Try these apps to help your communication team create content that stands out from competition.

When small communication teams want to create mighty results, content creation and planning apps can be so helpful.

To help you find the sharpest needles from the haystack of apps and services, I picked seven of my favourites. They all have three things in common: they help small teams save time, get more done, and are either free or affordable. 

How many of these have you tried out?

Content Planning – Teamup

When it comes to content planning, I’m a fan of simple solutions that everyone can adapt to in a heartbeat. For a long time, my content management system was Google Sheets.

Until I found out about Teamup. 

Teamup is a collaborative calendar app that lends itself to content and campaign planning and is easy and quick to use.

Teamup in a nutshell

• Collaborative calendar that suits well for content and campaign planning
• Easy to navigate between a long-term overview and a detailed view
• Comprehensive free plan
• Makes communication between team members easy

SEO Content Creation – Inflo.ai

As much fun as blogging is, businesses do it for a reason. Blogging is one of the best and easiest ways to drive traffic to the website – when done right. 

Inflo.ai is a platform that supports businesses in creating quality SEO content that delivers. In addition to an SEO strategy, some plans include monthly content briefs: skeletons for blog articles to make writing faster and easier. 

Inflo.ai in a nutshell

• Tailor-made SEO strategy
• Monthly content briefs that make writing easy and fun
• Personable onboarding and customer service
• Free 14-day trial and affordable monthly packages

Read more: SEO Content Expert Shares Top Tips for Updating Your Content Strategy

Affordable Image Bank – 123rf

Has it ever happened to you that you picked a brilliant image on Canva, Unsplash or Pexels… then, right after you hit publish, you see the exact same photo twice on your social media feed?

Yep, it happens to the best of us, especially if we use the same free image bank as everyone else. 

If your image budget is tight but you don’t want to have that same blond man smiling on your website that your competition has on theirs, 123rf is a good compromise. Their monthly packages and credit-based downloads are affordable, especially for website-quality photos.

123rf in a nutshell

• A wide selection of photos and vector images you don’t see anywhere else
• Flexible solutions: both monthly and credit based packages
• Prices depend on the size of the image so website quality purchases stay affordable
• Like Box function allows to save photos you like for future reference

Visualising Audio Content – Descript

Descript is by far one of the best content repurposing tools that turns audio and video content into visual audiograms. 

Podcasters also love it for the easy audio editing features, and this tool can also be used for creating transcripts. 

Descript in a nutshell

• Editing tool for audio and video content, such as podcasts
• Creates automated transcripts that can be used in many ways
• Creates amazing visual audiograms based on audio content
• Easy and enjoyable to use

Subtitles and Captions – Rev

Video content rules on social media! Make sure no one misses out on your video message and add captions to it with Rev.

Rev also provides transcripts and translations for subtitles, which is a great bonus, if your audience is multilingual. Rev’s transcripts and captions aren’t automated but there are real humans working on them, but the turnarounds are quick and fees are reasonable.

Rev in a nutshell

• Competitive prices and quick turnaround
• Professional transcribers who even fix your small stumbles or grammatical errors
• Transcripts, captions and subtitles all under one roof
• Sharing a glossary speeds the process up and limits mistakes

Professional Infographics Easily – Infogram

Infogram is a tool specifically for infographic creation. Templates make the job easy, especially on complicated topics such as maps, and the result is fresh, different social media or blog graphics. 

Using different graphic design tools also allows you to make sure your graphics look fresh and not exactly the same as everyone else’s – even when you don’t yet have a graphic designer in the team. 

Infogram in a nutshell

• Infographics are a great way to add value, but they can be time-consuming to create – this tool speeds things up
• Comprehensive free plan
• Wide selection of templates – especially maps – are useful!
• Fresh, different infographics

Easy and quick videos – Vimeo

Video content is still rising in popularity and many social media algorithms pamper video producers with pushing their content over old-fashioned text-heavy content dinosaurs. 

As nothing worth doing comes easy, video production is daunting for many content and communication teams. Enter Vimeo: one cool way to make it easier. 

Vimeo in a nutshell

• Quick and easy video editing
• Easily add texts, etc. to your video to liven them up
• Free plan
• Saves time on editing

Now you’ve got the tools… What’s next?

You have all the tools now, but sometimes sitting down and actually working on content is the hardest part of all!

Have no fear, the cure is here: Content Circle is literally created for situations like that. 

Content Circle is a monthly creative co-working session, where entrepreneurs, communications professionals and content creators get together to work on their content.

We meet on the second Tuesday of each month. Check out the next event and join us!