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? What are your specific content goals?

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.

This is a common pitfall in content marketing.

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, streamlining your content creation process.

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, and how marketing teams can achieve their content marketing goals.

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. Effective content marketing is key to this.

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.

Achieving these content marketing goals requires a focused approach.

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, creating mass AI-generated content without oversight. While those content marketing 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 marketing and help you build an entire content strategy that drives results. These tools can significantly improve your content production efficiency.

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 marketing and strategy.

It doesn't just spit out generic briefs. Instead, it takes a deep dive into your business, your competitors, and your audience, helping content teams map out the customer journey.

It uses this info to create personalized keyword clusters and organize them into meaningful groups, covering various content topics. 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 -- understanding their buyer journeys is essential here.

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, which can be planned out in your editorial calendar.

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 content writers are getting high-quality, strategic content plans with a clear content structure 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 marketing plan at your fingertips, which can then be transferred to your editorial calendar.
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 and addressing different buyer journeys.
Balanced Funnel Allocation – The tool helps you maintain a balanced content marketing strategy across different funnel stages. This ensures you're not neglecting any part of the customer journey, leading to a more effective overall strategy.
Strategist-Level Content Briefs – Each brief is customized for its specific keyword, funnel stage, and content type. This level of detail, exportable to Google Docs, helps writers create more targeted, effective content that aligns with your overall strategy. The suggested content structure is a key benefit.
Competitor Analysis – Yahini analyzes your competitors' content to help you find unique angles and identify content gaps. 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 keyword 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, perhaps before sharing via Google Docs with your content writers.

Pricing

For $39 a month per project, you get access to all of Yahini’s features, letting you generate 20 content briefs with total month-to-month flexibility to pause when you need to.

And if you just want to give it a spin first, there’s a completely free plan that lets you set up a project and create a handful of briefs to see how it feels before committing.

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, thus improving content performance.

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 content and keywords. It's one of the essential SEO tools for any serious content marketer.

Top features

Content Grading System: Clear, actionable feedback to elevate your content's quality and relevance, ensuring you produce high-quality content.
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 competitive analysis 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, making it easier for content writers to optimize as they write.

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 content 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 excellent for sparking content ideas.

It’s got plenty of keyword research features, like a golden score and Wildcard search to explore every angle of a keyword, helping you find hidden keyword opportunities. This is a boon for any content creator.

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, supporting your content planning. 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 helps you discover fresh ideas by analyzing what's performing well.

It scans billions of articles and posts on social media platforms 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, gathering valuable insights for your content marketing efforts.

With BuzzSumo, you're tapping into the world's largest index of social engagement data, giving you the lowdown on the top formats (like video content or blog posts), identifying what your competitors are up to by analyzing competitor content, and even letting you peek at who's linking to their sites. This helps in building an effective social media strategy.

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 types of content 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 content across various social platforms 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, which has one of the most comprehensive library of SEO tools.

This powerhouse tool lets you uncover every detail of your competitors' online strategy, from their website traffic to their best-performing keywords. This competitive analysis is vital for enhancing your online presence.

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 content marketing strategies to capture more “market share”. Marketing teams often rely on SEMrush for these insights.

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 across each social network to inform your content marketing 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 and helping to refine an entire content strategy.

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 entire content strategy? (Probably not, as a lot of people don’t). Marketing teams should make this a priority.

GA tells you what’s working and what’s not with your content, providing valuable insights into content performance. 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 (your main traffic source), and what keeps them coming back for more. This data is essential for refining your content calendar and overall content production. It can also inform your periodic content audits.

Top features

Behavior Reports: This is where you find your content MVPs—the pages and blog posts that keep people hooked along their buyer journeys.
Acquisition Reports: Ever wonder how people find you? This tells you whether it's through Google, social media platforms, 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. Data can be exported to Google Docs for further analysis.
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, supporting your content planning and showing the success of your effective content strategies. This can be documented in your editorial calendar.

Pricing

Google Analytics is free to use, but it does have a learning curve. Many marketing teams invest in training or use templates in Google Docs or Google Data Studio to manage reporting.

Seeking better strategic outcomes?

And here you go, some of the best tools you can use for your content marketing. A successful content strategy often relies on a smart combination of such tools. Remember, the goal is efficient content production that meets audience needs across all types of content. Regularly updating your content calendar or editorial calendar is also key.

Among these tools 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.