Best Content Marketing Software for Small Businesses
Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
Content marketing software aids in the creation and sharing of blogs, newsletters, videos and other content through your business’s website, email and social media channels. The focus of this online marketing strategy is to provide content that is relevant and useful to a target audience rather than directly promoting products and services.
Software with the following features can help your content marketing efforts:
Creation: Pre-built templates, design tools and artificial intelligence assistance.
Distribution: Email, website and social media posting tools.
Database building: Landing pages, opt-in forms and contact info syncing.
Optimization: A/B testing, tracking and analytics tools.
Constant Contact: Best overall for content marketing
Pricing: Three paid plans; cost increases based on available features and number of contacts; prepayment and nonprofit discounts are offered.
Lite: Starting at $12/month for up to 500 contacts.
Standard: Starting at $35/month for up to 500 contacts.
Premium: Starting at $80/month for up to 500 contacts.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
|
Features overview:
Email template library with drag-and-drop editing.
Subject line recommendations and A/B testing (Standard and Premium plans).
AI content generator for emails and social posts.
Social media posting with platform optimization options.
Engagement reporting for email and landing pages.
Marketing campaign calendar.
300+ integrations with other apps.
Event management and registration.
Landing pages, opt-in forms and visitor tracking.
Email and social campaign scheduling (Standard and Premium plans).
Why we like it: Constant Contact’s 60-day free trial and 30-day money-back guarantee allow you to try this content marketing software without a financial commitment. It has automated and AI-assisted features to help you build content and share it, including an AI content generator at every plan level. You can build custom landing pages to share event information and content; create graphics for your emails, social media posts and landing pages; and leverage integrations to share videos and build contact lists. In addition to offering phone support six days a week, Constant Contact also provides a help center with video tutorials, quick-start guides and other information.
Mailchimp: Best for email sharing
Pricing: Three paid plans; cost increases based on available features and number of contacts. Other options: free version with limited features and a pay-as-you-go plan.
Essentials: Starts at $13/month for up to 500 contacts.
Standard: Starts at $20/month for up to 500 contacts.
Premium: Starts at $350/month for up to 10,000 contacts.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
|
Features overview:
Email templates with drag-and-drop content options.
Content studio to manage photos, graphics and other digital assets.
Creative Assistant with AI design features.
Landing page templates and builder.
Create, publish and manage social media posts.
Unlimited sign-up forms to collect contact data.
Analytics, reporting and AI-assisted tools to monitor performance.
A/B testing for subject lines and content.
Content optimizer for personalized suggestions (Standard and Premium plans).
300+ integrations with other apps.
Why we like it: For businesses that prioritize email in their content marketing strategies, Mailchimp offers email templates, A/B testing and reporting, as well as personalized content suggestions at higher plan levels. In addition, you’ll find features to help you create and publish social media posts and build landing pages, plus tools to monitor content performance. Numerous integrations are available for contact management, design and video sharing. In addition to 24/7 support for paid plans, other resources are available, such as a marketing library, help center and step-by-step guides.
Zoho Social: Best for social media posting and monitoring
Pricing: Three paid plans for business; free plan; discounts for prepayment and nonprofits.
Standard: Starts at $15/month.
Professional: Starts at $40/month.
Premium: Starts at $65/month.
Features overview:
Multi-channel publishing with custom scheduling.
Customize content for all platforms.
Publishing calendar.
Media library (Professional and Premium plans).
Image editor.
Summary reports with stats and analytics.
Monitoring dashboard and notifications (Professional and Premium plans).
Tools to create leads from social channels (Premium plan).
Live stream of who’s engaging with your social posts (Professional and Premium plan).
Why we like it: Zoho Social stands out for its multi-channel posting features that include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest. When designing social media posts, the Canva design app is accessible within Zoho Social. Zoho CRM, which integrates with the Premium plan, can create contacts from different channels based on likes, messages, keywords, followers, posts and other engagements. Support for paid plans is available weekdays during business hours through email, chat and phone. Additional resources include user guides, videos, webinars and a community forum.
Simplified: Best content creation tools
Pricing: Three paid plans.; free plan; discounts for prepayment and nonprofits.
Small Team: Starts at $30/month for up to five members.
Business: Starts at $50/month for up to five members.
Growth: Starts at $125/month for up to five members.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
|
Features overview:
Thousands of free design and video templates.
Asset library and free fonts.
One-click format resizer, background remover and image converter.
AI design assistant and AI image generator.
Video formats for social platforms and video conversion tool.
Free stock music library.
AI assistant for video scripts.
AI content writing features.
Social media publishing.
Why we like it: All Simplified plans include graphic design, social media publishing, AI content writing, and video editors and animation. AI content writing features include short-form writer, long-form document editor and a full blog writer with a Grammarly integration. A media library is available for social posts, with an AI assistant to generate captions, copy and hashtags. In-app chat support is available 24/7, and additional resources include a video academy with design tutorials and a help center.
Canva: Best design software
Pricing: Two paid plans; free plans that include options for teachers, schools and nonprofits; discounts for prepayment.
Canva Pro: Starts at $12.99/month for one person.
Canva for Teams: Starts at $14.99/month for up to five people.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
|
Features overview:
Free fonts, stock photos, graphics, videos and audio tracks.
Free templates, logos and design types for social media posts and presentations.
Create custom dimensions for designs.
Social sharing and presentation modes.
Image editing features to resize, remove unwanted details and add new elements.
Text-to-image AI-powered tool.
Content planner tool coordinates posts to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Assign tasks, add comments, share links and receive notifications.
Why we like it: Canva offers design tools to help businesses create marketing content that is visually appealing. This includes templates, plus stock photos, videos and audio tracks. Design tools include a text-to-image converter, image editors and an AI-powered writing assistant. Collaboration and brand management features are also included. Customer support is accessed through the app, and additional resources include step-by-step guides, tutorials, courses and a help center.
Google Analytics: Best website analytics
Pricing: Free to anyone with a Google account.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
|
Features overview:
Real-time visitor activity on your website.
High-level metrics on how visitors reach your website.
Page metrics such as page views, time on page and bounce rates.
Engagement information for specific groups of visitors to your website.
Visitor details based on age, gender and interests.
Geographical data for city, state and country based on IP addresses.
Custom reports based on metrics you select.
Why we like it: The free tools available through Google Analytics can help you identify the top sources of organic traffic and understand how visitors interact with your website. Audience information, such as age, gender and interest, can be used to customize content. Blog articles and landing pages can be optimized based on page metrics offered by the software. Live customer support isn’t available with this version, but free online courses on how to use it are available through Google Analytics Academy.
