When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This simple maxim can be applied to just about every aspect of life, including content marketing. You may look at the resources you have at your disposal and think, “These are enough. I can do a lot with these.” But what you don’t realize is how much more you could accomplish if you just branched out a little and took advantage of some of the more versatile tools that are out there. Here are some of the important online tools you should have in your content marketing toolbox.
Feedly – A lot of content marketers relied on Google Reader to keep their eyes on the latest news and trends by monitoring particular websites, blogs, etc. But as of last month, Google Reader was discontinued, and all stored content was unceremoniously deleted. So Feedly is now the best option for keeping tabs on content. It works similarly, allowing you to monitor specific websites and blogs for updates and keep track of them in a single newsfeed, as well as letting you browse by specific area of interest. This is a great way to keep up with what’s current in your field, to help you with content creation.
Google Calendar – This is a great tool for organization. You can use it for all sorts of things, but it’s particularly useful as an editorial calendar, allowing you to plan out and schedule content at certain times and share that schedule with the other members of your marketing team, to make sure that everyone’s on the same page.
PRWeb – Marketing is all about visibility. You need to get your content out there for people to see. Social media is a great way to do this, but sometimes, for the really important things, you need a little extra push. PRWeb can take your content—or, if you prefer, help you create a press release or announcement for a particular event—and distribute it to thousands of the top journalists and news outlets on the web. It can also list it on the popular search engines and even help with search engine optimization, in order to make sure that your brand gets seen.
There’s something to be said for the ingenuity of using the minimal tools you have available to accomplish the task at hand. But the Internet puts so many more tools at your disposal than you realize. There are tools specifically designed to help improve your content marketing plan at every level, from brainstorming to creation to distribution. It’s never been easier to create sleek, professional, popular content. But only if you stop hammering away and get yourself a proper tool set.
