6 Content Strategy Tools To Help You Drive Better Strategic Outcomes

Content Strategist

Jun 28, 2024

Everyone's on a mission to create better content, but there's often a missing piece in the puzzle: what's the end goal?

More traffic, higher conversions, or something else?

Crafting content without a clear objective means that you’re moving but you’re not necessarily headed in the right direction.

And if you’re aiming for a strategic outcome that not only makes sense but also leads to tangible results, then your best bet is using the right tools to get you there.

Disclaimer: At Yahini, we spend a ton of time testing, researching and using various tools to figure out which ones are worth recommending, evaluating them based on what they’re supposed to do and how well they meet our criteria. We do not accept payment for featuring a tool in our articles or linking to a site. Our recommendations are 100% authentic and unbiased, because we believe you deserve nothing less.

What’s a “better strategic outcome”?

When we talk about chasing “better strategic outcomes”, we’re really looking at the essence of why we create content in the first place.

We create content to build a brand, to help our audience, to boost our conversions, and to use these content pieces as assets for sales.

A strategic outcome, then, is that sweet spot where your business goals and your audience’s needs intersect, creating value for both parties. Strategic outcomes are the tangible results you get from this—be it boosting brand awareness, driving sales, or establishing thought leadership.

And you need to work smart to achieve a good strategic outcome, including using tools to help you get there.

6 content strategy tools for better strategic outcomes

Just a disclaimer:

These tools are not useful for churning out 10 articles per day. While those tools have their place, that's not our focus today.

Instead, we're zeroing in on tools that will support you at every stage of your content strategy.

Yahini, your top choice for strategic content briefs

Yahini is an AI-powered content brief generator, but it’s not like the generic tools you might be used to. It's been trained by experienced content strategists, so it brings a level of expertise to the table that you don't often see in automated tools. The big idea here is to give you expert-level content briefs without the hefty price tag of hiring a full-time strategist or agency.

Yahini has a unique approach to content strategy.

It doesn't just spit out generic briefs. Instead, it takes a deep dive into your business, your competitors, and your audience.

It uses this info to create personalized keyword clusters and organize them into meaningful groups. This means you're not just getting a list of keywords but a strategy that aligns with your audience's needs at different stages of the marketing funnel. Plus, it helps you balance your content across the funnel, typically aiming for 50% bottom-of-funnel, 40% middle-of-funnel, and 10% top-of-funnel topics.

You just input your URL and a few details about your business, and Yahini does the rest. It generates a full content workbook, complete with customized briefs for each keyword. These briefs are built using frameworks and templates designed by experienced strategists, so you're getting high-quality, strategic content plans without the hassle of complicated tools or the cost of an agency.

Top features

AI Trained by Content Strategists – Yahini's AI is trained by seasoned content strategists, not just generic algorithms. This means you get expert-level insights and recommendations tailored to real-world content marketing strategies.
One-Click Content Workbook Generation – With just a few simple inputs, Yahini generates a full content workbook. This saves you hours of manual work and gives you a full content strategy at your fingertips.
Advanced Keyword Clustering – Yahini uses in-house AI models to create personalized keyword clusters aligned with your audience's needs. This helps you target the right topics at each stage of the marketing funnel, improving your content's effectiveness.
Balanced Funnel Allocation – The tool helps you maintain a balanced content strategy across different funnel stages. This ensures you're not neglecting any part of the customer journey, leading to a more effective overall content strategy.
Strategist-Level Content Briefs – Each brief is customized for its specific keyword, funnel stage, and content type. This level of detail helps writers create more targeted, effective content that aligns with your overall strategy.
Competitor Analysis – Yahini analyzes your competitors' content to help you find unique angles. This feature helps you create content that stands out in your niche and provides more value to your audience.
Priority Scoring System – Yahini assigns a priority score to each keyword, considering factors like importance, funnel stage, volume, and competition. This helps you focus on the most impactful content opportunities first.
Funnel Stage Filtering – Unlike most keyword tools, Yahini allows you to filter keywords by funnel stage. This unique feature helps you easily target specific parts of the customer journey in your content strategy.
Content Type Matching – Yahini matches each keyword to the most appropriate content type based on the funnel stage. This feature helps ensure you're using the most effective content format for each topic, improving engagement and conversion rates.
Customizable and Editable Briefs – Yahini provides an editor where you can customize your briefs. This flexibility allows you to add your own insights or adjust the strategy as needed.

Pricing

Right now, we're keeping things super simple with Yahini's pricing. Instead of going the typical subscription route, we're offering lifetime access with a one-time payment per project.

Each project credit unlocks a complete content strategy toolkit for one website - including a curated list of hundreds of business-specific keywords (automatically researched and sorted by funnel stage and priority), unlimited content brief generation, and the flexibility to build your content workbook with as many keywords as you need.

Every content brief is crafted using expert frameworks with specific writing instructions tailored to each keyword, funnel stage, and content type.

Running multiple websites? No problem - just grab an extra credit for each one.

Head over to our pricing page to check out the current early-access offer before we switch to a subscription model later on.

If you manage multiple projects and content strategies (e.g. you’re a huge agency), you can get a custom quote. Just reach out to us!

Clearscope, your top choice for content grading

Clearscope helps with content visibility by offering a grading score to each piece of content. It leverages cutting-edge AI to grade your content and gives you actionable insights that help (on the spot) refine your strategy and relevance and drive better results.

Think of it as a roadmap to better rankings. You’ll get real-time insights on how your content needs to look to perform well on the search engines and what steps you need to take to improve it, such as changing the headings, adding more internal links, or adding more relevant keywords.

Top features

Content Grading System: Clear, actionable feedback to elevate your content's quality and relevance.
AI-Powered Recommendations: Get suggestions to improve your content’s alignment with search intent and audience preferences.
Keyword Discovery and Optimization: Uncover the most impactful keywords and integrate them into your content.
Competitor Analysis: Gain insights into your competitors' content strategies to identify opportunities and gaps in your own approach.
Integrations: Clearscope integrates with popular platforms like Google Docs and WordPress.

Pricing

The Essentials plan starts at $189/month and provides everything you need to kickstart your content optimization journey. It includes unlimited users and projects, AI content outline generation, and a generous amount of credits for content reports and keyword discoveries.

For larger teams or those seeking more advanced features, the Business plan at $399/month includes a dedicated account manager and additional resources to support productive content teams.

WriterZen, your top choice for thorough keyword research

WriterZen is one of my top favorites, as I use it every week for keyword research. Imagine being able to pull out thousands of related keywords from just one search, and then organize them into topics that are ready for you to tackle.

It’s got plenty of keyword research features, like a golden score and Wildcard search to explore every angle of a keyword.

Top features

Wildcard Search: Find out exactly what people are searching for by exploring every variation of your main keywords.
Golden Keywords: Discover those golden, easy-to-rank-for keywords with a simple filter.
Long-Tail Keywords: Get your hands on a list of longer, more specific keywords that are super relevant to your audience.
Predict Your Revenue: Check out how much you could potentially make if your keywords hit the top spots on Google.

Pricing

WriterZen keeps it simple and sweet with its pricing.

You make a one-time payment and get access to all its awesome features—no recurring fees to worry about.

The Keyword Research package is just $75, giving you everything you need to find and organize your keywords. If you're looking for the whole package, the All-In-One Basic at $150 is perfect, including everything from keyword clustering to unlimited AI writing. For bigger teams, the All-In-One Advanced package is $225, packed with extra features and more keyword credits.

BuzzSumo, your top choice for content research

BuzzSumo is your king when it comes to content research.

It scans billions of articles and social media posts and gives you a sneak peek into what’s trending, what’s shared the most, and what’s likely to resonate with your audience. Thus, you’ll make informed decisions backed by solid data.

With BuzzSumo, you're tapping into the world's largest index of social engagement data, giving you the lowdown on the top formats, identifying what your competitors are up to, and even letting you peek at who's linking to their sites.

Top features

Billions of Articles and Posts: Access an extensive database of content to discover what's trending in your niche.
Content Type Filtering: Easily find out which content formats are hitting the mark with your target audience.
Competitive Benchmarking: Keep an eye on your competitors' top-performing content to stay one step ahead.
Historical Data Analysis: Use up to five years of content performance data to spot trends and inform your strategy.
Backlink Tracking: See who's linking to key domains and your competitors' sites to guide your link-building efforts.
Real-Time Social Engagement Data: Know what's getting love on social media to focus your content creation and promotion efforts.

Pricing

BuzzSumo offers a variety of pricing plans, from $199 per month to as much as $999 per month for enterprise.

SEMrush, your top choice for competitor research

If you want to have a glimpse into your competitors’ content strategies, then use SEMrush.

This powerhouse tool lets you uncover every detail of your competitors' online strategy, from their website traffic to their best-performing keywords.

SEMrush goes beyond surface-level analysis, offering deep dives into organic search performance, paid advertising strategies, and social media engagement. Plus, with tools dedicated to traffic analytics and market analysis, you can gauge the competitive landscape and adjust your strategies to capture more “market share”.

Top features

Traffic Analytics: Compare your website traffic with competitors', understanding their top sources and strategizing accordingly.
Organic Research: Identify your true search competitors and the keywords they're winning on, revealing opportunities for your own SEO efforts.
Advertising Research: Conduct a detailed analysis of competitors' paid search tactics to refine your advertising strategy and budget.
Social Media Tracker: Keep an eye on competitors' social media performance and audience engagement to inform your content strategy.
Market Analysis Tools: Discover your position in the competitive landscape and identify new opportunities for growth.

Pricing

The Pro plan, at $139.95 monthly, is perfect for newcomers and small teams, offering essential tools for competitor analysis, keyword research, and more, across five projects. For agencies and mid-size businesses, the Guru plan at $249.95 monthly includes all Pro features plus extras like the Content Marketing Toolkit and historical data, supporting 15 projects.

For large agencies or those juggling multiple clients and projects, you can go for even more advanced plans.

Google Analytics, your obvious choice for analyzing content

So, you’ve probably already got Google Analytics installed on your site, right? Have you actually used it to inform your content strategy? (Probably not, as a lot of people don’t).

GA tells you what’s working and what’s not with your content. You can see what your audience loves, clicks on, and bounces from. You can know exactly what topics get people interested, how they find you, and what keeps them coming back for more.

Top features

Behavior Reports: This is where you find your content MVPs—the pages and posts that keep people hooked.
Acquisition Reports: Ever wonder how people find you? This tells you whether it's through Google, social media, or direct visits. Super useful for figuring out where to focus your promo efforts.
Audience Insights: Get the scoop on who's actually reading your content. Age, interests, location.
Google Search Console Integration: Pair GA with Google Search Console, and boom, you've got visibility on how your content's doing in search, what keywords are bringing folks in, and where there's room to climb higher in rankings.
Conversion Tracking: Want to know if your content's making an impact? Track sign-ups, downloads, purchases, and more to see how your words translate into actions.

Pricing

Google Analytics is free to use, but it does have a learning curve.

Seeking better strategic outcomes?

And here you go, some of the best tools you can use for your content strategy.

Among them is Yahini, which offers you the strategic advice you need to create a content strategy from the ground up. Its AI has been trained by seasoned content strategists, providing you with expert-level content briefs right at your fingertips.

Ditch the generic outlines! Sign up now.

Need a 24/7 content strategist? See how Yahini can help you craft perfect content briefs.
Any questions? I’m happy to help! Just reach out to us!
Not ready yet? Learn more about Yahini here.