StoryBase Review – Can It Help Your Content Marketing?

We all know what it’s like to hit that dead-end of content ideas. Surely, there are millions of great and relevant things that any marketer can write about. But sometimes you just hit a block and are left staring at your computer worrying about a deadline in 4 hours.

This is one of the biggest challenges of content marketing because you have to not only come up with topics but also make sure they’re popular enough to draw attention to the search rankings. Otherwise, what’s the purpose of doing any of this writing in the first place?

If you want a little content boost, then StoryBase is here to help. The intuitive tool helps you through the process of content generation by providing recommendations via insights derived from a large and complex data stream (i.e., Google and other search engine results).

In addition to this, StoryBase also provides a content analyzer tool that will check your content as you create it for the particular keywords you might need.

You can do a lot with StoryBase to improve your content and drive organic traffic to your site. But is it worth its starting price of $49/month? Discover the answer to this and everything else you want to know in this ultimate StoryBase review.

What Is StoryBase?

StoryBase is a content marketing resource that helps marketers shape their content to better match what their audience is searching for. It’s a little bit of everything.

StoryBase is a one-part keyword tool that lets you track terms, check search volume, and other valuable pieces of information like demographics. It also turns your searches into lists of relevant questions and keyphrases to better help you plan out your content.

From here, you can save questions and phrases to lists or head over to Analyze where you can analyze portions of your site for the keywords you’re looking for.

StoryBase Features

• Keyword research
• Google Search Console Integration
• List
• Inbound marketing
• Phrase builder
• Collaboration
• Heatmaps
• Target audience
• Localization
• Phrase finder

Getting Started With StoryBase

StoryBase offers a 14-day free trial. To get started using it, you’ll need to sign up with your email, password, and credit card info. The last part is to prevent fraud and ensure account continuity should you wish to keep using StoryBase. However, you’re free to cancel anytime, so there’s no need to worry should you decide StoryBase isn’t for you.

After you do this, you’ll be taken to your account dashboard. While there is a tutorial video that is work checking out, the software is pretty easy to use. Just begin by typing in one of your keywords, and StoryBase will work its magic.

It will then show you demographic information along with phrases and questions. You can then check out related keywords, group ideas together, and export. All of this is really handy as you uncover new keywords and ideas you may not have thought about before.

StoryBase Pricing

StoryBase basically has two plans based on the number of users you have. The Professional Plat from $49 or $490 billed annually includes 1-3 users for up to 3 websites.

The Agency Plan includes 1-20 websites, unlimited users, and is priced at $299/month or $2998 billed annually.

In terms of pricing, it may be a touch on the expensive side. As helpful as it is, you’re basically getting a slightly modified keyword tool that doesn’t even provide you all the search data you might be after, like CPC and other types of data.

Likewise, there are several SEO tools available nowadays that include not only this type of keyword research but also SEO optimization for around the same monthly price. But we’ll go into more detail about this later.

StoryBase Features

Everything goes through the Dashboard, which is going to feel familiar to any experienced digital marketer and is easy enough for any newbie to pick up. From here, you can conduct your searches, dive into insights, and check out your lists.

Here are some of the main things you’ll do with StoryBase:

1. Questions

This is one of the few features that really sets StoryBase into a category of its own. Questions gleans data from a variety of internet sources and gives you the questions that most people are asking. This is what you then use to form your content strategy.

In the example here, we searched “SEO content,” and it came up with a variety of useful content questions that will be great bases for your next posts while also promoting shares and other forms of engagement.

2. Phrases

Another useful feature StoryBase provides you are the top phrases associated with your keywords. Phrases gives you the long tail keyword that people usually search for with your original keywords.

If we take a look at “SEO Marketing,” for example, you’ll see a good deal of people are also looking for “SEO marketing companies” and “local SEO Marketing.” Again, this is another insight you can take back to improve your own approach to creating content.

3. Related & Demographic

Related shows you all the relevant keywords, which can really help identify keyword opportunities.

Likewise, Demographic helps you get a better understanding of how your audience is so you can tailor your writing style and content accordingly.

4. Google Search Console Integration

With StoryBase, you can also connect your website via Google Search Console to track keywords. This is really cool because you don’t even have to identify specific keywords.

StoryBase will automatically scan the page and tell you what keywords you’re missing and should consider adding to any of your pages. It also will provide you with phrase recommendations and click data.

5. Localization

With StoryBase, you have the flexibility of choosing 11 different countries to gather search results from. As you can imagine, this is great for working on campaigns in other countries as well as doing research. It even includes results in foreign languages so you can get an exact sense of what is being searched there.

Who Should Use StoryBase?

StoryBase has some great uses. Anybody involved in content marketing will see the advantages of this type of keyword tracking that also includes questions and phrases. It not only pinpoints what you should talk about it but also helps you understand better who’s asking it.

Here’s the problem—other than that, it’s pretty. While it’s easy to use and can be helpful, it doesn’t do much to justify the $49/month price tag.

Moreover, anybody familiar with keyword tools can use these in its place. While you might not get questions, you’ll find all the other information that StoryBase offers, including related keywords that you’re after. In addition, with dedicated keyword tools, you’ll get more accurate information and a whole lot more functionality that you can use across your digital marketing strategy.

Overall, StoryBase is a neat tool that beginner content marketers should check out, especially the free trial. But anybody who knows their way around a real keyword ranking tool and content optimizer should look elsewhere.

Is StoryBase Worth It?

It’s worth it for everybody involved in digital marketing to check out the free trial. Why not score some quick content ideas. Paying $49/month for it, however, is a different story.

Other than Google Search Console, it has no other integrations. While offering localization, you’re limited to just 11 markets. And the data it pulls isn’t comprehensive; you have to use it in conjunction with other software tools.

Also, some site functionality issues can be annoying. Starting with the editor. It is not easy to add texts to analyze in the full-screen editor. In fact, finding it is quite a challenge. Likewise, after signing up, the same “thank you” message kept popping up every time we loaded a new page—definitely a little annoying.

If StoryBase was like $15-20/month, we’d say go for it. $49/month simply doesn’t make sense.

Pros

• Provides great content ideas
• Easy to use
• Great insights into demographics
• Sync via Google Search console to provide site keyword suggestions

Cons

• Expensive for what it’s offering
• Limited data
• Site feels a little outdated
• Buggy at times
• Data isn’t comprehensive, so you’ll still need other keyword tools
• Limited localization

StoryBase Alternatives

It depends on what you’re looking for. While StoryBase has a couple of unique features, there are plenty of other great content marketing solutions out there that have not only overlapping functionality but also offer other great tools. Two examples you should definitely check out include StoryChief and Raven Tools.

What Is Story Chief?

StoryChief is a content marketer’s dream. It includes social media management, SEO content management, campaigns, publishing tools, and more. With it, you can create content from the editor optimized for your keywords, track the performance of your campaigns, and a whole lot more.

The UI is clean, modern, and easy to use. And StoryChief not only has a free forever plan but flexible pricing options starting from just $12/month, making it a much better value than StoryBase.

What Is Raven Tools?

Raven Tools is an SEO optimizer that provides you insights on everything you need to get your site to rank more highly. In addition, it also has a keyword rank tracker, backlink checker, and content editor. And pricing starts $39/month, meaning it’s much easier to get a high ROI from it since you can use it for so many more things than StoryBase.

Ultimately, all three of the marketing tools do offer free trials, so be sure to check them all out to find the best option for you.

StoryBase: The Verdict

StoryBase provides helpful content ideas through keyword suggestions and questions. However, the high price tag and limited functionality likely don’t make it worth it for most marketers.