As a one-woman business and self proclaimed tech-nerd, I’m always on the lookout for the best tools to help me create compelling content, improve my workflow, and enhance my productivity. Over the years, I’ve tried more tools and websites than I can count, but there are a few that I’ve been using for years - and some that are new favorites - that have completely streamlined my content planning and creation processes!

Approaching marketing as an artist, when I was first starting out I always focused on the graphics first and struggled to write the caption that would accompany it. After lots of frustration, I’ve learned to lead with the big picture first and save the design elements for last. So, I’ll cover the tools in the order I generally use them.

1. Plan with Notion

If you’ve already laid your brand foundation, it’s time to develop your marketing strategy and map out your campaigns!

Since I’ve started using Notion.so, I spend less time planning and more time implementing my marketing strategies. Everything I need is right at my finger tips (and searchable)! Some of my favorite features of this all-in-one project management tool include:

• Tagging to easily categorize marketing goals, campaigns, and project status

• Multiple Views for tracking data on everything from post dates to content sources. My favorites are table view were I can see everything at once and calendar view where I can get a better visual sense of how a marketing campaign will flow.

• Reminders while this is nothing out of the ordinary for project management tools, it is so helpful to have a central place to receive reminders for everything from scheduling posts for my clients to reminders about relevant awareness days.

Free, with paid option.

2. Create Value with Answer the Public

Developing content that is valuable for your ideal audience is so much easier when you reference Answer the Public.

This tool takes the guess work out of anticipating your audience’s needs by generating a visual representation of the questions and other related terms and phrases commonly entered into search engines.

Knowing exactly what your audience is searching for not only gives you the opportunity to tailor your content to their needs, it provides insight into the keywords and phrases they are searching for so that you can increase your search engine optimization (SEO), allowing them to more easily find you.

Free, with paid option.

3. Writing & Ideation with ChatGPT

No matter how you feel about artificial intelligence (AI) tools, they are no longer the wave of the future - they are the here and now.

I haven’t always loved geeking out about new technology - actually, I actively dug my heals in for years. I stuck to stacks of paperback books instead of investing in an e-reader and didn’t get my first smartphone until 2012. BUT - over the years, I’ve learned to embrace the tech. There is so much it can teach us!

As an early adopter of ChatGPT, I really went down the rabbit hole to learn all I could about how best to prompt this human-like text generation tool to get me over writer’s block and speed up my process. I think of it as an unbelievably smart sidekick to bounce ideas off of.

However, as much as I love learning how to use this tool, it is just a tool. Any content I generate with the help of my robot sidekick is just a starting point. No AI can replace your ability to understand the nuances and needs of your ideal audience. So I caution you, use this incredible new tool, but don’t rely on it to do the work for you.

Free, with paid option.

4. Add Interest with Emojipedia

This may seem like a silly tool to include in this list, but I can’t tell you how many times I pull up Emojipedia every day. This comprehensive database includes every emoji available and saves me so much time searching for just the right one to add a little bit of fun and interest to captions, email subject lines, and everything in between. 💖 (< See? I just used it right there.)

Free!

5. Design Everything with Canva

If you aren’t already using Canva to create quick and easy visuals for your content, prepare to be amazed by how much time and energy you are about to save. I’ve been using Canva to design everything from print flyers to social media posts and everything in between for years, but with recently added tools like Docs, Whiteboard, video editing, and presentations, you can do so much in less than half the time it would have otherwise taken. I can’t speak highly enough about Canva and all its capabilities.

Canva provides a seemingly endless library of templates, graphics, and stock images you can use to create anything you can imagine. It also integrates beautifully with tons of other commonly used marketing and business tools.

Free, with paid option.

6. Add Humor with Giphy

One of the main reasons your audience uses social media is to be entertained, so why not liven up your content by adding a gif that resonates? Giphy is my favorite place to find gifs that add a bit of humor to my marketing. This easily searchable library of pre-made gifs also integrates with Canva, allowing you to create on brand content with only a few clicks.

Free!

7. Envision Your Brand with Smartmockups

As a brand designer and artist, Smartmockups allows me to customize stock images, visualize brand elements in multiple contexts, and showcase my artwork without staging a photoshoot. Another Canva integration, this tool has such a range of applications.

Free, with paid option.

8. Add Captions with Veed.io

Veed.io is a new-to-me-find and every time I use it, I find something else to love.

This tool provides several customizable video templates; but by far, my favorite part about it is the ability to add editable subtitles to my videos and download them to post later. Increasing accessibility for my audience and the audiences of my clients is so important and I hope to see more video editing tools making it this easy to add subtitles.

I haven’t tried out the podcasting or live recording features yet, but it’s on my list of things to explore!

Free, with paid option.

9. Schedule with PlannThat

Once I’ve mapped out my marketing campaigns, written captions, and created visual assets, I bring it all together and schedule posts in PlannThat. As much as I love some of the better known content scheduling platforms (such as Hootsuite), PlannThat is a more cost-effective planning and scheduling tool and provides a few additional perks that I really enjoy.

In addition to scheduling content in a traditional calendar view, PlannThat offers platform-specific view options so you can better visualize what the published content will look like on each respective platform (this is especially helpful for Instagram grids!). It also offers the option of creating hashtag groups to add to the end of a post at the click of a mouse, content ideas and copywriting templates if you prefer to do your planning in the scheduler, and analytics reporting features to keep your marketing goals on track.

Free, with paid option.

10. Improve Focus with Gated

This is another new-to-me tool, but I have absolutely loved using it over the past few months. Gated reduces the noise in your inbox by moving all unsolicited emails to a folder so that you can focus on the messages that matter and come back to the rest when you have time. Customizing my allow list has saved me so much time and ensures that important emails don’t get lost in the mix of coupon codes and newsletters.

The best thing about Gated is that it automatically sends an email to those who aren’t on your allow list - so if there is someone who should be on your allow list, but isn’t, they can request to be added by donating a couple dollars to a nonprofit that matters to you!

Free!

Whether a digital marketer looking to add new tools to your repertoire, a learn-it-all small business owner, or you’re wearing all the hats at a nonprofit, take the time to explore a couple of these tools to see how they can transform your processes!

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