Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketing professional, creating copy can be tricky; luckily, you can use several free copywriting tools to make content ideation and creation easier.

If you’ve ever spent hours staring at a blank page for a blog, you’re not alone. The first battle of creating copy starts with ideas. These ideas must educate your reader and feed into your overall content strategy.

And the second battle is writing engaging copy that resonates with your audience and makes them want to act.

Many tools, tips and tricks can help you streamline your writing process, but here are our ten favourite free copywriting tools.

10 free copywriting tools to try…

1. Answer the public 

Copy and content that doesn’t offer value to your customers is worthless to you. To avoid creating content nobody reads or cares about, you need to find out what your customers want. 

Answer the public is a keyword tool that can help you develop copy ideas. This easy-to-use writing tool is handy if you don’t know what content your audience wants.

All you need to do is type in your keywords and you’ll find questions (presented in visually appealing maps) that are asked on search engines. You can transform this list of questions into blog posts, website FAQ pages or even social media posts.

Pros 

  • Inspiration for your content strategy  
  • Easy to use 
  • Quick way to conduct basic keyword research

Cons 

  • Free users only get three searches per day 
  • Limited keyword metrics  


2. Quora

Struggling to find the right questions on Answer the Public? Don’t worry; there are other places to find inspiration for your copy, such as Quora. 

Quora is an online community Q&A website. Here you’ll find your audience and customers asking questions that need answers. 

Websites like Quora offer valuable insight into what your customers want to know and read. Search for keywords in your industry to find out what your customers are asking and then create evergreen content to answer these questions. 

Quora also lets you answer questions your potential customers ask. You could even answer their questions by attaching relevant blog posts so they can read about specific topics on your website. (Alternatively, you can look on Google at the ‘People also ask’ section to get ideas and inspiration for your content.)

Pros 

  • Inspiration for your content strategy  
  • You can interact with your audience on the website

Cons 

  • It merges questions (which might not be relevant to what you initially searched)


3. Feedly

To be an industry expert and offer your customers the best content, you must be up to date with the latest trends. However, keeping up with trending news takes time and effort. 

Take the guesswork and time out of keeping up to date by using Feedly. Feedly shows you the latest industry trends and relevant news to your business, all in one handy place.

All you need to do is set the relevant keyword alerts for your business to access a feed of blogs, websites and videos that can help inform your content. (Another alternative is Google Alerts, which works similarly to Feedly.)

Pros 

  • Keep up to date with the latest industry news 
  • The ‘Save’ feature allows you to save posts and read them later
  • Can share to social media

Cons 

  • You can only follow 100 feeds 
  • No search function for free users


4. Thesaurus.com

Feel like all you’re doing is writing the same words over and over again? Clear and concise language is always best for communicating with your customers, but it’s important to mix up your word choices. 

We all get stuck for words at some point, so it never hurts to have a thesaurus too far away from you. Luckily, you don’t even need a physical thesaurus, as there are online options, such as Thesaurus.

Simply type in the word you’re currently using and Thesaurus will create a list of synonyms for you. (You can also find antonyms on this website.)

Pros 

  • Easy to use 
  • Prevents repetition
  • Helps your copy flow better

Cons 

  • Not all synonyms will work in your copy


5. Hemingway App

As we’ve mentioned, your copy needs to be clear and concise; your readers don’t want to read large chunks of text. If you struggle to write concisely, the Hemingway App can help.

Once you’ve written your content, paste it into the app, which gives you a readability score and word count. (The readability score refers to the level of education a person needs to read your copy, so it’s best to keep this below Grade 9.)

Hemingway App also shows you how many adverbs you use, how many times you use passive voice, phrases with simpler alternatives and the number of sentences that are hard and very hard to read.

Pros 

  • Highlights sentence problems in copy 
  • Helps make your content easier to read

Cons 

  • Doesn’t pick up on spelling or grammar errors  
  • It’s not always right (sometimes you need to write a longer sentence or use adverbs) 


6. Grammarly

Before you publish a piece of copy, you need to make sure you proofread it. Proofreading will ensure you correct any spelling or grammatical mistakes. But if you are short on time, it can be easy to miss errors in your writing.

Enter Grammarly; this tool will quickly become your best friend because it not only corrects grammar and spelling but also offers suggestions for clarity, engagement and delivery. The free version also provides a tone detector, which allows you to create copy in your brand’s tone of voice.

You can use this tool on the Grammarly website or add it as a Chrome extension.

Pros 

  • Corrects grammar and spelling 
  • Easy to use 
  • Tone detector 

Cons 

  • Free version only offers basic spelling and grammar guidance 
  • Not always accurate (make sure you read the correction before accepting it)


7. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer 

Did you know that eight out of ten people read a headline, but only two out of ten people read the rest of the article?

That’s why it’s essential to ask yourself, ‘does my headline scream “read me”?’ If it doesn’t, then don’t worry. You don’t need to scrap the whole article, but you do need to improve your headline.

The headline of your article or blog post is the first thing your reader will see, so it needs to grab their attention immediately.

CoSchedule have a handy Headline Analyser that gives you a headline score and offers tips for improving it based on word balance, length, reading grade, sentiment and more. You can use the headline analyser as often as you like, so you can keep refining that title until it is perfect.

Pros 

  • Easy to use 
  • Offers insight into how you can improve your headlines

Cons 

  • Limited free options (SEO score, word banks and smart suggestions aren’t available)


8.Wordcounter

WordCounter is another useful free copywriting tool. As the name indicates, it tells you how long your content is, which is helpful if you need to stick to a word count. All you need to do is copy and paste your content into the box. 

It also provides valuable information such as the reading time, the speaking time and the reading level. 

On top of that, this application also offers insight into your keyword density which helps with SEO and allows you to determine if you’re repeating words or phrases too much.

Pros 

  • Good for word counts 
  • Offers insight such as reading and speaking time 

Cons 

  • Quite a basic tool


9. Yoast SEO

Whatever content you’re writing, you need to spare a thought for your SEO. Optimising your content for search engines ensures it gets in front of the right people (without paying money to get it there).

Luckily, WordPress website owners can take full advantage of Yoast SEO. This free-to-use plugin offers valuable insight into your content’s SEO and provides suggestions for improving it.

Yoast SEO also does the same for your content’s readability and helps you make your content more engaging. 

Pros 

  • Enhances your content’s readability 
  • Helps you create web pages and posts that are optimised for search 
  • Enables page or post preview on search engines

Cons 

  • Only available for WordPress 
  • Need the premium version for more advanced SEO


10. Google Search Console

There are many free alternatives to Yoast SEO, but Google Search Console is definitely one to consider. If you want to optimise your website or blog posts, this tool can help (however, the content needs to be already published).

This comprehensive tool allows you to optimise your content for search, analyse keyword and URL performance, track indexation issues and much more.

It also has training videos to teach you how to use the tool, optimise your search appearance on Google and effectively increase your organic traffic.

Pros 

  • Offers insightful analytics for your copy 
  • Helps you track the performance of your website/blog
  • Supports multiple sites/domains

Cons 

  • Difficult to understand if you have basic SEO knowledge 
  • Doesn’t always provide specific examples of errors 


How to choose free copywriting tools for your business

Copywriting tools can help you conduct research, find inspiration for content ideas, craft engaging, error-free copy and provide your customers or clients with genuinely helpful information (which helps to build brand awareness and trust).

Choosing the right copywriting tools for your business will depend on what help you need. If you often get stuck for ideas, then using tools such as Answer the Public and Quora are great resources. Or, if you want tools to help you boost your organic search, Yoast SEO and Google Search Console can help.

And these free copywriting tools are just a few of our favourites; there’s certainly no shortage of helpful online tools that can help transform your content. However, many in-depth copywriting tools come at a cost.

Want help creating copy that increases your brand’s awareness, attracts new leads or boosts your conversion rates? We can help.

Here at 10X Marketing, our team of content marketing experts can help you achieve your business goals through carefully planned and executed content strategies. Get in touch with us today to discuss your content marketing needs.