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Email marketing is one of the oldest and best tricks in the communication playbook, and newsletters are an excellent tool for brand awareness, audience engagement, and lead nurturing. But newsletter planning is challenging. Coming up with and delivering fresh ideas...
Jul 4, 2024
Blogging is a tricky job, especially if you do it all by yourself. You have to come up with relevant content ideas, do keyword research, create visuals, and find the time to plan all those articles in your blog content calendar. Plus, I didn’t even mention what it takes to write the blog post itself. But with the right blogging tools, all this becomes a little easier.
That’s exactly why I’ll walk you through some of the best tools to create content more productively, tools that both readers and search engines will love. To make things easier, I’ve split this list into multiple categories covering tools for search engine optimization, graphic design, and so on. So feel free to skim ahead.
First, let’s go through a brief rundown of what you need to look for when picking a blogging tool.
Collaboration in Universal Content section in Planable
Planable is a content collaboration platform that makes planning, reviewing, and working on content a breeze. Planable’s intuitive calendar view gives you a complete bird’s-eye view of your blog posts and lets you easily plan upcoming blogs in the drag-and-drop interface.
As for collaboration, you can work with team members on blog articles through direct comments and mentions, and leave feedback via text annotations or suggestions — just like Google Docs. Planable also includes version control to help you see whether feedback was implemented correctly.
Collaboration on a blog post in Planable
Above all, the platform stands out through its approval functionalities. Planable includes four approval workflow types: none, optional, required, and multi-level.
Multi-level approvals ensure a thorough review process involving all members responsible for content creation. For instance, a blog would first need approval from the editor before being passed down to the content SEO specialist for optimization, then the content manager decides whether to give the final green light.
Multi-level approval workflow in Planable
Planable’s functionalities are not limited to blogging though. You can use it to schedule and monitor content across the most popular social media networks, while its Universal Content tool lets you work on any type of written content you wish — be it video scripts, content briefs, newsletters, and so on.
Key features
Drawbacks: Planable currently doesn’t integrate natively with any content management system (CMS). To publish blog posts, you’ll need to copy/paste content from Planable to your CMS.
Pricing: Pricing starts at $11 per user per month (billed annually), but you can also schedule up to 50 social media posts for free.
Trello is a straightforward Kanban-based solution that allows you to plan and oversee the content creation process from a project management perspective.
You can create boards with multiple columns, each dedicated to specific stages of the content creation process, like work-in-progress, in-review, or published content — it makes tracking the overall project progress a walk in the park.
You can also set up assignees and due dates for upcoming blog posts to keep work more organized.
Key features
Drawbacks: Trello lacks built-in text editing tools.
Pricing: There’s a free version available, while paid plans start at $5 per user per month (billed annually).
BuzzSumo is a content research and discovery platform that streamlines the ideation process. You can uncover trending topics, popular subject-related questions, existing blog post examples, and more — all you have to do is type in a few keywords.
As for content research, BuzzSumo can pinpoint your competitors’ top-performing content, conduct keyword research, and gauge topic interest across each social network, for instance.
Key features
Drawbacks: BuzzSumo lacks built-in content editing and collaboration tools.
Pricing: Plans start at $159 per month (billed annually). There’s also a free 30-day trial available.
Grammarly is a free writing tool perfect for proofreading. The platform checks your content for any spelling, punctuation, or grammar mistakes.
It also includes an AI-powered assistant that can generate outlines, expand on existing content, shorten it, and more.
The platform’s paid plans include additional features like the option to adjust your content’s tone, rewrite full sentences for improved readability, and a built-in plagiarism checker.
Key features
Drawbacks: Most of Grammarly’s features are hidden behind paid plans. The free tool only includes the grammar checker and AI assistant (with up to 100 uses).
Pricing: Paid packages cost from $12 per month (billed annually). You can also use the platform’s free version.
In contrast, Hemingway Editor strictly focuses on text readability. It’s a free platform that scores your content on a scale based on how easy it is to read.
Hemingway Editor then highlights any complicated phrases, excessive use of passive voice, and where you could cut down on adverbs. It also lets you know if any sentences that have a simpler alternative.
Key features
Drawbacks: The platform doesn’t check for any grammar or spelling mistakes.
Pricing: You can use the browser-based editor for free or as a desktop app (for Mac and Windows) for $19.99. Hemingway Editor’s AI assistant is available in the platform’s Plus plans. Pricing starts at $8.33 per month (billed annually).
Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that lets you easily hit the top spots in search engine results. The platform can automatically generate page meta titles and descriptions, as well as give keyword and internal link optimization suggestions.
Yoast SEO is also available for Shopify (for $19 per month) — perfect for driving more organic traffic to your website and boosting sales.
Key features
Drawbacks: Yoast SEO is only available for WordPress websites. SEO tools for Shopify, WooCommerce, video, local, and Google News optimization are also sold separately.
Pricing: You can use Yoast SEO for free, while paid plans start at $99 per year.
Google Search Console is an analytics platform that gives all the insights necessary to set up a successful blog.
Google Search Console’s reports offer a quick overview of your website’s performance and usability and help uncover key details about your site’s visitors, like the devices they use, the countries they come from, and so on.
Google Search Console also runs performance tests in the background and notifies you whenever it finds any issues that may impact your rankings.
Key features
Drawbacks: Google Search Console lacks any additional audience analytics tools, like demographics and interest reports. For that, you’ll need to use Google Analytics.
Pricing: You can use Google Search Console for free.
Google Keyword Planner is a keyword research tool that’s perfect for making sure your blog posts start off on the right foot. The platform lets you identify dozens of popular search terms related to your main topics or business — all you have to do is type in your seed keyword.
The same idea applies to PPC ads. The platform helps you identify keywords with low competition but high search volumes so your ads bring in the best value for money possible.
Key features
Drawbacks: Although also useful for bloggers, Keyword Planner mainly caters to advertisers — PPC keywords may not always behave the same in organic search results.
Pricing: Google Keyword Planner is free to use.
Google Trends lets you uncover the most popular search trends at any given time. This is ideal for identifying relevant topics that will bring in traffic as soon as you publish your blog.
Simply type in your main keywords and Google will display numerous related topics, along with charts that display their popularity over time or in specific locations, as well as the search queries that accompany these topics.
Key features
Drawbacks: The platform doesn’t provide any particular context as to why specific trends rise in popularity. You’ll have to do your own research to understand how these trends work.
Pricing: Google Trends is available for free.
Canva is an all-in-one graphic design tool that lets you create visuals for social media content, presentations, and posters, and even includes a website builder — all through a drag-and-drop interface.
As for blogging, Canva is particularly handy to enhance the reading experience via engaging graphs and infographics. The platform includes numerous templates for this content format, so you don’t have to bother setting up visuals from scratch.
Key features
Drawbacks: Canva’s automatic resizing tool is not available in the free plan.
Pricing: There’s a free version available. Paid packages start at $100 per year per user (for a minimum of three users), or $120 per year per user (for up to three users).
Snagit takes screenshotting to a whole other level. The platform can recognize objects within your screenshot and let you adjust their placement, edit texts, or remove them.
You can also use it to handle scrolling screenshots and GIFs and record your screen, then add annotations via shapes or arrows — perfect for how-to-type blog content.
Key features
Drawbacks: Some features, like webcam background blurs and image dimming, are only available to Mac users.
Pricing: Plans start at $43.90 per year, with a 15-day free trial available.
Although not as advanced as Snagit, Awesome Screenshot is an excellent free alternative. It provides all the essentials, including simultaneous screen and webcam recording, built-in annotations, and even animations.
Key features
Drawbacks: The free plan only allows for up to 100 screenshots. But there’s a free-forever plugin extension available.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $5 per month.
Explore some popular blog content ideas to help you keep your readers coming back for more.
Woorise is a lead generation and marketing platform that simplifies the creation of interactive campaigns such as landing pages, forms, surveys, quizzes, viral giveaways, contests, and even payment acceptance. It’s designed to help bloggers grow their audience and engage readers effectively, all from a single platform.
Key features
Drawbacks: Some of the more advanced features, such as complex automations or integrations, are only available in higher-tier plans.
Pricing: Plans start at $29 per month, with a 14-day free trial to help you explore the platform before committing.
And there you have it, all the best blogging tools to create content that both search engines and your readers will love. You can use the tools I listed interchangeably so you can handle all aspects of the content creation process — from topic and keyword research to content planning and polishing.
Planable does a particularly good job at the planning and polishing part. Its straightforward calendar, coupled with the platform’s ample collaboration and approval functionality helps ensure your blogs roll out in tip-top shape — and always on time. If you’d like to try it out, you can get started for free!
Digital marketing enthusiast, language nerd, and content writer. Horea loves writing about SaaS and anything that involves boosting online presence – from SEO to social media, web design, and more. His content is allergic to fluff and eats research for breakfast.
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