These 8 STUPID Easy Copywriting & Content Writing Tools Will Make You A Better Writer

I won’t lie. I wish I knew about these when I started my copywriting business 8 years ago. Keep reading for my list of 8 crazy cool, and insanely simple, tools that will make you a better writer.

Hey guys, it’s Alex! 

I get a lot of questions from you guys asking what software and templates I use to write copy. The truth is, I’m not a big fan of plug-n-play software or swipeable templates, because these take the essence out of the craft…

Writing compelling copy or content isn’t about using machine-generated words or copying what someone else is doing, it’s about getting inside the mind of YOUR customer and helping them solve a problem with a product or service that can deliver results.

What I AM a big fan of though, is tools that can elevate my marketing, optimize my writing and provide useful insights into what people are looking for right now.

So, today I’m sharing the Copy Posse’s go-to list of tools that you should ABSOLUTELY use if you’re a copywriter or content writer looking to take your writing to the next level.

Trust me, you’ll wish you knew about these a LOT SOONER. 

And – heads up – if, like me, you often suffer from writer’s block, you won’t want to miss next week because I will be sharing some of my favorite fill-in-the-blank writing exercises that will help you get those creative juices flowing. So if you haven’t subscribed yet to my YouTube Channel, now is the time to join this Posse!

Now here they are, 8 copy and content writing tools that will make you a better writer.

1. Sharethrough Headline Analyzer

If you want your headlines ranked and scored according to what’s vibing these days, this tool provides a quick and easy critique.

This is a free headline analyzer that you can use to measure your headline’s engagement potential. While Sharethrough is primarily for social media and content marketing, it’s still worth a spin for your copywriting headlines too.

Backed by scientific research and content algorithms across the Internet, all you have to do is enter your headline, and this tool will hit you back with a headline quality score. It’ll even tell you what your headline’s strengths are and how you can optimize it!

Now, like any tool, this should be taken with a grain of salt. It is a robot on the other end after all. For example, I scored a decent ‘70’ for the headline of this article. 

But according to Sharethrough, I would have had an ‘87’ if my headline was actually: These 8 STUPID Easy Copywriting & Content Writing Tools Will Make You A Better Writer (Because Drake Is Awesome).

So use these tools, not textbooks. They are meant to tweak and optimize, not write your headlines for you. Trust your own logic and judgment.

2. Grammarly

I’ve said this before — copywriters and content writers are often the WORST spellers ever. We are far more concerned with big ideas and getting those ideas out of our brains and onto paper before they’re gone. Who has time for spelling and grammar when you’re in mad creative flow?

So when a tool like Grammarly comes along and takes the job of proofreading off our hands, it really saves the day. 

Praised worldwide not just by writers but by anyone who has to do any kind of writing to do their job — even responding to important emails — Grammarly is that AI assistant that helps you detect AND correct grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. It also provides real-time suggestions and guidelines on how to best correct them. 

And what’s even more cool about Grammarly now is that it even knows how to edit for specific genres! So – you know – you can churn out high-converting sales pages by day, and work on your secret romance novel by night. 

Psss if you wanna learn how to improve your formatting in ways that AI tools can’t check out my free Gloss Guide to learn 10 formatting tips for copywriting that’s fun, flowy & easy to read.

3. Hemingway Editor

The Hemingway app is your no-nonsense editor who refuses to let you beat around the bush. He wants you to cut to the chase. The goal? Copy and content that is clear and concise yet bold and relatable. 

This tool uses different color codes to highlight lengthy, complex and difficult sentences, so that you know what needs to be sliced, simplified and optimized.

It’ll also tell you if your vocabulary is getting too academic, verbose or periphrastic  —um… make that wordy —  for real folks to relate.

Remember — the average person reads most comfortably at the 7th-grade level! Besides, no one likes a long winding narrative. This is NOT Lord of the Rings. Keep your wording powerful and precise.

4. Feature-2-Benefit Converter

In sales copy, features are factual statements about what your product or service has or is. While useful, they are NOT what entice your customers to buy. 

Benefits on the other hand describe the outcome that a user will hopefully experience by using your product or service, therefore fulfilling the most important question everyone has when making buying decisions online: “What’s in it for me?”

One of my favorite writing tools I actually created myself! My Feature-2-Benefit converter helps you turn your product features into juicy benefits using 5 simple questions.

So make sure you grab your copy of this handy tool.

5. Answer The Public

There are about 3 billion searches on Google alone daily on every topic and curiosity imaginable. Many of these inquiries get asked over and over again that search engines can readily predict and provide data based on what people want to find out the most. And more importantly — what they want to know specifically. 

AnswerThePublic taps into autocomplete data from search engines like Google, and uses that database to pull up useful phrases and actual questions people are asking around your keyword. 

As they so aptly put it themselves — it’s practically a goldmine of insights directly from your customers. So you can produce content, products and services that they actually want.

For example, when I search “copywriting” take a look at all the super specific and relatable QUESTIONS that come up. These are actual searches my ideal customers are making. Cool right? It goes even deeper into prepositions, comparisons and more keywords. Um, what? This is amazing.

6. Blogabout by IMPACT

Not sure what to blog about? It’s not just you. Here’s a tool that was born out of that very frustration — when you’ve run out of relevant topics and unique angles because of writer’s fatigue… or just the overwhelming amount of posts and articles that are already out there.

BlogAbout helps to spark some inspiration by providing fill-in-the-blank titles and writing prompts! It helps you narrow down topic ideas from a broad subject to actual headline suggestions. It’s so easy to use it’s actually fun!

So for example, if I’m looking for inspiration on topics related to writing, I pop that in and voila. I have a bunch of amazing fill-in-the-blank title ideas.

It even has a little doodle pad for you to use if you’re experiencing writer’s block. I love it.

7. Buzzsumo

While Sharethrough gives you a headline score, BuzzSumo shows you a list of all the most popular headlines for that topic, ranked by the number of social shares.

This is great if your focus is engagement and you want to know what blog topics get people to hit that share button!

BuzzSumo helps you identify the most relevant topics to keep your content fresh and even identifies top hashtags, trends, and new content from other players in your niche or industry. 

So for example, when I search “content writing”, here are the top shared blog articles with that keyword! Buzz Sumo allows you to do a few free searches before it asks you to upgrade, so use your searches wisely!

8. Speechnotes

This is for my fellow writers who sometimes find their fingers frozen on the keyboard because your brain stopped sending information down that line. 

So what’s your alternative? Mix things up and let your thoughts write themselves by dictation! 

Speechnotes is a fantastic speech-enabled online notepad that helps you turn what you think, into ink in a blink by having your thoughts transcribed on the spot, in real time. 

For free software that doesn’t even require downloading or even registration, this dictation tool provides a pretty accurate transcription. So take a break from typing, lie down on your couch and let Speechnote be your personal scriber as you create.

And that brings us to the end of this week’s post!

I hope these tools will be as helpful to you as they have been for me and my team for hook inspo, content ideas and copy finessing. You can bookmark this article for anytime you’re writing copy or content, and don’t forget to grab my Feature-2-Benefit generator! 

Thanks for reading and remember to also subscribe to my YouTube Channel, and keep those comments coming!

I’ll see you in my next post, where I’ll be sharing my top writing prompts to snap out of writer’s block.

In the meantime, check out my post on 5 copywriting exercises you can do right now to turn your copy from good to great. I’ll see you next week! Until then, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!

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