Looking for content marketing resources that are actually good can be a freakin’ nightmare.
Because if we’re being honest, most of the content about content isn’t super helpful…
It’s usually a bunch of general insights you’ve already heard a thousand times.
How are you supposed to become an elite content marketer or get elite results with your content when most of the information available isn’t elite?
And don’t even get me started on tools…
There are about infinity different content marketing tools—all claiming to be the “one” tool you need.
Which ones are good? Which are worth the price? Do you need more than one?
These are all questions I asked early on in my content marketing career.
I was lost—jumping from resource to resource and tool to tool trying to figure out what would get results.
But through all the soul-searching, I found some truly elite content marketing resources and tools.
And I made this resource so you have the best stuff I’ve found and made all in one place.
(Note: some of the links below are affiliate links. If you click on them and purchase, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Rest assured, though, that I’ve personally used and vetted each resource.)
The Best Content Marketing Resources I’ve Found
Strategy
- Secrets to Developing a Digital Content Strategy That Fuels Your Business in 2021 (And Beyond) – Rank Tree
- The Customer Avatar Worksheet – Digital Marketer
- How to Develop a Content Strategy: A Start-to-Finish Guide – Hubspot
- The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing Strategy – SEMRush
- SaaS Content Marketing: Get Automatic Traffic – Rank Tree
- Content Marketing: A Comprehensive Guide – Ahrefs
- Developing a Content Marketing Strategy – Digital Marketer
- Content Marketing for Startups: A Proven Process for Results – Rank Tree
Writing
- A Proven Blog Outline Template That Helps You Quickly Create Great Content That Ranks – Rank Tree
- How to Write a Blog Post That Drives Traffic and Generate Leads – Rank Tree
- How to Write a Blog Post – SmartBlogger
- How to Write a Blog Post: The Definitive Guide – Backlinko
- How to End a Blog Post So It’ll Actually Generate Leads – Rank Tree
- Master This Copywriting Formula to Dominate Any Social Media Platform – Copyblogger
- SEO Copywriting: The Definitive Guide – Backlinko
- Lead Magnet Templates: How to Create Lead Magnets That Convert – Rank Tree
Promotion
- How to Write Link Outreach Emails with 15% Success Rate – Ninja Outreach
- Link Building for SEO: The Definitive Guide – Backlinko
- 21 Actionable Link Building Strategies – Robbie Richards
- How to Use Content Syndication to Boost Your Subscribers – CoSchedule
- How Content Promotion Works for Blogs Big and Small: Our Favorite Content Distribution Strategies – Buffer
- How to Verify Email Addresses Without Sending an Email – Hunter.io
- What Is a Backlink and How to Get Them – Responsa
- 50+ Social Media Posts for Your Business Account – Bulk.ly
My Top Content Marketing Tools
Research
KWFinder
One of my top tools for keyword research. It makes finding LSI and long-tail keywords super easy and the keyword competition metric is usually pretty accurate. It’s also much cheaper than bigger tools, so it works great if you have a small budget.
Pricing:
- Basic – $49/month ($29.90/month for annual)
- Premium – $69/month ($39.90/month for annual)
- Agency – $129/month ($79.90/month for annual)
SEMrush
Fantastic all-around tool for content marketing. You can pretty much accomplish any research (keyword and competitive), analysis (backlinks, site audits, content), or monitoring task (site maintenance, rankings) you need to do with SEMrush.
Pricing:
- Pro – $119.95/month ($99.95/month for annual)
- Guru – $229.95/month ($191.62/month for annual)
- Business – $449.95/month ($374.95/month for annual)
Ahrefs
My #1 tool for all things SEO. If you had the budget for only one premium tool, get Ahrefs. It has similar features as SEMrush but also includes super helpful tools like the Content Explorer, Content Gap Analysis, and more. I use it every day.
Pricing:
- Lite – $99/month ($82/month for annual)
- Standard – $179/month ($149/month for annual)
- Advanced – $399/month ($332/month for annual)
- Agency – $999/month ($832/month for annual)
Keywords Everywhere
This is a super handy (FREE) Google Chrome extension that shows you popular keyword variations, similar searches, and what “people also ask” every time you search something in Google. It helps a ton when you’re doing keyword research.
SurferSEO
This tool is almost a requirement at this point for anyone doing content marketing seriously. It turns writing SEO-driven content into a science—literally showing you the word counts, keywords, and elements you need to include in your content to rank. It also can help you understand why a piece of content you already have dropped in ranking.
Pricing:
- Basic – $59/month ($49.20/month for annual)
- Pro – $99/month ($82.50/month for annual)
- Business – $199/month ($165.80/month for annual)
Content Management
Trello
Trello is a simple project management software that makes content management really easy. I use it for my sites and my clients. The free version isn’t great for general project management from my experience, but it’s great for managing content. I recommend making lists for “Planning”, “To-Do”, “In Progress”, and “Done” and filling your content in via cards in their respective list.
Pricing:
- Free version
- Business Class – $12.50/month ($10/month for annual)
- Enterprise – custom quote
Airtable
This is another great content management tool if you prefer the “spreadsheet” style to the drag and drop style of Trello. One thing Airtable has that Trello doesn’t is the ability to have tons of different, custom views of your content pipeline. You can have a calendar view, Kanban view (like Trello’s), and a list view for each site or client you manage. It’s a little harder to get the hang of but offers flexibility that Trello doesn’t.
- Free version
- Plus – $12/month ($10/month annually)
- Pro – $24/month ($20/month annually)
- Enterprise – custom quote
Promotion
Quuu Promote
Quuu is probably the easiest and most budget-friendly way to promote content that I’ve ever seen. Basically, you pay a monthly membership fee to have your content shared with a huge pool of people looking for content to share. They have people looking to share content in just about every niche, and you can get a ton of shares and traffic for very little spend.
Pricing:
- Individual – $50/month (manual), $75/month (automatic)
- Company – $100/month (manual), $150/month (automatic)
- Agency – $500/month (manual), $750/month (automatic)
BuzzStream
This is my go-to tool for link building and other email outreach. It’s an easy-to-use and affordable CRM for managing relationships with other sites and making outreach more efficient. 10/10 recommend.
Pricing:
- Starter – $24/month
- Group – $99/month
- Professional – $299/month
- Custom – $999+/month
Hunter.io
Another critical tool in my link building suite, Hunter.io makes finding peoples’ emails super easy. The Chrome extension scrapes the site you’re on to find any associated emails, and it also lets you guess someone’s email and verify if it’s deliverable. Buzzstream can do this sometimes, but Hunter.io finds emails much better, so I recommend both.
Pricing:
- Free (25 searches, 50 verifications per month)
- Starter – $49/month ($34/month for annual)
- Growth – $99/month ($69/month for annual)
- Pro – $199/month ($139/month for annual)
- Enterprise – $399/month ($279/month for annual)
Responsa
Responsa, a digital PR and link building software (similar to Buzzstream) also has some great free tools for finding and verifying emails.
Their email finder lets you quickly find someone’s email based on their name and website, and their verifier helps you make sure the email you’re about to reach out to is actually deliverable.
Social Warfare
This is one of the best “share button” plugins for WordPress there is. They have a free version, it’s easy to use, and it helps your content get more shares. What more do you need?
Pricing:
- Free version
- Single Site – $29
- 5 Sites – $89
- 10 Sites – $139
- Unlimited Sites – $349
Do You Have Any Great Content Resources or Tools to Add?
These are the best tools and resources I’ve either come across or made over the last 5+ years in the industry.
But, it’d be naive to say that these are the only good ones out there.
Do you have any you think should be on this list?
If so, shoot me an email or head to the contact page to send them my way. I’d love to take a look.
Hunter Branch
Hunter Branch is the founder of Rank Tree, an SEO agency that works with New York Times best sellers, brands, and small businesses to generate traffic and leads from Google.