Want to Create Great Content? Here is my Tried and Tested Free Tool Toolkit

One of the biggest questions my clients ask me is: 'How do I create content with limited or no resources?'

I get asked this A LOT, because A LOT of marketers are facing this issue. Time and content creation are the two leading challenges B2B marketers facing, and I am here to reassure you that you are not alone, and that there are some awesome tools that are deeply embedded in my toolkit that can help you overcome these obstacles.

Before you skim down to find the content creation tool you need to take your content to the next level - take a look at these two hacks to get you started on your content creation journey.

• Answer The Public - We are all searching for something. How can you ensure that your content with your expertise is at the fingertips of your audience? You must understand what they are looking for. Answer the public is a fantastic tool aggregating search queries across Google and Bing on a keyword/topic delivering insightful infographics informing you the motivations and intentions of your audience. Sometimes what your audience actually needs is a lot simpler than you think. Talk about a content topic goldmine!

FREE & PRO offers regionalized searches

TIP: Try building out a full funnel user journey with each of the questions!

• Grammarly - Say good-bye to clumsy typos and fine tune your comma usage with Grammarly. A free browser extension for Chrome which is always checking all text you type in search, emails, and social content posting. This will act as your constant and correct 'extra pair of eyes'.

So you've added Grammarly and checked out Answer the Public? Great - let's get in to the creative process:

Image Creation

1. Canva - Design made super simple. Upload your branded assets/logos, create your own templates that are optimized for social, email or print use. A one-stop-shop that can help you create high quality visuals that are consistent without sucking up too much of your time, because it is that easy.

FREE & PRO available

2. Pablo - by Buffer, a great on-the-fly tool to overlay text on images for social media use. Remember that Linkedin allows overlaying text on Sponsored Content and Carousel Ads!

FREE

3. Piktochart - Ok this may not be free BUT it is worth exploring. Infographics are a great way to showcase the value and provide a preview of a larger pice of gated content ie. an ebook/whitepaper. Bring those insights upfront in a visual way. No design experience required!

PRO only

TIP: If you're looking for a free and quick infographic solution, Easel.ly and Venngage can help you create infographics with some feature limitations.

4. UnSplash - A community-led site dedicated to sharing copyright free images (over 550K of them!). Whether you need a business photo, an inspirational image for a keynote, or regionalize global content (Hello Asia Business photos!) - Unsplash has curated image libraries of the most stunning images.

FREE

Video Creation

5. Lumen5 - Hands-down, the best and easiest video creation tool I have come across. Why? Because you can literally copy and paste text from a report, blog post, or your website and it will create a video for you. Yes, you read that right. You can upload your branded images/templates (hopefully from canva?!), use their existing royalty free images and animations, select royalty free music and 10 minutes later you have a high quality video for social media use. Perfect for our latest video rollout on Linkedin! You're welcome.

FREE & PRO available

There you have it! After reading this post there will be no excuse in publishing high quality content.

What's your favourite content creation tool?