Free Resources to Level Up Your Content Marketing Strategy

Let’s face it. If you focus your expenses on content marketing, it will be expensive. It can go upwards of $25,000. Of course, it doesn’t have to be THAT expensive, especially when you’re just starting your business or having a limited budget. Fortunately, free (or freemium) content marketing resources are available for marketers. This would save you money to invest in other expenses. Perhaps you could choose a subscription plan for any of the tools or resources listed below if you’ve saved enough for the future.

In this article, I list down 15 free content marketing resources to master content marketing on a budget.

1. Quora

Before Quora emerged as one of the content resources many know now, it was a simple question and answer (Q&A) site like Yahoo Answers. Since then, Quora established itself as a professional Q&A site gaining better credibility. This enabled more professionals to sign up on the site to provide educational responses to those looking for answers.

However, Quora has become a marketing tool too. Any expert can go on the site and explain anything related to your field or industry. Plus, you can link back to your website. This way, you can redirect curious users and learn more about you or your product or service.

2. Ubersuggest

Neil Patel’s keyword tool has been one of the most used free content marketing resources. On the free plan, even with limited search capabilities, it will produce hundreds of keywords. Of course, that depends on the keyword you input. Still, you get more insight into what other keywords you can use for your blog.

Aside from being a keyword research tool, you can use Ubersuggest as a competitor research tool. You can even search for your competitor and the keywords they rank for on their blogs. This way, you can monitor their blog ranking. This could motivate you to write better and well-researched articles. This will give you a chance to rank higher than your competitors.

3. Keyword Surfer

Many would offer keyword research tools for free for a particular time. Some of them have limited searches for a day or month. As a free tool and as one of the most trusted content resources, Keyword Surfer generates relevant keywords. Plus, it provides correlation charts, citing the sites where the keyword is most used. This will give you more insight into what types of keywords your audience is searching for on any search engine.

You’ll install it as a Chrome extension. Once you search, it’ll generate related keywords and the volume. However, if you want more keywords out of it, you can pay for a plan.

4. WordHippo

As a writer, sometimes, I struggle to find the right words. It still happens, so I consult a thesaurus. A thesaurus can provide you with the best word to express your thoughts or context on the topic.

What WordHippo does better than any other thesaurus on the internet is it generates synonyms, antonyms, sentences, and so forth. WordHippo is one of the most underrated free content marketing resources because of its capability to make your writing more engaging than ever.

5. Trello

Trello is one of the best free productivity tools and content resources.

For one, you can use Trello as your content calendar. You can set up deadlines for your blogs or other content outputs. You can organize boards and transfer cards too. This is an excellent resource for teams, so you can see your team’s writing progress. If you’re a lone blogger or marketer, it will serve as your all-around productivity tool too.

It’s also another way to make a list of all the topics you want to tackle for your blogs, infographics, and topics. This way, you can determine a theme for topics you want to write in a month or a week.

6. Grammarly 

One of the writer’s best weapons is an editing tool. You don’t want to publish a blog without proofreading it. You might have visitors turn away from your content that’s not proofread.

Grammarly is another freemium tool that will correct the basic grammar and spelling errors that you might have missed. It’s one of the best content resources because it enhances your writing skills.

7. Hemingway App

As a supplementary resource to Grammarly, the Hemingway App can identify the readability of your blog. 

Readability is important because you want people to follow along and digest details easily. Hemingway App can enhance your writing to make sure your audience understands what you’re writing. It’s one of the widely used content resources by any content marketer out there.

What the Hemingway App also does is gauge your writing based on who could understand it. For example, your audience can be 15 and above. This means your writing should level with a 9th or 10th grader. Try to avoid highfalutin words, so make it simple.

However, if your blog post, infographic, or email is intended for experts or professionals, you may want to use jargon specific to that industry.

8. Unsplash

Buffer finds that blog posts with images get 94% more views than those without photos. Another reason why you need images on your blog is for readability purposes. This will cause a break on your blog, so it’ll be easier for readers to digest.

Unsplash is one of the many websites offering free stock photos. There, you can find relevant images for your blog posts. Plus, you won’t need permission to download and use the images. But, Unsplash says you can say thank you to photographers who provide high-quality photos.

9. Canva

If you want to get more clicks, visits, and shares, sometimes you’ll need to post an original image on your blog. Canva is another freemium service that most content marketers use for designing.

On Canva, you can design any blog image header, infographic, or ebook cover. It’s great to use Canva on a budget because there are pre-made templates. This saves you time from creating one from scratch and modifying the template depending on your theme or brand. Plus, the drag-and-drop feature makes it easy for anyone to edit a template.

Many consider this one of the best free content marketing resources because of the free plan. Plus, you can do so much and download many of your designs in one month.

10. Headline Analyzer

Stop! Before you publish that article, have you checked the title first? You see, aside from using keywords, you’ll need a catchy headline to get those clicks.

As one of the best content resources, it will tell you how to improve your headline. It gives you a percentage score and breaks it down. Aim to get a 70% and above score on the CoSchedule Analyzer. It means you have a strong headline and could guarantee more clicks.

Here’s how you can improve your headlines:

• Power words
• Emotions
• Numbers
• Length (short, preferably less than ten words or longer than 55 characters)

11. Hootsuite

Don’t put your marketing efforts to waste by not promoting your hard work. A social media scheduler can help you accomplish that. That’s why Hootsuite is one of those schedulers offering freemium.

Hootsuite can link your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. On the free account, you can schedule up to thirty posts for three social media platforms. This reduces the stress of scheduling your posts on the day of posting. Plus, this enables you to look ahead and plan the content you want to publish on any site.

12. MailerLite

In some instances, marketers will combine marketing approaches like email marketing and content marketing. This allows them to promote their content and target audiences on different platforms.

The majority of email marketing tools will have you reaching out for your card. But, you can use MailerLite for free. According to MailerLite, you can send 12,000 emails a month. MailerLite works best if you have 1,000 email subscribers or less.

It’s one of the most reliable content resources since you can widen your reach through email. Plus, you can promote your content through email too. For example, you have a new blog post, send one to notify your readers. Or if you want to share an infographic you created, you can send through email too.

13. Hubspot

Some content marketers would consider the Hubspot blog as their bible. After all, Hubspot is one of the most reliable sources for marketing and sales. It’s because they’re an authority in blogging and have credibility too.

It’s not just their blog that gains attention because they also publish free ebooks and courses. This allows them to have people coming back to their websites often and consume their content.

Plus, you might get inspired by reading Hubspot articles. This might enable you to write a similar article or apply any of their tips on your blog.

14. Content Marketing Institute

Here’s another blog resource for all content marketers. Unlike Hubspot, Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) sole focus is to write articles and updates and produce downloadable resources for any content marketer. This will allow you to apply what you’ve learned and to get more out of your content marketing strategy.

Plus, you can also listen to available podcasts to get more tips and tricks in leveling up your content marketing strategy.

15. Content Fuel Blog

The Content Fuel blog is a great resource for any content marketer needing more perspective and knowledge in content marketing.

We know the pain points of any content marketer, and the articles provide insights and solutions on how to solve the typical content marketing-related concerns. Plus, it also includes writing tips to create better content for any content output.

However, if you want value for money, use Content Fuel for your content marketing efforts. You can save so much time (and cost, too). In one month, you can request up to 4,000 words a month (approx. 6 to 8 blog posts). Learn more and start your Content Fuel plan here.