By now you’re already exceedingly familiar with the importance of content marketing, but you also know you have a lot of other things on your plate. You don’t want to be tied to a desk. More importantly, sitting in an office so many hours a week that your butt leave a permanent imprint in your fancy leather chair sounds like a nightmare.
No, you’ve got places to go, people to see, and industries to conquer, which is why you need these five Martech apps designed to amplify your content marketing while you’re on the go.
1. Asana
Disorganization has been the death of many brands. When the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, you waste time, bleed money, and want to give your coworkers daily swirlies when HR has repeatedly made it clear that aforementioned swirlies are strictly against company policy. Get everyone on the same page—and avoid unpleasant toilet-water hair-wetting rituals—with Asana.
Think of Asana like an idea board for the modern world. Except so much better. When deadlines loom, Asana is there with tools for creating visual project plans, identifying potential stumbling blocks, providing a crystal-clear look at where everyone on the team is, and making it easier than ever to onboard collaborators, make lists, populate calendars, and delegate tasks. For entrepreneurs who have team players scattered around the city (or state or even world), Asana is a key part of becoming a solid squad and reaching goals on time.
2. Buzzsumo
When a blank brain slate threatens to turn a quick Wednesday afternoon blog into a literary black hole that plagues you into the weekend, head to the anti-writer’s block strategy that is Buzzsumo. This tool connects searchers with content based on keywords entered by the user. It’s inspiration on demand plus a source for influencer articles essential to quality linking. Each result is accompanied by a slew of stats, including numbers for social media engagement, number of linkers, and evergreen score. When you want to build buzz, as the engine’s name suggests, or fuel your own thought process, Buzzsumo’s the answer.
3. Pocket
Marketing is anchored in ideas; the better your ideas, the better your content marketing strategy and overall execution will be. At least in theory. The best content creators find ways to spark their genius in the world around them. Perhaps you see an interesting video in your aunt’s Facebook feed, or a Flipboard headline catches your eye while you’re sitting in the carpool lane at Junior’s school. No time to actually read it now, but you’ll come back to it. Except you probably won’t.
With Pocket, you can save content from more than 1500 apps, your web browser, even your email, so you can revisit those tidbits when you have more internal bandwidth. Whether you choose to use your saves as link fodder, professional enrichment, or creation inspiration is up to you. Bonus: Once something is in your Pocket, you no longer need an internet connection to view it. Score!
4. Coschedule
Random acts of marketing are a stellar way to blow through your annual budget without gaining any traction, but if you’re really interested in scaling, your content has to reach the audience it’s intended for. That’s where Coschedule comes in.
Like a calendar and planning tool in one, Coschedule helps you schedule (duh), edit, and continually manage your social media strategy while you’re on the subway, waiting in line for coffee, or stuck in that never-ending Monday morning meeting. It also plugs into WordPress for one-click (more or less) functionality that’s as streamlined as it gets. Use the app to schedule and adjust social posts, check on engagement, more. You’ll even get push notifications when your ‘Grams are about to go up, just in case you want to make any tweaks.
5. Canva
When the experts say that “content is king,” they’re referring to visual content as well as the written stuff. There’s power in words, for sure, but words are infinitely more effective when they’re presented alongside a relevant image. When 81 percent of people are skimming the content they find online rather than diving in full steam, a great graphic can help anchor your message and keep readers interested until you finish your thought.
With Canva, you can create social media graphics to accompany your website links, but the app also does so much more. Blog graphics, photo collages, Pinterest pics, resumes, magazine and ebook covers, infographics, postcards, and even Facebook ads. When you need a visual component to help elevate your content marketing strategy, Canva’s plug-and-play setup and nearly full-service app (the browser-based version is still a bit better than the smartphone utility) allows even non-graphic designer types to add interest to their feeds.
If this year’s content marketing trends are anything to go by, the landscape is shifting to even more technology-centric strategies, which makes the MarTech apps above even more essential. The bottom line? Download now and learn the ins and outs, so you can maintain your frenetic lifestyle while also ensuring your brand doesn’t get left behind.
Alana L writes content that helps brands separate themselves from the sad sack pack of sameness littering the professional landscape. Want to blend in? You’ve come to the wrong lady. Want to dominate your competitors, make loads of cash, and thrill your customers from the end of their adorable noses down to their exciteable little toeses? Alana’s your gal.