You must have heard before that content is king and that you need it as a foundation for improving your content marketing game.
You cannot convey your message to your targeted clientele without proper content. Content creation is a very intricate technique. Once you learn the masterful ways of content creation, the lead generation process becomes significantly easier.
Why is content creation necessary, you ask? Content creation is the best way to generate leads. It is an essential tool in online marketing, and it helps companies advertise their operations how they want to. Without this valuable content, your audience will have difficulty understanding your operations.
What are Content Planning Tools?
Content planning tools help content creators to stay on track and align their creative efforts with marketing strategy and business goals. Such tools allow you to publish consistently and always have a big picture of your content landscape at hand.
You can use these tools to stay on the same page with your team while organizing your content and managing your content planning process.
These tools can be anything from simple calendars to more complex software with advanced features. These tools are essential because they help you streamline your content and increase productivity.
Why Do You Need A Content Planner?
A solid content planning strategy today is essential to stand out from the crowd. With a content planning tool, you can brainstorm ideas, plan your content strategy, create a content calendar, collaborate with team members, schedule posts in advance, and track your progress. There are many other benefits you can get that are listed here:
Consistent Flow
Publishing regularly on your website on time can be a bit difficult. Sometimes, you might even lose track of time and delay the process. You can use content planning tools to stay on top of your publishing tasks. These have options to schedule your content and will publish them automatically. The more consistent you are on your website, the more people will like spending time there.
Better Visibility
These content planner tools help you get relevant keywords for your content. With the right words, you can play around with your creativity and build a content that engages and delights your audience. You can reach your target audience much more efficiently using the relevant keywords.
Improved Brand Identity
Your brand’s name improves only if you can give value to your audience. And how can you do that? Simply by giving what your audience wants. Multiple content marketers use content planning tools as research tools to know what answers their target audience is seeking. Based on the research, various teams collaborate on creating the perfect content to enhance their brand identity.
Preventing Any Content Gaps
Content planning tools are not just used specifically for content creation but also to check how your competitors are performing. Based on the data, you can see what is missing in your content that is not letting you climb up the SERP. You can use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to find gaps and improve your content.
Streamlining Content Marketing Strategy
If you are developing content for multiple platforms, you are bound to get confused in the entire process. By using content planning and collaboration tools, you can easily know what work is scheduled and when so your work doesn’t collide with each other. For example, you can use a Content Calendar to know when a social media post is due, when to publish a blog, and so on.
Best Content Planning Tools To Use
Now that we know why planning is important let’s look at some of the top content planning tools to organize and effectively create great content.
1. Narrato
Are you looking for an app and tool tailored for content marketers and teams? Narrato is your go-to choice. This tool stands out by being a full-blown content marketing platform.
It’s an all-around tool that lets you gather content ideas and fine-tune your existing content.
Features:
• You can use its AI features, grammar checks, readability boosts, and plagiarism checks.
• Save time with its personal writing assistant.
• Work collaboratively with SEO planning and content ideation tools to strengthen your content game.
Price:
Narrato offers a free trial but has different plans for different requirements. If you are working solo as an entrepreneur, you can get their Pro plan for $36/month. For larger teams, they have a business plan at $76. You can also contact them to get a customized plan for your needs.
2. Coschedule
Coschedule is a content planning tool that makes planning and managing content much easier. It helps you stay on top of tasks and deadlines without drowning in email threads.
Now, you can avoid the frustration of endless email exchanges when planning. This online tool is your go-to for mapping out every detail of your content strategy at a glance.
Features:
• It helps you effortlessly manage schedules, meeting times, and content planning deadlines for your website.
• It lets you focus on the actual work that demands by allowing you to store all the crucial information in one place, accessible to everyone involved.
Price:
You can kick things off with a 14-day free trial, no credit card needed. If you decide to stick around, plans range from $40 to $2,200 per month, catering to different needs and budgets.
3. Content Snare
You can now forget the hassle of chasing down clients, colleagues, or content creators – this tool’s got your back. Content Snare is a content management tool for keeping your content creation game on point.
You can say goodbye to the content chaos because Content Snare makes it easy for clients to upload their files directly, so you don’t have to do it yourself.
Features:
• All the files uploaded are all neatly stored in one place.
• This tool is not just a file storage spot; it’s a teamwork retreat.
• You can set due dates and reminders to submit projects on time.
• Use automated client reminders to focus more on your part of the project without stressing about others missing deadlines.
Price:
Try its free trial to improve your content production with Content Snare. If you wish to continue working on it, they have four plans ranging from $29/month to $179/month, all billed annually. They have a Basic plan, a Plus plan, and a Pro plan. For more features, you can get a custom-made plan by contacting them.
4. Wrike
Wrike is a content planning software that helps you and your team work together. It’s not just another project management tool; it’s a real-time collaborating tool that simplifies team communication.
Features:
• You can easily track your project and make changes with a simple drag-and-drop.
• Make your management work even simpler with its pre-built templates and customizable workflows.
• Plan projects with recent and updated information for better forecasting.
• Work along with your team at the same time by adding deadlines, tasks and building a customized dashboard.
Price:
To access the amazing features Wrike offers, you’ll have to purchase a Professional plan starting at $9.8 for each use every month.
5. Marketmuse
If you want to focus on creating SEO-optimized content, Marketmuse will help you do that. Marketmuse is an AI-based content planning platform multiple content marketers or collaborators use.
As it uses natural processing language and AI, it can check your content and suggest how to improve it. It’s an SEO-optimizing tool that makes it easier for you to develop content according to the search engines.
Features:
• It helps you generate content outlines and content briefs.
• You can analyze the strategies of your competitors.
• Check your content score by looking at its relevancy and content quality.
• You can get AI-driven suggestions to improve your content.
Price:
You can try out the platform for free, offered by Marketmuse, using its trial period. The paid plan starts at $149/month.
6. Notion
Notion is a content planning tool to build a content for your video channels, blogs, and social media platforms. You can arrange different ideas for different types of content from a single location.
Whether it is to organize your content ideas or hashtags and content pillars, you can see all of them in its user-friendly dashboard.
Features:
• Create monthly calendars to track important events and dates.
• Use templates to create engaging content like blogs, articles, newsletters, case studies, and much more.
• Publish your website on platforms like Shopify and WordPress so you can get your content reached to the right audience.
• Create roadmaps so your content team and marketing team work on the same page.
Price:
Using their free plan can be the best option if you have to use limited features. To work more seamlessly with your team members, choose from their three paid plans starting at $8/month billed annually.
7. Canva
Want to keep your designs neat in one place? Canva content planner will do the work for you.
It is a project management tool that lets you design and create any visual content without breaking a sweat. At the same time, it helps you manage them, making it easier to handle your creative content workflows.
Features:
• Create designs using the pre-designed templates or create your own.
• You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to use Canva.
• Improve your social media management with Canva Pro’s Content Planner, making creating and scheduling your social media content seamless.
Price:
You can use many of its features for free. But, if you want to explore and use more features, you must pay for its Pro version.
8. Google Docs
How can we ever forget the gift Google has given us when it comes to content planning? You heard that right.
You can get fantastic collaboration features all free of cost. Just sign up on Google Docs, and you’re all set to create high-quality content and manage it.
Features:
• Collaboration is easy as you and your team collaborate in real-time, no matter where you are.
• You get unlimited space to store all your folders and keep them organized.
• Google Docs auto-saves your progress, ensuring every brilliant idea is captured and preserved.
• Be it any type of content you are working on, just upload and work with various file types, from pictures to video content, enriching your website content effortlessly.
Price:
Google Docs doesn’t cost a penny. All you need is a Google account, and you’re good to go. It’s not just free for you but for your entire team, promoting seamless collaboration.
9. Ninja Content
Ninja Content is another collaborative tool to streamline your content planning process. They have AI features such as AI Writer, where you just have to enter the instructions, and the rest will be done by Ninja Content.
Features:
• It has a built-in project management tool that allows you to seamlessly plan, create, and share a piece of content across different platforms with just one tool.
• With its Content Calendar planner, you can schedule an article’s publishing time and date and even assign tasks to different team members.
• Get suggestions on relevant keywords that perfectly match your niche and industry, helping to get your content to the top.
• You can integrate Ninja Content with Google’s Keyword Planner and receive title recommendations for your blogs according to what your audience wants.
• You can brainstorm ideas for new content to achieve your goals.
Price:
Per their claims, you can access 50 content planner apps for just $14.99. To check whether they are your cup of tea, you can first try their 14-day trial period and then decide.
10. Adobe Express
ContentCal was one of the best content planning tools available, making it easy for businesses and their team members to collaborate. However, recently in March 2023, it shut down making way for Adobe Express.
The tool is much similar to ContentCal, however, is regarded as the best for social media marketing. Using Adobe Express, you can better engage with your audience on different social media platforms but at the same time, build content for your soc
Features:
• You can manage your social media posts, get new topics to work on, finalize campaigns and schedule posts on its user-friendly calendar dashboard.
• Get a preview of how your social media posts will appear to your audience.
• Set a pre-determined time to submit the post so it reaches the right audience on time.
• Helps you simplify your publishing and scheduling process by letting your publish content across multiple social media platforms.
Price:
You can give it a shot with its free plan. If you like using it, you can get a paid plan starting at $6.49/month per seat.
11. Surfer SEO
SurferSEO is an AI-powered content planning tool that helps you set up a strategy for creating content that ranks well on search engines. This platform can also help you conduct SEO audits and monitor your SERP rankings.
Features:
• You can access several integrations to help you plan, schedule, and create content.
• With its content planner feature, you can automatically generate fresh content topics and keywords for your content strategy.
• You can develop keyword clusters for a subject and find additional keyword opportunities to strengthen your position as an expert in your market.
• Use the SEO audit tool to find mistakes in your content and reuse older content to improve the search rankings for your most authoritative posts.
• Check out the content editor that offers tips for improvement based on the best-performing pages.
Price:
The pricing of Surfer SEO is quite on the higher end. The paid plans start at $119/month and go up to $419. They also offer a custom plan, the price of which may vary according to the features you want to use.
12. Ahrefs
Ahrefs isn’t just your average SEO planning platform; it’s the master of SEO toolsets. It’s jam-packed with features that’ll make your SEO strategies. But it also has a content planning feature that will make managing content easier.
Features:
• Ahrefs gives you information on the best keywords to boost your content game.
• With Ahrefs’ rank tracking feature, you can watch your website climb the search engine ranks like a boss.
• The SEO audit feature digs deep to explore important information and keep your website on top.
• Ahrefs has your back with detailed backlink analysis, helping you understand and improve your link profile.
• It lets you examine your competitors, giving you the intel to outshine them in the SEO game.
• With its Content Explorer feature, you can discover trending topics and popular content to stay ahead of the curve.
• Ahrefs’ site audit feature assists you in diagnosing and fixing issues to keep your site in peak condition.
• With Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer, you can dig deep into keywords by uncovering search volumes, click-through rates, and more to refine your strategy.
• Don’t miss any information by setting up the Alert option and get notified about new backlinks, keyword rankings, and other crucial changes affecting your site.
Price:
They offer paid plans from $99/month to $999/month. You can read here about what they offer and decide which plan to get.
13. SEMrush
SEMrush is your all-in-one toolkit for improving online visibility. It’s ideal for agencies and mid-size businesses and is the key to taking your content game from good to the best.
The content marketing tools it brings to the table assist your content-creating game by helping you find the trending topics and get recommendations for content that’s bound to skyrocket your SERP position.
It’s the most trusted tool for keyword research, blog auditing, backlinking opportunities, and more.
Features:
• It helps you find relevant topics to grab your audience’s attention and keep them hooked.
• It also has a content calendar to simplify your content publishing process, collect content ideas, customize your content for important events, align content creation with the social media team, and prevent the same content from being published twice.
• Create SEO-friendly content using its SEO Content Template for your users and search engine to grab more traffic.
• Use its SEO Writing Assistant that allows you to integrate WordPress, MS Word, and Google Docs to SEO-optimize your content on the go.
• Using its Topic Research feature to plan content and find relevant topics, titles, and frequently asked questions for better engagement.
Price:
Get a 7-day free trial to see if it’s worth giving a shot for your needs. You’ll be charged nothing within that trial period. You can get the Guru plan at $191.62 per month to unlock more content marketing and planning features.
Endnotes
Content planning tools are very important for businesses to give proper direction to their content management process and produce high-quality piece of content consistently. By using the right tool for your business, you can save time, increase productivity, and improve the overall effectiveness of your content strategy. So why not try one of these tools and see how they can transform your business?
FAQ
What is content planning in digital marketing?
Content planning is a process in which you organize your content and make strategies to reach specific goals. Through content planning, you conduct a deep research, identify your target audience, choose a content type that will please your targets and finally create a content calendar to follow proper schedule of work.
How do you do content planning?
To do content planning:
• First you need to decide on themes to use in your content.
• Then, spend some time in brainstorming for ideas about campaigns and posts to attract more people to your business.
• Make a schedule to publish the posts in a systematic way.
• Assign different responsibilities to different teams.
• Be creative with writing an engaging and attractive captions for your post.
• Use a planner to see if everyone in your team is on the same page.
• Always schedule the content in advance to avoid any hassle.
How can I choose the right content planning tools for my business?
Choosing the best content planning tool for your business can be difficult, but there are a few things to consider to make the process easier:
1. Consider your budget and how much you’re willing to spend on a tool.
2. Look at the features you need and how they align with your content creation process.
3. Check whether it has collaboration features if you are working in a large team.
4. Check the reviews of the tools from other users to get an idea about their effectiveness and user-friendliness.
