Index: List of Content Marketing Software Vendors

Altimeter conducts research on new markets. Altimeter continues our coverage on Content Marketing by Rebecca Lieb (who’s working in conjunction with me on this post and coverage), researcher Jessica Groopman and our co-authored report on Converged Media (Paid, Owned, and Earned). In our research reports, we both identified the market pains, definitions, workflows, and solutions brands are and want to achieve. As part of this ongoing coverage to look at all the elements of the people, process, and technology,

Don’t buy software without a strategy.  While we want to explore a list of software providers that are part of the solution. It’s important to note that these software providers are not solutions among themselves. Strategy, content goals, internal organization and often agency services are part of the broader solution set –software rarely solves everything on its own.

Details about this list.  This list won’t contain the following sibling market which includes: Social Media Management System Vendors (SMMS), Marketing Automation, Converged Media, Web Content Management (thanks to Adobe’s Chris Nguyen for the reminder) software players. Also, this list was partly compiled thanks to Santiago an investor Emergence Capital, who helped to provide some of the startups for this list, they were one of the first VCs to contact me, as they’re interested in this market.  Here’s but one example of how these lists become official research artifact, I started with this crowd collaborated list, which resulted in this buyer’s guide report.  I may segment this list once we have a large sample.

Working Definition: Content Marketing Software systems than enable marketers to perform as digital publishers.  Features often include analysis, planning, calendar, workflow, optimization, in support of publishing owned content.  These tools still require services components of strategy, content planning, content production, and editorial.

Index: Content Marketing Software Vendors To start with, there are 15 vendors Leave a comment below, I’ll review and add.  The descriptions are what was listed on the index page of each vendor, I edited to remove hyperbole.

  • Adobe Creative Cloud:  Monthly membership gives you the entire collection of CS6 tools and more for video, print, media.
  • Compendium: Compendium is a content marketing platform that helps organizations capture and create original content in a branded hub for distribution to any marketing channel.
  • Cadence 9: Orchestrating Content Marketing
  • Contently: With tools for creating and showcasing amazing content, and by fostering connections between publisher and talent, Contently empowers storytelling that makes a difference
  • CollectiveBias: Generating Content and Making an Impression (Submitted by Zena Weist)
  • Curata: Easily find, organize & share relevant content for your business.
  • Curation Station: Curation Station® can add value to your business, customers, employee teams, and clients by providing up-to-date content on any subject matter.
  • DivvyHQ: The Spreadsheet-Free Editorial Calendar Application (Submitted by Todd Wheatland)
  • Easel.ly: Create and share visual ideas online, vhemes are visual themes. drag and drop a vheme onto your canvas for easy creation of your visual idea. (Submitted by Jason Miller)
  • Editorially:  Write, collaborate on, and talk about a text.  (Submitted by colleague Rebecca Lieb)
  • Expion:  Stemming from social media management system, this provider now offers planning, calendar, database, workflow and analytics.
  • Graphicly: Upload & enhance your visual stories, then distribute them to the Kindle, iOS, NOOK, Facebook, Web & more. All for one low price. That’s our story. (Submitted by Joe Chernov)
  • InBoundWriter: Create and manage all your content securely within the comfort of your workflow and from the freedom of any browser.  (Submitted by Michael Brenner)
  • Kapost: The Content Marketing Software Platform (Briefed, Marketo summit April 2013)
  • Kontera: Understands web-wide “conversations” and current interest trends, and uses this information to provide actionable insights and to activate the ideal brand supporting content within Display, Mobile and Social environments. (Submitted by Josh Berman)
  • Marketing.AI: Workflow, audit, and analytics applications that help B2B marketers be more successful with content they publish themselves, such as blog posts, website pages, and social media updates. (Submitted by colleague Rebecca Lieb)
  • NewsCred: Content syndication and production, including, 2500+ Premium, Licensed Sources Millions of Full-Text Articles, Images & Video (Submitted by Guillaume Decugis)
  • oDesk: Writing services via software platform, (Briefed, April 2013)
  • OneSpot: Transform digital content into ads (Briefed, April 2013)
  • Outbrain: Recommends your article, mobile and video content on your site and on premium publisher sites to expose it to highly engaged audiences.
  • PaperShare: PaperShare is the real-time publishing engine that turns your content into customers.
  • Percolate Percolate helps brands create content at social scale (briefed multiple times Q1, 2013)
  • PublishThis:  A Content Cloud Platform to discover, curate, and distribute compelling content across any digital channel.   (Submitted by Todd Wheatland)
  • Rallyverse: Social media marketing who combines Owned and Paid content
  • Relaborate: Collaboration and semantic recommendation technology, to collect knowledge from coworkers, create content, and distribute across your site, social media channels and through email.
  • Servio: Servio handcrafts web content at massive scale
  • Scoop.it: Share ideas that matter on topic pages.
  • Scripted: Writing on Demand, hire freelance writers. Note this is a software plaform that enables long form writing services (Briefed Q4, 2012, trailed offering)
  • Shopigniter: Social Product Promotion and Commerce Solutions
  • Skyword:  Reach and engage your audience with original web content designed to succeed in search and social media. (Submitted by Michael Brenner)
  • SnapApp: Content creation platform used by B2B brands and publishers to create over 40 kinds of content that work on mobile, the web, email and social to drive top of the funnel leads and revenue.
  • SocialFlow: See the real-time conversation flow on Twitter and Facebook to capture peak audience attention for your messages (Briefed, demo account)
  • Springpad: Springpad is in fact enabling social branded content for several brands (Submitted by colleague Rebecca Lieb)
  • Stipple: Consumers can now explore, compare and buy products without leaving an image. (Submitted by colleague Rebecca Lieb)
  • Squeeze CMM: Content Marketing Measurement tracks what content worked in what context.
  • Totally Awesome: Use to understand everything about how sharing drives traffic, virality, and revenue. Spot patterns, identify valuable content and customers, and learn what works.
  • Trap:it: Create captivating experiences carefully tailored for individual readers.
  • Visually: Our infographics and data visualizations tell your story, drive traffic, and amplify your social media presence (briefed, 2012-2013)
  • VisualRevenue:  Real-time analytics solution that is designed specifically to enhance the hand of editors in data driven newsrooms.  (Submitted by colleague Rebecca Lieb)
  • Voraka:  (aka writer in Sanskrit) is a writer management engine that manages writers, coordinates the content needs and deliverables of multiple teams, and helps in the delivery of great content regularly
  • Zemanta:  Is a service that helps publishers by suggesting related posts, pictures, relevant in-text links and tags you can enrich your posts in a way to get more traffic, more clicks, more recommendations and to make your posts look more attractive.  (Submitted by Jason Miller)
  • Zerys: Software to aid process to plan your content strategy, create an editorial calendar, and find the best possible writer for your specific needs.  (Submitted by Todd Wheatland)
  • Leave a comment below, I’ll review, add and credit you.

Related Links

Industry Analyst Notes

  • April 18 (The day after).  I’ve scrubbed the many comments, FB posts, and Google+ comments.  The list has gone from 15 to 27 vendors.  I’m struggling with including visual presentation type vendors, as that’s going to be a much broader category that could even span Photoshop/Aviary, so I want to be careful about how far I go.  The other market is content analytics, as this could span into big data vendors and beyond.   I’ve made several new contacts, received a ton of new information, and am very grateful for the market feedback. We all learn together.
  • April 22:  I’ve updated a few more, they’re still coming, but the submissions appear to be slowing.  Market set is around 30 folks, I sense at few different categories within this single segment, some high level categories are emerging in the comments.
  • April 24: Colleague Rebecca asked me to add Marketing AI, Stipple, Springpad. Wow, these names are unique.
  • April 30:  Added 4 more, with help of Rebecca Lieb, Visual Revenue, Springpad, Editorially.  Also Collective Bias (Thanks Zena).  We’re struggling to manage scope, as curation toolset and analytics and CMS are creeping in.  This list now has over 40 startups.
  • May 7: Added in Trap:it after conferring with Rebecca.
  • May 10: Added Relaborate.
  • May 17: Added Expion, which is interesting as they’re the first SMMS vendor to formerly launch these tools that I’m aware of.