Over the past few weeks, we’ve mentioned the importance of creating quality blog content to solve customer problems. High-value content yields several positive results for your small business.
Not only are you solving customers problems, but you’re improving engagement, increasing shareability, and boosting your visibility within search engines. All this, in turn, results in more traffic, more leads, and more opportunities to create a sale.
But creating quality blog content isn’t easy. To simplify the process for you, we’ve curated a list of 11 online tools that will improve your blog content. These fall under four categories:
- Choosing a topic
- Crafting a clickable headline
- Brushing up on your writing
- Enhancing your content with visuals
Choosing A Topic
Choosing what topic to write about can be hard. This becomes progressively difficult as your blog grows. It may at times feel like you’ve written about everything that you can possibly write about. The following three tools will help solve this conundrum.
#1 BuzzSumo
Why try re-invent the wheel, when you can leverage off of what’s working? With BuzzSumo you’re able to analyze what content is performing best for any topic, based on the social traction it’s gathered. Here’s how it works.
Type the keyword or topic into BuzzSumo’s search function. For example, if you’re a fitness blog you might search for, “core muscle exercises”.
You’re then provided with these results:
Armed with this knowledge consider how you can put a different spin or approach on the topic.
Take note: it doesn’t help to write about a topic that has no relevance to your product, service, or target market. So, make sure the keywords you search for are relevant, to begin with.
#2 Feedly
Feedly gathers content that’s relevant to your market or your industry. This content is then given to you in a manageable format. You can:
- Organize content into a readable collection.
- Search for specific stories of interest.
- Save stories for later.
- Discover fresh insights into your industry.
#3 Hub Spot Topic Generator
Feel like you don’t have enough time to think of content ideas? This is where Hub Spot Topic Generator is useful. Here’s how it works:
Type three nouns into the given fields and click on “Give Me Topics”.
The tool then generates a week’s worth of blog content:
The results aren’t always perfect. So if none of the topics catch your attention, try again.
Crafting A Clickable Headline
All your efforts to create quality blog content are pointless if you have a headline that falls flat. It doesn’t matter how valuable or how well written your article is; a poor headline means no clicks, no reads, and no shares. Nothing.
This is why so many people make countless tweaks and re-tweaks to their headlines. In fact, some companies will even write 25 headlines for every article. Crafting a clickable headline is then essential.
#4 CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
With CoSchedule, you type in the proposed headline and within seconds the tool will give you a grade. They base the grade on common and uncommon words, power, and emotionality. Based on the grade it will then tell you where you can make necessary improvements.
Again, make changes until you’re happy.
#5 Emotional Marketing Value Analyzer
As the name suggests this tool analyzes the emotional marketing value of your headlines. And emotional marketing is more important than you may think:
“When you reach your audience on an emotional level when you touch on their pain points, you have better odds of reaching your goals.” – Neil Patel, Neilpatel.com
Let’s see the tool in action. Here’s a headline I came up with:
And the results?
Well, not the best in the world. But, as with CoSchedule Blog Post Headline Analyzer, you can continue to make tweaks.
#6 KingSumo
According to the folks over at KingSumo, your headline is the “#1 reason people decide to buy your product, click to Tweet or share your content.”
KingSumo is an automatic headline optimization tool for your blog. This is how it works:
- KingSumo lets you craft five different headlines for your blog post.
- Once published, it will then show a different title to different visitors.
- Over time it will tell you which title is performing best.
So where the other tools help you decide on a headline before publishing, KingSumo tests several titles after publishing. Here’s an example from their blog:
#7 Blog Title Generator
Blog title generator takes you on a content generating rollercoaster ride. You simply type the keyword you want to blog about:
You’re then taken to another screen where you need to fill in the gaps:
If you like the titles you save them to the online notepad or refresh to continue the search:
Once you are happy you e-mail the titles to yourself. As easy as that.
Brush-up on Your Writing
Aside from tools to help generate topics and titles, creating quality blog content also requires you to brush up on your writing. Of course, to get better you actually need to write and you need to write a lot. But use these tools to supplement your writing practice.
#8 Grammarly
Grammarly lets you check your spelling and other critical errors. It also offers a browser add-on which integrates into WordPress so that you can pick up on all those little errors as you write. For more advanced features upgrade to the premium version.
#9 Hemmingway Editor
Hemmingway editor will make your content easier to read. Use the Hemmingway Editor to write with more power and conviction. It will tell you what your readability grade is (higher is not better) and what areas you need to address.
It will:
- Highlight in yellow which sentences are hard to read
- Highlight in red which sentences are very hard to read
- Highlight in purple where there is a simpler alternative
- Highlight in green where you’ve used passive voice (active voice is better)
- Highlight in purple where you’ve used adverbs (less is better)
Through highlighting the problem areas you know what to address.
Enhance Your Content With Visuals
Any quality blog post is just as good as the visuals it uses. As with headlines, if the visuals aren’t appealing, expect a lower click through rate. The following three online tools will help.
#10 Canva
Canva is a design tool that anyone can use to create stunning marketing collateral for your business. Gone are the days of having to fork out a large sum of money for a designer. Canva lets you (among other things):
- Choose from a vast gallery of images and pre-made templates.
- Edit images by adding text, cropping, and filtering.
- Select social media layouts for Facebook and Twitter headers.
- Upload your own photos to incorporate into a design.
#11 Free Stock Images
High-quality stock images are expensive. But luckily there are many places on the internet that allow you to download free high-quality images. Be sure to give credit where required.
Instead of giving you one go to for images, we decided to link you to a blog post by the Practical Saver. They’ve curated a list of 50 sites for free stock images for your blog posts. But if you’re in a rush and don’t want to scour the list, we recommend Pixabay to start. They have a vast collection of images and you’re not required to credit the source.
Final Thoughts
Creating quality blog content is essential to the success of your blog and your business. However, you should use these tools in conjunction with a regular practice of writing, and reading. They are after all only a tool. You still need to put the effort in.