More businesses recognize the power of content marketing. In 2021, 90% of marketers reported that they planned to continue investing in content marketing, and 66% plan to increase their content marketing budget from the previous year.

Content marketing has proven effective, but organizing and collaborating on content can feel overwhelming for the often-small teams involved.

That’s where content marketing platforms come in.

Content marketing platforms (CMPs) are software tools designed to make the content marketing process easier and more effective. They facilitate multiple content marketing activities and help teams streamline the involved efforts and campaigns.

CMPs can help your team implement a content marketing strategy by smoothing out several parts of the content creation process. These include project management, content management, marketing automation, and even social media management.

If you need help with these marketing activities, you're likely in the market for a top-notch content marketing platform. Keep reading to learn about the top seven top CMPs.

7 best content marketing platforms recommended by experts

Whether your team is struggling to build and maintain an editorial calendar, find a content management solution, or automate parts of your content marketing, these CMPs can help.

Before venturing deeper into this article, we recommend narrowing down your specific content marketing needs to choose the best tool for your team. Besides your budget, here’s what to keep in mind when choosing a content marketing platform:

1. Purpose: What do you want to do with your CMP? Does your team need to plan content, create content, manage content workflows, monitor search engine optimization (SEO) metrics, or keep track of inbound leads? Do you want to accomplish several of these tasks with one software?
2. Ease of use: How much of a learning curve does your platform require? Do you have the capacity to train marketing team members if they’re unfamiliar with the tool? Is the tool intuitive and user-friendly? Choosing a tool with a familiar, well-designed interface will reduce the need for costly training sessions.
3. Integration capabilities: Will your tool integrate seamlessly with other marketing software? Content marketing is not a one-step process and will require plenty of collaboration, so your marketing solutions should play well with each other without unnecessary hassle.

Next, we’ll highlight the top 7 content marketing platforms.

1. GatherContent

Key Features

• Full content hub to organize, store, and access files team-wide
• Design content workflows so each teammate knows what’s next for the project
• Create and embed content style guides to keep content consistent
• Built-in editorial calendar can be customized to ensure that the team is up to date
• Use content templates to speed up formatting and maintain consistency
• Collaborate on projects in real-time using the text editor
• Seamlessly export content to your CMS (Drupal, WordPress, etc.) with GatherContent’s CMS integrations
• Intuitive platform with a similar user experience to Google Docs

Pricing: Starter and Advanced plans and a custom option for larger organizations. Plans start at $299/month.

Best for: Teams looking for a highly effective, intuitive, centralized content management system.

Try GatherContent free for 14 days. Create your account today!

2. StoryChief

Key Features

• Create articles, social media posts, and media assets in one content hub
• Built-in SEO assistant helps your team optimize content for search engines
• A single marketing calendar keeps track of blog content and social media posts
• Automatically publish content to your CMS and social media accounts
• Integrate with your CMS, CRM (Salesforce, etc.), and other marketing tools
• Use content analytics to track the results of your marketing efforts

Pricing: Storychief has Team, Team Plus, and Agency pricing tiers. Plans are billed quarterly or annually, starting at $140/month.

Best for: Teams looking to manage content and social media in one platform.

3. monday.com

Its central product is a project management tool, but it also offers sales CRM, marketing, dev, and project products. The marketing platform allows teams to track marketing campaigns, build a content calendar and manage other creative projects.

Key Features

• Multi-purpose product with several use cases, including marketing, sales, and dev work
• Marketing product supports marketing automation such as keyword monitoring
• Digital asset management (DAM) system to help marketers organize media assets
• Manage events from start to finish by running surveys, tracking budgets, and recording attendance
• Built-in content calendar template to stay on top of content planning
• Multiple marketing templates, including creative requests and campaign tracking

Pricing: The Free plan is available for teams of up to two. The Basic, Standard, and Pro plans support teams of three or more. Plans start at $30/month.

Best for: Companies who want one product to host their sales, marketing, dev, and project management.

4. CoSchedule

It includes a Content Organizer, Calendar Organizer, Asset Organizer, and Work Organizer to help teams spend less time managing their content.

Key Features

• Central calendar to manage content, events, campaigns, and more
• Drag-and-drop calendar allows for easy event rescheduling
• Use the Idea Board for brainstorming and dumping ideas without losing track of work
• Create, edit, and publish blog content using the Content Organizer
• Optimize blog post headlines using CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer
• Store, manage, and organize brand assets and resources using the Asset Organizer
• Build workflows, track deadlines, and automate your work with the Work Organizer

Pricing: The Free plan only includes the marketing calendar, and the Pro plan starts at $39/user/month.

Best for: Teams looking for an organizational tool to keep track of content and manage resources optimally.

5. Curata

Its content marketing platform features tools for planning, producing, organizing, and analyzing content performance.

Key Features

• Use the editorial calendar to plan content and maintain a regular publishing cadence
• Monitor content performance by tracking generated leads and other content metrics on one dashboard
• Generate content marketing reports for stakeholders and team members
• Collaborate with other teams by seamlessly sharing your content plan with other departments
• Integrates with other marketing tools and automations

Pricing: Curata has not provided pricing information on their website. Contact Sales for more information.

Best for: Teams who want to monitor the revenue impact of their marketing while enjoying the benefits of a CMP.

6. Kapost

It helps marketing teams produce, analyze and distribute content according to their strategy. With Kapost, marketing teams can connect the marketing tools in their tech stack.

Key Features

• High-powered integrations to connect a wide range of marketing software like Marketo and Hubspot
• Create workflows to keep your team aware of each project’s status
• Calendar and custom views provide a bird’s eye view of marketing projects
• Easy-to-use asset management feature helps companies keep track of brand assets
• Monitor multiple content campaigns and projects at a single glance

Pricing: Kapost has not shared pricing on their website. Contact Sales for more information.

Best for: Teams looking for a platform with heavy integration support.

7. HubSpot

Its marketing software includes several features to make content marketing more effective.

Key Features

• Track and manage paid ads (from Google and social media)
• Create blog and web content—and publish in one go
• SEO tools help you optimize your content and drive site traffic
• Upload, save, and manage video files using Hubspot’s file manager—you can also embed them in your content
• Enhances lead generation by qualifying leads using predictive lead scoring, if you’re on the Enterprise plan

Pricing: There’s a Free plan with basic features. Paid Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plans are available, starting at $45/month.

Best for: Teams looking for broader marketing software—not just content marketing.

FAQs about CMPs

To recap, we’ll summarize the answers to two of the most common questions regarding CMPs.

What is a content marketing platform?

Content marketing platforms are marketing solutions (SaaS) for managing the different phases of content production and distribution.

What platforms do content creators use?

Content creators use several platforms for various purposes. They may use platforms like Semrush or Ahrefs for keyword research, platforms like GatherContent for content ideation and production, and others like Buffer or Hootsuite for social media marketing.

CMPs help you take charge of your content marketing

Content marketing platforms like GatherContent excel at helping you create quality content in less time at scale—every content marketer's dream.

Set your team up for success with templates, a content calendar, style guides, workflow, and lightning-fast collaboration to maintain a steady stream of high-quality content.

Start your free trial.