Top 10 Content Creation Tools to Start Using Today

If you’re a content creator, you know that there is a lot of content out there. What makes the most effective and engaging content? We’ve listed the top 10 content creation tools you’ll want to start using today. This list doesn’t apply to just marketers; professionals working in sales, training, and proposal teams also create large amounts of unique content.

In the end, all content creators share one goal: creating relevant and helpful content for the right audience.

These content creation tools will help you to determine what is relevant to your attentive audience, how to best package it, and the easiest way to provide editorial reviews.

Content Creation Tools for Creating Relevant Content

1. Google Trends
Google Trends helps to keep you in the loop. Google Trends reveals insight into today’s relevant content – not yesterday’s. Google Trends is ideal for those who frequently create content. This includes those who blog, have a heavy social presence, develop content for specific groups of people, or work in marketing.

The Content Marketing Institute recommends using Google Trends to research keywords, discover content ideas, and monitor your brand.

Simply enter in a topic or explore trending stories and featured insights. Google Trends displays the frequency of search terms in consideration of its total volume across geographic regions. Google Trends also shows search interest over time. Depending on the flux of query volumes, you may choose one topic over another to discuss in whatever content you create.

2. Moz Keyword Explorer
You wouldn’t want to create awesome content and not get noticed. Easily check what keyword to use for blog posts and site pages with Moz’s Keyword Explorer. You can enter terms or phrases, and Moz will provide you with keyword suggestions and a SERP analysis reflective of the keyword’s search volume, difficulty, opportunity, and potential.

Once you start exploring, you can export CSV files and save them for later. This includes the top ranking sites containing your keyword or phrase. Moz Keyword Explorer allows for two free searches a day. If you require more searching, you can upgrade to a paid subscription starting at around £40 a month.

3. Sigstr
Sigstr is an email signature banner. Email banners are added and changed from one admin console with changes immediately reflected in employees’ email signatures. Sigstr banners are a great way to intertwine visual content and compelling copy.

You can create unique signatures for departments, teams, executives, and customer service. Swap out Sigstr signatures to engage email recipients with company news, upcoming events, and relevant content.

4. Giphy
If you blog or even just read a lot of blogs, you know how easy it is to get lost in a sea of words. GIFs are a really easy way to grab the audience’s attention. Sometimes, animation shows more than just still images. But where is everyone finding GIFs? Giphy is a free visual content creation tool. You can contextually search for GIFs, or you can create your own.

Have one team member who can answer your chats and emails at lightning speed with an animated GIF suited for the context? In addition to sparring in chat messages, use Giphy in blog posts (like this one here).

5. Canva
Need to develop visually striking content? Don’t have a lot of time? Check out Canva. Canva is an easy-to-use tool to create graphics and documents ready to print or to publish online. Features include photos, photo filters, icons, shapes, and hundreds of fonts. 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.

6. Pixlr
Pixlr delivers the capabilities of PhotoShop for free. There’s tonnes of value in the free version. For those requiring more editing capabilities, Pixlr Pro comes with more design tools and features at a price of around £12 a year.

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.

Content Creation Tools for Editorial Use

7. Grammarly
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 250 types of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. This content creation tool also made HubSpot’s Ultimate List of Free Content Creation Tools & Resources.

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, you could 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.

8. Hemingway Editor
Affect the editorial skills of Ernest Hemingway with this content creation tool. The Hemingway Editor is a proofreading tool for readers. It details the revisions you can’t see in Grammarly without upgrading to Grammarly Pro. 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.

9. Microsoft’s Snipping Tool
This content creation tool is one of the most simple, but it also maximises the amount of time spent editing. Microsoft’s Snipping Tool is simple and straightforward: capture screenshots. But, it’s more than that. You can cross out content, highlight sections, insert arrows, and add your own suggestions in type.

Once you’ve created a snip, you can save or copy and paste into emails and chat windows. 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.

10. Trello
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. Devote one project or one team to a virtual Trello board. Use Trello to organise entire projects and filter for specific team members to check the status of project updates.

Trello saves a lot of time and a lot of emails. Instead of sending status updates, simply move a project’s Trello card to the appropriate user or status.

Free Account  

Mimeo was created to give people back time. Users can upload content to their digital library and organise files by folders. Want a hard copy printed? Build, proof, and ship in a few minutes. Content can even be shared with varying levels of permissions to other Mimeo users. No order minimums, no commitments, 24/7 support!

Users can place a print order for delivery to hundreds of locations with a single click. Instead of hundreds of emails, easily view and map the status of each shipment. What would have once been a massive undertaking is now organised in one screen.

Click around a free account and start organising your content, regardless if it’s a single poster or 1,000 different corporate brochures varying by geographic region or brand.  

Now cross a content-related project off of your to do list!