In pursuit of creating the most interesting, creative and drool-worthy marketing content, I’ve become a bit of a software nerd.
There are countless tools to choose from — the ones everyone knows, the latest AI tools, the obscure ones — so why not try them all? Content marketers are spoiled from the number of content capabilities, integrations and analytics insights available.
Here are 12 underrated content marketing tools and unique ways to use popular tools.
1. Tailwind
- Purpose: Content circulation and traffic generation on Pinterest.
Most marketers underestimate the power of Pinterest. But Pinterest is the blogging world’s dirty little secret — one of the leading traffic sources behind Google. If you have a blog and aren’t using Pinterest, you’re missing out in a major way.
That said, consistently posting on Pinterest takes time. Traffic on Pinterest doesn’t happen overnight. That’s where Tailwind comes in.
Tailwind is a software tool and extension that helps you design, schedule, “re-pin” and circulate Pins at volume. Rather than manually posting pins to boards, you can automate this process by continuously re-pinning dozens of pins around the clock.
What does this do? It allows you to get more eyes on your own Pins (graphics, product images or videos) that link back to your blog. It maximizes your reach through the Pinterest algorithm without the painstaking effort needed to re-pin Pins yourself.
Since its creation, Tailwind has added many new features and capabilities. Some of my favorites include:
- Hashtag finder (“smart” hashtag recommendations).
- Facebook and Instagram scheduling.
- AI-enhanced marketing for ecommerce ads.
The value of Tailwind isn’t just in its efficiency, though — it’s in the results. Their case studies highlight impressive outcomes, such as a 500%+ increase in traffic from Pinterest product ads, 3.7 million organic views generated for a single campaign and an 854% boost in blog traffic. Trust me, these metrics are on par with what I’ve experienced with some of my campaigns.
Dig deeper: Beyond the funnel: A new approach to content marketing
2. SparkToro
- Purpose: Audience research to improve social and content ROI.
The content creation process starts long before you put pen to paper or text to web — it begins with audience research. Research is one area I see many marketers and business owners skip over because it can be expensive, time-consuming and complicated.
SparkToro is a game-changer here. It simplifies the audience research process, allowing users to create content with clarity and confidence.
This tool provides qualitative and quantitative data regarding your target audience’s behaviors, characteristics and demographics. This data includes what websites they visit and how often, what content they watch or listen to, the keywords they search for, where they’re located and much more.
The important thing is that you don’t have to guess about your audience’s likes and dislikes. SparkToro gives you accurate, verifiable information to inform your content strategy, ultimately leading to better content and results. If you want to create compelling content that drives user action, don’t skip the step of audience research.
3. Google Search Console
- Purpose: Organic content performance and SEO improvements
Google Search Console (GSC) is not an uncommon tool. It is one of the most widely used website analytics platforms available. However, its application to content marketing strategy is vastly underrated.
Many marketers turn to GSC for its organic search results, Core Web Vitals, and indexing reports, which are all very important for SEO. But GSC tops my list for its invaluable insight into content performance.
Once GSC is set up and traffic data has propagated, click on it and scroll down to the Search Results report. Here, you will see tabs labeled “Queries” and “Pages.”
- “Queries” shows you what keywords your website is ranking for, at what position and how many clicks you’ve received via those keywords.
- The “Pages” tab shows you your top traffic landing pages (within the period you’ve selected).
Export all of these reports to a CSV file, and you will have a pretty good view of:
- Which pages are performing best on your website.
- Which keywords are/are not ranking well.
Take it a step further and pull in the search volume and keyword difficulty for these keywords (I use Semrush for this). You essentially have a running list of which web pages or blog articles need improvement.
From there, you can optimize underperforming pages by updating outdated information, meta titles and headers and incorporating higher-value keywords. Conduct this activity at least quarterly, and you’re likely to see a boost in organic visibility. Plus, you’ll have a benchmark to compare your website performance over time.
Dig deeper: New content strategies for handling AI-powered search
4. Asana
- Purpose: Content marketing workflows, organization and scheduling.
Ask any content marketer about their favorite online tool, and they will likely say project management software. While project management tools like Asana aren’t content marketing platforms per se, they are essential for streamlining the content creation and scheduling process.
Just think about it — how can you possibly keep up with the volume, individual tasks and impending deadlines of content marketing without a system? You need an organizational tool to keep things on target.
Asana is my preferred project management tool because I can easily assign projects to writers, accompanied by supporting materials, SOPs, templates and critical milestones. With the workflow report, I can see exactly where we are in the production process.
The free version is excellent for general task management and timelines, but the paid plan offers goal tracking, analytics and a range of other helpful features. I’m confident that all my campaigns are on schedule and up to standard.
While many project management tools exist, like Monday and Trello, Asana is my favorite for its simplicity and user-friendliness.
5. Biteable
- Purpose: Video creation, editing, repurposing and animations.
As the name suggests, Biteable is a marketing tool that turns videos into bite-sized content, including short-form videos and animations. Biteable can be used to create and edit videos, repurpose them, add captions and share them on social media and beyond.
Biteable might be a little overindulgent with its various features, including branding and video templates, AI voice-overs, analytics, marketing automation, image resizing, image-to-video converter, and, well… the list goes on.
Similar tools, like OpusClip, can be used to edit and repurpose videos, but I have yet to find a video marketing tool quite as robust as Biteable. Needless to say, I’m a fan.
Dig deeper: Content atomization: Maximize ROI by repurposing your best ideas
6. CoSchedule
- Purpose: Social media calendaring, workflows and analytics.
CoSchedule claims its social media scheduling tool “does it all” — and I agree. If you’re on the hunt for an all-in-one social media marketing and scheduling tool, CoSchedule is top-tier.
Hootsuite tends to get all the praise and recognition, but CoSchedule, by comparison, is highly underrated. While it may not offer as many bells and whistles as Hootsuite, what it does do is exceptionally well: streamlined social media scheduling and intuitive calendaring.
I highly recommend reading their customer stories to see how real brands are using CoSchedule to improve their social media marketing cadence and performance. Plus, CoSchedule’s Social Calendar plan starts at $19 per month, whereas Hootsuite starts at $99 per month. (It was an easy decision, I’d say.)
7. Clearscope
- Purpose: Topic ideation, writing recommendations and SEO tools.
Most marketers have encountered “writer’s block” at some point in their careers. Create content for long enough and it’s common to run out of ideas occasionally. Clearscope can help keep the creative gears turning with content recommendations and insights.
Many SEO-focused tools offer topic ideation, but few take a “content first” approach like Clearscope. If you want interesting and SEO-friendly topic ideas, you’ll appreciate this tool as much as I do.
Simply input a high-level topic (like “running shoes”) and Clearscope will analyze the top-ranking pages for that keyword. It will then provide a Content Grade, Readability score and a list of related terms to weave into your content.
It also helps you create content that aligns with Google’s rewards. To aid the content optimization process, it recommends word count, reading level, and must-use phrases.
Content creators can use Clearscope to generate engaging topics and agencies can use it to scale their content operations and campaigns. It’s simple, handy and often underutilized.
8. Flodesk
- Purpose: Email marketing templates, campaigning and performance insights.
I learned about Flodesk from a CRM expert I employed to build systems for my content marketing agency. And, man, do I wish I had come across this tool years ago. It’s categorized as an “email marketing tool,” but it’s so much more than that. It’s an essential subscription for any content marketer looking to create high-performing lead-generation campaigns.
For one, Flodesk offers a full library of customizable email templates that are better designed than those of other email marketing platforms. I find them more professional-looking than most other templates I’ve seen.
Most applicable is that Flodesk allows you to set up efficient email workflows and automations, like welcome series, abandoned cart emails or birthday emails, to engage subscribers. And they all fall into a highly-optimized cadence.
The lead gen journey starts with attractive sign-up forms and landing pages, enticing users to join your list. Users are segmented based on action or interest. Then the drip campaign starts, nurturing new contacts into ready-to-buy clients.
Email campaigns for “consistency” sake are not enough. Use Flodesk to maximize your lead generation and CRM efforts. I hope your conversions soar like mine.
Dig deeper: How to optimize your content strategy across the customer journey
9. Dubsado
- Purpose: Lead generation, proposals and marketing integrations.
The previously mentioned CRM expert also introduced me to this tool. It was an integration with Flodesk that triggered the proposal process once a prospective client decided to work with me.
Dubsado is a business management software that works best within your current content marketing tech stack. Pairing it with Flodesk is recommended. Here are just a few of the many ways these two tools work together:
- Client management: Dubsado stores your client information, including contact details, communication history and project timelines. Once a user signs up via your Flodesk form, this information can be captured.
- Project management: You can create and manage projects, assign tasks and set deadlines. You could even use this in conjunction with Asana.
- Invoicing: Dubsado offers customizable invoice templates and automated payment reminders to ensure you get paid quickly. It integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.
- Automation: Dubsado supports automation for repetitive tasks, such as sending emails, reminders and follow-ups, necessary for lead nurturing.
Once your content marketing feeds a new lead into your pipeline, the magic is in the follow-up. Dubsado helps ensure no opportunities fall through the cracks.
10. Tubebuddy
- Purpose: Search volume, traffic and topic insights for YouTube.
Tubebuddy is a relatively popular video marketing tool many people still forget to use. In my time doing content marketing for clients, I’m still surprised by how many plans don’t have Tubebuddy set up on their YouTube channel.
If you create video content, you want to ensure it’s searchable, binge-worthy and engaging. Tubebuddy quantifies the traffic opportunities behind video topics and provides insights into optimizing your videos.
In addition to its YouTube SEO features, it offers a suggested title generator, ideas for YouTube Shorts and a thumbnail analyzer tool. Incorporating these “checks” into your video production process will improve your videos and make your thumbnails more eye-catching.
Again, if you invest in video creation as part of your content marketing, ensure you’re intentional and strategic. Data is everything.
11. Canva Pro
- Purpose: Design and content templates, video editing, branding and more.
OK, Canva is another highly popular marketing tool — there’s no denying that. But while its graphic design capabilities are well-known, there are several underrated features content marketers should use.
The first one is the Brand Kit. I used to spend so much time re-uploading logos or re-finding color hex codes, when I could have set my brand materials as defaults in Canva. With the Brand Kit, you can upload your logo, patterns, custom fonts, colors, etc., to maintain a cohesive look in all your designs — without any manual effort.
The second underrated feature is Magic Resize. It allows you to resize any design in any format, whether an Instagram post, Facebook cover, presentation, video thumbnail or beyond. Instead of manually adjusting each design for different platforms, Magic Resize automatically saves you tons of time.
Last but not least is Timeline Editing. It allows you to edit videos on a timeline, similar to more advanced video editing software. You can add multiple video clips, images and text layers and then adjust their duration and sequence. This feature enables you to create more complex videos with smooth transitions, layered animations and timed effects. I see many content marketers subscribe to CapCut for this, unaware that Canva can do this too.
Dig deeper: 4 AI tools to supercharge visual content creation
12. Microsoft Clarity
- Purpose: Insight into user navigation, experience and content engagement.
I would describe Microsoft Clarity as a user experience (UX) insights tool because it reveals how people navigate, use, and interact with your website. Effective content marketing for a website simply can’t be done without considering the user experience.
Let’s talk about heat maps, which show where people linger on your website, how they scroll and the actions they take during a given session. This information is invaluable when it comes to reorganizing your website layout, positioning calls to action (CTAs), adding or removing content and influencing user interactions.
Clarity also analyzes this behavior to provide insights you can actually use. The better you optimize for user interests and behavior, the more likely you will see increases in conversions and sales.
Content performance can’t be removed from UX. I love Clarity because it’s one of the best tools for applying UX best practices to content, driving meaningful interactions and improving content marketing ROI.
Dig deeper: 5 content killers that ruin results — and how to fix them
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