Using content tools

And while other formats are, of course, an impactful way to use content to drive marketing results, written content remains the default format for many businesses. If you are creating content to help you rank on the SERPs, you shouldn't be writing blind. You need to know what is helping the top results to rank and take this into consideration when creating your own content.

The SEMrush content template can help you analyze the content that is ranking top for your target keywords and help you understand what you need to include in your own pages to compete. Grammarly can help you check for spelling and grammatical errors in your content while writing, as well as helping you to focus the tone of your content and check for plagiarism. The browser add on also makes sure you avoid typos in social shares. In their own words, " Hemingway App makes your writing bold and clear" and helps you make your content more readable and also shorten sentences.

Run your written copy through the web app, and in seconds you will see the opportunities to make it better for your readers. Izitext is a transcription service that's used by transcribers, podcasters, journalists, and more.

You can sign up for a demo today and learn more about their services! Including visuals in your content can help to make it easier to read and, ultimately, more engaging for your readers. But creating visual content is also one of the biggest challenges that many marketers face, especially if they don't have access to a professional designer.

Canva is, without a doubt, one of the most popular design platforms out there and a tool that even the world's least creative people could use to create stunning visuals across a range of formats.

From social graphics and blog images to infographics and more, if you need to create simple and effective visuals without a designer, you'll love Canva.

Ask a graphic designer to remove a background from an image using Photoshop, and it will likely take hours using the lasso tool. Use Remove. It's as simple as that and can save you hours when cutting out images to use in your visuals. Infographics remain a popular way to visualize data and to use as part of your link building strategy assuming, of course, that the data that you are visualizing tells a great story , but without access to a graphic designer, it is not always easy to design a visually appealing graphic.

The tool is perfect for people with no design skills to create beautiful infographics that look professional and help elevate your business's content. Over the last few years, GIFs have found their way into pretty much every brand's marketing in one way or another, but the reality is that you don't always need to be creating your own for them to be effective.

Whether you are looking for one to sit alongside your latest social post or to use in a blog, GIPHY's collections of thousands and thousands of GIFS is certain to have something suitable. Screenshots and screen recordings are the perfect way to help your audience understand what you are trying to show them in "how-to guides" and the like.

But capturing these, especially if you don't want to have to edit them before using in your content, isn't always the easiest thing to do. We love the Nimbus Chrome extension to capture both screenshots and recordings without hassle, and we are pretty sure you will grow to love it, too! Images and photos can really help to make your blog content more engaging, and the reality is that not every marketer has access to a team who can take custom photos.

While some have the luxury of a stock photo library at their disposal, not everyone does. When you need a license-free image to use in your content, Unsplash's library contains, as they claim, photos for everyone, something that we can confirm to be true! Podcasting has absolutely surged in popularity over the last few years, especially amongst B2B marketers, and it's never been easier to create a DIY podcast and generate traction. Ready to record your first podcast but not sure what tools you need to capture and edit your audio?

Audacity is an easy-to-use multitrack audio recording and editing platform that's far easier than it looks to get to grips with. In no time at all, you'll be ready to hit record on your first podcast episode, and with the right software at your disposal, you'll be able to edit out and little blips and background noises before exporting straight in your required format.

The libraries themselves are written using CoffeeScript and SASS and ideally you'll want to roll your own for each web project. The build process is managed by grunt and is very simple, however to get started there's no need. If you are using Firefox then you may experience an issue where the icon font icon.

A reason for this along with a solution to the issue can be found on stackoverflow. Notice that we also included an additional JavaScript file named editor. This will contain the code that initializes our editor; go ahead and create the file but leave it empty for now. Next we need to mark the regions that will be editable. There's no set way to do this but using a CSS class or data Only the outer element that will contain editable content is marked:.

The data-name attribute is used to identify the region when saving by default the id attribute is used but I prefer to keep the editable markup separated from the existing HTML markup. A common misunderstanding when marking up editable HTML is to mark up a single element as editable, for example:. This wont work as a region has to contain editable block level elements. ContentTools uses CSS classes to align text, imagery, videos and iframes typically used by services such as YouTube and Vimeo to embed their players.

You'll need to define styles for these alignment classes in your own CSS, for example:. We scope the alignment styles to apply to elements within [data-editable] regions. ContentTools provides an editor but we need to configure a few things before we can launch it, namely:. Much like a word processor, it's possible to configure a list of predefined styles for your content. Outbrain listed Canva as an awesome digital content creation tool because of its drag and drop design feature. New users can sign up for a free Canva account and start designing with ready to use design layouts.

Canva comes ready with pre-sized social media templates in addition to templates for flyers, posters, and email headers. Pixlr delivers the capabilities of PhotoShop for free. Pixlr comes in handy when creating graphics for presentations and social media. Use Pixlr to resize images, apply quick fixes, and remove the image background.

Write, write, write… Sound like an average workday? But as any content creator knows, editing is just as important as the writing process. Grammarly is an automated proofreading platform. It corrects over types of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Copy and paste content directly into a Grammarly document to check for grammar and spelling mistakes.

It helps to check sections of content as you write. For example, upload answers to an RFP before handing it over to the review team. Or check sections of training courses before handing them over to be designed. Affect the editorial skills of Ernest Hemingway with this content creation tool.

The Hemingway Editor is a proofreading tool for readers. Copy your content into Hemingway Editor and it will highlight style suggestions. Sentences highlighted in yellow or red will flag where writing is too dense. One of its strongest features is its capability to highlight uses of passive voice.

Avoid using passive voice in all content — including training materials, marketing collateral, and sales literature. Active voice is critical in creating compelling copy and in winning proposals. This content creation tool is one of the most simple but is also maximizes the amount of time spent editing.

You can cross out content, highlight sections, insert arrows, and add your own suggestions in type. The Snipping Tool comes in handy when providing feedback for web pages and layout design in addition to longer content like business proposals or training materials.

Content creators have a lot of content. Trello makes it easy to share, collaborate, set reviews and approvals, and create an editorial calendar for whole teams.