The Content Marketing Stack: Tools for Every Stage

TL;DR

• A content marketing stack spans eight stages, from topic research through measurement.
• Topic research can reveal both audience questions and which sources AI tools cite.
• Crownded adds citation insights to research and briefs, but does not provide search volume.
• Google Search Console’s generative AI report shows AI Overview and AI Mode impressions, but not queries.
• Pilot tools against a real bottleneck and keep only those that improve the work.

A content marketing stack covers eight stages, from topic research to measurement

Most teams use a different tool at each stage: topic research, keyword and search volume, content briefs and optimization, planning, writing and design, publishing, distribution, and measurement.

Using a tool that belongs on this list? Tell us on LinkedIn and we will consider it for the next update.

Topic research tools: find the questions your market is asking

Topic research tools show what people ask before you decide what to write.

• AnswerThePublic finds the real questions people ask across platforms, and now has an AI dashboard showing how AI describes a keyword.
• AlsoAsked shows live, location-specific Google People Also Ask questions.
• Google People Also Ask: the question boxes in Google results.
• Reddit: a community platform where people ask questions in their own words.
• Quora: a community platform where people ask questions in their own words.
• GummySearch explores Reddit niches for pain points and content opportunities.
• Exploding Topics surfaces trending topics and new market opportunities.
• BuzzSumo tracks media mentions and finds content ideas.
• Ubersuggest is a free keyword research and content ideas tool.
• Crownded maps which topics are open, contested or owned, and which sources AI Overviews and LLMs cite on them.

Crownded complements keyword tools and AI visibility trackers; it does not replace either.

The useful gap is upstream of measurement: topic research can help you see not just what people ask, but which sources AI assistants already cite on a subject. When we asked three AI models which tools help find content topics, none suggested checking those citations. AI citation trackers only came up when we asked how to measure content performance in AI search.

Keyword and search volume tools: size the demand behind a topic

Keyword tools estimate how many people search for a topic and how hard it may be to rank.

• Google Keyword Planner: Google Ads tool showing search volumes, competition and estimated costs.
• Google Trends: shows search interest for terms by time, location and popularity.
• Google Search Console: shows queries your site already appears for; a search performance tool.
• Ahrefs: marketing platform for visibility across AI search, SEO, content and social.
• Semrush: platform to grow and measure brand visibility across AI search, SEO, PPC and social.
• Moz: SEO software for SEO, content marketing, market research and local SEO.

Ahrefs and Semrush now describe their platforms around AI search visibility as well as SEO, based on their homepages. Crownded does not provide search volume, so it pairs with these tools rather than replacing them.

Content brief and optimization tools: turn a topic into a plan a writer can follow

Content brief and optimization tools turn a chosen topic into instructions a writer can follow and check a draft against.

• Crownded: builds a brief from the questions a market asks and the sources AI cites on them.
• Clearscope: discoverability platform to improve and monitor visibility in Google, ChatGPT and beyond.
• MarketMuse: AI content planning and optimization software that tells you what content to write and how much.
• Surfer: presents itself as an AI visibility platform for Google and AI search engines.
• Frase: describes itself as the content operating system for AI search, writing and optimizing content for SEO, GEO and AEO.
• Yoast: SEO software for websites, with online SEO courses.
• Rank Math: WordPress SEO plugin.

Several of these tools now present themselves as AI visibility products on their own homepages.

Content planning tools: schedule, assign and track the work

Planning tools hold the calendar, the owners and the status of every piece.

• Notion: AI workspace for teams.
• Asana: Work management software for teams and AI agents to plan and execute workflows.
• Trello: Boards and planner to organize and track to-dos.
• monday.com: AI workspace where people and agents manage work together.
• Airtable: Builds workflows, apps and automations for teams.
• ClickUp: All-in-one work app with tasks, docs, goals and chat.
• CoSchedule: Social media management built on a marketing calendar, to plan campaigns and publish to social networks.

Writing, editing and design tools: produce the content

Production tools cover drafting, editing, visuals and video.

• Google Docs: online document editor with real-time collaboration and AI drafting help.
• Grammarly: AI writing assistance across apps and websites.
• Hemingway Editor: makes writing bold and clear.
• ProWritingAid: toolkit to plan, write and edit long-form writing.
• ChatGPT: AI assistant.
• Claude: AI assistant.
• Gemini: Google's AI assistant for writing, planning and brainstorming.
• Canva: design platform.
• Figma: collaborative canvas for design.
• Descript: AI video and audio editor that edits like text.
• Loom: screen recording and video sharing.

Publishing tools: the CMS that puts content online

The CMS is where content is formatted, stored and published.

• WordPress: open-source publishing platform and CMS.
• Webflow: web platform with CMS and hosting that now advertises AEO built in.
• HubSpot CMS: free CMS with hosting, security and SEO suggestions.
• Contentful: content platform.
• Sanity: presents itself as a content operating system and back-end for AI content operations.

Distribution tools: get content in front of readers

Distribution tools carry each piece to the channels where readers are.

• Buffer: social media management to create and share content.
• Hootsuite: social media management with scheduling, analytics and listening.
• Sprout Social: social media management from publishing to analytics.
• Later: social media management and influencer marketing.
• Loomly: social media management platform for collaboration, publishing and analytics.
• Metricool: scheduling and analytics for social media and ads.
• ContentStudio: AI social media manager that creates and publishes on-brand content.
• Mailchimp: email and SMS marketing platform.
• Kit: creator marketing platform.
• ActiveCampaign: marketing automation across email, SMS and WhatsApp.
• Substack: publishing app for independent voices and newsletters.
• LinkedIn: professional network.
• Medium: publishing platform.
• Zapier: automates workflows across thousands of apps.

Measurement tools: track traffic, behavior and AI visibility

Measurement tools show what happened after publishing, on your site, in search and in AI answers.

• Google Analytics: understands visitors and their behavior.
• Google Search Console: search performance, including a Generative AI report that shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, country, date and device, but no queries.
• Bing Webmaster Tools: free reports to improve performance in Bing search.
• Microsoft Clarity: free heatmaps and session recordings.
• Plausible: lightweight, open-source, privacy-friendly analytics.
• Umami: open-source web and product analytics without cookies.
• Hotjar: product experience insights, now part of Contentsquare.
• Data Studio: Google's dashboards and reports.
• Peec AI: analyzes brand performance across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
• Profound: AI marketing platform showing what customers ask AI.
• Otterly.AI: AI search monitoring of brand mentions and website citations.
• Scrunch: monitors brand presence in AI search.

The first group helps you understand site activity and search performance; the AI visibility tools track how brands appear in AI answers. In the AI models' own recommendations, this data sits at the end of the stack, as a way to measure what AI answers say after publication. But the same visibility data can also inform earlier topic and briefing decisions. For context on how established companies approach generative engine optimization, see GEO for established brands.

How to choose content marketing tools without stacking them

Start from the bottleneck, not from the tool list. Map how a piece moves from research through publishing and measurement, then identify the stage that repeatedly slows the team down.

Run a short pilot on a real project. Keep the scope narrow: use the candidate tool for one piece of work, note where it saves time or clears a blocker, and check whether the team can fit it into its existing process. As one model put it when asked how to choose content marketing tools: “buy the simplest tool that solves a clearly defined problem.”

The stack is moving toward AI visibility at every stage. So the question is less which tools to buy than where in the process the team looks at what AI already says.