12 Free Content Creation Tools for Content Marketers
As a content creator, I consider free content creation tools so irreplaceable. They are helpful in creating content, as well as disseminating it via the Internet.
In this article, we will share our top 12 free content creation tools for organizing, planning, editing, and publishing. We will see why these content creation tools constitute such a major part of any content writer toolbox.
Plus, all these content creation tools are totally free.
But, before we start, I want to make one thing clear: the free content creation tools mentioned in this article are listed according to arbitrary choice.
What Is Content?
Content could be a blog, a podcast, a YouTube channel, Instagram, or an email newsletter. It is one of these intellectually loaded products that you create to build the Know, Like, and Trust factor(s) with your audience.
⚠️ Remember: Content is not advertising, nor it is promotions.
It is a long-term approach; therefore, it can be somewhat murky to measure Return On Investment (ROI), which is why free tech tools are so useful.
My Favorite 12 Free Content Creation Tools
The first of our free content creation tools will be:
#1. Asana
Asana is used for organization. It is such a great platform for organizing your content, projects, clients, or anything like that. It has color-coded tasks and a calendar organizer.
To organize your tasks Asana is as fast as writing a document but far more dynamic and connected to all your data, you can sort by custom fields, due dates, and more to organize your work in the style that works better for you.
You will find the overall view makes it easier for the writer to visualize what is going on in your work.
#2. Evernote
Evernote serves the planning part of your process. I know it has a payment and free package. Evernote has been in use by a lot of people for a long time.
If you are really lost in Google Docs, and trying to manage all those documents, not only for your own work but also for your client’s business as well, you would find Evernote helpful to streamline the work.
You can organize everything by tags, which and not get overwhelmed by the millions of Google Docs occupying your Drive.
Also, the user can add documents as shortcuts, probably the regularly used templates, and you can easily share documents among team members too.
💡 You may also like to read: Why Must Your Online Store Have an E-commerce Blog?
#3. Grammarly
Grammarly is a good tool to review and edit your writing to yield sound content on the web in English. It comes in the form of a plugin for Firefox and Google Chrome, or it can be installed as a module for MS Word and Outlook.
A simple, efficient utility and has a free version. Grammarly is widely employed in a lot of organizations.
If you are typing anything, creating content directly on a platform like Facebook, or writing a comment on YouTube, Grammarly will correct in real-time errors that I could have missed, this would save me and my content an unneeded embarrassment.
#4. Planoly
Planoly is used for publishing on Instagram and Pinterest. Although there are so many scheduling or planning tools available on the market, Planoly offers a free version, if you have only one account.
Planoly is more than an easy and practical tool to use, it helps you schedule posts automatically, add captions, and create certain hashtags; therefore, you don’t need to type lines on the go before you post, which is so useful.
There is also a lot of analytics and you can as well save your hashtags in there. In addition, it has a Pinterest function which means that you can automatically schedule posts for Pinterest, and use a Chrome plug-in, so if you are searching the internet, you can systematically plan to have posts or photos pinned in the future.
#5. MailChimp
MailChimp is used to create email automation. It offers a free version of their email software up to 2000 subscribers, which is very helpful particularly if you have a startup business, with a limited email list.
MailChimp has an automated emails function, this is where you set a time and date, so you don’t need to manually send them.
MailChimp is definitely a service that I recommend to small businesses, it is so useful, it has a lot of functionality, and if you are intending to have it for free, it is a great software to start.
With MailChimp you can create email campaigns, multichannel design, landing pages automation, A/B testing, surveys, Google Ads, social posts, and sign-up forms. You can thus make your business highly competitive in the market.
Once you create your online store at ExpandCart, you can integrate it with MailChimp newsletter automation service and many other marketing tools.
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#6. Facebook Audience Insights
This free tool offered by Facebook provides information based on social and demographic data to a specific audience.
You can use the Facebook Audience Insights tool to find out where your target audience is moving around on Facebook. If you just go to facebook.com/ads/audience-insights, it will take you to this page.
You can find audience categories, according to age, gender, interests, marital status…etc. If you click “page likes,” it will show you different information on pages that these people were browsing.
Now, that you know where your visitors are hanging out, this will give you some more ideas about their interests. But, what would you do with this information?
- When you run Facebook adverts this information will give you some ideas on different audiences that you can target in the future.
- You can go and visit these pages to interact with the people thereon. This will give your page more exposure on Facebook.
You can leave comments on these pages, you can reply to other people’s comments, and you can add like. Also, you can go over the person’s profile and send them a message.
#7. Otter Notes
How many great ideas came to your mind and then evaporated out of memory, because you didn’t write them down?
Otter is software that uses AI to record and transcribe audio into text and/or audio format. It is meant to complement Evernote, but not to replace it. Otter is an excellent tool to quickly capture your ideas by transcribing your thoughts or conversations, directly on your phone.
You need just to whip your phone and simply speak it out so that you don’t lose those great ideas.
#8. AnswerThePublic
This free tool gathers online data from autofill and search engines, to display keywords and keyphrases that help you reach more people, even if you have a good idea of what people are searching for; it is always a good idea to confirm that using a tool like this.
When you create content using keywords that people are searching for, the goal is: if they find your blog, post, podcast etc.. This app is amazing.
I’ll tell you quickly how it works.
Simply enter a keyword-relevant to your industry, let’s input “Hotels“. Within seconds it shares phrases, queries, and more that I can create on. It searches for any specific phrasing that people are entering in the search.
I love how it shows everything visually, and easy to digest, through the “circle of engagement” or listed in a linear format. It is much easier than looking at a spreadsheet. There are literally hundreds of phrases here, ideas for the podcast, blog posts, titles, and so on.
Definitely, you will have too many good ideas to choose from, which is a good problem to have, in my opinion.
#9. Canva
Canva is a graphic creation tool for creating all kinds of content. Easy to use and intuitive, the tool may well be suitable for a graphic design beginner. It adapts to any type of medium (desktop, tablet, mobile, etc.) and has a large library of free templates to give you inspiration.
Video animation on social networks, video editing, advertisement or video message advertisement, Social networks; such as Facebook & Instagram publications, cover, blog banner,…etc.
#10. Remove.bg
Remove.bg is a tool that allows you to remove the background of an image and provide a cutout version of the subject of the image, in just 5 seconds. Once you are on the Remove.bg site, click on “Select a photo” to choose a photo from your computer, mobile or tablet.
You can also choose “Enter a URL” to enter the URL address of an image. The good news, the tool is free and does not require registration.
#11. Buzzsumo
Many of you know about Buzzsumo, it is about the content performance of your competitors. If you are in a competitive market and you want to analyze the content of your competitors.
If your competitors are doing well, and you want to know which content they are using, then you can just type in their domain, or the content keyword and click the “Go” button to analyze your competitor’s keyword.
A lot of companies are using it, even IBM, Yahoo, National Geographic, and other channels or platforms. Buzzsumo does not have a free package, but you can try any package freely for 30 days.
Now, we land at the last, but not least, of our free content creation tools:
#12. SemRush
SemRush does not have a free offer, but it usually has some built-in tools that you can use for absolutely free. You may go for the keyword research tool, to find the content related to those keywords. You can then create content around that keyword and attract some more traffic to your website.
Final Words
Our main advice to you is: tools will never replace talent and writing dexterity, though they can speed up your output rhythm. You need thus to exert efforts to enrich your competence first.
The above-mentioned tools resemble a small sample out of dozens available for everyone out there, many of them offered for free. You will find content research, planning tools, written content creation tools, visual content creation tools, podcasting tools, tools for video content, and webinars.
Explore more and find what works the best for your content.
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