Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms, and more users are signing in for the first time every second. So when there are many users gathered on one social platform, it starts attracting the eyes of online marketers looking to increase the brand’s presence online with their quirky social media posts that range from posting relatable meme content to informative videos about the brand as well. According to the research, more than 80% of total accounts present on Instagram follow businesses they love. As a result, the accumulative views of business accounts on Instagram have now crossed 200 million daily.
In addition, Instagram gives both small and big businesses equal grounds to market themselves and connect with their users personally. But, right now, the competition on Instagram has gone off the roof, and to be in front of potential buyers, one needs to have proper Instagram marketing techniques and tools. Fortunately, with the help of tools referred to in this article, you can quickly start implementing your Instagram marketing strategy right away and track it with much better precision than your Instagram Insights provide you with.
In this article, not only are we going to show you the tools required for Instagram marketing. So you can actually implement that impeccable Instagram marketing strategy for a business you wanted for so long. So let’s begin, shall we?
What Is Instagram Marketing?
If you are someone who is using Instagram to handle your personal profile or to handle a profile of a business, then you already have some idea of what Instagram marketing is in the first place. But for those who are just starting out this fantastic journey of marketing, we need to get the basics clear. Instagram, as we said, is the most popular social media platform as of now, and over the years, it has grown quite exceptionally. This results in becoming the force to reckon with in the business world. Most Instagram marketing is about providing attractive as well as informative visuals to catch their attention.
On this platform, the text comes second, and it’s the photos and reels that are basically short videos from which the whole feeds are filled with. Moreover, let’s look at the numbers. 78% of the total consumers on Instagram believe businesses on Instagram have a real face value and are considered to be relevant to interact with. Some of the most famous Instagram business handles that are knocking the ball out of the park are Zomato, Paytm, Netflix, Fevicol, Oreo, The Honest Company, and more.
With the implementation of Instagram marketing, a business can reach new users who are looking for products or services in a specific niche. Also, with your marketing skills, you can even persuade people to buy your products and get the word out about the upcoming discount business is giving. Most of the Youth are on Instagram, so if your business is youth-centric, then getting on the bandwagon of Instagram marketing is a must for you.
7 Instagram Marketing Tools That One Needs To Use Right Now
The given list of Instagram marketing tools will help you reach most of your desired goals. You can use their inbuilt direct Instagram publishing, analytics, and other features to get the work done in no time. There is no way of creating a foolproof Instagram marketing strategy, but with these tools, you cover a lot of grey areas where your marketing strategy needs improvement.
1. Buffer
Let’s start with the most trusted and simple-to-use Instagram marketing tool, Buffer. Buffer initially started as a social media post-scheduling tool. But over time, it has become a full-fledged marketing toolkit that does all the heavy for you. With the use of Buffer, you get to create thoughtful and creative posts for your social media handles with ease. In addition to this, one can even schedule their posting more in advance.
When it comes to posting content on Instagram day after day, you will soon find yourself getting burnout. Buffer makes sure that burnout doesn’t happen, and you only need to focus on creating amazing content for your followers. The rest of the things will be taken care of by Buffer. Apart from being integrated by Instagram, you can also use it with LinkedIn, FaceBook, Pinterest, and more.
Buffer has been present for a long time now, and the developers have made changes to its UI to make it easier to use for newcomers. The comprehensive report system of Buffer is quite intuitive, and from these reports, you get to see what are the areas of improvement and where you need to focus more. This way, you get to plan your strategies based on the results shown in the analytics reports, and there is nothing left on the guesswork. One of the only problems we have with Buffer is that it costs; the basic plan of Buffer starts at $10 a month. For solopreneurs, this could be a significant amount considering it is billed annually, and you can only use Buffer’s premium features with only 1 channel.
2. LeeTags
No matter in which location of the world Instagram marketer is present, they all have one thing in common, which is spending hours finding the right Instagram Hashtag for their upcoming posts. The LeeTags are the one that takes off the burden of finding the right Hashtag off your shoulders. It’s a tool available for everyone at no cost at all, and you can use it anytime you want. To find the Hashtag, all you have to do is write what is present in the picture you are about to post. For example, if the picture is where friends a sitting inside your diner and having the best time of their lives.
You can write down the following keywords “friends,” “dining,” “gossip,” and more. LeeTags will analyze these keywords and show you the relevant hashtags for the same. Now once the hashtags are shown to you, you can copy them from the application and paste them into the captions of your post. Volha!! The laborious task of finding the right hashtags is completed in less than a minute. There are categories of hashtags as well, along with subcategories as well. Apart from this, LeeTags also makes it possible for you to save your search results and category and even make your own list of favorite hashtag categories as well.
3. Combine Growth
Just from the name, you can make it very clear that it covers all the aspects of online marketing. Not only can you use it for the implementation of your Instagram marketing, but it can also provide you with analytics, growth tips on how to get yourself a genuine audience, and more. You can even interact with your audience using Combine Growth’s dashboard. This Instagram marketing tool uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to find out the best methods for your Instagram growth. It also provides you with helpful information about those accounts and posts that are not efficient for your marketing strategy.
We have spoken to people who are using this tool for its AI and ML capabilities to find out if this tool can provide 90% accuracy for its prediction. You get tons of functionalities that will help you communicate with your followers and track how they are interacting with your posts, stories, and profile. Also, with Combine Growth, you get to find ways to attract new Instagram followers, do deep research for your relevant hashtags, find out Instagram influencers who represent your niche, and find out the list of competitors. Lastly, you are also getting a scheduler that comes with the ability to style your Instagram layout. If you are a small to mid-sized business owner, then using Combine Growth is the best way to make your brand visible on Instagram.
4. Kicksta
Kicksta is one of those Instagram marketing tools that help you grow your account organically. The whole process of finding new followers and building a solid relationship with them could be a daunting task. But with the use of Kicksta, this can be done with ease and with certain perfection as it does most of the work automatically. It does so by engaging with the Instagram posts of those accounts that are posting content from your same niche. It also finds out the followers for you, and you can choose whether you can follow them or not.
In addition, it comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can try and test out its features to see if they help you. And if you do not like their service, you can stop the trial and get your money back in a full refund. The standard plan for Kicksta costs $49 a month, and you need to pay $99 a month for the premium plan. Lastly, in order to find the best use of Kicksta, you surely need to start using the automatic profile listing. From there, you can find out a lot more about your competitors, influencers, and industry leaders as well.
5. Iconsquare
Iconsquare is considered to be a great Instagram marketing tool for both businesses and influencers as well. With its usage, you get to schedule the content that you want to post on both Instagram and Facebook. Moreover, you get to track down the analytics and how users are engaging with your content in real time, which is something you don’t get easier with other tools. Iconsquare has an eye for tracking down the latest trends that are taking place in your niche. These trends, if you follow them, can help you streamline your content and allows you to create more engagement-centric posts for your Instagram account. With the use of real-time analytics, you get to make decisions instantly and see what results it sows.
Besides this, you get a conversation feature that allows you to see what the users are talking about you on various social media channels. You can use this tool to spy on your competitors and see what they are doing and learn from them to improve your social profile. Lastly, you get to create custom feeds from which you get to specifically target influencers from your niche and find out how they are getting followers for the same industry.
6. VSCO
Now here is one Instagram marketing tool which doesn’t look like anything like a marketing tool. In truth, it is not a tool that gives you analytics or AI-enhanced tips for your followers. It is a plain and simple photo and video editing tool, but the filters and the customization it offers make it possible for you to go one step further in enhancing your photos and making them more professional. A lot of amateur Instagram accounts use it to make their photos and videos stand out from the competition, and so far, this tool has not let anyone down.
VSCO allows you to capture the attention of users, so your brand or your profile gets recognized for what it’s made for. The edits VSCO is able to produce are enough for users to stop scrolling their feeds and pay attention to your post. There are so many presets available for your Instagram post that you can quickly choose any one of them to get the job done. One of the most prominent features of VSCO is a double exposure, where you can add two photos and combine them together. There is only one downside of VSCO, and that is it can only be used on iOS-based devices. Moreover, you cannot even use it with your Mac, so that’s a bummer.
7. HubSpot Ads Software
There is no denying the fact that we all heard about HubSpot. This is not just one marketing tool, it is the complete online marketing suite that you will ever require. It can create, manage and even track the performance of your ads on various platforms. HubSpot Ads Software can be used with Instagram, FaceBook, Google, and even LinkedIn as well. Due to its native nature with HubSpot CRM, you get to see how your Ads are influencing your conversions, allowing you to have more potential customers for the business.
With the use of data, you will be able to create a much more precise list of users for your targeting. The Ad tool for Instagram marketing is one of the tools present in its suite. In addition to this, you also get chatbots, live chat API, email marketing, landing page optimizer, and more.
It is pretty easy for you to build ads using HubSpot; you can quickly identify Ads that are highly converting and track down the long-term leads all from one single dashboard. Find out how much Return On Investment you are getting from Instagram. This is quite essential as it can be used for automation and an advanced level of attribution reporting.
Wrapping Up
So there you have it; these are some of the most common and valuable Instagram marketing tools that you can use to increase your brand’s presence on the most popular social platform of our time. There are more than 25 million business profiles active on Instagram right now, so if you haven’t started, you need to do it ASAP! Surely you are going to make some mistakes as you start, but these tools will help you cut them short and give you better results on your marketing strategy in a short time.
When you are choosing your first Instagram marketing tool, be sure to weigh all its positives and negatives before making the decision. For us, the Combine Growth is the one a beginner should start with and then moves up to more complex tools as they start getting comfortable with Instagram Metrics.
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Simran works as a technical writer. The graduate in MS Computer Science from the well known CS hub, aka Silicon Valley, is also an editor of the website. She enjoys writing about any tech topic, including programming, algorithms, cloud, data science, and AI. Traveling, sketching, and gardening are the hobbies that interest her.
