Business Buzz - Making You Famous

If you follow our Facebook Page, you know that we’ve been taking a look at the best tools for writing, grammar and content marketing this week. There is an almost endless supply of applications available to help you write, publish, and optimize content. That means there’s no decent excuse for not publishing consistent, polished, and engaging content to connect your brand with consumers.

To help you narrow down the tools that will help the most, here’s our top 5 tools for help with your content marketing:

1. Grammarly – This free tool can be installed either within your web browser or on your desktop. We recommend both. Grammarly monitors all of your written content, from social media posts and emails to quarterly reports. While Spell Check does a passable job of correcting glaring errors, Grammarly can catch mistakes beyond basic spelling. Our favorite feature? If you upgrade to the premium option, you can even use Grammarly to check your content for plagiarism. Even if it’s inadvertent, content that is too similar to that on other websites can alienate your audience and even hurt your Google rankings.
2. Content Idea Generator – Let’s face it, coming up with new ideas everyday can be challenging. Ed Rivis has created a free online questionnaire to help you come up with new things to write about. While the questions take some thought upfront, within minutes you can have hundreds of article titles to get your thoughts churning. Even if it doesn’t land on the perfect idea, the Content Idea Generator can help you look at your business and talents in a new light, which might well lead you to your next successful piece of content.
3. Social Mention – If the idea generator doesn’t quite cut it, get your ideas straight from the source: your audience. SocialMention is a searchable database that allows you to see mentions of your company across several platforms. Find out what your customers think of you, what they find valuable, and what they care about. Then play to those strengths and write about those subjects. You can also search topics on SocialMention, so you can find out what is trending in your field.
4. Google Analytics – Killer content is only helpful to your brand if it ultimately leads people to your website. The only way to be sure your content is effective is to measure the traffic it generates. Luckily, Google offers a free resource to easily and comprehensively track site referrals. Spend some time analyzing the data, and you’ll become familiar with the top links driving people to your web site. This might include your social media platforms, blog posts, or guest articles posted to other websites. Once you find out what is truly working for you, repeat the process!
5. PilmerPR – Obviously we’re fond of our own content marketing services, but the idea is that sometimes you should absolutely outsource content creation. It takes a great deal of research, time, and talent to create the kind of content that reaches a viral audience. Most business owners just do not realistically have the time to dedicate to writing blog posts and social status updates that will engage their audience. If hiring an agency doesn’t appeal to you, consider a service such as Contently or Freelancer.com, but keep in mind that not all freelance writers specialize in communications and SEO writing. And always circle back to your analytics to make sure the content they produce is working for you.

Content marketing sounds like a gimmick, but this burgeoning trend isn’t going anywhere. Make it easier on yourself by utilizing these tools to maximize the impact of your efforts. Tell us about your favorite content marketing helps in the comments!