Content is king. Yet a survey by Semrush reports that while 45% of B2B businesses publish content regularly, 54% of companies struggle to attract quality leads despite their efforts.
That means that almost half of the industry players rely on the tactic reputed to be a major lead attractor without any tangible results. Something is not adding up. A closer look at the problem might reveal surprising insights.
While content marketing is still effective for lead generation, the platform you choose does make a difference. After all, the only way to outrank your competitors and hit ambitious sales targets is to have the right data, team, and content marketing platform.
Just like a plumber with the wrong toolbox can wreak havoc on your house, the wrong choice of content marketing platform can slow down or derail your business growth.
So, which tools do you need to optimize your marketing processes? Let’s find out.
Does Your Business Need Platforms for Content Marketing?
A content marketing platform is a broad term describing the special tools that help business teams collaborate and create content for their marketing campaigns. If you have any software to plan, write, collaborate with your team, and distribute the content, congratulations – you already use a content marketing platform.
With the explosive growth of everything digital, it’s pretty hard to find a business that doesn’t require at least one content marketing system. Even if you outsource some part of the work, you still need the right platform to enhance your in-house workflows.
That’s where the best platforms for content marketing can be handy. How else will you get the data essential for your SEO tactics? Just think how much more effectively you can monitor your backlinks and target the right audience. Content marketing platforms support a smooth-running process from start to finish.
Both B2B and B2C businesses utilize these systems in almost every stage of their content marketing strategy implementation. These platforms help you:
- Choose the right content formats for different audience segments or demographics (younger audiences might prefer short videos, while more busy adults might like a podcast as it lets them multitask)
- Create a detailed content plan based on the analysis of your clients or website visitors
- Craft content that is valuable and unique (more isn’t always better)
- Communicate with your users consistently via the channels most used by them
- Optimize your texts to make them SEO-friendly
- Keep track of your performance
Let’s now look at the different types of content marketing platforms.
What Are the Types of Content Marketing Platforms?
Content marketing doesn’t tolerate universal approaches. That’s why every business will have distinct goals and needs (depending on their strategy). As a result, each company may require a different content marketing platform to execute its strategy.
To understand which one is the right fit for you, let’s first list some of the most common functions of these tools:
- Content research. You need insightful data to create topics that resonate with your target audience. Content marketing platforms like BuzzSumo, Semrush, ContentStudio, and many more meet these needs. They are great for discovering and generating topic ideas based on keyword search analysis in any niche.
- Competitors analysis. Knowing why your competitors are ranking high is a vital part of content marketing. You can use any platform listed below or try others like Brand24 and Ahrefs. They’ll give you the information needed to outperform your competitors or rank alongside top brands in your industry.
- SEO content creation. Most content marketing platforms have the tools you need to create SEO-optimized content, from keyword analysis to recommendations on best practices to improve your content and site rankings. Yoast, SurferSEO, and Semrush are some of the most popular tools.
- Content curation & distribution. A good content strategy can only succeed when it reaches its intended audience. Moreover, different content types appeal to diverse users. Use a digital content platform like ContentStudio, HootSuite, etc., to post your content across multiple platforms seamlessly.
- Content promotion. There are many different options for promoting your content – from paid ads to influencer marketing. Yet, the most fundamental approach is SEO. The best strategies to start with are keyword optimization and off-site SEO. While keyword optimization is a straightforward concept, off-site SEO is more complex. Its main goal is building a diverse backlink profile. How? Guest posting is one of the most popular tactics.
- Planning. Content marketing can get overwhelming, and losing track of who does what is all too easy. Factor in the stress from creating a content calendar, and it gets dicey. Platforms like Trello, Asana, Monday.com, and Storychief will save you from pulling your hair out in frustration. Take advantage of specialized platforms for planning and coordinating your content strategy from anywhere.
5 Best Content Marketing Platforms to Consider
With so many great tools available, finding the best one for you can be overwhelming. So, here are the top content marketing platforms for brands in 2024:
1. HubSpot
HubSpot is a great tool that bundles many features into an easy-to-use and attractive package. It is a marketing, sales, and services hub in one neatly tied platform. It lets you coordinate and control your inbound marketing process to give customers a seamless experience with your brand.
The platform can help you with quality business writing and crafting impactful content using AI tools.
Besides, you can scan your web pages using HubSpot’s content tool. This gives you recommendations on any areas you might need to work on and valuable SEO suggestions on improving your search rankings.
And if that’s not enough, you can get AI-based tips on how to improve the performance of your social media posts, blog posts, or your landing page. If you are struggling to find the right captions for your Instagram Reel, you can use the AI tool to get the juices flowing and find inspiration for an engaging caption.
But the best part is the platform’s easy integration with other software or tools. If you are a small business on a tight budget, you can still access some of these great features (not all of them) for free.
Think of features like the free CRM, meeting scheduler, AI email writer, sales pipeline manager, email template builder, etc. You can try these out to get a feel for the software and then get access to more features like advanced analytics.
Additional HubSpot features for content marketing
Leverage the free AI-driven campaign assistant to improve your workflow and boost productivity. Generate new copies for your landing pages, create new marketing emails, or create a new Google ad text to increase your conversions.
To use the tool, fill in the relevant details, like what your campaign is about and what your audience needs to know, i.e., your key message. You must also include the basic information, such as your competitive advantages, the writing style, and the CTA you wish to add to your campaign.
The best part is that you can create lots of useful copies quickly instead of spending weeks trying to do it yourself. Still, you want to ensure that you always tweak that content, adjusting the tone of voice to craft the message your audience will connect with.
2. StoryChief
StoryChief is one of the most popular marketing platforms available today. It lets you control your campaigns (whether it is social media, blog, or marketing campaigns). Plus, it makes setting up and managing your content schedule painless.
StoryChief comes with a fully loaded analytics feature for tracking the effectiveness of your efforts. You can easily share your content across multiple channels. It also offers tiered pricing options starting from $20 and above.
Additional StoryChief features for content marketing
StoryChief offers an AI-powered SEO optimization menu with live insights and tips to improve your blog content. One of the platform’s best features is its ability to get great feedback from an SEO perspective.
Besides, you can easily do the following on the platform:
- Collaborate with your team.
- Analyze and customize your content for different platforms, then schedule the distribution of each piece.
- Centralize your distribution process in one tool that allows you to manage all your social media accounts, plan content, and organize all data and files. You get to generate reports on content performance in real time. As a result, you can invest more time and resources into making content that resonates with your audience.
- Create outlines using a template.
3. Semrush
If SEO is the key to creating a beneficial bond between your web pages and search engines, then Semrush is the ice-breaker that sets the ball rolling.
Semrush is a powerful SEO-optimization tool for your content marketing efforts. You can use its in-built analytics to streamline your entire content marketing process from beginning to end. Plan your SEO strategy, do your keyword analysis, and optimize your content for search engines. Moreover, Semrush gives you precise data for competitor analysis.
Integrate it with Google Analytics to achieve the best results. This helps you analyze user behavior, gain insights into your site’s SEO performance, and catch any issues on time.
But don’t think you need a big budget to use Semrush. It has several pricing options so you can find the best one for your business.
Additional Semrush features for content marketing
Let’s be honest: content marketing takes a lot of mental energy, and you can get drained really quickly trying to keep up with numerous tasks. A content marketing platform like Semrush can take much pain out of the process by combining and overseeing different aspects of your strategy in one place.
- Want to do a full SEO analysis of your website? Got it.
- How about optimizing your content? You can do it in a few clicks, saving time and avoiding many mistakes.
- Besides, you can formulate effective plans and tactics or put a more creative spin on your marketing approach. There’s no need for guesswork since each step, from creating topics to writing and tracking your rankings, is based on verifiable data.
- Take advantage of the competitor analysis feature to spot gaps where you can improve to gain a competitive edge.
4. BuzzSumo
If you plan to run a PR campaign or an outreach program, BuzzSumo could help you find the best insights. This platform can simplify content discovery and research process. It helps you find what’s trending and relevant to your niche. It also lets you monitor brand mentions across the web.
Later, you can use this data in your link-building campaign to turn those mentions into backlinks to increase organic traffic while establishing brand authority.
Here’s a tip for when you need to meet deadlines but lack people. You might want to consider outsourcing some of your marketing work to a PR platform like adsy.com to help with your content distribution strategy. Then, use BuzzSumo to track your web performance, and you’re golden.
Additional BuzzSumo features for content marketing
If you are trying to scale your business, you know how stressful the process can be and how much difference influencer marketing can make. BuzzSumo makes it easier for you to do the following:
- Collaborate with bloggers across industries, bringing your message to a new demographic. All you have to do is type in your brand target keywords in the content analyzer and click the “search” button.
The search result lists the most widely shared articles on those keywords. Click on top sharers to find relevant influencers who might be open to collaboration and check their engagement rates across multiple social media platforms.
- For many content marketers, the major attractions of this particular platform are the content and backlinks analyzers. The content analyzer gives you valuable insights into the currently trending topics, while the backlink analyzer helps you uncover valuable link prospects, including unlinked brand mentions.
All these features make BuzzSumo a popular content marketing platform for both newbies and advanced marketers.
5. Uberflip
A Google search for the top content marketing platforms will likely include Uberflip somewhere in the top 10 results. And this is no surprise. Marketers enjoy using the platform thanks to its ability to create engaging content.
One of the most distinctive characteristics of Uberflip is the personalization option. With this software, you can increase engagement and improve conversions by speeding up the buyer’s journey.
Additional Uberfip features for content marketing
Uberflip can help you focus on creating the perfect content experience for your audience. How?
- Get control over everything from the copy structure to suggestions for improving your texts. For example, you can use the blog editor to create your articles, while the smart tags feature automatically adds tags to new content, so it’s easier to sort and find it later.
- Connect your social media accounts, like YouTube and Twitter, to Uberflip, making it easy to sync and manage content from one tool.
- Add a unique and personalized touch to everything your brand publishes by analyzing user data to learn what customers are more likely to respond to and engage with.
For example, instead of giving free templates to everyone, you can now know which users like templates and which prefer videos, etc. Used correctly, content marketing platforms like Uberflip can help you win deals simply by creating the right experience through dynamic content recommendations.
- Integrate the tool with other data systems, like Bombora, HubSpot, etc., to upgrade your personalization experience, track user behavior, and gather more useful real-time insights.
You can also gain insights from gurus in the industry by listening to “The Marketer’s Journey,” a podcast by Uberflip where experienced marketers share their best secrets and hacks.
In Closing
The right content marketing platforms can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful content marketing campaigns. With the right platforms, you’ll streamline your content marketing efforts, helping you reach your target audience, generate leads, and convert those leads into customers.
This article looked at the top 5 content marketing platforms you can use. These are HubSpot, StoryChief, Semrush, Buzzsumo, and Uberflip. Each of these platforms offers something unique. Therefore, consider your business needs and then pick the right platform that’ll help you meet those needs.