errors when writing.
As a blog writer, typos and spelling mistakes can be a turnoff to your readers and can damage your reputation as a writer. That’s why you need the Grammarly application to help you detect and correct errors as well as check for plagiarism.
It comes with a Chrome extension, which comes in very handy when typing something on almost all web platforms.
Cost: Grammarly comes with a Free version and Premium and business plan.
18. Copy.ai
Copy.ai is another tool for content creators that is used for rewriting content and sentences. Copy.ai leverages artificial intelligence to reduce the time and effort you spend on copywriting. If you don’t want to write content from the scratch, copy.ai can help you rewrite your sentence or copy from the scratch.
It makes sure the copy it generates sounds as authentic as possible. You can tweak the content you like among the choices it provides.
You can use copy.ai for Product descriptions, Blog posts, Social ads, email copy, sales copy and many more.
Pricing: Free trial available. Premium plans start at $35 per month.
19. Infogram
Infogram is a great software used by digital marketers and content creators use to display large marketing data into a more understandable and visually attractive chart. The tool gives you a wide range of charts to choose from which include pie charts, line charts, bar charts, and many more. You can also use this platform to create a story using animated objects.
The graphs or charts created by this application can be displayed in your blog post or social media page to add a more authoritative tone to your writing.
20. Meme Generator
In recent times memes are now part of the internet, especially on social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A meme is a way to capture your audience’s attention hilariously. Earlier in this blog post, I said that content is supposed to be entertaining. A meme is one way to make your audience laugh and have fun on your social media page.
Meme Generator lets you create your memes in just a few minutes. The software comes with over 500 images. You can also upload your picture if you don’t like the ready-made images.
Meme Generator is the most easy-to-use tool when trying to create memes using a mobile phone.
Conclusion
Although these tools cannot replace content marketing skills, they can help you improve your result as a blogger or online business marketer. Strategically combining these tools with your content marketing skill can help you create high-quality and attention-grabbing content.
You can combine some of these tools and apply them with your content creation skills and start getting a wonderful result. Also, this list is not exhaustive, you can also go online and do some research on some tools and applications that will help you achieve your goal as a content creator.
