As a marketer, you know that creating high-quality content takes time and effort. As the saying goes, time is money. So, it's important to use tools that help you produce great content quickly and efficiently. While there are plenty of great tools to help you amplify your content marketing efforts, some come with a hefty price tag.
Fortunately, there are some free content marketing tools that save time and money while still getting great results. Even if you have a small budget or team, these tools streamline your efforts for quality content and level up your digital marketing.
While many of these tools have paid upgrades and enhanced plans, the base tool is free for anyone to use. Here's a look at the 15 top free content marketing tools of 2022 and what they have to offer.
"Even if you have a small budget or team, these tools streamline your efforts for quality content and level up your digital marketing.”
Buzzsumo offers analytics on different types of trending web content.
BuzzSumo is a free tool that analyzes what type of content performs best for any topic or domain. It overviews trending topics, views competitors’ strategies, and compares web pages to measure performance. You can also use it to track keywords and see how your content stacks up against other websites.
Top Features:
Content discovery: Browse topics, trends, and forums to spark new ideas.
Chrome extension: Instantly learn about content via its social shares, and links.
Content research: Scan billions of articles and social media posts to gain insights.
Pros:
Helps you quickly identify popular content topics
Lets you track keywords and measure performance
Easy-to-use interface
Cons:
Can be overwhelming if you don’t know what to look for
Limited search on the free version
Not enough information to gain insight into competitors’ strategies
Canva
Canva offers free templates and tools to create graphics for any project.
Canva is a free, user-friendly tool that helps you create stunning visuals quickly and easily. It offers thousands of templates, photos, and illustrations to help you create beautiful designs for social media posts and other visuals for your content. There’s no need to be a graphic design pro—Canva makes it easy to create visuals in no time.
Top Features:
Image enhancer: Fix dark, blurry, and oversaturated images with this free tool.
PDF converter: Convert files to PDFs for free.
Video trimmer: Easily trim, split, and cut videos for free.
Pros:
User-friendly interface that’s great for beginners
Thousands of free images
Drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to create beautiful visuals quickly
Cons:
Limited features and customization options compared to paid tools
Manual editing can be time-consuming if you create complex designs because of the step-by-step process.
Grammarly
Grammarly is a free writing assistant that ensures your content is free from errors. It helps reduce typos, eliminate grammar mistakes, and improve word choice for better readability. It even has a Chrome extension for Google Docs, so you never have to leave the page.
You can easily view grammatical errors and language suggestions for your content.
Top Features:
Correctness: Checks for spelling and grammar errors
Clarity and Engagement: Offers personalized writing suggestions
Delivery: Flags unclear sentence structure or complex words
Pros:
Quickly checks for errors and suggests corrections
Offers personalized suggestions to help improve readability
Cons:
Suggestions don’t always match the tone
Looking at each suggestion individually can be time-consuming if you are editing long pieces of content
Hemingway Editor
See highlights indicating areas to improve your content with Hemingway.
Hemingway Editor is a free writing tool that helps simplify your content and make it easier to read. It highlights complex sentences and phrases for you to cut down and clarify. It’s an easy-to-use plugin that analyzes and gives suggestions almost instantly.
Top Features:
Color-coded writing: Easily identifies language issues with color-coordinated reasons.
Readability grade: Offers readability score based on sentence length and complexity to ensure appropriate reading level.
Cut-and-paste platform: Content can be imported from other sources or pasted directly into the app.
Pros:
Quickly checks for errors and suggests corrections
Makes content easier to consume by simplifying language
Cons:
Does not detect spelling or grammar mistakes, only complex sentences or phrases
Good to know: Looking for a content editor that allows for real-time content collaboration? Check out our cloud-based content editor.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
(Source: Industrial Marketer) Marketers can gain insight into their headline score and how they can improve it.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer is a free tool that helps you create catchy titles for your content. It assesses your headline’s structure, grammar, and readability. If you’re a content manager looking to create eye-catching headlines to get more clicks on social media shares, this tool is a great way to ensure your content is designed with the best-quality headline in mind.
Top Features:
Word balance: Grades headline to ensure there is a balance between words and length.
Sentiment: Gauge the type of emotions your headline conveys.
Headline type: Choose the type of headline you are looking for to ensure your headline matches your article intent.
Pros:
Analyzes headlines for structure, grammar, and readability
Helps you create catchy titles for your content
Cons:
Does not detect spelling or grammar mistakes, only complex sentences or phrases
No ability to save headlines
Unsplash
Extensive galleries of free stock images are sorted by topic on Unsplash.
Unsplash is a free collection of high-quality photos to use any way you like. It’s a great resource for content creators who need free images to add to their content. And because articles and social posts with images tend to be more engaging than those without, having a free image resource is key.
Top Features:
Share and download: Allows users to easily download and share images directly from the website.
Image size search: Allows users to search for images based on sizing and orientation.
Multiple collections: Users can choose from animations, photography, and other image mediums.
Pros:
Thousands of free images
High-resolution photos that are free to use for commercial purposes
Easy to search library with multiple categories and tags
Cons:
Limited customization options compared to paid tools
No ability to edit or resize photos
Library can be difficult to navigate if you don’t know what you are looking for
Feedly
Feedly collects all the content you want to read in one place.
Feedly is a free aggregator and smart reader app that allows users to discover and organize the best content from different sources. It’s an excellent tool for marketers who read multiple articles and stay up-to-date with industry news.
Top Features:
Navigation bar: Allows you to easily search the library and mark to read now or later.
Integrations: Easily connect to other tools you use.
Multiple feeds: Allows users to create up to 3 feeds (on the free plan) to organize content into themes.
Pros:
Quickly search for relevant content from thousands of sources
Can follow specific companies and alerts to customize your feed
Save time by organizing content into categories and topics
Cons:
Limited customization options and no ability to edit content
(Source: Infogram) Easy-to-use templates allow marketers to create customized data visualization in only a few steps.
Infogram is a free data visualization tool that lets you create stunning charts, graphs, and other infographics. It’s an easy-to-use tool with pre-made templates that make it easier to create visual content quickly. Data can seem overwhelming for many content creators, often pushing them away from the idea of diving into deeper research. Using data visualization tools helps give context to data and helps creators easily understand and share important information.
Top Features:
Ready-made templates: 20+ pre-made templates for quick visuals.
Image gallery: Access to over one million royalty-free images and icons.
Drag-and-drop editor: Easily edits colors and styles, add icons, and set display options for a customized infographic.
Pros:
Quickly create stunning visuals from free templates
Easy to customize colors, fonts, and design elements
Ability to embed charts and maps in web pages
Cons:
No ability to edit data or export visuals in high resolution
Limited to 10 projects on free plan vs. up to 100 with the first paid plan.
Trello
You can view your Trello projects at a glance with Kanban-style organization.
Trello is a free project management tool that organizes your content and allows you to collaborate with team members. It’s great for marketers who need to keep track of deadlines, tasks, and workflows. Users can organize their boards in different views such as Kanban, calendar, and board, to visualize progress and track projects.
Top Features:
Keyboard shortcuts: Multiple shortcuts to quickly and efficiently track projects and streamline workflows.
Card covers: Enhance collaboration and visually identify projects with card covers to distinguish different projects.
Checklists: Ensure everything gets done with a checklist that can be auto-populated to each card in the project.
Pros:
Ability to set up boards for each project or campaign to organize content ideas and keep track of progress.
Ability to add multiple users to each board to streamline project workflows and track with labels, comments, and due dates.
Cons:
No task dependencies, so accountability can be difficult to track.
Integration limitations mean that it can’t import from Microsoft project files.
Google Analytics
View website data and gain insights into your audience with Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a free tracking tool that helps you measure the success of your content marketing efforts in real time. It’s great for marketers who need to understand their website performance in detail.
The platform breaks down important metrics like audience, behavior, conversions, website traffic, and acquisitions, which you can then use to shift and expand your content marketing strategy.
Top Features:
Real-time reporting: Allows users to monitor website activity as it happens.
Built-in automation: Gain insights, predict user behavior, and tap into modeling capabilities.
Advertising workspace: Better understand the ROI of your media spend across all channels, make informed decisions about budget allocation, and evaluate attribution models.
Pros:
Quickly get insights into website performance in detail
Ability to track page views, bounce rate, and time on site
Ability to measure conversions from content marketing efforts
Cons:
Lacks personally identifiable information
It can be difficult for beginners to set up and understand
Quora is a free Q&A platform that allows marketers to engage with potential customers by answering their questions. It’s a great way to build relationships and get feedback on content ideas. Marketers can also use it to discover the types of questions and topics their audiences are asking about. This can help the content creation process and inspire new ideas.
Top Features:
Search Page: Ability to search for relevant questions from the homepage.
Monitor Questions: Users can track questions as more answers are provided.
Editing Capabilities: You can edit your questions and question details at any time.
Pros:
Quickly engage with potential customers by following topics that match your product or service
Easy to find experts in specific topics by using search capabilities
Cons:
Information could lack validity because the sources are unverified
It can be challenging to find relevant questions
Buffer
Buffer allows you to schedule social media posts in advance.
Buffer is a free social media management tool that helps you schedule and optimize content for your target audience. It’s great for marketers who need to save time while managing social media accounts like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Top Features:
Browser extension: Automatically grab the page title and a shortened URL and preselect your default Buffer accounts.
Clip text and images: Easily clip and share your favorite clips of text and images as soon as you find them.
Analytics dashboard: View, track, and recycle your top-performing posts
Pros:
Quickly schedule posts across multiple networks
Easy to customize content for each social network by adding images, videos, and links
Cons:
Need to supplement with other tools: You can schedule posts and view analytics, but you can’t view your incoming mentions, respond to comments and messages, or engage with others’ posts.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite helps you plan content and schedule it to post in advance.
Hootsuite is a free social media management tool that manages and schedules your accounts and posts and measures results. It’s great for marketers who need to save time and get more insights into their content performance.
Top Features:
Publish and Schedule: Easy to schedule posts across multiple social networks in one place.
Engagement tool: Manage incoming messages from multiple social channels at once.
Activity monitor: Easily monitor conversations, keywords, and trends.
Pros:
Quickly track analytics and measure the performance of posts.
Easy to monitor conversations, keywords, and trends
Cons:
No data in Facebook Insights
Must use Ow.ly short links
Limited to one user and 10 social accounts on a free plan. Paid plans allow for multiple users and as few as 20 social accounts.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a handy way to monitor your SEO health.
Ubersuggest is a free keyword research tool used to discover content ideas and optimize for search engines. It’s great for marketers who need to find relevant keywords and topics to target quickly. Understanding the keyword landscape in your industry can significantly improve your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts and increase your reach.
Top Features:
Backlink Monitoring: Monitor what sites use your links and how they rank.
Competitive Analysis: See what your competitors are doing and how their content performs.
Keyword Tracking: Track keyword popularity and performance in real time.
Pros:
Quickly find relevant keywords for content
Easy to track search volume, cost per click (CPC), and competition for each keyword
Cons:
Difficult to find results related to specific niche markets
High learning curve: requires some knowledge of SEO and keyword best practices.
Google Trends
Google Trends shows search data for a specific term over time.
Google Trends is a free tool that tracks the latest trends and topics on Google search. It’s great for marketers who want to stay ahead of the competition, discover new content ideas, and optimize for search engines.
Top Features:
Ability to quickly identify the hottest topics and trends related to your industry
Easy to compare multiple terms at once
Ability to analyze data by region, category, or time period
Pros:
Uses multiple sources for information including web, image, news, Google shopping, and YouTube.
Easy to compare multiple terms at once and analyze data by region, category, or time period
Cons:
Numbers are relative, not absolute
Sample size dependent on population
Creating More Impactful Content With Tools
These free content marketing tools are great additions to a marketing team’s toolbox. Once you nail down your content strategy, implement some of these tools to make implementation a breeze.
While free versions may have limited features compared to paid versions, they are still instrumental in helping marketers create and organize engaging content. So make sure to give them a try—your marketing campaigns will thank you! And while we're on the topic of free, try GatherContent for free to keep your content campaigns organized.
As a marketer, you know that creating high-quality content takes time and effort. As the saying goes, time is money. So, it's important to use tools that help you produce great content quickly and efficiently. While there are plenty of great tools to help you amplify your content marketing efforts, some come with a hefty price tag.
Fortunately, there are some free content marketing tools that save time and money while still getting great results. Even if you have a small budget or team, these tools streamline your efforts for quality content and level up your digital marketing.
While many of these tools have paid upgrades and enhanced plans, the base tool is free for anyone to use. Here's a look at the 15 top free content marketing tools of 2022 and what they have to offer.
"Even if you have a small budget or team, these tools streamline your efforts for quality content and level up your digital marketing.”
Buzzsumo offers analytics on different types of trending web content.
BuzzSumo is a free tool that analyzes what type of content performs best for any topic or domain. It overviews trending topics, views competitors’ strategies, and compares web pages to measure performance. You can also use it to track keywords and see how your content stacks up against other websites.
Top Features:
Content discovery: Browse topics, trends, and forums to spark new ideas.
Chrome extension: Instantly learn about content via its social shares, and links.
Content research: Scan billions of articles and social media posts to gain insights.
Pros:
Helps you quickly identify popular content topics
Lets you track keywords and measure performance
Easy-to-use interface
Cons:
Can be overwhelming if you don’t know what to look for
Limited search on the free version
Not enough information to gain insight into competitors’ strategies
Canva
Canva offers free templates and tools to create graphics for any project.
Canva is a free, user-friendly tool that helps you create stunning visuals quickly and easily. It offers thousands of templates, photos, and illustrations to help you create beautiful designs for social media posts and other visuals for your content. There’s no need to be a graphic design pro—Canva makes it easy to create visuals in no time.
Top Features:
Image enhancer: Fix dark, blurry, and oversaturated images with this free tool.
PDF converter: Convert files to PDFs for free.
Video trimmer: Easily trim, split, and cut videos for free.
Pros:
User-friendly interface that’s great for beginners
Thousands of free images
Drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to create beautiful visuals quickly
Cons:
Limited features and customization options compared to paid tools
Manual editing can be time-consuming if you create complex designs because of the step-by-step process.
Grammarly
Grammarly is a free writing assistant that ensures your content is free from errors. It helps reduce typos, eliminate grammar mistakes, and improve word choice for better readability. It even has a Chrome extension for Google Docs, so you never have to leave the page.
You can easily view grammatical errors and language suggestions for your content.
Top Features:
Correctness: Checks for spelling and grammar errors
Clarity and Engagement: Offers personalized writing suggestions
Delivery: Flags unclear sentence structure or complex words
Pros:
Quickly checks for errors and suggests corrections
Offers personalized suggestions to help improve readability
Cons:
Suggestions don’t always match the tone
Looking at each suggestion individually can be time-consuming if you are editing long pieces of content
Hemingway Editor
See highlights indicating areas to improve your content with Hemingway.
Hemingway Editor is a free writing tool that helps simplify your content and make it easier to read. It highlights complex sentences and phrases for you to cut down and clarify. It’s an easy-to-use plugin that analyzes and gives suggestions almost instantly.
Top Features:
Color-coded writing: Easily identifies language issues with color-coordinated reasons.
Readability grade: Offers readability score based on sentence length and complexity to ensure appropriate reading level.
Cut-and-paste platform: Content can be imported from other sources or pasted directly into the app.
Pros:
Quickly checks for errors and suggests corrections
Makes content easier to consume by simplifying language
Cons:
Does not detect spelling or grammar mistakes, only complex sentences or phrases
Good to know: Looking for a content editor that allows for real-time content collaboration? Check out our cloud-based content editor.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
(Source: Industrial Marketer) Marketers can gain insight into their headline score and how they can improve it.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer is a free tool that helps you create catchy titles for your content. It assesses your headline’s structure, grammar, and readability. If you’re a content manager looking to create eye-catching headlines to get more clicks on social media shares, this tool is a great way to ensure your content is designed with the best-quality headline in mind.
Top Features:
Word balance: Grades headline to ensure there is a balance between words and length.
Sentiment: Gauge the type of emotions your headline conveys.
Headline type: Choose the type of headline you are looking for to ensure your headline matches your article intent.
Pros:
Analyzes headlines for structure, grammar, and readability
Helps you create catchy titles for your content
Cons:
Does not detect spelling or grammar mistakes, only complex sentences or phrases
No ability to save headlines
Unsplash
Extensive galleries of free stock images are sorted by topic on Unsplash.
Unsplash is a free collection of high-quality photos to use any way you like. It’s a great resource for content creators who need free images to add to their content. And because articles and social posts with images tend to be more engaging than those without, having a free image resource is key.
Top Features:
Share and download: Allows users to easily download and share images directly from the website.
Image size search: Allows users to search for images based on sizing and orientation.
Multiple collections: Users can choose from animations, photography, and other image mediums.
Pros:
Thousands of free images
High-resolution photos that are free to use for commercial purposes
Easy to search library with multiple categories and tags
Cons:
Limited customization options compared to paid tools
No ability to edit or resize photos
Library can be difficult to navigate if you don’t know what you are looking for
Feedly
Feedly collects all the content you want to read in one place.
Feedly is a free aggregator and smart reader app that allows users to discover and organize the best content from different sources. It’s an excellent tool for marketers who read multiple articles and stay up-to-date with industry news.
Top Features:
Navigation bar: Allows you to easily search the library and mark to read now or later.
Integrations: Easily connect to other tools you use.
Multiple feeds: Allows users to create up to 3 feeds (on the free plan) to organize content into themes.
Pros:
Quickly search for relevant content from thousands of sources
Can follow specific companies and alerts to customize your feed
Save time by organizing content into categories and topics
Cons:
Limited customization options and no ability to edit content
(Source: Infogram) Easy-to-use templates allow marketers to create customized data visualization in only a few steps.
Infogram is a free data visualization tool that lets you create stunning charts, graphs, and other infographics. It’s an easy-to-use tool with pre-made templates that make it easier to create visual content quickly. Data can seem overwhelming for many content creators, often pushing them away from the idea of diving into deeper research. Using data visualization tools helps give context to data and helps creators easily understand and share important information.
Top Features:
Ready-made templates: 20+ pre-made templates for quick visuals.
Image gallery: Access to over one million royalty-free images and icons.
Drag-and-drop editor: Easily edits colors and styles, add icons, and set display options for a customized infographic.
Pros:
Quickly create stunning visuals from free templates
Easy to customize colors, fonts, and design elements
Ability to embed charts and maps in web pages
Cons:
No ability to edit data or export visuals in high resolution
Limited to 10 projects on free plan vs. up to 100 with the first paid plan.
Trello
You can view your Trello projects at a glance with Kanban-style organization.
Trello is a free project management tool that organizes your content and allows you to collaborate with team members. It’s great for marketers who need to keep track of deadlines, tasks, and workflows. Users can organize their boards in different views such as Kanban, calendar, and board, to visualize progress and track projects.
Top Features:
Keyboard shortcuts: Multiple shortcuts to quickly and efficiently track projects and streamline workflows.
Card covers: Enhance collaboration and visually identify projects with card covers to distinguish different projects.
Checklists: Ensure everything gets done with a checklist that can be auto-populated to each card in the project.
Pros:
Ability to set up boards for each project or campaign to organize content ideas and keep track of progress.
Ability to add multiple users to each board to streamline project workflows and track with labels, comments, and due dates.
Cons:
No task dependencies, so accountability can be difficult to track.
Integration limitations mean that it can’t import from Microsoft project files.
Google Analytics
View website data and gain insights into your audience with Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is a free tracking tool that helps you measure the success of your content marketing efforts in real time. It’s great for marketers who need to understand their website performance in detail.
The platform breaks down important metrics like audience, behavior, conversions, website traffic, and acquisitions, which you can then use to shift and expand your content marketing strategy.
Top Features:
Real-time reporting: Allows users to monitor website activity as it happens.
Built-in automation: Gain insights, predict user behavior, and tap into modeling capabilities.
Advertising workspace: Better understand the ROI of your media spend across all channels, make informed decisions about budget allocation, and evaluate attribution models.
Pros:
Quickly get insights into website performance in detail
Ability to track page views, bounce rate, and time on site
Ability to measure conversions from content marketing efforts
Cons:
Lacks personally identifiable information
It can be difficult for beginners to set up and understand
Quora is a free Q&A platform that allows marketers to engage with potential customers by answering their questions. It’s a great way to build relationships and get feedback on content ideas. Marketers can also use it to discover the types of questions and topics their audiences are asking about. This can help the content creation process and inspire new ideas.
Top Features:
Search Page: Ability to search for relevant questions from the homepage.
Monitor Questions: Users can track questions as more answers are provided.
Editing Capabilities: You can edit your questions and question details at any time.
Pros:
Quickly engage with potential customers by following topics that match your product or service
Easy to find experts in specific topics by using search capabilities
Cons:
Information could lack validity because the sources are unverified
It can be challenging to find relevant questions
Buffer
Buffer allows you to schedule social media posts in advance.
Buffer is a free social media management tool that helps you schedule and optimize content for your target audience. It’s great for marketers who need to save time while managing social media accounts like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Top Features:
Browser extension: Automatically grab the page title and a shortened URL and preselect your default Buffer accounts.
Clip text and images: Easily clip and share your favorite clips of text and images as soon as you find them.
Analytics dashboard: View, track, and recycle your top-performing posts
Pros:
Quickly schedule posts across multiple networks
Easy to customize content for each social network by adding images, videos, and links
Cons:
Need to supplement with other tools: You can schedule posts and view analytics, but you can’t view your incoming mentions, respond to comments and messages, or engage with others’ posts.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite helps you plan content and schedule it to post in advance.
Hootsuite is a free social media management tool that manages and schedules your accounts and posts and measures results. It’s great for marketers who need to save time and get more insights into their content performance.
Top Features:
Publish and Schedule: Easy to schedule posts across multiple social networks in one place.
Engagement tool: Manage incoming messages from multiple social channels at once.
Activity monitor: Easily monitor conversations, keywords, and trends.
Pros:
Quickly track analytics and measure the performance of posts.
Easy to monitor conversations, keywords, and trends
Cons:
No data in Facebook Insights
Must use Ow.ly short links
Limited to one user and 10 social accounts on a free plan. Paid plans allow for multiple users and as few as 20 social accounts.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a handy way to monitor your SEO health.
Ubersuggest is a free keyword research tool used to discover content ideas and optimize for search engines. It’s great for marketers who need to find relevant keywords and topics to target quickly. Understanding the keyword landscape in your industry can significantly improve your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts and increase your reach.
Top Features:
Backlink Monitoring: Monitor what sites use your links and how they rank.
Competitive Analysis: See what your competitors are doing and how their content performs.
Keyword Tracking: Track keyword popularity and performance in real time.
Pros:
Quickly find relevant keywords for content
Easy to track search volume, cost per click (CPC), and competition for each keyword
Cons:
Difficult to find results related to specific niche markets
High learning curve: requires some knowledge of SEO and keyword best practices.
Google Trends
Google Trends shows search data for a specific term over time.
Google Trends is a free tool that tracks the latest trends and topics on Google search. It’s great for marketers who want to stay ahead of the competition, discover new content ideas, and optimize for search engines.
Top Features:
Ability to quickly identify the hottest topics and trends related to your industry
Easy to compare multiple terms at once
Ability to analyze data by region, category, or time period
Pros:
Uses multiple sources for information including web, image, news, Google shopping, and YouTube.
Easy to compare multiple terms at once and analyze data by region, category, or time period
Cons:
Numbers are relative, not absolute
Sample size dependent on population
Creating More Impactful Content With Tools
These free content marketing tools are great additions to a marketing team’s toolbox. Once you nail down your content strategy, implement some of these tools to make implementation a breeze.
While free versions may have limited features compared to paid versions, they are still instrumental in helping marketers create and organize engaging content. So make sure to give them a try—your marketing campaigns will thank you! And while we're on the topic of free, try GatherContent for free to keep your content campaigns organized.
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