5 content tools to make your life easier

Content tools and platforms can help improve your marketing communications, well some can.

There are a lot of tools out there that claim to revolutionise your content, serve up loads of ideas, and place your finger on the digital pulse. But what’s the truth behind these shiny claims?

At worst these tools are of gimmicky entertainment value and at best they'll help you make your creative process more efficient. We've looked at a wide range of tools and platforms, some helpful and some not so. Here we've selected a few from the helpful pile and put their own content to the test.

Cronycle

They say: Every day, you miss – and lose – important content. Lots of it. We all do. Today’s content streams are amazing, but it has become impossible to filter out the noise and uncover the content we really need. Until now.

We say: Cronycle's spiel seems to suggest that it'll give you almighty powers with superpowered accessories. We can't vouch for the former, but it does allow you to pick sources, apply filters and view other peoples’ collections to discover fresh new content.

GatherContent

They say: Try the only content organization and website planning tool designed for collaborating on web content.

We say: It might not be the only tool, but it does a great job of allowing you to structure a website and plan what content will go where. You can assign pages to other people, approve edits and track progress. You can also upload any file type to a page, whether it’s inspiration, images or text.

PublishThis

They say: Mix your original content and commentary with curated and aggregated content to post and publish more often. By sharing influential voices with your annotations in these Digest Posts, you can drive Thought Leadership, Engagement, and even SEO.

We say: The refresh feature is good as it allows you to bring back archived content in order to revitalise it with updated commentary and pair it with up-to-date news, articles, tweets, and video. The way it highlights trending topics on social media is also useful - it shows you what's doing best within the topical parameters you've set.

Cage

They say: Collaboration just got a whole lot easier. A simple way for designers and teams to share, manage and approve their creative work.

We say: It's a great tool for creative multimedia projects. A feature that is really worthwhile is that it keeps track of revisions, so you can show progress and make sure everyone is on the same page. You can also add notes to videos and have contextual discussions on a specific frame directly in the timeline.

MURAL.LY

They say: Get your thoughts down fast and gather all your insights in one place.

Quickly dump all your ideas onto our flexible canvas, and supplement them with multimedia from the internet or your computer.

We say: It's a fun tool to organise content, share and develop ideas visually at the initial stages of a project. It tracks changes and lets you see how a project evolves, but our favourite feature is its democratic voting capacity – set how many votes each person can have, vote on your favourite ideas and it will give you the results.

Apply some design thinking first

Content tools can help us work efficiently, but there’s no substitute for sound digital strategy, excellent copywriting and informed design. Anything that claims otherwise is pulling your leg.

Find out how we can help you plan and deliver excellent content 020 7690 5431 or Email us