Contently is a SaaS content marketing platform from the company of the same name headquartered in New York, containing features a collaboration space, calendar, and workflow controls, engagement metrics, and rapid access to a high volume of original content from freelance creative talent, researchers, and journalists.
Contently has received approximately $12.3 million in funding since its founding in 2010.
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Zerys
Score 8.0 out of 10
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Zerys is a content marketing platform for advertisers and agencies which contains workflow controls, calendaring with email alerts, as well as content strategy tools and action plans. Zerys also features a collaboration space and role assignment for teams, as well as a Content Services Marketplace should outside help for content generation be required, with budgeting features.
It's helpful for top of marketing funnel writing that we can sometimes lose sight of because we are so ingrained in the product day to day. Contently is also helpful for long written pieces and ebooks that will take a significant amount of employee time to put together. I avoid using Contently for mid to bottom funnel marketing writing because my team will often have greater insight into the product function or use-case or product release, making them more adroit to the tone of the written piece and able to produce the content quickly.
I sold a few inbound marketing contracts with the expectation that I could find writers for the project on Zerys. We were looking for good writers that can understand the tone and branding of our business and after a few trials with some of the writers at Zerys, I finally found the one that understood us and then created amazing content in no time.
Consolidating my work in one place to make my work life easier
Contently is unique from other content marketing organizational tools in one key way. It hands you a network of freelance professionals eager for delegated work.
You can search through a database of professionals to find the perfect person for your given project. Find individuals in your budget offering the exact skills and experience you need.
I'm giving them a 10, but honestly, I've never reached out to them. I do see them putting out regular content on social media, so they might be responsive to questions there as well as regular customer support. In their posts and communication, they do seem to value their community, so hopefully, they have good customer support. And I've seen them asking for pitches from their community to publish well-paid articles during this stressful coronavirus time, and I really appreciate that.
I also opened an account with Skyword in 2019, which is a similar service. The person that recommended it was a travel writer, and since I've done that as well, I thought it might be a better fit. To this point, I've received no work from it either, and don't hold out a lot of hope. As previously mentioned, where I think Contently does well is by giving you an online portfolio, additional resources like a blog for learning, and a rates database for publications.
Access to many freelancer writers covering a wide range of topics and the relative ease with which you can manage the writing and editing process with a freelancer writer is good. I believe Zerys has acquired a talented group of writers that are well-versed in a diverse number of topics. Zerys is reliable, and the customer service response is fast, which I greatly appreciate. I do not believe Zerys' interface is as simple as it could be, however.
Contently contributors have produced some great inbound marking posts and creative materials saving our marketing team significant time allowing them to focus on more strategic plans for the business.
The amount of time Contently has saved our internal creative writing staff has more than paid for itself!
