The average American spends just over eight hours daily consuming digital media, and B2B digital content consumption grew by 19% between 2021 and 2022. For your teams to keep up with increasing demand, they need to push out enough content to satisfy your audience.
They also need to publish high-quality assets, a challenging task when the content calendar is loaded. The right content writing software can help, but what do you need it to do to make the investment worthwhile?
Whether you’re still using industry-standard tools like Microsoft Word, or you’ve started tinkering with generative AI writing platforms, there is no shortage of writing software available. Though not all have the capabilities your team needs to benefit from the technology. Today, we’re diving into the 12 must-have features for content-writing teams.
1. Content Writing Software Should Be Easy To Use
No matter how many features the software has, if it doesn’t provide a positive user experience, your creators won’t benefit.
Businesses waste a lot of time, effort, and money on tools their employees never get the hang of because these tools are unwieldy or have a steep learning curve. Likewise, the onboarding and administrative side should require little time to learn or manage.
2. It Needs to Have an Intuitive Editor Interface
Screenshot: DivvyHQ’s Content Editor
One of the primary reasons to use content writing software is to make life easier for your creatives so that they can quickly produce killer content. The editor is a critical feature that needs an intuitive interface to boost productivity.
Your team members should not have to hunt for the tools they need to create. They should also have access to the style guide, strategic guidelines, and any other information connected to the assets they are working on.
3. The Software Needs Intelligent Editing Tools
Every good writing program contains intelligent editing tools that provide suggestions as the writers or editors do their thing. Software such as Grammarly or Writer gives feedback for:
- Spelling, grammar, and punctuation
- Sentence clarity
- Content readability
- Style guide adherence
- Brand voice and tone
Artificial intelligence does the heavy lifting, though the creatives make the final call about whether to follow the suggestions. Writer AI can also generate content, making creating outlines, email subject lines, alternative titles, and keyword variations easier.
4. Content Writing Software Should Provide Formatting Options
You want software that allows you to define the formats for page layout, font, and spacing, and you should be able to easily change formatting when desired. Anyone working in the editor should be able to choose from a menu of text styles, including bullet points, numbered lists, block quotes, and header styles.
Ideally, the software will allow you to upload templates — such as a blog post template — when you want to ensure your creators adhere to a set format.
5. It Should Allow Users To Upload Attachments
When photos and graphics contribute to over 14% of the average web page viewed on a mobile device and almost 12% on a desktop, it’s evident that content often contains more than text. Your content writing software should provide a place for the media team to maintain an image, infographic, and video library and upload attachments associated with each asset.
Source: Sprout Social
6. The Software Needs To Streamline the Writing Process
Content writing software should allow multiple users to work on a single asset simultaneously. It should provide real-time edits so that team members see the most recent version each time they sign on. Another helpful feature is the ability to see and compare multiple versions without confusing the most current version with older ones.
Collaboration is essential to effective content production. Your team should be able to communicate and create notes within the writing program, alleviating the need to utilize external tools such as emails and text messages, which are often overlooked or forgotten.
7. Software for Content Writing Should Contain Search Engine Optimization Tools
The software should provide an easy avenue for creating and storing metadata associated with each asset. You also need a way to communicate keywords so your writers incorporate them into the content.
Source: Hubspot
8. Content Writing Software Needs To Allow Sharing
Inevitably, content needs to be sharable for reviews and approvals, and your software should make that easy. Whether you want to allow your C-suite or stakeholders a peak at what you’re doing or push a finished product to your website CMS, you should be able to do that from within the program.
9. It Should Offer Automation
Your content-creation software needs to have automation features that move content through the publication process quickly. Some of the most useful automation tools help with workflow, task assignments, and in-app notifications.
With software that notifies team members of new task assignments, overdue items, and deadline changes, your team will always be up to speed on where an asset is in the process. The best content writing software increases efficiency through automation.
10. Software for Content Writing Needs To Have Content Management Capabilities
Content management is critical for any content ops team. You need to be able to assign users to roles with varying permissions — such as who can edit content or send a piece to publication. Your software should also have ample storage and a robust filing and filtering architecture to ensure you can archive and quickly locate assets when needed.
11. The Software Should Have Analytics Tools
The key to successful content marketing is creating content that resonates with your audience and leads them further along the buyer’s journey. You won’t know what works unless you analyze performance. Content-marketing software incorporating automated analytics and reporting keeps you updated on your marketing efforts and allows you to adjust your content strategy as needed.
12. It Needs To Integrate With Other Tools
Juggling multiple tools does not improve your team’s efficiency. Make sure you choose a product that integrates with the other tools and platforms your team uses. It should provide native and custom integrations for the greatest flexibility and adaptability, ensuring you can roll all your content-production operations into one platform.
The Best Content Writing Software for Marketing and Comms Teams
DivvyHQ’s content operations platform redefines simplicity and efficiency in the content process. We created a central hub with everything your teams need to create, leaving them to focus on creating killer content instead of managing separate and hard-to-use tools.
When you need intuitive content writing software that incorporates AI, automation, and analytics, Divvy’s got your back. Request a demo to get a first-hand demonstration of its content writing capabilities.
