50+ Handy Content Strategy Tips, Tools, and Resources

by Katy French

Building a strong content strategy isn’t difficult. You just need the knowhow to do it. Since we’ve helped plenty of brands create and/or improve their content strategy, we’ve covered the content strategy process, the common mistakes to avoid, and the questions you need to ask. But over the years we’ve also found a number of helpful content strategy tools and resources that make life easier at every stage of the process.

Today, we thought we’d share some of our favorite ones. Whether you need help coming up with good ideas or help planning your media budget, the handy tools in this roundup will help you craft—and execute—your content strategy efficiently and effectively.

Content-strategy-toolkit-download

50+ Content Strategy Tools and Resources

Here, we’ve broken these tools and resources down by stage. We hope you find them helpful, and we hope you’ll let us know if there are any great ones you think we missed.   

1) Goals and definitions: To start, you need to identify exactly you’re trying to achieve. (You’ll want to review your analytics and distribution platforms to inform this discussion, too.)

2) Measurement methodology: Before you create content, you need to know which KPIs, projections, and metrics you’ll be working with. 

3) Journey or lead mapping: To understand how to move people through your buyer’s journey, you need to clearly identify the path. 

  • You can do this with a whiteboard, but UXPressia and Smaply also help you create professional customer journey maps.

3) Audience insights: You need to know who you’re trying to reach if you want to engage with them successfully.

4) Messaging platform: To communicate effectively, you need to make sure you’re presenting a cohesive identity.

5) Channel opportunities: Make sure you’re targeting the best channels for your content to connect with the right people.

Earned Media:

  • HypeAuditor helps you identify top-ranking influencers in your industry.
  • Grin helps you organize/manage influencers.

Owned Media: 

  • This guide helps you optimize your blog for content distribution.
  • Hootsuite and Buffer are great to share your content on social.
  • Mailchimp helps you distribute content and grow your email marketing list.

Paid Media:

(For more ways to get your content in front of the most people, find out how to craft an effective content distribution strategy in 6 steps.)

6) Storytelling opportunities: Coming up with strong ideas can be a challenge. Make sure you’re covering topics and issues that resonate with people.

7) Editorial calendar: To maintain your publishing cadence, you need a good editorial calendar. You can always craft one in Google Sheets or Excel, or explore a more official tool.

  • Coschedule helps you plan and publish content.
  • StoryChief lets you easily create content, collaborate, and publish content.

8) Keyword strategy: When search traffic is a major goal, your content is only as good as your keywords.

9) Media planning: Get the placement you need by planning ahead of time.

  • Meltwater helps you track social monitoring and media lists.  
  • HARO helps you track and contribute to what journalists are looking for.

10) Tech stack: Make sure you have the infrastructure and software in place to support your strategy.

  • Consider these 11 essentials for your current content strategy.

How to Strengthen Your Content Strategy

Remember: There are a lot of factors that can help or prevent your content strategy from being successful.

Most importantly, bring in expert help if you need more support. Find out what to look for in a content agency, find out what it’s like to work with us, or holler at us

Content-strategy-toolkit-download

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