Since its release in 2013, MarketMuse has provided marketers with a powerful SEO and content optimization tool. Powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence, this solution analyzes content, suggests topics to cover, and produces content briefs. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated by a variety of awards, which have helped MarketMuse become a well-known market leader.
However, the solution’s success does not indicate universe relevance. MarketMuse isn’t right for everyone, but some organizations might struggle to identify other options that might suit them better. Fortunately, you don’t have to look alone.
Here, we’ll lay out seven potential MarketMuse alternatives, cover their strengths and weaknesses, and the ideal ways to use them. By the end, you should be ready to choose a marketing tool based on the specific needs of your business.
What is MarketMuse?
For a decade now, MarketMuse has represented a leading enterprise content strategy and intelligence platform. It provides a variety of valuable features, including SERP analysis, link-building insights, and storage and review of existing content. With MarketMuse, businesses can make content research, creation, and optimization far easier. This includes generating outlines that guide the development of written material that will reliably perform well. Marketers who use MarketMuse get access to a great deal of information that helps with content planning and SEO strategy.
However, the solution is not without its drawbacks. MarketMuse users have to wrestle with complicated workflows and limited keyword research options. These factors play a key role in its steep learning curve, which requires users to ramp up SEO activity over time. And this should all be factored in when considering its high costs.
MarketMuse Alternatives
So, if MarketMuse has flaws like any other solution, then it is not always the best option. Instead, a business looking to launch or upgrade its SEO approach should research a variety of MarketMuse alternatives. In doing so, you can find a platform that perfectly suits your business and strategy. Now, let’s look at the contenders you should consider as a starting point for your research journey.
We’ll discuss the various types of MarketMuse alternatives available in the market, their unique content optimization features, and factors to consider when selecting the right tool for your content marketing.
Types of MarketMuse Alternatives to harness your content strategy
MarketMuse has become a go-to solution for content optimization, but there are other tools available that cater to different aspects of the content creation process. Here are some types of MarketMuse alternatives:
Keyword Research Tools
These tools help you identify the most relevant and high-performing keywords for your content. They provide insights into search volume, competition, and related keywords to help you optimize your content marketing.
Content Optimization Tools
These tools focus on analyzing your content inventory and suggesting improvements. They may evaluate the readability, keyword usage, and content structure to ensure your writing is SEO-friendly and engaging.
Content Analysis Tools
These tools assess the performance of your existing content, including metrics such as traffic, engagement, and conversions. They can help you identify patterns and trends, allowing you to refine your content marketing strategy and make data-driven decisions.
AI-Powered Writing Assistants
These tools utilize artificial intelligence to help you generate high-quality content quickly. They can provide suggestions, create outlines, and even generate entire articles based on your chosen topic and target audience.
Unique Features of MarketMuse Alternatives
Different content optimization tools offer their own set of unique features. Some of these include:
Competitor Analysis – Gain insights into your competition’s content marketing strategy, uncovering their strengths and weaknesses to better position your content.
Content Brief – Generate comprehensive briefs to streamline your writing process and ensure you cover all necessary aspects of a topic.
Multilingual Support – Access tools and features designed for creating optimized content in multiple languages, helping you reach a global audience.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a MarketMuse Alternative
Selecting the right content optimization tool requires careful consideration of several factors:
- Budget: Compare the pricing plans and features of different alternatives to find a solution that fits within your budget.
- Ease of Use: Evaluate the user interface and learning curve of each tool to ensure that you can quickly and effectively integrate it into your workflow.
- Customer Support: Assess the quality of customer support provided by the tool, ensuring that you can access assistance whenever needed.
- Scalability: Consider whether the tool can grow with your business, offering advanced features and flexible pricing plans as your marketing strategy evolves.
MarketMuse is a powerful content optimization tool, but it’s essential to explore alternative solutions that might better align with your specific needs and budget. By understanding the different types of alternatives, their unique features, and the factors to consider when choosing a tool, you can make an informed decision that will boost your content strategy and help you achieve your goals. Remember, the perfect tool for some content marketers may not be the perfect tool for others, so take the time to find the solution that works best for you.
SEOwind
Let’s start with the solution we know best: our own SEOwind. SEOwind is one of the best MarketMuse alternatives. It focuses on creating content briefs that will help your marketing content rank. By basing these outlines on existing, high-ranking content, the tool ensures that your written material draws upon proven practices.
SEOwind features
Our SEO tool provides you with detailed competitive content analysis. It gives you a variety of SERP data, all in one place. Without opening a ton of tabs, you’ll have access to page titles, meta descriptions, outlines, length, and keywords. On top of all that, SEOwind uses AI to recommend keyword clusters and recover common questions. Rather than just relying on Google searches, it also draws from forums like Quora and Reddit.
✅ SEOwind strengths
With SEOwind, you only need to wait a few minutes before benefiting from content briefs built on SEO best practices. These automated outlines reduce the work and time you need to invest in content development. Its SEO review covers sites like Reddit and Quora to ensure that your marketing content will cover the most common questions asked in online communities.
In addition, SEOwind emphasizes ease of use. The solution fits easily within any copywriting and publication workflow while also offering the option for one-click sharing. Every outline generated by the solution will contain headings as well as related sources to back up your claims. On top of AI-generated briefs, SEOwind can provide title tags and meta descriptions while also recommending keyword clustering.
You can benefit from all of this while enjoying the security of a money-back guarantee. In short, SEOwind provides an easy-to-use tool to support a wide variety of SEO strategies without requiring much commitment.
❌ SEOwind weaknesses
But of course, there’s no solution out there that doesn’t have drawbacks of some kind. While we believe that SEOwind is an effective option for virtually any company, we also believe in full transparency. With that in mind, let’s cover some of the potential limitations of our solution.
At this point, SEOwind does not provide a content audit feature. In addition, SEOwind is relatively new to the market. Still, it leaves the door open to further development. As SEOwind continues to undergo updates, users have a great opportunity to guide its development with helpful feedback.
💸 SEOwind pricing
- Basic ($49 per month)
- Briefs: 8/month
- Secondary keywords research for the top 5 SERPs
- AI Title and Description
- Questions to answer
- Pro ($99 per month)
- Briefs: 16/month
- AI-generated Outline based on SERP
- AI Keyword Clustering
- AI Title and Description
- Questions to answer
- Agency ($299 per month)
- Briefs: 50/month
- AI-generated Outline based on SERP
- AI Keyword Clustering
- AI Title and Description
- Questions to answer
💬 SEOwind Customer Rating
As of this moment, SEOwind has a 4.9/5 customer rating on G2.
Our final thoughts on SEOwind
While SEOwind is relatively new on the scene, we’ve seen great early results and feedback from users. In particular, this content brief builder is well-suited to content teams and agencies looking to improve their content quality and rankings. In addition, its brief generation functionality offers extensive value for individual marketers.
Clearscope
As one of the leading SEO tools on the market, Clearscope is more than just a MarketMuse alternative. It is one of the most popular options out there, emphasizing ease of use and generating extensive information. Clearscope gives its users all the insights they need to generate briefs and published content.
Clearscope features
Once you’ve got a keyword or phrase as a starting point, Clearscope gives you insights in several ways. The tool provides rapid and extensive keyword research that takes hours of work and reduces it to minutes. This provides fantastic ideation guidance using information such as traffic data and cost-per-click. Afterward, Clearscope offers a detailed content report that specifies key information for your intended subject, such as the ideal content format.
✅ Clearscope pros
Among SEO tools, Clearscope represents one of the easiest research and content guidance tools to use. It allows you to perform rapid research, both into relevant keywords and potential topics you can cover. And once you get started to write content, Clearscope will help guide SEO activity with easy-to-understand guidelines and a content score. All of this takes place quickly so that the tool can always keep pace with the businesses that use it.
❌ Clearscope cons
Although Clearscope will give you a great deal of information to help develop exceptional SEO-optimized content, it won’t produce outlines. Instead, you’ll need to create your brief based on the information from a report. Also keep in mind that Clearscope doesn’t have a wide variety of compatible integrations, nor does it offer much insight into either internal or backlinks you could use. And customer support is steady, but not as fast as with other tools.
💸 Clearscope pricing
Clearscope largely relies on custom pricing.
Its only fully established plan is the Essentials package, which costs $170 per month and provides access for a single user. This allows for 10 content reports as well as inventorying up to 20 pages, all with support for five languages.
The Business and Enterprise level plans are both priced on a case-by-case basis and enable teams with more users to gain access to the tool.
💬 Clearscope customer rating
Right now, Clearscope’s market leadership is represented on G2 by a 4.9/5 customer rating.
Our final thoughts on Clearscope
The benefits of Clearscope can apply to just about every business out there, as seen by its market leadership. It does a lot for you and makes SEO notably easier. If there is any limitation for this tool, it would likely be the result of its high price point. However, while it’s expensive, Clearscope seems to generate widespread support through its ease of use and depth of information.
If you would like to dive deeper into the comparison between these two tools visit the following guide MarketMuse vs Clearscope.
Dashword
In many ways, Dashword resembles Clearscope. It is primarily content optimization software but also helps users to identify marketing opportunities and track the performance of their content inventory.
Dashword features
Unlike Clearspace, Dashword produces content briefs. These outlines draw upon competitor content and can be shared easily. Before publication, Dashword makes optimization easy by indicating the information that is most relevant to your audience. With real-time feedback, content scores, and tracking capabilities, the tool also provides insights into the performance of your content inventory.
✅ Dashword Pros
This solution analyzes the top results on Google and uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to create content briefs. These outlines are based on the topics most relevant to your audience as well as the phrases they search for most often. A simple content grader optimizes content while Dashword also monitors how that content performs. With a user-friendly interface and single-click share option, this solution is affordable and easy to learn.
❌ Dashword Cons
While Dashword is designed for ease of use, it can be difficult to figure out optimization beyond using suggested keywords. In addition, the tool does not offer a keyword research tool or AI writing support.
💸 Dashword Pricing
With only two pricing options, Dashword largely asks users to choose between the number of content reports they want.
For $99 per month, you get access to 20 reports while the Enterprise model costs $699 per month and offers more than 100 content reports.
💬 Dashword customer ratings
At this time, Dashword is not available for review on G2.
Our final thoughts on Dashword
In our minds, Dashword is primarily targeted at freelancers and small businesses. Any organization launching a new marketing or strategy can get a lot of value out of this tool. If you’re looking for comprehensive guidance for using keywords to develop effective content, Dashword might be for you.
Frase
Whereas Clearscope and Dashword are primarily content optimization software, Frase emphasizes writing assistance. It draws upon AI to deliver an assistant that simplifies research and directly produces content.
✅ Frase pros
Frase’s particular strength comes in the form of helping users parse search results. The tool can gather the top search results and identify the top-ranking headlines for your chosen topic. It also clarifies exactly what people are asking with its questions feature. In addition, Frase makes it easier to identify your content gaps and even suggests ways to fill them. And you get all of this with a 5-day, $1 trial and a money-back guarantee that minimizes your risks.
❌ Frase cons
While Frase provides many options for reviewing your topic and content planning, it is not easy to use. The interface and user experience are fairly complicated, meaning that the tool will take time to learn. Frase also doesn’t include much in the way of writing assistance, which adds to your work. Finally, this solution seems to function more as a research tool than a product focused on optimization.
💸 Frase Pricing
While Frase does not offer a free package, it does include a money-back guarantee to go with its three price levels.
- Solo ($14.99 per month or $12.66 per month on an annual plan)
- One user
- Writing and content optimization support for four articles
- Generation of 4,000 AI words monthly
- Basic ($44.99 per month or $38.25 per month on an annual plan)
- One user
- Writing and content optimization support for 30 articles
- Generation of 4,000 AI words monthly
- Team ($114.99 per month or $97.75 per month on an annual plan)
- Three users
- Writing and content optimization support for unlimited articles
- Generation of 4,000 AI words monthly
Frase also allows for custom pricing plans.
💬 Frase customer ratings
On G2, Frase has a 4.9/5 rating.
Our final thoughts on Frase
With its AI-powered content production, Frase fits small businesses and individual content marketers. Any business that selects this option will jumpstart its content optimization efforts, streamline research efforts, and gain ranking insights.
If you would like to dive deeper into the comparison between these two tools, visit the following guide, MarketMuse vs Frase.
Growthbar
When it comes to actual writing support, Growthbar is a solution with a lot to offer. Like Frase, it draws upon AI to develop briefs and even do some writing for you. In addition, it streamlines the content optimization experience by bringing everything together within a single dashboard.
GrowthBar features
A single click is enough to create a comprehensive content brief with GrowthBar. This will share optimal titles, introductions, keywords, headings, links, images, and more. The tool makes collaboration easy and also enables the rapid creation of content based on the initial outline.
✅ GrowthBar Pros
GrowthBar excels at making SEO activities easy. The tool provides a single dashboard where users can write content, research keywords, analyze competitors, conduct competitive content analysis, and track rankings. Users also can download GrowthBar-generated outlines into Google Docs, after which they can be shared with the whole team. This particular option makes it easy and fast to get started while avoiding a prohibitive cost.
❌ GrowthBar Cons
While GrowthBar makes starting SEO activity easy, the tool does come with two notable limitations. First, while it does utilize AI to develop content briefs, it relies on GPT-3, which is not based on actual data. Second, GrowthBare focuses on the development of new content but doesn’t offer much help for your existing content. It does not come with features that identify issues with your published content, which limits your SEO strategy.
💸 GrowthBar Pricing
- Standard ($48 per month or $29 per month on an annual plan)
- Two users
- Up to 25 content outlines
- 500 generated paragraphs
- Tracking of 25 keywords across one website
- Pro ($99 per month or $79 per month on an annual plan)
- Five users
- Up to 100 content outlines
- 2,000 generated paragraphs
- Tracking of 1,000 keywords across three websites
- Agency ($199 per month or $129 per month on an annual plan)
- 10 users
- Up to 300 content outlines
- 5,000 generate paragraphs
- Tracking of 5,000 keywords across five websites
💬 GrowthBar customer ratings
On G2, GrowthBar has a rating of 4.9/5.
Our final thoughts on GrowthBar
GrowthBar is uniquely tailored to bloggers, who it can help with planning, research, and actual writing. This option makes it easy to create new, creative, and optimized content.
Surfer SEO
Keeping with the same theme as GrowthBar, Surfer SEO places a great deal of importance on providing an entire tool in one location. Through this singular source, users can enjoy a variety of SEO content support that integrates easily with existing systems.
SurferSEO features
This MarketMuse alternative is based on four key features: Grow Flow, a content editor, keyword research, and content auditing. The first of those is a tool that businesses can use to support web growth with AI and analytics. Surfer’s Content Editor is an optimization tool that analyzes text in real-time, providing suggestions for better keyword usage, readability, and SEO, helping you create content that ranks higher in search results.
In addition, Surfer SEO provides users with extensive insight into backlinks.
✅ SurferSEO Pros
With Surfer SEO, users get a single source for a wide variety of SEO support. The solution includes impressive SEO audit capabilities and can even identify missing backlinks opportunities in existing pages. Meanwhile, Surfer SEO will suggest possible internal links to include to improve your content’s ranking. It integrates easily with Google Docs, WordPress, and Jasper. This ensures that businesses can utilize the tool effectively regardless of their existing process and workflows.
❌ SurferSEO Cons
While Surfer SEO is easy to implement, some of its features don’t necessarily compare favorably to competitors. The solution suffers from weaker content brief creation and keyword identification capabilities. Surfer SEO also offers a limited amount of data related to competitors’ marketing efforts, which reduces the visibility of marketing opportunities. Altogether, this leaves the resulting content outlines relatively basic and often lacking key supporting data. Ultimately, these results might not live up to the cost associated with Surfer SEO.
💸 Surfer SEO Pricing
- BASIC ($59 per month or $49 per month on an annual plan)
- Audits for 20 pages
- Writing and content optimization for 10 articles
- PRO ($119 per month or $99 per month on an annual plan)
- Audits for 60 pages
- Writing and content optimization for 30 articles
- Grow Flow feature automates the expansion of up to five websites
- BUSINESS ($239 per month or $199 per month on an annual plan)
- Audits for 140 pages
- Writing and content optimization for 70 articles
- Grow Flow feature automates expansion of up to 10 websites
Surfer SEO provides the option for custom pricing for enterprises in addition to all of this.
💬 Surfer SEO customer ratings
Presently, G2 shows a 4.8/5 customer rating for Surfer SEO.
Our final thoughts on Surfer
The easy implementation and outline generation make Surfer SEO an ideal tool for companies looking to outsource content writing. As sharing briefs and key information are so easy, the tool makes coordination with freelancers and technical specialists simple.
If you would like to dive deeper into the comparison between these two tools, visit the following guide, MarketMuse vs Surfer SEO.
WriterZen
Our final suggestion for a MarketMuse alternative comes in the form of WriterZen, an AI content writing tool. This solution offers a variety of SEO capabilities and can even take over the content workflow from start to finish.
WriterZen features
WriterZen boasts a strong selection of capabilities, from topic and keyword research to an AI content writing assistant. Perhaps its most unique feature is a plagiarism checker that ensures your content remains original. As such, WriterZen helps you to develop content that stands out and competes effectively.
✅ WriterZen Pros
One of WriterZen’s primary strengths comes in the form of keyword research. Its Topic discovery tool identifies topics related to your chosen keyword while the Keyword Explorer automates the research. The solution also guides its users on how to cluster the search phrases it identifies. WriterZen also provides writing assistance in the form of a tool that works on the AI GPT-3 algorithm. One final advantage comes in the form of a plagiarism checker to ensure your content is fully original.
❌ WriterZen Cons
Although WriterZen comes with a wide variety of tools and assistance, some users report a confusing interface. As a result, the experience provided by the tool can be uneven. Additionally, the content creation aspect of the solution doesn’t always function as smoothly as those delivered by other options.
💸 WriterZen Pricing
WriterZen currently functions at three distinct price points, each of which becomes lower with a yearly payment plan. Its Basic plan costs $27-39 per month and is intended for individual users that support a single project. One stop is the Standard package, which is well suited for small teams covering multiple projects and costs $41-59 monthly. Lastly, the Advanced plan expands WriterZen’s services to agencies and large marketing firms for $69-99 per month.
💬 WiterZen customer ratings
Users on G2 have given WriterZen a 4.7/5 rating.
Our final thoughts on WriterZen
Given the wide range of potential applications, WriterZen is broadly applicable. In our opinion, it is most effective for individual copywriters, marketers, and web owners. It will be especially valuable for anyone experienced with these kinds of tools and can overcome the challenging interface.
Discovering Other Content Optimization Tools
While we’ve already discussed MarketMuse alternatives, let’s explore other tools that you may not be familiar with. These tools can further enhance your content marketing strategy and ensure that your writing is both engaging and optimized for search engines.
- Textmetrics: Textmetrics focuses on improving content readability and optimizing it for search engines. It offers real-time suggestions, keyword analysis, and tailored writing guidelines based on your target audience.
- Ryte: Ryte is an all-in-one platform that combines SEO, content optimization, and website quality management. It provides comprehensive content analysis, keyword tracking, and content performance monitoring.
- Outranking.io: Outranking.io is an AI-driven content optimization platform that helps you write SEO-optimized content. It offers real-time optimization suggestions, competitive analysis, and SERP analysis to improve your content’s search engine ranking.
- Content Harmony: Content Harmony is a comprehensive content optimization tool that streamlines the content creation process by generating data-driven content briefs and offering real-time optimization suggestions. By utilizing its keyword research and competitive analysis features, you can create engaging and SEO-friendly content that effectively resonates with your target audience.
