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The Content Marketing Handbook — 81+ Resources, Tips, Guides & Tools

by MAHESH MOHAN on

Content Marketing

Content marketing is everywhere and it’s actually the new SEO (sort of). And that exactly is the reason why internet startups are spending a lot of money on content marketing to acquire new customers in an organic way.

Now, what’s interesting is that the content marketing tactics are changing rapidly and there is always a new idea to attract even more customers.

I collect marketing resources as I browse the web and I choose to archive it online as a handbooks. They all can act as a starting point in their respective niches and The Content Marketing Handbook is my 7th handbook.

Note: I have focused only on content marketing and not “Writing” or “Blogging” topics. But you can always look at Blogger’s Handbook or Writer’s Handbook for awesome freelance writing and blogging resources.

81+ Content Marketing Resources, Tips, Strategies & Tools

So, here is a curated list of content marketing resources that I have personally collected in my Evernote over the past many months.

It’s going to be your definitive guide to content marketing, and to make it easier to consume, I have organized the resources into the following categories:

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First things first. What is content marketing?

If you are absolutely clueless about content marketing then here is a perfect definition:

Content Marketing means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you. — Copyblogger

Content Marketing Guides

If you are looking for a one-stop guide to content marketing, then look no further. They cover almost all aspects of content marketing in a systematic and easy to consume way.

  1. What Is Content Marketing? | Copyblogger — No one knows content marketing better than the guys at Copyblogger. They offer a free series of seven content marketing ebooks and is a great place to start.
  2. The Psychology Behind Content And Why It Works | Crew — It’s a great read that tells the psychology behind content and why it works citing several examples and case studies.
  3. The Beginner’s Guide To Content Marketing | Nate Desmond — It’s a beginner’s guide (as a single blog post) to content marketing that tells you how to plan, write, and promote content.
  4. A Not-So-Brief Guide To Better Content Marketing | Gregory Ciott — It’s a more comprehensive guide (again as a single blog post) covering almost all aspects of content marketing.
  5. The Advanced Guide To Content Marketing | Quick Sprout — As the name suggests, it’s an advanced guide to content marketing with ten chapters.
  6. Groove’s Journey To $500k In Monthly Revenue | Groove — It’s not exactly a content marketing guide but it shows the journey of a startup’s $500k monthly revenue as a series of blog posts.

Content Strategy

You need a content strategy before creating content. Now, what is it?

Content strategy refers to the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.

In other words, content strategy is about efficiently and effectively managing the website content to achieve business goals.

  1. What Is Content Strategy?
  2. The Anatomy Of A Great Content Strategy
  3. How To Include Influencers In Your Content Strategy
  4. A Content Strategy Template You Can Build On
  5. How To Build A Content Marketing Strategy

Content Audit

Content audit is the analysis of a website’s content to make it more search and user friendly. It involves keyword analysis, content analysis (to identify performing, non-performing, and missing content), and defining a new content strategy.

  1. A Beginner’s Guide To Content Audits [Infographic]
  2. How To Conduct A Content Audit On Your Site
  3. How To Do A Content Audit [Step-by-Step]
  4. A Complete Content Audit And Spreadsheet Template
  5. How To Plug The Holes In Your Content Funnel That Are Costing You Money

Content Promotion

I really do not want to believe this but it’s true. Today, content marketing is 90% promotion and 10% creation. That’s why your best content goes unnoticed.

  1. 16 Explosive Content Promotion Strategies
  2. How I Increased Traffic 272% In 30 Days (Without Spending A Penny)
  3. 31 Ways To Promote Blog Posts & Get Blog Traffic
  4. 13 Steps To Take Your Content Promotion To The Next Level
  5. How To Create A Winning Content Promotion Plan
  6. 16 Of The Most Brilliant Tactics In Blogging History

Read: Top 30 Social Networking Sites To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

Content Marketing Tips

Reading how-to content will improve your technical skills but that’s not enough. If you want to become a better marketer then you should learn from the experts. Because they are already doing it and they know exactly what works and what doesn’t.

  1. The 3-Step Journey of a Remarkable Piece of Content
  2. 7 Content Marketing Lessons Learned From Losing 225,418 Visitors A Month
  3. 7 Lessons Learned While Content Marketing For An Early-Stage Startup
  4. 7 Popular Content Marketing Myths You Need To Stop Following
  5. 10 Ways To Improve Your Content Marketing
  6. Your Content Marketing Will Fail Without These 10 Features
  7. A Step-by-Step Guide To Dominating Search With Content Marketing
  8. 7 Smart Ways To Combine Content Marketing With SEO For More Search Traffic
  9. 9 Content Marketing Growth Hacks To Drive Traffic And Conversions
  10. 10 Content Marketing Growth Hacks [With Infographic]

Random Content Marketing Articles

Here is a list of some random articles (but related to blog marketing) that should make you a better writer (and a content marketer too).

  1. The Definitive Guide To Writing A Perfectly Optimized Blog Post
  2. 15 Blogging Tips To Supercharge Your Next Blog Post
  3. 12 Ways To Extend The Life Of Every Article You Write
  4. How We Research: A Look Inside The Buffer Blog Process
  5. How To Get 300% More People To Read Your Content

Read: 51 Blogging And Publishing Platforms To Showcase Your Awesomeness

Content Marketing Case Studies

We all love case studies, don’t we? Here are few case studies by few bloggers and startups. It tells you what they did to grow their website or business by leveraging content marketing.

  1. How To Grow A New Website To Over 100,000 Organic Visits Per Month
  2. How To Increase Traffic By Osmosis: Absorbing Visitors To Reach Over 200,000
  3. How We Earned 300+ Links And 2,500+ Shares On A Single Post In 30 Days
  4. How To Get Over 50,000 Visits To Your Blog In The First Month
  5. How To Get 300% More People To Read Your Content
  6. How Mint Grew to 1.5 Million Users And Sold for $170 Million In Just 2 Years
  7. How Buffer Grew To 70,000+ Users With A Solid Product & Content Marketing
  8. Inside The Marketing Strategies Of Facebook, Mint, & AppSumo
  9. 11 Content Marketing Lessons Learned from 20 Of The Top 100 Blogs
  10. The 30 Most Genius Content Marketing Examples Of 2014

Content Marketing Blogs

Internet marketing strategies are changing rapidly. So, if you are a marketer then it’s very important to follow some industry related blogs to stay-up-date.

I have randomly picked few internet marketing blogs that publishes great content marketing resources. And if you’re looking for a comprehensive list of internet marketing blogs then check out My Internet Marketing Handbook.

  1. Copyblogger — for content marketing tips.
  2. Quick Sprout — for content marketing strategies and case studies.
  3. Moz — for advanced content marketing ideas.
  4. Buffer — for blogging tips leveraging social media.
  5. Blog Tyrant — for blog marketing tips.
  6. Niche Pursuits — for even more blog marketing tips.
  7. Backlinko — for content promotion ideas, tips, and case studies.
  8. OkDork — for internet marketing tips.
  9. KISSmetrics — for blogging and marketing tips.
  10. Jim’s Marketing Blog — for short actionable insights on marketing.

Read: My Favorite Tech & Marketing Blogs

Essential Content Marketing Tools

Here I’m cherry-picking some of the best content marketing tools (they’re free/freemium!) to streamline your marketing efforts. But if you are looking for a comprehensive list of content marketing tools then check out Content Marketing Tools 101.

  1. Google Analytics — is the most popular web analytics tool — and it’s free — that gives insights about your website’s traffic. And it’s also good for measuring your advertising ROI.
  2. Google Webmaster Tools — shows the visibility of your website on Google. Also try, Bing Webmaster Tools.
  3. SEMrush (Freemium) — is one of the best competitor analysis tool to get benefit from your competitors and create a perfect content marketing strategy. Pricing starts at $79.95/month for the premium version.
  4. BuzzSumo (Freemium) —  analyzes a keyword or even a domain name and shows you the most popular content. Pricing starts at $99/month for the premium version. Also try, Social Crawlytics (Free).
  5. ContentGems (Freemium) — monitors the web and filters the results based on the keywords that you have set. The free plan supports two topics with up to 50 keywords per topic. Pricing starts at $9/month for the premium version.
  6. Topsy — is a free Twitter analytics tool that lets you search the Twitter database for free. You can enter a keyword and it shows a real-time analysis of what’s happening.
  7. Google Alerts — lets you monitor the web and set alerts when Google finds a new web page that matches your search filter.
  8. IFTTT —  lets you automate several actions by connecting all your web apps.
  9. Google AdWords Keyword Planner —- is the most popular keyword research tool that helps you find new keyword ideas and also estimating how they may perform.
  10. Portent Content Idea Generator — is a nifty tool to get topics ideas by only entering a keyword or two. Also try, Link Bait Title Generator, HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator.
  11. GrowthHackers — is an online community for marketers where you can discover (or share) interesting marketing content and join discussions. Also try, Triberr, Inbound.org.

Read: Over 101 Content Marketing Tools (Free & Premium) You’ll Ever Need

Don’t Miss:

Essential Browser Extensions

Web browser extensions are priceless to me as it makes everyday tasks simpler. Don’t believe me? Stop using all of them and you will see how much time they were saving.

  1. Evernote Web Clipper — to collect resources as you browse the web and access it from all your devices. Also try, Diggo Web Collector.
  2. Pocket — to save content and read later.
  3. Feedly — is the best RSS reader.
  4. Awesome Screenshot — to capture, annotate, and share screenshots. Also try, Evernote Skitch (available on Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android).
  5. Google Dictionary — to view definitions of a word as you browse the web.
  6. Search by Image — lets you right-click an image on the web and initiate a Google image search.
  7. Alexa Traffic Rank — is the official Alexa extension that provides Alexa Traffic Rank & Site Information as you browse web pages.
  8. Open SEO Stats — is an SEO extension that shows a ton of information related to SEO, traffic, domain name, web page, links, etc.
  9. MozBar — shows all the SEO metrics you want to know about a web page as you browse the web.
  10. WooRank — provides an in-depth SEO report of any website with one-click.
  11. Rapportive — replaces ads in Gmail and shows more information about your contacts.
  12. Boomerang for Gmail — lets you schedule messages in Gmail.
  13. Buffer —  is the easiest way to share web pages to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ Pages, and LinkedIn.
  14. Copy Fixer — lets you copy the Title & URL of the current web page by using the “Control/Command + C” shortcut.
  15. Word Count Tool — lets you count the number of words and characters in the selected text with just one-click.
  16. Page Analytics (by Google) — lets you track how users are interacting with your web pages.

Read: Top 25 Google Chrome Extensions I Can’t Live Without

Don’t Miss:

Conclusion

Just in case if I have missed a great content marketing resource then let me know as a comment below and I will be glad to feature it here.

Happy Marketing! :)

Image Credit: Flickr

The Content Marketing Handbook — 81+ Resources, Tips, Guides & Tools
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  • Wow, great list, there’s a bunch of tools I havent tested, thx for sharing them. Time to play with all these new tools. :)

  • Great Resource you got there! – argyletryit

  • Davide Nastasi

    Hey Mahesh,

    Great list indeed, thanks for sharing!

    I’d like to make a point with respect the content strategy part.

    There’s plenty of resources out there explaining how to build a content strategy and (in my opinion) they all have one common element: complexity.

    It seems you need to have your entire strategy figured out from the get go, which in turn causes a sort of “let’s not f**k this up” syndrome.

    I fell in the trap myself, spending hours crafting a content marketing plan, only to realize that the best way to create a plan / strategy that (really) works is by starting early and testing your hypothesis with real users / readers.

    That said, you do need a basic plan, at least to define clear hypothesis and goals…and since I couldn’t find anything simple, yet complete, I partnered up with Barry Feldman, from Feldman Creative, and built a simple tool to help content marketers build their first content strategy.

    Here’s the link: http://contentools.com/content-marketing-strategy/

    I’d like to hear your feedback…and I think it may be worth a mention on your page.

    Best,
    Davide

  • Laurence

    May I suggest that you create pdfs from your posts so people can download and read much easier?

    • Hi Laurence,

      Absolutely! Let me see what I can do… it’s somewhat difficult to manually create PDF versions of blog posts. Will try some plugin and see if it’s perfect or not.