AI Content Research Tools

Use these powerful AI content research tools to speed up and improve your content research.

AI Content Research Tools

Use these powerful AI content research tools to speed up and improve your content research.

Content Research: AI ToolsArtificial intelligence (AI) tools are transforming content research by enabling businesses to gather and analyze data faster and more accurately.

With the help of AI tools, businesses can conduct keyword research, content analysis, and trend analysis in a fraction of the time it would take to do it manually.

In this lesson, we provide a list of powerful AI tools you can use to help speed up and improve your content research and explore the practical uses of AI tools for content research, including their benefits, limitations, and recommended best practices.

AI Content Research Tools – Hosted

The tools listed below are hosted externally by their developers and require registration or setting up an account (free or paid).

ChatGPT

AI content research tools - ChatGPT
ChatGPT’s main screen

ChatGPT is a powerful large language model developed by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research laboratory.

It is based on the GPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer) architecture and is trained on a massive amount of text data from the internet.

ChatGPT has a good understanding of various topics and can be used for a range of natural language processing tasks such as language translation, text summarization, text generation, text completion, and answering questions.

Essentially, ChatGPT is a computer program that can communicate with people in a way that feels natural and human-like. It can hold conversations with users, answer questions, provide valuable insights on a wide range of subjects, and understand and respond to user input in a conversational manner.

ChatGPT’s natural language processing capabilities not only make the tool well-suited for chatbot and virtual assistant applications but also a valuable time and cost-saving tool for content research and content creation.

ChatGPT can generate high-quality content quickly and accurately, saving your business a significant amount of time and resources. Additionally, the program can be customized to match your brand’s specific voice and tone, ensuring that the content it generates is consistent with your brand’s messaging and values.

Here are some of the potential uses and benefits of using ChatGPT:

  • Research assistance: ChatGPT can help your business conduct research by providing accurate and relevant information on a wide range of topics. This can save time and resources by automating the process of gathering information for market research, competitive analysis, or even academic research.
  • Summarization: ChatGPT can be used to generate summaries of long documents or articles. This can save time and resources by providing quick and accurate summaries that highlight the most important points of a piece of content. This can also be particularly useful if your business needs to stay up-to-date on industry news and trends or if you are creating product summaries, product reviews, etc.
  • Generate high-quality content quickly and accurately: ChatGPT can generate written content that is grammatically correct, factually accurate (most of the time), and in line with your brand’s messaging and voice. This can help your business save significant time and resources in creating content for your website, social media, email marketing, and other marketing channels and activities.
  • Improve the quality of search engine optimization (SEO): ChatGPT can help your business identify the right keywords to use in your content to improve your search engine rankings. This can also help you attract more organic traffic to your website and increase your brand visibility.
  • Enhance the accuracy and quality of product descriptions: ChatGPT can be used to generate detailed and accurate product descriptions that help customers make informed purchasing decisions. This can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
  • Streamline content curation: ChatGPT can help your business identify relevant content to curate and share with your followers. This can help build authority in your industry and increase brand awareness.
  • Conduct market research: ChatGPT can be used to analyze customer feedback and reviews to identify common themes and pain points. This can help to improve your products and services to better meet customer needs.
  • Text completion: ChatGPT can be used to complete text in a way that is consistent with the style and tone of the original text. This can save you time and resources by automating the process of completing repetitive tasks such as filling out forms, generating email templates, or even completing academic assignments.
  • Personalization: ChatGPT can be trained to match your brand’s voice and tone, enabling your business to generate highly personalized content that resonates with your target audience and increase brand loyalty and customer engagement.
  • Improve social media marketing: ChatGPT can help your business generate engaging and relevant social media posts that resonate with your followers, build your social media presence and increase engagement.
  • Enhance customer service: ChatGPT can be used to provide quick and accurate responses to customer inquiries. This can help to improve your customer service and free up your customer service representatives to handle more complex issues.

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To use ChatGPT, you must first have a ChatGPT account. Sign up for a free ChatGPT account.

When using ChatGPT as a content research tool, keep in mind the following:

  1. The quality of your prompts will determine the quality of your results.
  2. It’s important to fact-check everything, as AI tools in their current state are not always accurate and will sometimes “hallucinate” their reply.

Let’s go through an example of using ChatGPT to summarize content about a product, tool, or solution.

Here’s some content we wanted to summarize about one of the tools we list in this section…

Chrome Web Store - Extension description
Use ChatGPT to summarize and condense long content and information about products, tools, or solutions.

The screenshot below shows the result of asking ChatGPT to summarize this information after pasting in excerpts of the above content with the prompt: “Rewrite the following as a product description:”

ChatGPT screenshot
We asked ChatGPT to summarize information about a product.

ChatGPT immediately provided this reply…

ChatGPT screenshot
ChatGPT generated this content, but it was a little too “salesy”…

The reply felt too “salesy”, so we entered the prompt shown below and got this new reply…

ChatGPT screenshot
So, we asked ChatGPT to rewrite it as a product review, but it came out a little too “hypey”…

This time, the tool provided a description that felt very “hyped up”, so we reworked the prompt to eliminate the hype, and this is whatChatGPT delivered…

ChatGPT screen
With the right prompt, ChatGPT delivered a content summary that was “just right”!

As you can see, ChatGPT delivers different results based on your prompts, so developing better “prompt engineering” skills will improve the output generated by the tool.

Overall, ChatGPT is a powerful language model with endless possibilities. As more businesses recognize the value of artificial intelligence in improving their operations and customer experiences, we can expect to see even more exciting innovations in the field of natural language processing.

For additional ways to use ChatGPT in your content research and content creation, visit the links below:

More info: ChatGPT

Merlin

Merlin AI-powered tool.
Merlin gives you the power of OpenAI’s GPT on Google searches, Gmail, Google sheets, and everywhere else you search or write online.

Merlin is an AI tool that lets you use OpenAI’s GPT on any website (e.g., Google Search, Gmail, GoogleSheets, LinkedIn, and anywhere you search or write online) and generate content with a Cmd/Ctrl+M prompt.

Here’s how Merlin works:

  • Select any online content
  • Click on Cmd+M (Mac) or Ctrl+M (Windows) to open Merlin
  • Choose what you want to do with it (create a reply, summarize, make it shorter, or add some fun)
  • Merlin will create a reply.

Merlin lets you:

  • Summarize Content On Any Website – Enter the full text of your content and ask Merlin to generate a summary based on that text. The tool will analyze the text and suggest a summary that includes the main points and key details of the content.
  • Write Professional Email Replies – Enter a prompt describing the context of the email and the desired tone and content of your reply, and ask it to generate text based on your prompt. The tool will analyze the prompt and suggest words and phrases with your desired tone and content.
  • Generate Excel Formulas and Codes – Enter a prompt describing your desired excel function or operation and ask it to generate a formula or code based on that prompt. It will then analyze the prompt and suggest a formula or code that will accomplish the task.

Watch the video below for an overview of this tool:

More info: Merlin

AI Content Research Tools – Browser Extensions

The following tools can be downloaded as extensions and added to your web browser.

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Notes:

  • The examples used here are for the Chrome web browser. If you don’t use Chrome, search online for equivalent extensions in your browser of choice.
  • If you need help installing extensions for the Chrome browser, see our Chrome browser extensions tutorial.
  • To use extensions that access ChatGPT, you will need to sign up for an OpenAI account and be logged in.

ChatGPT for Google

AI content research tools - ChatGPT for Google Chrome browser extension.
ChatGPT for Google

ChatGPT for Google is a free and open-source browser extension that can be added to Google Chrome.

It displays ChatGPT responses alongside search engine results, enabling users to access a broader range of information on any given topic.

ChatGPT for Google extension
The ChatGPT for Google extension adds a ChatGPT box to Google Search results.

The extension supports several popular search engines, including Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo.

The video below provides an overview and a demo of what you can do using this extension:

Go here to install the extension: ChatGPT for Google

AIPRM for ChatGPT

AI content research tools - AIPRM for ChatGPT Chrome extension.
AIPRM for ChatGPT adds prompt templates to ChatGPT.

AIPRM for ChatGPT lets you access a curated selection of ChatGPT prompts and adds a list of prompt templates for SEO, SaaS, marketing, art, programming, and more to ChatGPT.

AIPRM for ChatGPT - ChatGPT Prompts
AIPRM for ChatGPT installs one-click prompts inside ChatGPT.

You can output content from ChatGPT in your choice of language, tone, and writing style.

AIPRM for ChatGPT output.
Use AIPRM’s selectors to choose how you want ChatGPT to output your content.

The video below shows you how to create prompt templates using the extension…

You can access one-click ChatGPT prompts created by a community of prompt engineers and contribute your own.

Go here to install the extension: AIPRM for ChatGPT

Gimme Summary AI

Gimme Summary AI
Summarize articles quickly with the Gimme Summary AI extension.

Gimme Summary AI is an extension that lets you generate article summaries on the web quickly and easily using ChatGPT AI.

This tool is useful for summarizing product descriptions (e.g.  for listicles, product reviews, etc.)

Simply install the Gimme Summary AI extension from the Chrome Web Store, click on the extension icon, and click the “Generate Summary” button to generate a summary.

For more details visit the website here: GimeSummary.ai

Merlin – OpenAI GPT Powered Assistant

Merlin AI-powered tool.
Merlin – OpenAI GPT powered assistant for Chrome.

The Merlin web browser extension lets you access the Merlin tool described earlier from your web browser.

The extension is available for Google Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and chromium based browsers. The tool’s developers also plan to make it available to other browsers in the future.

Merlin - screenshot
Use Merlin to generate content on Google Search, Gmail, GoogleSheets, LinkedIn, and anywhere you search or write online.

More info: Merlin Extension for Chrome

ChatGPT And Video Extensions

AI content research tools - Chrome web store extensions for ChatGPT and video.
Browse loads of Chrome web store extensions for ChatGPT and video content research.

There are many extensions available that bring the power of AI tools like ChatGPT to other areas of content research like videos and other media types.

Use these tools to generate video scripts, video summaries, video transcripts…even transcribe Google Meet and Zoom calls, etc.

Additional Content Research Browser Extensions

With the proliferation of new AI tools being released every day, finding additional AI content research tools for your web browser is easy.

Just go to the Chrome web store and search for “AI” in the extensions search box and a whole list of AI-related extensions will display…

Chrome Web Store - AI-related extensions.
Search for AI-related extensions in the Chrome Web Store.

Similarly, repeat the process to find “content research” related extensions…

Chrome Web Store - content-research-related extensions.
Search for content-research-related extensions in the Chrome Web Store.

AI Tools For Content Ideation

Here are some AI-powered tools you can use to assist in the process of generating content ideas.

Clearscope

Clearscope
Clearscope helps your content team understand what to write about.

Clearscope is a content optimization tool designed to help you produce high-quality content that is relevant to your audience’s search queries.

Its user-friendly integrations seamlessly fit into your existing content workflow, allowing you to create and organize Clearscope reports effortlessly.

With Clearscope’s text editor, you can optimize your content by learning how to use its scoring metrics, such as Content Grade, Word Count, and Readability. The tool also offers a variety of features that can help you build content briefs and outlines quickly, including the Terms, Research, and Outline tabs.

If you’re not sure which keywords or search intents to target, Clearscope’s keyword discovery feature can help you fine-tune your content strategy. The tool can also refresh your existing content with updated optimization recommendations.

Overall, Clearscope is a valuable tool if you are a content creator looking to produce SEO-friendly content that will resonate with your audience. Its easy-to-use integrations, reporting features, and optimization tools make it an essential addition to any content workflow.

Additional AI-powered content ideation tools include:

  • MarketMuse – MarketMuse uses AI to analyze your content and identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.
  • BuzzSumo – BuzzSumo uses AI to identify the most shared content related to a given topic on social media platforms.
  • Google Trends – Google Trends provides insights into the popularity and relevance of specific search terms, allowing you to tailor your content to the interests and needs of your target audience.

AI Tools For Keyword Research

There are several AI tools you can use for keyword research, including:

  • Google Keyword Planner – use this tool to research and analyze keyword ideas, get historical statistics, and forecast future performance.
  • Ahrefs – this tool offers a comprehensive keyword research feature, including keyword suggestions, search volume, keyword difficulty, and more.
  • SEMRush – this tool provides keyword research and analysis, competitor research, and site audit functionality.

Example Of Using AI Tools For Keyword Research

To understand how AI tools can be used for keyword research, let’s say your company sells organic skincare products and you want to create a blog post about the benefits of organic skincare that targets the right keywords to reach your target audience.

Using Ahrefs, for example, you could enter “organic skincare” into its keyword research tool.

Ahrefs - Free Keyword Generator
Ahrefs offers a free keyword generator tool.

Choose a source and location for your keyword research and ask the tool to find keywords.

Ahrefs - Free Keyword Generator
Use the tool to search and find keywords from different sources and locations.

The tool then generates a list of related keywords and keyword ideas.

Ahrefs - Free Keyword Generator: Keyword ideas results: phrase match
Ahrefs’s keyword tool generates phrase-match keyword ideas…

It also provides a list of questions related to the keyword, which is useful for generating new content topic ideas.

Ahrefs - Free Keyword Generator: Keyword ideas results: Questions
And keyword-related questions too!

Note: For a detailed list of related keywords, along with data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and other relevant metrics, requires the paid version of the tool.

Ahrefs - Keyword Explorer
Ahrefs – Keyword Explorer (paid version).

You could then use this data to select the most relevant keywords for your blog post.

Additionally, using Google’s Keyword Planner tool, you could input “organic skincare” and get a list of suggested keywords and their average monthly search volume.

Google's Keyword Planner
Google’s Keyword Planner tool is part of Google Ads.

This would help you to identify any additional keywords that you may have missed so you can optimize your content accordingly.

Utilizing AI tools for keyword research can help you save time, identify relevant keywords, and ensure that your content is optimized for search engines.

For a complete list of tools you can use for keyword research and SEO, see this section: Search Optimization Tools

AI Tools For Content Analysis

There are several AI tools you can use for content analysis, including:

  • Grammarly – provides suggestions for improving the readability, tone, and clarity of your writing.
  • MonkeyLearn Sentiment Analyzer – analyzes the sentiment and emotion of text, allowing you to understand how your content is being perceived.
  • MarketMuse – uses AI to analyze the quality and relevance of your content and provides recommendations for improvement.

Example of Using AI Tools for Content Analysis

To understand how AI tools can be used for content analysis, let’s say that your company is in the health and fitness industry and has written a blog post on the benefits of a new workout routine.

Your company wants to ensure that the content is engaging and informative, and is looking for ways to improve its quality.

Using Grammarly, you would scan the text of your blog post and get suggestions for correcting spelling and grammar errors, rewording sentences, etc.

AI Content Research Tool - Grammarly
Use Grammarly to help analyze your content.

The paid version of Grammarly provides suggestions for improving the readability, tone, and clarity of your content, helping you adjust the tone of your content to better resonate with your target audience.

Grammarly - premium suggestions.
Grammarly checks your content for clarity, delivery, engagement, and correctness using AI.

Additionally, using MonkeyLearn Sentiment Analyzer, you could analyze the sentiment and emotion of the text. This would allow you to understand how the content is being perceived by the audience, and to make any necessary adjustments to improve its impact.

AI Content Research Tool - MonkeyLearn Sentiment Analyzer
MonkeyLearn’s Sentiment Analyzer helps you analyze your content’s sentiment.

Using AI tools for content analysis can improve the quality and relevance of your content, ensuring that it is engaging and informative to your target audience.

AI Tools For Trend Analysis

There are several AI tools that can be used for trend analysis, including:

  • Google Trends – see how often specific search terms are being used over time.
  • BuzzSumo – see which topics are being discussed the most on social media and other online platforms.
  • Exploding Topics – this tool uses AI to identify emerging trends before they become popular.

Example of Using AI Tools for Trend Analysis

To understand how AI tools can be used for trend analysis, suppose your company creates content for a tech-savvy audience.

Your company wants to ensure that it is creating content that is relevant and engaging to its target audience. By using AI tools for trend analysis, you can gain insights into the types of content that are popular among your audience.

Using a tool like Google Trends, you could input a range of search terms related to your industry, and see how often these terms are being searched over time. This would help you identify which topics are currently popular among your target audience, and create content that is more likely to be consumed and shared.

AI Content Research Tool - GoogleTrends
Discover and compare trending topics using GoogleTrends.

Additionally, you could then use a tool like BuzzSumo to identify which topics are being discussed the most on social media and other online platforms. This could help you create content that is more likely to be shared and engaged with by your target audience.

AI Content Research Tools - BuzzSumo
Use BuzzSumo to identify topics being discussed on social media and other online platforms.

Using AI tools for trend analysis can help you gain insights into the types of content that are popular among your target audience. You can then use this information to create more relevant and engaging content.

Using AI Tools For Content Research – Best Practices

Follow the best practices below to leverage the benefits of using AI tools for content research without compromising the quality of your content:

Know The Limitations Of AI Tools

While using AI tools can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your content research and help you gather, analyze, and generate insights from vast amounts of data, it is important to keep in mind that AI tools are still evolving and may not always provide accurate or complete results.

AI tools are also dependent on the quality and quantity of the data they are trained on and have limitations. Therefore, AI tools should not be used as a replacement for human analysis, but rather as a supplement and complement to it.

Choose The Right AI Tools

There are various AI tools available for content research, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Before choosing an AI tool for content research, consider your specific research needs and goals. Some tools may be better suited for keyword research, while others may be more effective for content analysis or trend analysis. It is also important to research and compare the features, pricing, and user reviews of different tools to make an informed decision.

Use AI Tools As A Complement to Human Analysis

While AI tools can help you analyze and generate insights from vast amounts of data quickly and efficiently, they should not be used as a replacement for human analysis.

AI tools complement human analysis, as they can help identify patterns and trends that may not be immediately apparent to humans. However, it is ultimately up to humans to interpret and contextualize the data generated by AI tools.

Verify AI-Generated Insights With Human Analysis

Human intelligence is still better at understanding context and making subjective judgments than Artificial Intelligence.

AI tools can generate valuable insights, but it is important to verify and contextualize these insights with human analysis. This can help ensure the accuracy and completeness of your research findings.

For more content research tools, go here: Content Research Tools

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Image: AI-generated image (DALL-E)

Customer Surveys

Use feedback from customer surveys to create a more targeted content strategy and improve your content creation.

Use Customer Surveys In Your Content Strategy

Use feedback from customer surveys to create a more targeted content strategy and improve your content creation.

Customer SurveysCustomer surveys can help you create a content strategy that is more in line with the needs and preferences of your target audience, which can help you create content that is more likely to be consumed and shared.

In this section, we will discuss the role and benefits of customer surveys in creating a content strategy, including tips for using them effectively, useful customer survey tools, and potential downsides to consider.

Why Use Customer Surveys In Your Content Strategy

Customer surveys can be a useful tool for creating a content strategy because they allow you to gather direct feedback from your target audience about what types of content they find most valuable.

This can help you understand what topics and formats your audience is most interested in, which can inform your content creation decisions.

For example, if you run a customer survey and find that a large portion of your audience is interested in learning about a particular topic, you might consider creating more content around that topic.

Alternatively, if you find that your audience is not particularly interested in a certain type of content, you may want to consider focusing on other topics instead.

Overall, customer surveys can help you create a content strategy that is more in line with the needs and preferences of your target audience, which can help you create content that is more likely to be consumed and shared.

Tips For Using Customer Surveys

Here are some tips for using customer surveys to gather valuable insights from your customers and use that information to inform your content strategy and other business decisions:

  • Determine your survey goals: Before you start creating your survey, it’s important to have a clear idea of what you hope to learn from your customers. This will help you create a survey that is focused and effective.
  • Choose the right survey format: There are many different types of surveys you can use, including online surveys, phone surveys, and in-person surveys. Choose the format that is most appropriate for your business and your audience.
  • Keep it short and focused: No one likes to take a long, tedious survey. Keep your survey short and focused to maximize the number of responses you receive.
  • Use open-ended questions: In addition to multiple choice and rating scale questions, consider including open-ended questions that allow your customers to provide more detailed feedback.
  • Analyze the results: Once you have collected your survey responses, it’s important to carefully analyze the data to understand what your customers are saying. Look for patterns and trends in the responses, and use this information to inform your content strategy.

Customer Survey Example

Here is an example of a customer survey that could be used to inform a content strategy:

How often do you visit our website?

    • Rarely
    • Occasionally
    • Monthly
    • Weekly
    • Daily

How would you describe the content on our website?

    • Boring
    • Okay
    • Interesting
    • Very interesting

What topics would you like to see more content written about on our website? (Please select all that apply)

    • Product reviews
    • Industry news
    • Tips and tricks
    • Company updates
    • Other (please specify)

What types of content do you prefer on our website? (Please select all that apply)

    • Articles
    • Videos
    • Infographics
    • Podcasts
    • Other (please specify)

How likely are you to share content from our website with your friends and family?

    • Very unlikely
    • Unlikely
    • Neutral
    • Likely
    • Very likely

Customer Survey Tools

There are many online survey tools available that allow you to create and distribute surveys to your customers.

Most of the tools listed below provide benefits and advantages like:

  • Customizable design: The tool allows businesses to create surveys with a professional and customized look and feel.
  • Multiple question types: The tool supports a variety of question types, including multiple-choice, rating scales, and open-ended questions, allowing businesses to gather a wide range of data from their customers.
  • Data analysis tools: The tool provides a range of data analysis tools, including charts, graphs, and pivot tables, to help businesses analyze and interpret their survey data.
  • Integration with other tools: The tool can be easily integrated with a variety of other tools, including CRM systems, email marketing software, and social media platforms, making it easy to gather and analyze survey data.
  • Advanced features: The tool offers a range of advanced features, including the ability to add images, videos, and other media to surveys, and to create surveys in multiple languages.
  • Mobile-friendly: The tool is mobile-friendly, making it easy for respondents to complete surveys on their smartphones or tablets.
  • Customer support: The tool provides excellent customer support, with a range of resources and support options available to help users get the most out of the platform.

Here are some powerful and flexible customer survey platforms that you can use to gather valuable insights from your customers:

SurveyMonkey

Customer Surveys Tool - SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey lets you measure and undertand customer feedback.

SurveyMonkey is a popular survey tool that allows you to create, distribute, and analyze surveys. SurveyMonkey offers a range of customization options and can be used to gather a wide variety of data from customers.

SurveyMonkey - Customer Survey Template
SurveyMonkey – Customer Survey Template

SurveyMonkey has a user-friendly interface and offers a variety of templates and customization options, including custom branding options, allowing you to create surveys that match your brand’s aesthetic and messaging.

SurveyMonkey also has a large user base, which means you can reach a large number of potential respondents when distributing surveys.

More info: SurveyMonkey

Forminator

Forminator
Forminator

Forminator is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to create and manage forms and customer surveys on your WordPress website to gather feedback and insights from your audience.

To use Forminator to create customer surveys, follow these steps:

  1. Install and activate the Forminator plugin on your WordPress website.
  2. Create a new survey form using the Forminator form builder.
  3. Add questions to the survey form using the various question types available in Forminator, including multiple-choice, rating scales, and open-ended questions.
  4. Customize the look and feel of the survey form using the built-in customization options in Forminator.
  5. Publish the survey form on your website or share it with customers through other channels, such as email or social media.
  6. Analyze the survey results using the data analysis tools provided by Forminator.

More info: Forminator

Google Forms

Google Forms
Google Forms

Google Forms is a free online survey tool from Google that allows you to create and distribute surveys to gather data from customers and other stakeholders.

Google Forms can be easily integrated with other Google tools, such as Google Sheets and Google Drive, making it easy to manage and analyze survey data.

Overall, Google Forms is a reliable and convenient tool that is easy to use and integrates seamlessly with other Google tools, such as Sheets and Docs.

More info: Google Forms

Typeform

Customer Surveys Tool - Typeform
Typeform makes people-friendly forms and surveys.

Typeform is a survey tool that allows you to create visually appealing surveys with a range of customization options.

Typeform is designed to be user-friendly and can be used to gather a wide range of data from customers.

More info: Typeform

SurveySparrow

Customer Surveys Tool - SurveySparrow
SurveySparrow – an all-in-one omnichannel experience management platform.

SurveySparrow is a cloud-based customer survey and all-in-one omnichannel experience solution that enables businesses of all sizes to create engaging feedback surveys.

SurveySparrow lets you create engaging and conversational customer surveys and offers a range of customization options.

It also includes a centralized dashboard, allowing you to import and organize your contacts into custom lists based on job titles, locations, and age groups.

More info: SurveySparrow

SurveyPlanet

Customer Surveys Tool - SurveyPlanet
SurveyPlanet – Free online survey maker.

SurveyPlanet is a free and user-friendly online survey tool that allows you to create and distribute surveys with unlimited questions and responses to your customers.

You can create surveys for free or upgrade to a paid plan if you need advanced or enterprise-level features, including the ability to export and print survey results, use custom themes, question branching, survey results filtering, create white label surveys, run kiosk surveys, receive completion notifications, and more.

SurveyPlanet is a reliable and convenient tool that offers a range of customization options and integrations with other tools, such as Mailchimp and Salesforce.

More info: SurveyPlanet

SurveyLegend

Customer Surveys Tool - SurveyLegend
SurveyLegend lets you create professional customer surveys with no design or market research skills.

SurveyLegend lets you create visually appealing surveys with a range of customization options.

You can create custom, engaging text-based, media-based, or choice-based mobile-friendly surveys, forms, questionnaires, and polls on any device with the tool’s free, dynamic survey maker.

SurveyLegend lets you customize the look of your survey and display results with eye-catching and insightful graphics using drag and drop with no design or market research skills.

The free version limits you to 3 surveys, 6 pictures, no data export, 1 conditional logic, and includes ads and a watermark. If you need more advanced features and the ability to create unlimited surveys, export your data, advanced logic, and more, then consider upgrading to one of their paid plans.

More info: SurveyLegend

AskNicely

AskNicely
AskNicely

AskNicely lets you collect and act on customer feedback in real-time and get feedback via email, SMS, or web.

The tool lets you track any customer experience metric including NPS, 5-Star, or CSAT (see below), see customer experience trends broken down by location, branch, or individual, and make evidence-based decisions.

More info: AskNicely

Qualtrics

Qualtrics
Qualtrics – free survey maker

Qualtrics is a powerful survey tool that offers a wide range of features and customization options to collect feedback and understand your audience’s needs.

It provides a free survey tool with over 50 expert-designed pre-built survey templates for customer, employee, brand, product, and market research professionals (or create your own form from scratch).

Qualtrics is often used by many businesses and organizations to gather data from customers and employees.

More info: Qualtrics

Pointerpro

Pointerpro
Pointerpro

Pointerpro (formerly SurveyAnyplace) is a survey creation platform that lets you create your own online surveys with customized reports created automatically.

Pointerpro’s survey maker generates personalized PDF reports immediately upon completion of the survey.

More info: Pointerpro

Alchemer

Alchemer
Alchemer – Enterprise online survey software and tools.

Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) is a comprehensive, flexible, and easy-to-setup-and-use survey tool and feedback software that offers a range of advanced features, such as logic branching and custom reports.

Alchemer is a good option for businesses that need to gather more in-depth data from customers using an enterprise solution covering everything from survey software to customer feedback management.

More info: Alchemer

Customer Experience Metrics

Many customer survey tools track customer experience metrics to measure and track the satisfaction of your customers.

These metrics help your business understand how well you are meeting the needs and expectations of your customers and identify areas for improvement.

Some common customer experience metrics include:

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a customer experience metric that measures the likelihood of a customer recommending a company’s products or services to others.

NPS is calculated based on responses to a single question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?”

Customers are divided into three categories: promoters, passives, and detractors.

Customers who respond with a 9 or 10 are considered “promoters” and are most likely to recommend the company, while those who respond with a 7 or 8 are considered “passives,” and those who respond with a 0 to 6 are considered “detractors” and are the least likely to recommend your products or services to others.

The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

NPS is a useful metric for businesses because it provides insight into the overall loyalty of your customer base.

5-Star rating

5-Star is a customer experience metric that measures the overall satisfaction of a customer with a company’s products or services.

Customers are typically asked to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest rating.

This metric can be helpful because it provides your business with a simple and easy-to-understand measure of customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

CSAT is another measure of customer satisfaction. It is typically based on a scale of 1 to 5 and is often used to measure satisfaction with specific touchpoints, interactions, or experiences within the customer journey, such as a customer service call or a product purchase.

Customer Surveys – Potential Downsides

While customer surveys can be a useful tool for creating a content strategy, there are also some potential downsides to consider.

One potential downside is that customer surveys may not accurately represent the preferences of your entire audience. This is because surveys are often only completed by a small percentage of your total customer base, and the responses may not be representative of the larger group.

Another potential downside is that customer surveys can be time-consuming and resource-intensive to create and administer. This can be especially challenging for small businesses with limited time and resources.

Finally, it’s important to remember that customer preferences can change over time. This means that even if you use customer surveys to inform your content strategy, you may need to revisit your strategy periodically to ensure that it is still aligned with the needs and preferences of your target audience.

Overall, while customer surveys can be a useful tool for creating a content strategy, it’s important to use them in combination with other methods, such as analyzing website traffic data and monitoring social media engagement, to get a more complete picture of your audience’s needs and preferences.

Customer Surveys – Summary

Customer surveys are a popular and effective method for gathering feedback from customers and using it to inform a content strategy.

Surveying your customers directly can give you valuable insights into their demographics, interests, and pain points.

There are many online survey tools available that allow you to create and distribute surveys to your customers.

By asking targeted questions about topics, formats, and preferences, and gathering feedback, you can get a better understanding of what your customers need and how you can address their pain points to create content that resonates with your target audience and meets their needs.

When using customer surveys it’s important to measure and track the satisfaction of your customers using customer experience metrics. By regularly collecting and analyzing these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and work to enhance the overall customer experience.

Finally, keep in mind that customer surveys have limitations, and it may be necessary to use other methods to get a complete understanding of audience preferences.

***

Image: Survey Forms

Content Research

Learn how to perform effective content research before investing time and effort into creating content for your business. 

Content Research

Learn how to perform effective content research before investing time and effort into creating content for your business. 

Content research - Woman researching content online.One of the best ways to avoid creating content that may end up delivering poor results is to learn how to perform effective content research before investing time and effort into creating it.

Content research is part of the content planning process and should be done after the business has developed its content strategy and before going into content production.

In this lesson, we will cover:

  • Why Do Content Research?
  • Key Areas Of Effective Content Research
  • How To Do Content Research

Before You Begin

Please review and complete the Content Planning lesson before starting this lesson.

What Is Content Research?

Content research is the process of gathering and analyzing information about a specific topic or audience in order to inform the creation of your content.

Why Do Content Research?

The goal of doing content research is to analyze content online and use your analysis and conclusions to help develop a unique content strategy that will benefit the long-term growth and brand visibility of your business.

By performing content research, you can make informed decisions about what type of content to create, how to create it, and how to promote it. This helps you produce content that is more likely to be read, shared, and ultimately drive the desired outcomes of your business.

Content research can include things like looking at the top posts ranking in search engines for your industry, niche, or topic, content that is attracting lots of social shares and engagement, what your competitors are writing about, discussing, or sharing online, etc.

Some of the reasons why content research matters include:

  • Helping your business understand its target audience, what kind of information it consumes, shares, and engages with on social media, and what content works best for reaching it. You can use this to build a content library of information and resources for users.
  • It helps to shape your content marketing strategy.
  • It helps you understand how to build authority, credibility, and trust online with users.
  • It lets you identify third-party resources your target audience likes and tends to gravitate toward.
  • It shows you what content you need to build to carry prospects through their entire buying journey.
  • It gives you insights on how to build sustainable growth for your brand, increase organic search traffic and social media visibility, and improve your lead generation activities.

Content Research Goals And Objectives

The goals and objectives of performing content research include:

  • Understanding your audience: Identifying the characteristics, needs, and preferences of the target audience in order to create content that resonates with them. This can be achieved by surveying a group of potential customers to learn about their pain points and what type of content they prefer to consume.
  • Identifying gaps in existing content: Analyzing existing content in order to identify areas where new or additional content is needed. This can be achieved by performing a content audit and reviewing the content on your company’s website to identify topics that are under-represented or missing.
  • Identifying competitors: Analyzing the content produced by your competitors in order to identify opportunities and strategies for creating unique and valuable content. This can be achieved by reviewing the blog posts, social media posts, and e-books of your direct competitor(s) to identify common themes and formats that they use.
  • Identifying trends and topics: Researching industry trends, news, and popular topics in order to inform the creation of timely and relevant content. This can be achieved by monitoring social media channels, search engines, and news articles to identify trending topics and keywords to include in your content.
  • Optimizing search engine visibility: Researching keywords and phrases that are relevant to the content and audience in order to optimize the content for search engines. This can be achieved by using keyword research tools to identify keywords and phrases that are frequently searched for by the target audience and incorporating them into the content.
  • Measuring the effectiveness of your content: Gathering data on how your content is performing in terms of engagement, shares, clicks, conversions, etc., in order to determine how well it is meeting your goals and objectives. This can be achieved by using analytics tools to track the number of views, shares, and engagement on a blog post or social media post.

Key Areas Of Effective Content Research

Effective content research focuses on three key areas:

  • Your Market
  • Your Audience
  • Your Competition
Content Research - Three Key Areas
Focus on each of these key areas when doing content research.

Let’s take a brief look at each of these key areas:

Your Market

Focusing on gaining a better understanding of the market will help you answer questions about:

  • The environment the business operates and sells its products or services in (e.g. is it a growing or shrinking market? How do political or global events affect it?)
  • Technological disruptions, changes, and innovations in the industry or niche that the business should be aware of and prepare for or begin to embrace.
  • Emerging opportunities (new product development, new territories, new sectors, etc.)
  • Current limitations and barriers to growth or expansion.
  • Which distribution channels are available to or work best for the business.
  • Industry best practices.

Your Audience

Focusing on gaining a better understanding of the audience the business is targeting will help you answer questions like:

  • Who is the ideal target audience? What do they look like? What are their values and preferences? What do they like or dislike?
  • Where does your audience congregate online? How can you reach them? What are the most cost-effective ways to reach them?
  • What type of content does your audience consume? What is their preferred content format?
  • What are their pain points, concerns, and challenges? How can your business help them solve these?

Some of the ways to know your audience better and get to understand their desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and pain points include:

  • Keep an eye on your competitors.
  • Monitor audience feedback, engagements, and comments through surveys, online forms, and how they engage and comment on your blog, social media channels, community forums, and customer support channels.
  • Craft buyer personas to understand the main customer categories that convert for your brand.

Your Competition

Knowing which content channels your competitors are targeting, what topics their content is addressing, and where they spend their marketing and advertising budgets can tell you a lot about where you should be focusing your content marketing efforts.

Researching your competition can help you answer questions like:

  • Who are the main competitors in your niche?
  • What are they doing that your business isn’t? Similarly, what is your business doing that your competitors aren’t (yet)?
  • What are they doing right? What are they doing wrong?
  • Is your competition doing anything that your business can’t match because it lacks the resources, budget, etc.?
  • Is there anything unique about your business that your competitors can’t match?

Some of the ways you can research your competition includes:

  • Signing up to receive their email updates.
  • Analyzing their video content.
  • Tracking their social media activity.
  • Reviewing their top-performing content (post titles, subheadings, main keywords, word count, social shares,  meta descriptions, etc.).
  • Attending their webinars and other events.
  • Tracking changes to their website.

According to BuzzSumo here are the data insights you need to create the best content:

  • The content volumes and trends for your industry topics.
  • The most successful articles in terms of shares and links.
  • The content types and formats that your audience shares.
  • The evergreen content that gains shares and links over time.
  • Influential sites for content in your industry.
  • Competitors’ most successful content.
  • The networks where your audience shares content.
  • Identify social influencers and backlink opportunities for your content.
  • Engagement benchmarks.

Researching the key areas and gaining the insights above will provide your business with the valuable information needed to create a content strategy and a content plan.

How To Do Content Research

The best way to do content research is to begin the process and record your findings, thoughts, snippets, ideas, links, quotes, URLs, etc. as you go in an organized manner. This allows you to immerse yourself in the process, document your research, and retrieve the information when it’s time to create the content.

Let’s break this down into doable steps:

1. Begin The Content Research Process

If you don’t know where to begin your content research, you can start with Google Search.

You could begin by simply typing in a keyword search term related to the topic you are researching and looking at the first page (i.e. top 10) search results for your content’s topic. This will give you an idea of what it will take for your content to outrank your competitors.

For example, let’s say that your business sells supplies for coffee drinkers and you want to create content on ways to make “barista-like” coffee at home.

You could begin the content research process by simply typing in something like “how to make barista coffee at home” into Google…

Content Research - Google Search results
Begin your content research with a Google search.

This immediately provides you with lots of useful information and ideas for new content topics and ways to present content to your target audience.

For example, you can do further research into areas like:

  • Similar or related article topics.
  • Article titles, excerpts, and meta descriptions.
  • Similar or complementary products that users are looking to buy.
  • Video topics.
  • Additional information that users are searching for (e.g. the “People also ask” section).
  • Ideas for new images, infographics, artwork, ad banners, etc.
  • Opportunities to fill in gaps in your content strategy.

This is a simple yet great way to start. However, you can use Google to dig even deeper into your content research work.

For example:

Look For Paid Search Ads

Businesses don’t spend money advertising on unprofitable keyword searches. Ads displaying on search queries indicate there is commercial intent behind the keyword or topic, so it may be worth researching further into ways to try and rank for the keyword in Google’s organic search results.

Google Search - paid ads
Paid ads indicate that the topic you are researching may be profitable to rank for in organic searches.

Check Autocomplete Suggestions

Google’s predictive search feature (Autocomplete) is a great way to find ideas for long-tail keywords or topics related to your research.

Google predictive search feature - autocomplete suggestions.
Google’s Autocomplete feature is a great way to research content ideas related to your searches.

You will also want to research and analyze:

  • What your target audience shares and engages with on social media, the social influencers they follow, etc.
  • What your competitors and industry leaders are writing about or discussing on social media.
  • Forums, industry publications (whitepapers, reports, published research), expert interviews, news sites, case studies, surveys, polls, statistics, etc.
  • Keywords, including paid ads, related searches, etc.

See this excellent article for more information on completing this step:  30 Best Content Research Tips That Will Make You More Influential

2. Save Time Using Content Research Tools

There are many great time-saving tools and resources available online to help you research content topics and ideas, find sources of authoritative information, analyze keywords, gather data and stats, and more.

For example, in addition to search, Google provides other content research tools you may not have thought of using, such as Google Trends, Google Alerts, Google Scholar, and Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio).

Google Trends
Google Trends is a useful tool for researching user interest in content topics.
Looker Studio dashboard
Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a powerful data-driven content research tool.

You can use different data sources for your keyword research projects.

For example, you can use Google Analytics to analyze user behavior and site interaction, Google Search Console data to identify mismatches in search intent, Google Trends to identify search behavior for spelling variations (e.g. eCommerce vs e-Commerce) or regional variations, etc.

See the Content Research Tools section for tools and resources that will help you with your content research.

3. Organize & Document Your Content Ideas

In addition to knowing where to go for research and using tools to help speed up your content research, it helps to have a system for organizing and accessing your research information quickly and easily.

For example, you can use tools like your web browser’s bookmarks to store useful website URLs…

Chrome Bookmarks
Chrome Bookmarks

Content organization tools or apps like Microsoft OneNote let you build up a collection of research notes, copy and paste snippets, ideas for blog posts and web pages, etc. …

Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote

For additional tools and tips on organizing and storing your content research notes and information, see the Content Research Tools section.

4. Perform A Content Audit Of Your Existing Content

When researching new content topics and ideas, remember to look at the existing content too. There may already be similar content written that has been previously published by your business.

A content audit can provide valuable information about the state of the content of your business and help you answer questions about what may be missing in the current content compared to your research that needs to be developed, whether the business has already published similar articles, what can be updated, rewritten, consolidated, or discarded, etc.

For more information about creating a content inventory or auditing your existing content, see this lesson: Content Audit

5. Add Topics And Ideas For Discussion To Your Content Planning process

As you gather more research from different sources for your content plan, make sure to update the relevant information in your editorial calendar and communicate these to your team via your content collaboration tools and channels, like your content production team meetings.

Summary

Content research is invaluable to strategic content planning. It can tell you what content to create, how often to create it, where to distribute it, and how to best promote it.

Well-researched content that shows that the business understands the market and the competitive landscape and that connects with its audience can make a significant and sustainable difference to brand visibility, web traffic, lead generation, and revenue.

Action Steps

Review the following sections before you begin researching content. It will help you create great content for your audience:

Resources

References

The articles below contain additional information that you may find useful to complete this lesson:

Next Lesson

***

Image: Woman researching content online.

Content Research Tools

Useful content research tools, sites, and resources to help you save time in areas like content planning and content production.

Content Research Tools And Resources

Useful content research tools, sites, and resources to help you save time in areas like content planning and content production.

Content Research Tools

The World Wide Web is a huge library of content research.

In this section, you will find many useful content research tools, sites, and resources to help you in areas like content planning and content production, including:

  • Researching new content topics and ideas
  • Finding new content opportunities
  • Exploring current trends
  • Gathering data and stats to back up your arguments
  • Identifying profitable keywords and niches
  • Researching content for distribution in channels like blogging, social media, email marketing, etc.

***

AI-Powered Content Research

You can use AI technologies for content research and content planning, such as generating content ideas, creating article outlines, etc.

We explore various AI tools that you can use to research and plan your content in this section: AI Content Writing Tools

Additionally:

Google

One of the easiest ways to begin researching content is to Google it.

Content Research Tools - Google Search screen
Just Google it!

Start with a topic or keyword related to your business, niche, or industry and enter it into the Google search bar to begin exploring content ideas.

Additionally, as you type, you’ll notice that Google displays an autocomplete list of search terms below the search field where you have entered your keywords.

You can use the Google Autocomplete tool (formerly called Google Suggest) to explore additional content related to your search, build a list of keywords or topic ideas, etc. (Tip: learn how to manage Google’s Autocomplete predictions).

After you hit enter on any search term, Google displays even more content ideas you can explore.

For example, you have the People also ask tool, which you can use to research content ideas on ways to solve problems your customers may be experiencing…

Google search results: People also ask tool
Google’s ‘People also ask’ tool is great for exploring content ideas on ways to solve problems.

Google also displays the Related searches tool with topic-related content ideas you can research…

Google's Related searches tool
Use Google’s Related searches tool to explore topic-related ideas.

Add additional search terms you can click on for even more content-related research…

Google additional search terms
Explore even more content ideas using these additional search terms.

tip

Don’t forget other search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc. You might find different answers and additional suggestions there to expand your content research.

Content Research Tools - Microsoft Bing search page
Use other search engines like Microsoft Bing to expand your content research.

Not only can you do a ton of content research using only Google search but there are also other free content research tools that Google offers.

Let’s explore some of these.

Google Chrome Browser Extensions

Chrome browser extensions are small software programs that you can install to add new features or modify existing functionality in the Google Chrome web browser.

These extensions can not only enhance your experience as a user, increase productivity, and provide additional security and privacy measures, but there are many useful extensions that can be used for content research, content planning, content creation, etc.

To access Chrome browser extensions, follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Chrome browser on your computer.

2. Click on the three-dot icon located in the upper right corner of the browser window to open the main menu.

3. Select “More Tools” from the dropdown menu, and

4. Click on “Extensions” from the submenu.

Google Chrome Browser - Extensions
How to access the Extensions menu in Google’s Chrome Web Browser.

5. This will open the Extensions screen where you can view and manage any extensions you have added to your web browser. Click on the Hamburger menu icon in the top-left corner of the screen to access the Main menu.

Google Chrome Web Browser - Extensions screen.
Google Chrome Web Browser – Extensions screen.

Click on the link at the bottom of the menu.

Google Chrome Web Browser - Extensions menu.
Click on the link at the bottom of the menu to visit the Chrome Web Store.

This will take you to the Chrome Web Store, where you can browse and download a variety of Chrome browser extensions.

Chrome Web Store - Main screen
Browse hundreds of extensions in the Chrome Web Store.

Use the search bar to search for specific extensions, or browse through the various categories available.

Chrome Web Store - Search bar
Search for extensions using the search bar.

When you find an extension you want to install, click on the extension to select it.

Chrome Web Store - Selecting an extension.
Click to select an extension.

Click on the “Add to Chrome” button to install the extension.

Chrome Extension - AIPRM for ChatGPT
Click Add to Chrome to install the extension.

A pop-up window will appear, asking you to confirm the installation. Click on “Add Extension” to confirm.

Chrome extension confirmation popup.
Confirm if you want to install the extension.

The extension will then be installed in your Chrome browser and will be visible in your toolbar or in the extensions menu.

To manage your installed extensions, you can access the extensions menu by clicking on the three-dot icon and selecting More Tools > Extensions.

From there, you can enable or disable extensions, remove them, or adjust their settings as needed.

You can also Pin or Unpin extensions from your toolbar by right-clicking on the Extensions icon in the toolbar and selecting your preferred option.

Chrome Extensions screen.
View your extension in the Extensions screen and pin or unpin it from your browser toolbar.

tip

Tip: Use the “Related” tab to find additional extensions related to the functionality you’re searching for.

Chrome Web Store - Related extensions
Find related extensions for your Chrome web browser using the Related tab.

Google Trends

Content Research Tools - Google Trends
Google Trends

Google Trends is another free service from Google that shows you trends in search activity all over the world, with access to maps, charts, and other tools.

Google Trends
Use Google Trends to compare search activity between topics.

You can use Google Trends to compare search volume activity for related topics or similar keywords over a given period of time across different regions or languages, gauge public reaction to real-time events and news stories, monitor trends across different areas of interest (social, political, business, entertainment, sports, etc), optimize SEO for video or local search, glean insights about products and service demand, forecast and predict trends, etc.

Google Trends is also a great tool for identifying the seasonality of topics in your niche or industry. You can use this information to plan your editorial calendar with content promoting those topics during their peak season.

For an excellent article on how to use Google Trends, go here.

You can also download key datasets from Google Trends at the Google Trends Datastore.

Google Trends Datastore
Download datasets from Google Trends at the Google Trends Datastore.

More info: Google Trends

Google Alerts

Google Alerts
Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a free service from Google that lets you keep up-to-date with the latest news about all kinds of topics, stay informed about people and companies, and track what other people are publishing about you and your business online.

More info: Google Alerts

Google Lens

Google Lens
Google Lens lets you do ‘real world’ content research.

Google Lens is an image recognition technology developed by Google and available as an app for Android phones that uses artificial intelligence to identify text and objects in images and in a live view from a phone’s camera.

Google Lens lets you do “real world” content research faster using your mobile phone’s camera.

When you point the phone’s camera at an object with the app installed, it tries to identify the object by reading barcodes, QR codes, labels, and text, and shows you relevant search results, web pages, and information.

For example, here is a photo taken of a tea bag label with Google Lens installed on an Android phone…

Image of a green tea bag label selected with Google Lens
Point your phone’s camera at an object and tap the Google Lens button…

Google Lens immediately identified the object and returned relevant search results…

Google Lens search results
Google Lens brings you search results and lets you do various things with the information.

When you point your phone’s camera at an object, Google Lens gives you the following options:

  • Translate – take a photo of words to translate
  • Text – take a photo of words to copy
  • Search – Search for information related to the object
  • Homework – Take a photo of a homework question
  • Shopping – Take a photo of products or barcodes
  • Places – Identify landmarks, buildings, etc.
  • Dining – Take a photo of food or a menu

You can scan and translate text from a physical document like a book, paper, business card, whiteboard, or with writing on it, then copy that text to your phone’s clipboard, and paste it into anything – a Google Doc, email, note app, Slack chat, etc.

You can also use Google Lens to identify plants and animals, and get information about landmarks, restaurants, and storefronts (e.g. historical facts, ratings, hours of operation), as well as find information about similar clothes, furniture, home decor, or other objects that you come across.

Google lens is an excellent content research tool. You can copy text from objects and send it to your computer, interact with text from images, search for online images that match real-world objects, save contact information, create calendar events, find answers to questions, and a whole lot more.

See this article for more ways to use Google Lens or scan the QR code below with your Android phone to download the app to your phone from the Google Play store:

Google Lens QR Code
Scan this QR Code to install Google Lens on your Android phone.

More info: Google Lens

Google Scholar

Google Scholar
Google Scholar

Google Scholar is another useful tool from Google that lets you expand your content research by searching for information across academic literature from journal websites, university repositories, Google Books, etc.

Google Scholar results
Google Scholar results

The Google Scholar index includes peer-reviewed online academic journals and books, conference papers, theses and dissertations, preprints, abstracts, technical reports, and other scholarly literature, including court opinions and patents.

The video below provides more information on using Google Scholar:

More info: Google Scholar

Looker Studio

Looker Studio
Looker Studio

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a free tool that gives you powerful insights into your website’s performance from various data sources like Google Search, Google Analytics, Google Ads, YouTube, social media platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter, databases, etc.

Looker Studio
Looker Studio demo.

For tutorials on using Looker Studio, go here:

More info: Looker Studio

tip

We recommend using Looker Studio with the free Search Intent Keyword Classifier dashboard template designed for search intent-based content creation developed by Lazarina Stoy.

Search Intent Keyword Classifier
Use the Search Intent Keyword Classifier dashboard template to research search-intent-based content ideas. Source: Lazarina Stoy

To learn more, go here or watch the video below:

To download the template, go here: Search Intent Keyword Classifier Template

For a tutorial on using the template, go here: Supercharge Your Keyword Research Process By Incorporating Search Intent Classification

Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics
Exploding Topics – discover trending topics before they take off.

Exploding Topics helps investors and entrepreneurs find new and upcoming trends before they become popular.

The tool uses a special algorithm to analyze millions of searches, conversations and mentions across the internet to identify under-the-radar industries, products, and categories.

More info: Exploding Topics

Infographiqs

Infographiqs
Infographiqs

Infographiqs is a search engine for infographics.

Simply type in a search term into the search engine field, and its extensive database returns relevant and accurate results on where to find infographics matching your search term.

Infographiqs search results
Infographiqs search results

From there. click on an entry from the results to visit the site with the infographic.

Infographic Directory
Source: Infographic Directory

Use this site to find and review infographics you can cite and add to your content.

More info: Infographiqs.com

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo

Buzz Sumo provides access to comprehensive and data-driven content research.

Use BuzzSumo to:

  • Find the best performing content that will help you get more likes, links, and shares
  • Identify influencers that can help your brand or campaign, and
  • Track comments and trends on social media so you can respond faster and capitalize on opportunities.

We also cover Buzz Sumo in the Search Optimization Tools section.

More info: Buzz Sumo

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha
Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is an answer engine based on natural language processing and a large library of algorithms.

According to the website:

Wolfram Alpha represents a fundamentally new paradigm for getting knowledge and answers—not by searching the web, but by doing dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods. Bringing broad, deep, expert-level knowledge to everyone… anytime, anywhere.

Wolfram|Alpha aims to make all the world’s knowledge computable by computing expert-level answers using Stephen Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.

Its mission is to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything.

In terms of helping you with content research, Wolfram Alpha’s website is divided into several categories, like Mathematics, Science & Technology, Society & Culture, and Everyday Life. Each of these areas contains many subcategories.

So, for example, go to Everyday Life > Personal Finance and you will find ways to compute useful answers to thousands of personal finance questions, from computing interest rates to analyzing and projecting returns on stocks and other investments, converting world currencies, and more.

Wolfram Alpha - Examples for Personal Finance answers
Wolfram Alpha lets you find answers by computing whatever can be computed about anything.

The website builds on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.

Visit the site: Wolfram Alpha

Content Curation

Content curation tools offer a strategic approach to content creation by not only streamlining the process but also inspiring creativity by sourcing, organizing, and presenting relevant content from diverse platforms.

Scoop.it

Scoop.it
Scoop.it – Content curation tool for individuals and businesses.

Scoop.it offers a robust content curation tool designed for individuals and businesses, enhancing your ability to research and publish top-tier content.

For Individuals:

  • Effortlessly publish topic pages featuring curated content in minutes.
  • Automatically distribute curated content within your network to bolster your professional brand.

For Businesses:

  • Curate, share, and read content within private hubs.
  • Publish curated content on websites, blogs, newsletters, and social media platforms.
  • Aggregate curated content seamlessly across multiple WordPress blogs.

Key features of this tool include:

1. Discover, Select & Editorialize, Distribute

  • A powerful content engine that monitors global sources to curate relevant third-party content.

2. Boost Credibility and Brand Awareness

  • Establish thought leadership and strengthen influencer connections.
  • Access diverse sources ranging from mainstream media to niche publications.

3. Create and Share Curated Content Pages

  • Publish topic pages swiftly.
  • Share curated content with your networks to build your professional brand.
  • Automatically feed social channels with curated content.
  • Embed content pages on your website.
  • Leverage curated content in templated newsletters.

4. Monitor and Share Knowledge Privately

  • Facilitate team collaboration with easy content discovery, curation, and sharing.
  • Automate content monitoring.
  • Share curated content privately within your team.
  • Generate internal email newsletters effortlessly.
  • Create private curated content hubs for your team.
  • Seamless integration with SSO, intranet, and enterprise social networks.

5. Publish Curated Content for a Targeted Audience

  • Store, share, categorize, and disseminate curated content.
  • Aggregate curated content on one or multiple websites.
  • Publish content on one or multiple WordPress blogs.
  • Share your team’s content on multiple social media platforms.
  • Generate customized newsletters for Mailchimp or any emailing solutions.

Scoop.it empowers users to streamline content curation, fostering brand credibility, thought leadership, and effective collaboration within teams.

More info: Scoop.it

Curata

Curata
Curata

Curata is a content curation tool that lets you streamline your curation experience.

Curata’s Content Curation Software (CCS) scours the web using keywords, news sources, authors, bookmarked or shared content, etc., and returns relevant published content that you can then curate, add your own summary and brand voice to, embed royalty-free imagery, schedule, and share.

Key features of this tool include:

1. Find

  • Automatically receive the most relevant content from hundreds of thousands of sources.
  • Dynamic adaptation to your content preferences.
  • Enable crowdsourcing across your organization.

2. Discover Fresh Content

  • Curata’s engine employs natural language processing to adapt to your preferences.
  • Fine-tune content flow by refining sources and focusing on preferred platforms like social media.

3. Curate on the Fly

  • Instantly curate content while browsing with a convenient browser plugin.
  • Empower your team through crowd-sourced curation and content suggestions.

4. Quality over Quantity

  • Curata’s engine programmatically filters out outdated, multilingual, or duplicative content.
  • With Curata, transform curation into a seamless three-step process: Find, Curate, Share.

More info: Curata

Feed Readers

Feed Readers save you time visiting all of the different sites you like to keep up with when searching for new content posted on these sites, by allowing you to view all of the content on your desktop or phone from a single source.

Feedspot

Feedspot
Feedspot

As the video below states…“things move fast on the web and it’s hard to keep up with your favorite sites by visiting each of them separately. Feedspot lets you subscribe to websites so new content comes to you when it’s posted.”

Like most feed readers, Feedspot lets you add feeds from different sites to its service, as well as feeds from blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, news sites, and RSS feeds. You then view the aggregated content from the tool’s content reader.

Watch the video below for an overview of Feedspot:

More info: Feedspot

Reports, Case Studies & White Papers

Get valuable insights into the latest trends, research reports, case studies, and white papers by performing a Google search for:

  • Reports: [your industry] + [research report].
  • Case Studies: [your industry] + [case study].
  • White papers: [your industry] + [white paper].

You can also link to tweets, papers, or reports from industry professionals and subject experts.

Subject Matter Experts (SME)

“A subject matter expert is a professional who’s cultivated a deep well of knowledge. They may be knowledgeable about a niche topic, a skill, a process, or a particular set of technologies, machinery, or materials.”

ConstantContent

As part of your content research, you can find and follow influential people, interview subject experts, or reach out to social media influencers in your industry.

Following influential people can provide you with timely news, quotes, and more.

Interviewing subject matter experts is a great way to create content like videos, podcasts, and blog transcripts. Before interviewing a subject matter expert, make sure you’ve prepared your interview questions.

Social media influencers can ask your target audience questions about specific pain points and frustrations that your content can then address.

You can find subject experts and social media influencers on websites, social media platforms, forums, networking events, and many other places.

Let’s explore some of these places…

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an excellent resource for finding subject matter experts and doing content research.

For example, LinkedIn lets you explore trending topics, news, and popular questions in your industry or niche.

Use LinkedIn’s content suggestions feature to research and discover new content ideas from areas like Trending Articles (shows suggested content based on current trends across LinkedIn), and Company News (shows content suggestions based on your organization’s mentions in the news).

LinkedIn's content suggestions feature.
Use LinkedIn’s content suggestions feature to explore new content ideas.

More info: LinkedIn

Twitter

Twitter
Find and follow subject experts on Twitter.

Twitter is another great place to find and follow influential people and reach out to SMEs.

To get the most out of Twitter as a content research tool, make sure to read Twitter’s Getting Started Guide.

More info: Twitter

Hashtagify

Hashtagify
Hashtagify

Hashtagify is an advanced Twitter hashtag tracking tool that lets you find hashtags to enhance your social media strategy through hashtag marketing, reach your audience, get custom suggestions, and analyze influencers’ and competitors’ strategies.

You can search real-time data and gain insights about Twitter hashtags (popularity ranking, related hashtags, trends, etc.), track hashtags, follow and analyze Twitter users and trending hashtags, monitor relevant content, and find influencers.

The tool also provides data in easy-to-read dashboards and charts, so you can audit performance, monitor aggregated analytics, and build custom reports.

Visit the site: Hashtagify

Twitter Polls

Twitter Polls
Use Twitter Polls to gain insights from Twitter users for your content.

Twitter Polls is a feature of Twitter that lets you create polls to research opinions and gain insights from other Twitter users.

You can use Twitter polls to get customer feedback about upcoming events, new content, new product launches, rebranding, new releases, etc., curate industry-relevant discussions, and test how your audience feels about a certain topic before creating your content.

More info: Twitter Polls

Forums

Forums are a great place to research information, especially if you are creating content designed to solve problems or looking for ideas to develop new products or services.

Often, you can find answers on forums that you cannot find by searching on Google. Forums allow you to engage with people, so if you type in your topic and find that an answer doesn’t exist, you can always ask the question.

Here are some popular forums and forum-like sites:

Quora

Quora
Quora

Quora is a question-and-answer social media and research website where users answer each other’s questions about all kinds of topics.

Quora has over 300 million monthly active users and over 400,000 topics to explore, so it’s a great site to research topics and questions people are asking and use the information to develop new content ideas relevant to your industry.

More info: Quora

Reddit

Reddit
Reddit

Reddit is another commonly used platform where you can find answers that will help you with your content research.

Reddit is a social networking site where over 300 million monthly active users (known as Redditors) share, interact with, and consume the latest news and trending topics. If you are unfamiliar with using the platform, see this Beginner’s Guide To Using Reddit before engaging with the community.

More info: Reddit

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is a question-and-answer website for professional and enthusiast programmers.

It’s the leading community for developers and a great place to research content related to programming, web development, and emerging technologies.

More info: Stack Overflow

In addition to the above, you can join various social media groups and participate in communities of like-minded people across many different social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.

Content Idea Generation Tools

Below are some tools you can use to help you generate new ideas for content.

Infinite Content Creation Course

We provide a comprehensive 120-lesson FREE content creation email course right here on ContentManagementCourse.com, so make sure to sign up below to learn how to never run out of content ideas for your blog, website, or newsletter:

Keyword Magic Tool

Keyword Magic Tool
Keyword Magic Tool

Keyword Magic Tool lets you find and explore millions of keywords for content ideas and SEO.

Note: You will need to set up an account with SemRush to use this tool.

Simply enter a target keyword related to your product or service into the tool and the Keyword Magic Tool will return a list of related keywords and metrics like average search volume, keyword difficulty, and additional features included on the SERP page for your keyword.

For example, suppose you are looking for content ideas to write about air fryers.

Go to Keyword Magic Tool and search for the phrase “air fryer” …

Keyword Magic Tool - Search Results
Keyword Magic Tool provides detailed keyword search results.

Next, select the “Questions” option in the toolbar to filter the results to questions, and you’ll see a list of the most frequently searched question-based results related to your search that contain your seed keyword.

Keyword Magic Tool - Question-Based Search Results
Keyword Magic Tool returns a list of question-based search results.

In the above example, “how to clean air fryer” is searched 9,900 times per month. This indicates that users searching for this phrase may have a problem cleaning their air fryers or are beginning their buyer’s journey into buying one and are looking for help or solutions.

You could use this information to educate or engage your audience and provide them with advice or a solution. For example, you can create a guide on air fryer maintenance, or an article or video on cleaning air fryers and promote air fryer cleaning equipment or products, etc.

More info: Keyword Magic Tool

AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic.com is a free tool that you can use to research new topic ideas for content marketing, SEO, etc.

Simply enter 1-2 words to describe a topic, band, or product, and click on the Search button.

The tool then explores autocomplete data from search engines like Google and returns ‘mindmap’-like visualization charts with useful search phrases related to questions people are asking around your keyword (e.g. where, what, how, why, etc.), searches based on your keyword+prepositions (e.g. near, for, with, to, etc.), and even comparisons (great for creating review articles).

AnswerThePublic - Visualization data chart
Use AnswerThePublic’s visualization charts to explore ideas for new content.

The tool also provides a downloadable list of results segmented alphabetically.

AnswerThePublic - Alphabetical search results.
Generate lots of great content ideas quickly with AnswerThePublic’s free tool.

Use this tool to generate and brainstorm useful new content topic ideas, and even to help you develop new products and services based on what consumers are searching for.

More info: AnswerThePublic.com

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a keyword research and SEO tool that lets you generate content and keyword ideas, track your rank daily, do a competitor analysis, conduct a site audit, and more.

Ubersuggest results screen.
Get useful search results for content ideas.

Ubersuggest’s domain tool lets you reverse engineer your competitors’ SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing strategy, so you can get insight into strategies that are working for others in your market.

The tool’s Top SEO Pages report is an SEO analyzer that lets you see which of your competitor’s pages are ranking for popular organic keyword phrases and getting attention on sites like Facebook.

Use the free keyword research tool to research hundreds of suggestions for keyword ideas, from head terms to long-tail phrases, with analytic results for volume, competition, and seasonal trends for each keyword. You can also generate a list of keywords that let you see what is working for your competitors and what people are typing into Google.

Additional features include results for top-performing content pieces for your searched keywords with social shares and check for backlinks in your niche.

Ubersuggest keyword and content ideas.
Ubersuggest provides keyword and content ideas based on your search.

Additionally, Ubersuggest integrates with an AI content writing tool, allowing you to create AI-generated content from your keyword searches.

Ubersuggest AI content writer
Generate SEO-optimized content from your search results using an integrated AI content writer.

More info: Ubersuggest

Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a browser addon (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) that lets you perform SEO, content marketing, competitor research, PPC and social media marketing while browsing the web.

It adds the following functionality to your browser:

Free version:

  • ChatGPT Prompt Templates
  • Instagram Hashtag Generator (no volume data)
  • Pinterest Insights and Trend widgets (no volume data)

The paid version includes everything in the free version plus accurate monthly search volume, CPC, competition & 12-month trend data.

Additional features of the paid version include:

  • Related keywords on Google & Bing, People Also Search For (PASF) keywords on Google.
  • Trend chart in Google & YouTube.
  • YouTube insights & YouTube Tags.
  • Monthly estimated traffic & the top 10,000 keywords that any URL ranks for
    URL Analysis to get the list of keywords in the content of the page, and the density of those keywords.
  • Historical volume data in the trend charts for Google & YouTube (from 2004).
  • Support for 15+ websites, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, Bing, Google Search Console, Google Analytics.
  • Import keywords for accurate monthly search volume, CPC, and competition analysis.

More info: Keywords Everywhere

For more tools to help generate ideas and topics for your content, go here: Content Idea Generation Tools.

Organizing Your Content Research

Having a huge library of content research tools and resources at your disposal is great, provided you can access these quickly and efficiently.

Here are some tools and resources that will help you save time accessing your content research tools.

Web Browser – Bookmarks

You can speed up your content research simply by organizing and storing access to the URLs of the sites, platforms, services, and tools you regularly use in your web browser’s bookmarks

Chrome Bookmarks
Chrome Bookmarks

tip

We recommend planning your bookmarking folders first so that when you come across content you want to save to research later, you have an organized way to retrieve it.

Example of bookmarking content.
Planning your bookmarking folders will make it easier to find stored bookmarks later.

Additionally, you can edit the bookmark name to suit your own needs.

Edit bookmark example.
You can edit your bookmarks if it helps to improve your content research process.

See these guides to using bookmarks in different web browsers and devices:

We cover using bookmarks in more detail in this section.

Content Organization Tools

You can also use content organization tools or apps to build up a collection of research notes, copy and paste snippets, ideas for blog posts or web pages, etc.

One Note

Content Research Tools - Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is a digital notebook that lets you store and organize all of your notes into sections and pages and share these across all of your devices.

You can also highlight important and “to-do” notes, draw and annotate your notes using a stylus or your finger, record audio notes, insert online videos, add files, save content with one click, and share notebooks with your coworkers.

Simplenote

Content Research Tools - Simplenote
Simplenote

Simplenote is a free cross-platform note-taking tool that lets you organize your thoughts and content ideas, add tags to find notes quickly with instant searching, share to-do lists, post instructions, and publish your notes online.

Your notes automatically stay updated across all your devices,  in real-time, and get backed up with every change you make.

MyInfo

MyInfo
MyInfo – organizer application for Windows.

MyInfo is another tool you can use to collect, store, and organize your content ideas, research notes, lists, links, to-dos, etc.

MyInfo - comiplation of screens from the application
Some screens from the MyInfo application.

The tool lets you collect and organize information in a number of ways, including assigning tags and attributes, using entry forms or typing free text, creating notes from templates or from scratch, and using search filters.

Text Editors

Built-in Plain Text Editor

A plain text editor lets you create draft content without distractions
A plain text editor lets you save content research notes and create draft content without distractions.

Your computer’s built-in plain text editor like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Apple) is a great tool to jot down and save your content ideas, rough notes, snippets, swipe files, research, quotes, link or image URLs, write an outline of topics, and organize your content research.

It also lets you quickly create content drafts without distractions (like formatting or styling text) so you can focus entirely on what you want to say and get your ideas or points across.

NoteTab – Text And HTML Editor

NoteTab Pro - Text And HTML Editor
NoteTab Pro – Text And HTML Editor

While using a plain text editor is great, sometimes you may want to have multiple text files open while you work.

For example, let’s say that you are editing multiple articles or snippets of content on multiple text files and decide that you need to perform a search and replace operation across some or all of these files.

Being able to do one search and replace across all files would be a huge time saver. With your computer’s built-in plain text editor software, however, you can’t do this unless you merge the content of all your files together.

NoteTab is a powerful text and HTML editor tool that lets you edit multiple text files simultaneously, strip HTML from code, and a whole lot more. You can even use it to perform search and replace operations across multiple text files at once.

It’s a great content editing tool that will improve your productivity and help speed things up, especially when working with text or HTML snippets.

NoteTab Features

NoteTab is available in three versions:  NoteTab Pro, NoteTab Standard, and the freeware NoteTab Light.

We recommend downloading and using the PRO version.

 NoteTab Pro offers great features like:

  • Multiple-level undo/redo
  • Fast and flexible search & replace tools
  • Easy-to-use wildcards for searching (like * and ?)
  • An integrated two-pane outliner
  • Real-time word count (NoteTab or Microsoft Word method)
  • Text statistics for SEO (HTML code automatically ignored)
  • Support for HTML5 and CSS3
  • Support for Twitter’s Bootstrap toolkit
  • Syntax highlighting for HTML, XML, and CSS files
  • A multilingual spell checker and thesaurus
  • Customizable menu shortcuts and toolbars

The table of features below shows the differences between the three versions.

NoteTab - Feature Comparison
NoteTab – Feature Comparison

If you need to get more done in less time, NoteTab is fast, handy, reliable, and packed with time-saving productivity tools not found in other text editors.

More Info: NoteTab Pro

tip

To learn how to copy and paste text from images into a text editor, see the Content Management Tips & Tricks section.

Copy and paste text from images
You can copy and paste text from images using image capture tools to speed up your content research.

Swipe File Folders

Electronic folders are great tools for keeping your content research files organized.

By creating a hierarchy of nested folders mirroring your content structure, you can build an effective archive for your content research notes and files. This also lets you quickly locate archived files in the future should you ever need to retrieve these later.

Additional Content Research Tools

Additional Sites For Content Research

The sites below provide additional useful resources for your content research.

Statistics & Data

Visit sites like the ones listed below for statistical data and information to validate your articles when getting your point across and adding credibility to your content:

  • Statista -Statista is one of the leading sites for market and consumer data.
  • Marketing Trends (HubSpot) – The latest marketing trends.
  • Top U.S. Market Research and Data Analytics Companies – Top market research and data analytics companies in the U.S.
  • Marketing Statistics (CoSchedule)- Marketing strategy trend report.
  • Gartner – Technology data
  • IQVIA – Healthcare data
  • NCBI – The National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information site, which provides access to biomedical and genomic information to advance science and health.
  • JSTOR – JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.

Idea Sharing Sites

These sites attract subject experts and independent authors willing to share their ideas on a wide range of topics:

  • Ted Talks – TED talks are short, online video talks and presentations designed to inform and educate global audiences by presenting “Ideas Worth Spreading.” TED Talks provide access to new knowledge and innovative research from experts across a wide range of fields, including science, technology, business, art, design, and more.
  • Towards Data Science – a site where independent authors publish work and share concepts, ideas, and codes on data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and programming.
  • Start it up – This site is aimed at the “creator economy” and focuses on all things that help people “get smarter at building their thing” through newsletters, podcasts, self-published books, online courses, social media channels like YouTube, TikTok, Clubhouse, etc.
  • English Language & Usage Stack Exchange – This is a “question and answer” site designed to provide detailed answers to every question about English language and usage. There are no “chit chats” or discussions on this site. Simply ask your question and you’ll get an answer.
  • Substack – Substack is a site where independent writers and podcasters publish directly to their audience and get paid through subscriptions.
  • Codeburst.io – If your content targets developers, coders, or programmers, this site provides an abundance of tutorials and ideas for technical content writers.

Video Courses For Beginners – Content Research

The video courses below cover basic areas of content research and are ideal for beginners (note: you can access all of the video courses below with a single all-access pass):

Keyword Research - WPMasterclasses.comKeyword Research Tools

Learn how to do keyword research using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner.

More info: Keyword Research Tools

Google Tools - WPMasterclasses.comGoogle Tools

Learn how to use Google Tools like Google Analytics & Gmail.

More info: Google Tools

Using Password Managers - WPMasterclasses.comUsing Password Managers

Password Managers provide an easy and secure way to keep track of all your passwords. This video course shows you how to use powerful and FREE password management tools.

More info: Using Password Managers

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For more video courses, see this section: Digital Business Video Courses

Summary

The World Wide Web is a huge library of content research. All you need are the right tools to perform your research effectively. This section provides a list of time-saving content research tools and resources.

Action Steps

Use the content research tools, sites, and resources listed on this page to save time researching content ideas and to help you and your team with your content planning and content production.

Resources

References

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Return To The Main Tools And Resources Section

Images: Laptop

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