In this issue, we’ll cover the different types of content creation tools and how they can help or distract creators like you and me.
The digital marketing space has always been noisy. But with the advent of the Creator Economy and AI, tools for content creation are popping up like mushrooms.
You can’t avoid them on social media or when following for favorite creators, everybody raves about the tools they use - I’m no exception to this trend.
But I want to take a step back and reflect on what categories of tools exist. By thinking in these categories, you'll easily separate the wheat from the chaff and recognize tools that just empty your bank account.
Content creation tools are everywhere because more people are creating content than ever.
At the same time, we’re impatient and don’t want to spend time on creating content - we want to wave a wand like Harry Potter and see all the content appear right in front of us.
Funnily enough, AI can already do that for us. Machines write text, create images, and even videos without you having to lift a finger.
Too bad that content needs to connect with our readers on a human level, needs to tell emotional stories, and grow our business.
That’s where machine-generated content falls flat, and that’s precisely why so many companies create SaaS tools around content marketing.
I see those tools in four categories:
If you’re serious about content marketing, I don’t think you can avoid any of these categories.
Just missing out on one of them would be like burying your head in the sand. While that seems to work for ostriches, it’s a recipe for disaster for you and me.
To be successful, your content needs to be in front of your audience. Every. Single. Day.
You need to be present when it matters to inspire action when your audience is receptive to your CTAs.
That’s why content creation needs to be efficient. You want at least one tool that lets you create content fast and of high quality.
For me, that’s Jasper.ai. Since it came out almost two years ago, I have written well over 200,000 words with Jasper. I don’t use it for every single piece of content but for at least 80% of what I create. Steal my AI copywriting rules if you want to get a headstart in using artificial intelligence tools.
If you're more into doing video content, check out Lumen5.
For audio content, I cannot live without Descript and Riverside.fm.
Writing content is not even half of the equation. If you're wondering what content creation tools you need, you must consider tools to help you publish your content, engage with your audience, and optimize your profiles.
Since I’m focusing on Twitter now, let me share my favorite Twitter tools.
Hypefury (paid but affordable) is what I use to schedule my content, write my tweets, and to de-platform my Twitter followers onto my email list and website.
With Hypefury, you can add automated Call-to-Actions to any tweet of yours that received a specific level of engagement (e.g., 10 retweets, 50 likes, etc.). That drives Twitter users to my email list every day.
The second tool I want to share has a free plan and lets you split-test your Twitter profile. I currently use birdy.so to split-test my Twitter bio.
Every tool in this category serves the same purpose: get people off social media and onto your email list.
You don’t want to rely on the algorithms of Twitter or Facebook when you run your campaigns.
You know that your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
With tools like Mentionlytics, you can listen in to those conversations. Even something as simple as Google Alerts will notify you when your brand gets mentioned.
With Hypefury, you can track your mentions on Twitter and respond to those conversations. That’s a great start, and kills two birds with one stone.
Reputation management might sound like it’s only relevant to big brands, but if somebody says something about you, you want to know it.
Lastly, you want to have a tool that lets you analyze how your efforts in creating content are paying off.
Without knowing which channels outperform others, you don’t know where to focus your time and money.
As much as I’d love to recommend a single tool that captures all relevant information, is easy to use, and doesn’t break the bank, I cannot do that.
I haven’t found such a tool yet.
As I said earlier, I believe the ultimate goal of building an audience on social media is to drive people to your website and get them onto your email list.
Tracking your website visitors is super important. For that, I use Fathom Analytics (which starts at $14/month for 100k page views).
With Fathom, you can track every visitor without having to collect their consent first. No pesky cookie acceptance button is needed for Fathom because it’s GDPR compliant out of the box.
You can simply add their script to your site and let it capture all visitors without getting into legal trouble. (For the record, this is not legal advice)
With Fathom, you can see exactly which channel drove the most traffic and how the website visitors used your website.
As you can see, my profile on Indiehackers is something I should focus on because it drives the most traffic.
I have stopped looking at Google Analytics because Fathom is much easier to understand and does not need visitors' consent before loading it.
Therefore, their tracking is much more accurate.
Let me also briefly cover the research part of this section. One of my favorite tools for doing research is SparkToro from Rand Fishkin.
There’s no better tool to identify what your target audience cares about.
If you’re lacking in any of these areas of content creation tools, you should consider how this lack impacts your content marketing strategy.
Can you make informed decisions on what content you create and where you should focus your efforts?
Do you have a clear strategy for de-platforming your social audience?
Is your website traffic and newsletter growing consistently?
These two metrics are the most important leading indicators for revenue growth.
Whether you sell digital products or sponsorships for your newsletter, podcast, or blog, you want your subscriber count and your website traffic to increase.
I hope breaking down content creation tools into these four categories helps you achieve that goal.
