Modern Online Marketing Education: 18 Courses and Resources

There are many paths to becoming a great marketer.

Even more so, there are tons of different roles that marketers excel in.

There’s a great degree of flexibility.

Take your education as an example. Did you go to school to get a marketing or business degree?

There’s a good chance you didn’t, but you still enjoy marketing, and it plays a part in your business or job.

And while you can pick up a ton of skills on the go, you might be missing a few fundamentals.

The best solution for this is to take courses online.

I’m not talking about sketchy courses offered by schools you’ve never heard of. I’m talking about courses from schools such as Harvard, MIT, Cornell, and more.

Most of these courses are available free.

That’s why I’ve put together a list of 18 courses and resources that you can find online.

Pick the ones that interest you, and do them in your spare time.

Note that this list doesn’t exactly mirror a complete marketing degree, but it does contain most of its components. 

Core Courses

The courses in this section should be taken by every marketer. If you haven’t taken any of these or similar courses in the past, I recommend adding them to your list of courses to take.

1. Introduction to Marketing (University of British Columbia): Everyone needs to start somewhere, and this is the best place for marketers.

This is a very introductory course that will give you a general overview of marketing. It’s not very difficult, but it will make the gaps in your marketing knowledge obvious.

If you have a tough time clearly defining concepts such as market research and brand strategy, you should start here.

2. Networks, Crowds and Markets (Cornell): This course, on the other hand, is fairly advanced.

It’s a great course if you’re an analytics junkie like me. The main concepts covered in the course are:

• applying game theory to various parts of marketing
• understanding how marketing connects to various aspects of life (social, economic, technological)
• exploring how ideas spread

It mainly focuses on these concepts in the context of the Internet, which is ideal for most modern marketers.

3. Digital Branding and Engagement (Curtin University): This course is essentially digital branding 101.

You’ll look at the basics of getting positive attention for your brand through paid, owned, and earned media.

This course focuses on how a brand can use these different types of media to increase brand presence and user engagement.

Essentially, it provides a high-level look at ways of incorporating many of the tactics you read about on Quick Sprout and other marketing blogs into your marketing.

4. Principles of Macroeconomics (MIT): Economics is a fundamental subject that all marketers should have at least a basic understanding of.

This course is an introductory course to macroeconomics.

Macroeconomics is a study of economics on a national basis. It’s good to understand how your industry as a whole responds to changes in:

• output
• employment and unemployment
• interest rates
• inflation
• and more.

Since MIT is a US school, most of the examples are within the context of the US economy, but the lessons can be applied to any country.

5. Principles of Microeconomics (MIT): This is the other side of economics, which is more interesting to most marketers.

Microeconomics looks at economics on a much smaller scale: individuals, companies, and groups.

This is another introductory course, where you’ll learn fundamental concepts such as supply and demand, types of competition, and welfare economics.

While a lot of this will seem simple, it will be useful in all your marketing roles to some degree.

6. Introduction to Financial Accounting (University of Pennsylvania): One of the most important things to know, as I keep telling you, is what your return from your marketing work is.

Whether you’re running your own business or working for someone else as a marketer, it’s crucial for you to have this ability. Being able to present hard numbers behind your performance to your boss is a great way to stand out.

This is a very short course—only 4 weeks.

It’s not going to make you a financial wizard, but it will teach you how to interpret three main aspects of financial accounting:

1. income statements
2. balance sheets
3. cash flow statements

By the end of the course, you will have a higher level of financial literacy and a better understanding of your business’s financial needs.

Specializations/Electives

As I pointed out previously, there are tons of roles marketers might find themselves in.

Depending on your job or your interests, some of these courses will appeal to you.

I included them into this section because you could be a very good marketer without taking any of them. However, they may be worth taking as they are logical extensions and specializations of marketing.

7. Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer? (MIT): A high proportion of marketers are interested in starting their own businesses. Not all, but many.

You can be a fantastic marketer without being an entrepreneur, but you can also apply your marketing knowledge and skills to become a successful entrepreneur. Either path is fine, but don’t be afraid to try both.

Entrepreneurship is a tough thing to teach in a course, but I like the approach of this MIT course.

Instead of standard lectures, each class consists of a detailed case study of actual entrepreneurs across different industries.

During these classes, you will learn the skills you need in order to understand your customers better, which is a fundamental ability for an entrepreneur.

8. Entrepreneurship 102: What can you do for your customer? (MIT): You will have the same instructors as in the course above as this course will pick up where the previous left off.

Instead of focusing on figuring out who your customer is and why they buy products, this course focuses on figuring out what value you can provide to your customer.

If you’re experienced in content marketing, you’ll see a lot of parallels. Just as good content must provide value to readers, products must provide value to customers.

9. Startup Success: How to Launch a Technology Company in 6 Steps (MIT): There are many types of entrepreneurs, but most commonly, people want to found their own startups.

The source of the desire is obvious: it’s a chance to have full control of a business where you can apply all your marketing and business knowledge.

But you need more than marketing knowledge to launch a startup.

This course will help you fill in the gaps in your startup knowledge (kind of the reverse purpose of this whole list).

This is another introductory course, but it will answer all the basic questions you might have. Once you finish the course, you’ll know how to:

• generate startup ideas
• develop prototypes and improve them
• recruit a team to help you
• raise funds (if needed)
• grow your business (where marketers excel)

Note that this course focuses on technology startups, but most lessons will apply to other types of startups as well.

10. Digital marketing specialization (University of Illinois – Paid courses): This isn’t actually a single course; it’s a series of five.

I included this for anyone who already has a good foundation in marketing but needs to update or extend their skillset.

These courses are all connected to each other and are focused solely on digital marketing. That includes things such as:

• digital marketing analytics
• SEO
• social media marketing

A note: you’ll have to pay to take these courses. However, they only cost about $100 each, which is incredibly cheap compared to an actual university course.

11. Social media marketing specialization (NorthWestern University – Paid courses): This is also a series of five courses.

The main difference is that this is even more specialized, focusing solely on social media marketing.

The first few courses are really basic, so if you have any experience with social media marketing, you can probably skip them without falling behind.

This course is great if you work (or plan to) in a niche dominated by social media marketing.

If social media is going to play a big role in your success, you want to learn as much as you can about marketing effectively on it.

12. Introduction to Project Management (University of Adelaide): If you have aspirations to run your own business or be promoted to a managerial position, this is a useful business course to take.

It’s exactly what it sounds like: an introduction to all the basic project management skills you’ll need.

It’s more of an abstract course because projects can be very different from each other, but the basic fundamentals will still be useful if you’re managing a project and a team.

13. Quick Sprout University for Internet Marketing: This is the first of a few items on this list that is not from an actual university.

I created this a few years ago, and it is now available free.

It covers all the major areas in Internet marketing:

• SEO
  • Link building
• Content marketing
• Social marketing
• Paid advertising
• Email marketing

…and a few more niche topics.

The whole course consists of many short videos that address a particular skill, tactic, or strategy you should know.

Even better, you can choose your skill level by using the menu on the left. Most topics are covered from the beginner level to advanced.

In my opinion, this rivals any course on this list in terms of completeness and value. Think of it as an “introduction to Internet marketing.”

It’s a good complement to the earlier mentioned digital marketing course as it is more specific and teaches you things you can apply right away.

Extras

This final group of courses will teach you skills that are, although not crucial, useful to you as a marketer.

If you want to have advanced or unique skills that other marketers can’t match, take these courses.

14. Introduction to Computer Science (Harvard): In a post on the most important skills for a content marketer, I mentioned that being able to code is a big plus.

Honestly, this single course will make a huge difference.

It’s not as hard as it seems to learn how to program on a basic level. This will allow you to automate repetitive marketing tasks, analyze large data sets, and do things like scrape websites.

I understand that the concept of programming can seem overwhelming, but this course is of reasonable difficulty and will take you step by step over all the hurdles you need to overcome.

If you have any interest in programming, you’ll enjoy it.

15. Data Analysis for Your Business (TU Delft): Data should be the core of marketing in most situations.

You need to understand how to sort and analyze data so that you can use it to make decisions that grow your business.

This course in particular focuses mainly on using advanced techniques in Excel (spreadsheets).

If you’re already fairly advanced with Excel, you can skip this course. However, if you’re looking to learn a few new tricks, it may still be worth your time.

16. Data Science and Analytics in Context (Columbia University): This is another option for learning data analysis.

It focuses on more advanced concepts such as natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and approaching data with a statistical mindset (important).

It’s less practical than the course right before it, but if you’re interested in working with large quantities of data, it’s a great place to start.

17. HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Course & Certification: This also isn’t a university course, but it’s extremely well-established nonetheless.

HubSpot is famous for its contribution to inbound marketing, and this course covers a lot of digital marketing topics in detail (although still focusing on the basics).

I recommend this mainly to marketers who don’t have much experience with digital or content marketing. It’s a great introduction to inbound marketing.

18. PPC University: Finally, this is another free resource and probably the best set of courses you’ll find on paid advertising (for a reasonable price at least).

It covers just about everything you need to know to get a good start in paid advertising, which all marketers should have at least a basic understanding of.

Conclusion

We’re living in an amazing age when courses from the top universities in the world are at your fingertips.

Even if you weren’t fortunate enough to get a formal education in marketing, you can still learn everything you need to know about the subject.

Take as many of the courses on this list as you’d like if you feel they will teach you knowledge and skills that fill in your gaps as a marketer.

If you’ve taken any other marketing courses online that I haven’t included, let me know what your experience was with them in the comments below.

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Coaching Call #6 with Colleen & Perrin: Setting a Link Building Strategy

Hey Gang! Perrin here again, and I’m super excited about our call today.

Why? Because we’re finally starting to move out of the content creation phase and get started with some actual marketing!

A quick recap from our last call…

Last week, Colleen told us that she was nearing the end of her first batch of content. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that we made a slight adjustment in our content strategy: we decided to “launch” with about 40 articles instead of 60, and we reduced our initial categories from five to two.

This was a tactical decision. We think we’ll be more successful quicker if we create less content to start and spend more time marketing.

So, Colleen’s been rocking and rolling. She’s outsourced a good chunk of content, and she’s been banging out articles of her own.

Currently, she’s on schedule to have 40 articles complete by February 20^th. 

We’ve also covered pretty much everything we need to (at least for the beginning phases of an online business) in terms of content.

So, even though Colleen still has a few days’ worth of content production to go, I thought it’d be a good idea to start laying the groundwork for our link building strategy.

So today, we’re going to talk about our strategy for building links.

For pretty much the entire history of SEO, people have been trying to devise ways to “build” links without actually having to talk to other people—to game Google instead of promoting content or networking with other webmasters.

There’s a prevailing mindset that “white-hat” link building is incredibly difficult, incredibly time consuming, and incredibly expensive.

I bought into this mindset myself, happily buying into the PBN craze… and quickly learned my lesson.

Since then, I’ve been learning about—and practicing—white-hat link building.

And it’s paid off… big time.

Not only has white-hat link building helped me grow a new site to beyond where aPennyShaved was—especially in terms of traffic—but it’s also showed me something very important: white hat link building is actually cheaper, easier, and more effective than any grey-hat technique I’ve ever tried.

During my last guest posting campaign, I spent 20 hours and roughly $200 to get about 11 links, including an incredible DA75 bombshell from the biggest site in my industry. You can’t do that with PBNs.

So, that’s the direction I want to steer Colleen.

Marketing Phase 1: Guest Posting

I love guest posting. It’s not the most efficient way to earn links, but it’s certainly one of the easiest, making it, in my mind, a great place for us to start.

It’s one of the safest forms of link building you can do, and it’s one of the only white-hat ways to build links that allows you to retain even a teensy bit of control over your anchor text and link placement.

But, more than that, it’s a great way to build real relationships with people in your market. And that, my friends, is absolutely invaluable when you start to scale into the realm of “business.”

We’re going to try three different kinds of guest posts…

1. Asking people we know.

If you think link-building is hard, you’re going to love this. I have no idea why more people don’t do this.

The first links Colleen’s going to try to secure are asking people she knows to guest post on their blogs.

Listen: it’s 2016. Everyone—and I mean everyone—has a blog of some kind. So everyone reading this—yes, even you—knows at least 10 people who have some kind of blog.

If you think you don’t, you’re wrong. You do. So ask.

Just put out some feelers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… wherever your friends hang out. Simply ask who has a blog, and then as if you can give them some free content.

I literally can’t think of anything easier; your conversion rate should be pretty close to 100%.

The obvious problem, of course, is that almost none of these blogs will be on your topic. To get around that, simply write a post that overlaps with the two niches.

Have a soccer blog, but your friend has a parenting blog? Write a post about how soccer teaches kids life skills. Have an archery blog, but your friend has a travel blog? Write a post about regulations you need to know before traveling with a crossbow. You get the idea.

Colleen’s assignment: Ask 10 blogger friends for guest posts.

2. Find big blogs you WANT links on and “make those relationships happen.”

This is the preferred tactic of my good friend Ryan, one of the best link builders I know.

He’s always hated the idea of “link prospecting.” And he detests weak links. He only goes after strong links—links he can write home about.

To do this, he finds the best sites he can. Then he compiles a list of people who might be good contacts: editors, associate editors, marketing managers, content managers—pretty much anyone who might have any say in what gets published on the site.

Then, he’ll rank them in terms of priority, and he’ll just start pounding the pavement. In his words, he “makes those relationships happen.”

He’ll email one person and follow up about four times. If he doesn’t get a response by then, he’ll simply go to the next name on the list for that site. And he’ll do this until he’s got a contact who likes him. And then he’ll pitch them on a guest post.

And guys… the links he gets are ridiculous. Just one of these links is worth many dozens of lower-tier guest posts. So we’re going to try to get at least a few.

Colleen’s assignment: Find 20 amazing sites in her market she WANTS links on, and compile a list of potential contacts.

3. Find prolific guest posters and “steal” their opportunities.

This is the last and final guest posting strategy we’ll use.

The idea here is to find someone in Colleen’s broad market who’s publishing a bunch of guest posts. Then, we’ll try to find all the places that person’s posted and go after those opportunities ourselves.

A good way to do this is to use some simple advanced Google queries, like the following:

• [keyword] “guest post by”
• [keyword] “guest author”
• [keyword] “my guest posts”

Using those, everyone should be able to find one or two good guest posting “role models.” If you can’t, broaden your search to a bigger chunk of your market (e.g. “fitness” instead of “yoga for dads”).

Then, we’ll see if we can track down our role model’s guest posts and pitch some ideas to those sites.

Check out our our call for an in-depth discussion

If you would rather listen to the audio only, you can download the MP3 file right here.

Wrapping it up…

Overall, this is super exciting. I love this part of the site-building process.

This is where the magic happens. This is what can really start the ol’ success snowball, and I honestly think Colleen has the perfect skill set to execute.

Do you guest post? Why or why not? Leave a comment!

The post Coaching Call #6 with Colleen & Perrin: Setting a Link Building Strategy appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

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75 Content Marketing Tools You Can’t Live Without

Are you seeking ways to take your content marketing strategy to the next level? There are thousands of tactics to consider, but you have a limited supply of time, money, and energy.

Even if you are among the 42% of B2B marketers who say they’re effective at content marketing, there is always room for improvement. If you want to make the most of content marketing, you need to know which strategies to implement and which tools to use.

In this post, we’ll examine 75 content marketing tools proven to increase reach, generate sales, boost traffic, and much more.

Here we go! 

Content Discovery

1. Quora - Quora was built on the premise of providing “the best answer to any question.”

Content marketers can use the popular social network to identify trends, communicate with others, and, most importantly, provide high quality answers to establish themselves as an authority on almost any subject.

2. Reddit - What was once considered nothing more than an entertainment site, Reddit is now a “go to” service for content marketers.

With the right subject matter, a targeted strategy, and a bit of luck, your post has the potential to go viral. With more than 36 million user accounts and billions of comments, Reddit is the stuff content marketers dream about.

3. Inbound.org – Think about Inbound.org as “Reddit for inbound marketers.” The top marketing professionals in the world use this site to share ideas, leave feedback for others, establish their authority, and discuss trends.

You can create your own posts, based on a question or a particular piece of content, while also jumping in on current conversations.

4. Alltop – Are you seeking the most popular stories on a variety of topics? From business to technology to breaking news, you will find it all on Alltop. This can serve as ammunition for blog posts and give you an overall idea of what is hot.

Content Distribution

5. Buffer – The Buffer tagline says it all: “A better way to share on social media.”

Content marketing in 2016 means being active on social media. When time is tight, use Buffer to schedule posts across a variety of networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. With this tool on your side, distributing social media posts is fast, efficient, and effective.

6. Hootsuite – Much the same as Buffer, Hootsuite is a social media management dashboard. With 10+ million professionals using the service, it has to be doing something right.

Hootsuite connects with more than 35 social media platforms, allowing you to distribute social media content more efficiently. The days of visiting each social site to create updates is gone.

7. SlideShare – Even if you consider PowerPoint presentations a thing of the past, SlideShare will change the way you feel about slide presentations.

Use the service to promote a product, service, new release, or anything else you want to share with the world. It gives you the opportunity to share high quality content in a visually appealing manner, all on a website that is extremely popular.

8. PRWeb – When it comes to online press release services, PRWeb is king of the hill. With the right package, you can get your release in front of 25,000+ journalists and more than 250,000 email subscribers. Press release distribution is not dead. With PRWeb, it is alive and well.

9. BuzzStream – This tool could fit under a few categories, as it’s one of the most powerful and advanced you will find. It can be used for everything, including conducting outreach, contacting influencers, and managing relationships.

One of the top features of BuzzStream is its ability to help you build a list and pitch to influencers, improving the chance of widespread distribution.

Analytics

10. Kissmetrics – You knew this one would be on the list, right? Kissmetrics explains its offerings in one simple sentence:

“Kissmetrics delivers key insights and timely interactions to turn visitors into customers.”

It’s one thing to know who is visiting your website. It is another thing entirely to turn these people into customers. Content marketing is all about results, and Kissmetrics can help you reach your goals through a variety of solutions.

11. Google Analytics – It’s hard to go wrong with Google Analytics since it’s one of the top free analytics tools. You don’t need much knowledge to understand how this tool can improve your business. But if you need a little nudge, check out some of the case studies shared by the search engine giant.

Content marketing success is based largely on data. And data is what you get when you rely on Google Analytics.

12. Dasheroo – A newcomer to the business dashboard space, Dasheroo is a free tool that allows users to track KPIs spanning a variety of platforms and apps.

Dasheroo integrates with many of the tools you use as a content marketer such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Shopify, MailChimp, and many more.

In simple terms, Dasheroo imports all your data into a super-attractive dashboard. You can forget about opening multiple tabs and dealing with a crazy number of logins. Everything is in one place.

13. SimpleReach – With a focus on content measurement and distribution, SimpleReach is a must for content marketers.

After you create killer content, use this tool to get your content in front of your target audience. By “bridging the gap between measurement and distribution,” you can better measure performance and optimize content reach.

14. Simply Measured – Simply Measured wants you to realize that there is more to social media than publishing content. As a social media analytics and measurement tool, it helps content marketers research each post and measure its effectiveness.

Users have access to a variety of reports, including a competitor comparison analysis.

15. Zuum – You aren’t the only person in your space focused on content marketing. Regardless of your niche, you will have plenty of competition. Zuum is a tool to help you outdo the competition at every turn.

Here is what it can do for you: compare your social media efforts to that of your competition’s, pinpoint your competitor’s top campaigns, and identify on whom (influencers) they are relying to amplify their message.

Influencer Marketing Tools

16. Traackr – “Influence marketing” is a buzz phrase you don’t want to ignore. The same holds true for this content marketing tool.

Traackr does more than just help you identify influencers in your niche. As an “Influencer Management Platform,” it also allows you to manage relationships and track their impact on your business. If you want to learn more, check out this two-minute video.

17. Klout – Klout takes a simplistic approach to content marketing: “The best way to have an impact online is to create and share great content.”

Klout assists with this process by suggesting content your audience has yet to see and tracking the impact. And don’t forget about the Klout Score, which measures your influence. The higher your score, the more influence you have.

18. Kred – In the same vein as Klout, Kred was designed with the idea of connecting people with social media influencers. To go along with identifying influencers, Kred helps you boost your social media standing.

Social Media

19. Socedo – Is social media lead generation enticing? Socedo takes the guesswork out of the process, allowing you to find your target audience, engage them, and fill your funnel with leads. 

A big part of what social media can do for you is its ability to bring prospects into your pipeline. Socedo assists with every step.

20. Storify – Every minute of every day, there are millions of people sharing their thoughts online. Storify is a simple way to identify, collect, and share what others are saying.

A big part of a successful content marketing strategy is the ability to create something unique and valuable. With Storify, you can create a unique story and then share it with your audience. Best yet, Storify has built-in distribution tools to make this a breeze.

21. Quuu – Time is money, right? If you believe this to be true, Quuu is the tool for you. By putting your social media marketing on autopilot, you have more time for other areas of your business. All the while, you can rest easy knowing that your social media strategy is in good hands.

You start by selecting categories relevant to your business. From there, hand-curated content is sent to your Buffer account (see #5 above). Finally, you can manually edit the posts, if you desire, before they are scheduled or published.

22. Tweepi – Content marketing and Twitter go hand in hand. The problem with this is that Twitter management can eat up many hours of your day. Tweepi protects against this by helping you “make sense of your Twitter account.”

You can find users, interact with influencers, and use a variety of tools to get noticed.

23. SocialBro – The more you use Twitter, the more help you will need to stay organized. SocialBro offers tools for:

• Discovering competitors and leveraging their communities.
• Understanding your audience.
• Executing your social media plan.
• Tracking and reporting your campaign in great detail.

24. Tweriod – Is there anything worse than finding out that nobody is paying attention to your tweets as you tweet away? Tweriod protects against this by determining the best time for your business to tweet.

After you run a report, you will know which days and times to tweet. This ensures that more people see your content, thus increasing the chance of engagement.

Tweriod is a simple tool that churns out serious data.

Image and Video Creation

25. Spruce – There are many benefits of visual content, including an increase in a person’s willingness to read.

Spruce allows you to create social-media-ready images in seconds. Search millions of photos, add your own text, and post to the social media platform or website of your choice.

With Spruce, you never have to concern yourself with using a copyrighted image. Talk about a load off your mind!

26. Meme Generator – You don’t have to be serious all the time. There is a time and place for fun, and when you are ready to have it, you can use this free tool to create a killer meme.

Search popular memes, or create your own. This tool is fun to use, and if done right, your meme can yield some serious results on social media.

27. Visual.ly – By now, you probably understand why infographics are so effective. What you may not understand is how to create one.

Visual.ly takes all the work out of the process. You can hand off the creation to a third party, allowing you to focus on content marketing techniques that better suit your skill set.

28. Uberflip – Here’s how Uberflip describes itself:

“Uberflip helps marketers create, manage, and optimize content experiences at every stage of the buyer journey—without relying on IT.”

The big thing here is that you don’t need any tech knowledge to use Uberflip.

Look closely at the home page, and you will see my face, accompanied by a testimonial for the service. It reads:

“If your content strategy doesn’t include Uberflip, you’re missing a huge opportunity to continue the conversation. Hubs open the door to deeper engagement and understanding of your customer.”

29. PowToon – An animated video or presentation could be the type of content that puts your business on the map. Share it on social media as a standalone clip, or add it to a blog post. Whatever you choose, you know that an animated video will provide a unique experience.

With drag and drop templates, you can create a captivating and engaging message in 20 minutes or less.

30. Canva – With Canva, anybody can become a designer. With access to a powerful online image creation tool, as well as a stock photo library, you have everything you need to get started.

If you require graphics for your blog, website, or social campaigns, Canva can help you generate professional results.

31. Easel.ly – Since launch, Easel.ly has attracted 900,000 users who have created more than two million infographics.

You can start fresh with a blank infographic or choose from hundreds of templates. From there, drag and drop your content into the appropriate place, download the image, and use it to ramp up your content marketing efforts.

32. Magisto – There used to be a time when making a movie to promote your company, product, or service was an expensive endeavor. Not anymore. Magisto allows you to turn your photos and videos into professional videos you will be proud to share with the world.

Choose from a variety of themes, select your music, and customize it as you go. The final result is a video that will give your content marketing strategy a shot in the arm.

33. Animoto – If you need a high quality, professional video to “share what matters most,” Animoto could be the answer.

More than 13 million customers have fallen in love with the Animoto’s three-step process:

• Choose a style and song.
• Customize your video using text, photos, and videos.
• Produce, and share with your audience.

Automation

34. Nutshell – Some may not consider Nutshell a content marketing tool, but once you dig deeper, you will see what it can do.

Nutshell is more than your basic CRM software. It brings a lot to the table, including tools for collecting data in one place, automation features for reporting and lead distribution, and features to nurture and develop relationships at all stages of the sales cycle.

35. Pardot – A lead management tool that never disappoints, Pardot (by Salesforce) focuses its efforts on B2B marketing automation.

If you need to automate some of your marketing to free up time, this tool has a lot to offer. It gives you everything you need to excel, including:

• Tools for generating leads.
• Option to create custom and targeted emails.
• Ability to calculate return on investment.

36. Marketo – Marketo is all about one word: integration.

It brings together your content, email, social media efforts, and more, allowing you to target the best leads, create content specifically for your target audience, and measure performance.

It may not be the best tool for beginning content marketers, but for those who are more advanced and those who want to combine content marketing with other strategies, it is a reliable solution.

37. Right On Interactive – An advanced marketing tool that uses customer lifecycle mapping to help you understand where a prospect fits into the sales funnel.

This automation software can be integrated with many of your content marketing tasks, such as email and social media marketing.

38. Silverpop – More than 5,000 brands use this marketing tool to bring together all aspects of their marketing programs.

It offers many solutions to users, including an email marketing platform allowing for the simple creation and distribution of personal, relevant messages.

39. Route – You can generate as many leads as you want, but you won’t feel good about yourself until some of them turn into customers.

Route begins to track people as soon as they land on your website. Once the tool identifies them, you can use it to provide valuable content, follow up, and move the sales process forward. Think of this tool as your personal assistant, helping you better understand how visitors interact with your website.

40. Salesforce – Quite possibly the biggest brand on this list, Salesforce has long been known as the number one CRM solution in the world.

Although the tool has many sales components, it also has plenty of marketing tools that deserve your attention. For instance, you can provide a better social experience for your audience by using Salesforce to engage with them on a personal level.

41. IFTTT – An interesting name for an interesting tool. IFTTT makes it easy for web applications and platforms to work together.

Given that the tool is compatible with nearly 300 “channels,” it won’t be long before you find a way to complement your content marketing efforts with this tool.

42. Optimizely – With Optimizely, you can “test, personalize, and optimize” your website. Doing so helps increase conversions, thus improving your content marketing ROI.

With a code-free visual editor, ROI data generated in real time, and best-in-class integrations, this tool will fit in nicely with any and every content marketing strategy.

43. Wootric – To understand Wootric, you must first become familiar with its tagline: “Wootric is the Net Promoter Score platform for boosting customer happiness.”

Here’s what it can do from a marketing perspective:

• Data-driven approach.
• Tools that allow for easy follow-up with promoters.
• Targeted campaigns to convert consumers who like your product or service into loyal customers.

44. Act-on – This marketing platform is a beginning-to-end solution, providing management for the entire lead-to-revenue lifecycle.

Generating leads through content marketing is a great start, but what matters most is converting these people into paying customers. From attracting prospects to building relationships, Act-on will provide you with the help you need.

45. Contactually – The more effort you put into content marketing, the bigger your network will become. There are leads from your blog, social media, and referrals.

Contactually is built with the idea that you can “turn relationships into results.” Every prospect is as important as the next one, and this tool allows you to cultivate each relationship into something special.

46. Ahrefs – You don’t know content marketing if you don’t know Ahrefs. This tool allows you to track key data associated with your marketing strategy, including the number of backlinks, where your backlinks are coming from, keywords, and brand mentions.

Last but not least, Ahrefs has tools for tracking your competition.

47. Zapier – With Zapier, you can connect the apps you use the most, automate a variety of tasks, and dig deep into all sorts of data.

For example, you can set up a “Zap” that does the following: shares all new tweets from a Twitter list in Slack.

With 400+ supported apps, there isn’t much that Zapier can’t handle.

48. HubSpot – HubSpot has quickly become one of the top brands in the inbound marketing game. Given how much this tool has to offer, it would be impossible to explain all the details associated with HubSpot marketing software.

Visit this page to take a product tour as this will give you a clear understanding of what the software can do for you.

HubSpot has tools for every marketing task imaginable, including:

• Blogging
• SEO
• Social media
• Lead management
• Landing pages
• Email
• Analytics

49. Cision – With 100,000 customers, you know Cision is doing something right. Cision provides a variety of software solutions, covering areas such as content marketing, media monitoring, and press release distribution.

With its content marketing component, for example, you get help with all aspects of content creation, content amplification, and results measurement.

Content Writing Tools

50. Contently – Do you have dreams of scaling your content marketing strategy? This is where Contently excels. With this award-winning platform, you will get all the help you need in creating, distributing, and optimizing content.

Best yet, you can create and manage all your content in one place, ensuring that your entire team is on the same page.

Contently also has an advanced analytics tool that tells you what to do next, allowing you to get every last bit of juice from your content.

51. NewsCred – NewsCred is a unique platform that helps your brand “grow with efficiency, agility and scale.”

For those who require help with content creation, NewsCred can solve this problem. With a large network of creators, you can leave the content writing to somebody else.

52. Textbroker – Textbroker considers itself a leading content writing service, and there are many reasons to give the service a try.

With a self-service platform, you are in charge of the content creation process from beginning to end, despite the fact that you will never write a single word. You can also decide on the level of quality, which corresponds with the price you will pay.

You can’t succeed in content marketing if you don’t have access to quality content. Textbroker helps many marketers attack this issue.

Organization

53. Trello – Are you the visual type? Are you seeking a tool to help you and your team stay organized? Trello helps you do just that.

Trello has helped many content marketers rid themselves of spreadsheets, sticky notes, and long email threads. Simply put, it’s a better way to get organized and stay organized, all in a visually attractive environment.

54. Basecamp – It doesn’t matter whether you are managing a project or group, Basecamp gives you the tools you need to succeed.

For instance, content marketers use Basecamp to manage outreach projects. It keeps everyone involved on the same page, ensuring that nobody steps on another person’s toes.

Something else to note: Basecamp 3, complete with an all-new interface, was released in late 2015. 

55. Google Calendar – Content marketing success, in large part, depends on your ability to stay organized and complete tasks on time.

Google Calendar is a free tool that makes it easy to keep track of important events and tasks related to your content strategy. Share the calendar with anybody who needs access, from coworkers to clients.

56. MindNode – Mind mapping can go one of two ways. It can lead you towards a great idea, or it can cause an extreme sense of frustration. If you often find yourself in the latter group, MindNode can help.

The MindNode app provides a visual representation of your ideas, allowing you to better map out your brainstorming process and eventually take action.

How many times have you forgotten a great idea for a blog post? How many times has analysis paralysis slowed you down? This is no longer a concern thanks to MindNode.

57. Asana – Make no bones about it, Asana has one goal: to help you keep your projects on track.

It doesn’t matter if you are a team of one or 100, every project needs to move through the pipeline in an efficient manner.

Trusted by Harvard University, Major League Baseball, and Uber, Asana makes this possible by providing tools that track projects from beginning to end. 

58. Evernote – If you have trouble with your memory, no matter the reason, Evernote can be your sidekick. This nifty tool is one of the top organizational platforms around, used by many who want to remember everything associated with their business.

Use Evernote to list blog post ideas, brainstorm your next steps, keep an editorial calendar, and share your thoughts with others.

59. Wunderlist – Planning is a big part of any content marketing strategy. You plan when to write your next blog post; you plan when to publish it;  and you plan your outreach strategy. You get the point.

Wunderlist has many features to simplify your life as a content marketer, including setting reminders to write a blog post and sharing lists with a business partner.

General Content Tools

60. BuzzSumo – Reading the BuzzSumo tagline will get you excited: 

“Analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor.”

Enter any topic or domain into the search box, and let BuzzSumo do the rest. Within seconds, you will be presented with the most shared content on any topic, including a breakdown by social platform. You can even view the backlinks generated by each post.

Use it for yourself, and/or use it to track the competition. It’s by far one of the most trusted and relied upon tools by content marketers.

61. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) – If you need a quote for an upcoming blog post (or another piece of content), HARO helps you connect with journalists.

You can also use the service to get featured in a variety of publications. Sign up as an expert, and you will soon be presented with opportunities to share your knowledge to enhance your personal brand and authority.

62. Google Drive – The more content you produce, the more content you need to store. You don’t want to lose any of it, which is why Google Drive is so popular.

Content marketers use Google Drive to save and share content. As a free cloud storage provider, this tool has a place in your toolbox!

63. iSpionage – There are times when content marketing is more about the competition than yourself. With iSpionage, you can unearth your competitors’ PPC strategy.

iSpionage positions itself as the “only competitive intelligence tool that monitors the entire conversion funnel.”

If you want to examine the inner workings of your competition, with a close eye on paid advertising, this tool can help you do just that. You might just uncover a strategy that could boost your business.

64. Pocket – There will be times when you come across a story that you want to revisit later only to forget all about it.

Pocket protects against this, providing a way to discover and save any story of interest. Compatible with more than 300 apps, this tool will save any resource for you for your future use.

Email Marketing

65. Aweber – Affordable. Easy to use. Full of features. These are just a few of the words and phrases that describe the Aweber email marketing platform.

If you want to do email marketing the right way, Aweber won’t let you down. An industry leader in deliverability and mobile tools, this platform will help you, as a content marketer, to achieve great results.

66. MailChimp – Don’t let the name fool you. There is no monkeying around when you use this email marketing solution.

MailChimp has one goal and one goal only: to help customers “send better email.”

The company boasts more than 10 million users who send approximately 600 million emails every day. It’s impossible to list all the benefits and features of this email platform, but its flexibility deserves a special mention.

Regardless of industry, size, or personal style, MailChimp is designed to help marketers send better emails.

67. GetResponse – Another email marketing platform, GetResponse attracts customers based on the premise that its solution is the “easiest” in the world.

GetResponse has 350,000 customers spanning 182 countries. Every month, these customers engage with more than 1 billion subscribers via email.

One of the primary benefits of GetResponse is a feature list for both beginners and expert email marketers.

68. VerticalResponse – Are you interested in a tool that can combine your email marketing with your social media marketing? VerticalResponse does just that.

It is designed to help users create, send, and track emails and social media updates across every type of device.

With 15 years of experience in the business and more than 1 million customers, VerticalResponse is doing something right. It may be time to find out what.

69. iContact – With a focus on small and medium sized businesses, iContact provides a variety of tools for email marketing success.

All forms of content marketing are judged by results. And with iContact’s results-oriented features, you will feel comfortable with the path you are following.

70. Constant Contact – You have seen the commercials. You may even know a few people using Constant Contact for their email marketing. But until you try it yourself, you will never truly understand what it offers.

With easy to use features, including customizable templates, the tool can help anybody looking for help with email marketing to get started.

The company has positioned itself as the email marketing solution for anybody and everybody, which has turned it into a billion dollar company with customers all over the world.

Blogging

71. WordPress – It’s not possible to have a list of the top content marketing tools without mentioning WordPress.

There are tens of millions of websites running on the WordPress content management system. This includes top brands such as TechCrunch, The New Yorker, and BBC America.

Even if you have no knowledge of blogging, you can set up a free WordPress website within minutes. From there, sharing your content with the world is a cinch.

For many brands, their WordPress-driven blogs are the basis for their entire content marketing strategies.

72. Yoast – Content marketing and website optimization go together like peanut butter and jelly. Yoast provides a variety of WordPress plugins that help users optimize their blogs.

Google Analytics by Yoast and the Yoast SEO plugin have been downloaded tens of millions of times.

If you have a WordPress-powered website, Yoast plugins can help you from an optimization point of view.

73. Google Keyword Planner – Which keywords get the most traffic? Which keywords are best for a PPC campaign? Answering these questions is simple with the help of the Google Keyword Planner.

Use this tool to view keyword ideas, cost per click data, and more.

Before you create a blog post, for instance, you need to know which keywords to target. Google Keyword Planner can help you identify keywords that will drive more traffic to your website.

74. Readability Test Tool – An interesting tool that tests the readability of any web page. You can test by URL or by direct input. Either way, the results are helpful.

This tool takes into consideration a variety of readability indicators, including Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease, Gunning Fog Score, and the Coleman Liau Index.

If your content has a low readability score, it’s time to revamp it.

75. Feedly – When you add your favorite blogs to this RSS feed, you never have to worry about missing an important piece of content.

There are many ways to use Feedly. For example, add your competition to the RSS feed. Are they doing something you should be doing? Are they overlooking an area you can exploit?

With the ability to personalize your feed, Feedly can quickly become one of those online services you can’t (and won’t) live without.

Conclusion

Just because you have a content marketing strategy in place doesn’t mean it’s perfect. You should always be on the lookout for tactics and tools that will strengthen your plan.

Hopefully, after reviewing these 75 content marketing tools, you have a better idea of which ones fit best with your current approach and future plans.

Maybe you are seeking a few tools for more efficient content distribution. Or maybe you need one to help with the automation of your processes. Regardless of your situation, there are many options out there.

Have you used any of these tools in the past? Would you add any others to the list?

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