7 Best Instagram Marketing Tools

Social media platforms have revolutionized the way businesses approach marketing. With over two billion active users, Instagram has become a popular choice for marketers to reach and engage with their target audience. To make the most out of Instagram marketing, businesses need to use the right tools to manage their account, create engaging content, and measure their performance. In this article, we will explore the seven best Instagram marketing tools that can help businesses enhance their social media marketing efforts.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool that allows businesses to manage multiple social media accounts, including Instagram, from one place. With Hootsuite, businesses can schedule posts, track performance, and engage with their audience. Hootsuite’s Instagram scheduling feature allows businesses to schedule posts in advance, which saves time and helps to ensure that content is consistently posted. Hootsuite also offers analytics, which can help businesses to track their performance on Instagram.

Advantages:

• Hootsuite allows businesses to manage multiple social media accounts from one place, which saves time and makes social media management more efficient.
• Hootsuite’s scheduling feature allows businesses to schedule Instagram posts in advance, which saves time and ensures that content is consistently posted.
• Hootsuite offers analytics, which can help businesses to track their performance on Instagram and make data-driven decisions.

Disadvantages:

• Hootsuite’s Instagram scheduling feature doesn’t allow businesses to post multiple photos or videos in one post.
• Hootsuite’s Instagram scheduling feature doesn’t allow businesses to post Instagram Stories.
• Hootsuite’s Instagram analytics feature is only available on Hootsuite’s paid plans.

Later

Later is a social media scheduling tool that specializes in Instagram. The tool offers a range of features that help businesses plan, schedule, and publish their content on Instagram. With Later, businesses can visually plan their feed, schedule their posts, and track their performance.

Advantages:

• The visual content calendar feature helps businesses plan and organize their content in advance.
• The tool offers a range of Instagram-specific features, including Instagram Stories scheduling and Instagram hashtag analytics.
• Later’s user interface is easy to navigate, making it beginner-friendly.

Disadvantages:

• Later’s free plan is limited in terms of the number of posts that can be scheduled per month.
• The tool does not support direct publishing to Instagram, which means businesses will need to manually post their content on Instagram.

Gleam

Gleam is a platform that makes running Instagram giveaways (and not only) effective for businesses while making it easy for customers to participate. With Gleam, hosting a contest on Instagram has never been easier, with a plethora of useful features to choose from. You can easily create beautiful giveaways with a lot of pre-built campaign templates from Gleam. You can specify start and end dates, set terms and conditions, age restrictions, required actions, and the number of winners.

Gleam provides different plan options, and opting for a yearly plan can save you up to 24 percent as compared to the monthly plan (value $97).

Canva

Canva is a popular online graphic design tool that can be useful for Instagram marketing in many ways. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using Canva for Instagram marketing:

Advantages:

1. Easy to use: Canva is a user-friendly tool that makes it easy for anyone to create professional-looking designs for Instagram.
2. Wide range of templates: Canva offers a wide range of templates for Instagram posts, stories, and ads, which can help save time and effort in creating designs from scratch.
3. Customizable designs: Canva allows you to customize designs according to your preferences and brand guidelines, including colors, fonts, and images.
4. Stock photos and graphics: Canva has an extensive library of stock photos, graphics, and icons that can be used to enhance the visual appeal of your Instagram content.
5. Collaboration features: Canva allows you to collaborate with team members and clients, making it easier to create designs and get feedback.

Disadvantages:

1. Limited features: Canva’s free version has limited features, and you may need to upgrade to a paid plan to access more advanced features.
2. Branding limitations: Canva’s free version also includes a watermark on all designs, which may not be suitable for professional use.
3. Limited control over design elements: While Canva allows for customization, there are limitations to how much you can control over design elements, which may be frustrating for some users.
4. Limited file formats: Canva only allows for exporting designs in certain file formats, which may not be compatible with all social media platforms.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management tool that can be useful for Instagram marketing in many ways. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using Sprout Social for Instagram marketing:

Advantages:

1. Comprehensive analytics: Sprout Social provides in-depth Instagram analytics that can help you track engagement rates, follower growth, and audience demographics.
2. Social listening: The tool also offers social listening capabilities that allow you to monitor conversations about your brand, competitors, and industry on Instagram.
3. Scheduling and publishing: Sprout Social enables you to schedule and publish Instagram posts, stories, and videos from a single platform, which can save time and effort in managing your Instagram account.
4. Hashtag tracking: The tool allows you to track hashtag performance and discover popular hashtags related to your brand or industry.
5. Collaboration and approval workflow: Sprout Social offers team collaboration features and approval workflows, which can be helpful for businesses with multiple stakeholders involved in Instagram content creation.

Disadvantages:

1. Cost: Sprout Social can be expensive, especially for small businesses or individuals who are just starting with Instagram marketing.
2. Learning curve: Sprout Social has a learning curve, and it may take time to fully understand and utilize all of its features.
3. Limited design capabilities: While Sprout Social allows for scheduling and publishing Instagram posts, it has limited design capabilities, and you may need to use a separate tool for creating Instagram content.
4. Limited Instagram automation: The tool has limited automation capabilities for Instagram, which may be a disadvantage for those who rely heavily on automation in their Instagram marketing strategy.

Iconosquare

Iconosquare is a social media analytics and management tool that is specifically designed for Instagram marketing. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using Iconosquare for Instagram marketing:

Advantages:

1. In-depth Instagram analytics: Iconosquare offers comprehensive Instagram analytics, including follower growth, engagement rates, hashtag performance, and audience demographics.
2. Competitor analysis: The tool allows you to monitor your competitors’ Instagram accounts, including their engagement rates, follower growth, and top-performing content.
3. Hashtag tracking and research: Iconosquare enables you to track the performance of your hashtags, discover new and popular hashtags related to your brand or industry, and monitor the hashtags used by your competitors.
4. Instagram content planning: The tool offers a content planner feature that allows you to plan and schedule your Instagram posts, stories, and videos in advance.
5. Instagram Stories analytics: Iconosquare provides analytics for Instagram Stories, including views, completion rates, and taps forward and back.

Disadvantages:

1. Cost: Iconosquare can be expensive, especially for small businesses or individuals who are just starting with Instagram marketing.
2. Limited social media management features: While Iconosquare offers Instagram analytics and content planning features, it has limited social media management capabilities, such as scheduling and publishing posts, which may require the use of other tools in conjunction with Iconosquare.
3. Limited support for other social media platforms: Iconosquare is primarily focused on Instagram marketing, and it may not be as useful for businesses looking to manage and analyze multiple social media platforms.
4. Learning curve: Iconosquare has a learning curve, and it may take time to fully understand and utilize all of its features.

Planoly

Planoly is an Instagram planning and scheduling tool that can be useful for businesses looking to streamline their Instagram marketing efforts. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using Planoly for Instagram marketing:

Advantages:

1. Visual planning: Planoly offers a visual planner that allows you to plan out your Instagram content and see how your feed will look before publishing.
2. Instagram scheduling: The tool enables you to schedule and publish Instagram posts, stories, and videos from a single platform, which can save time and effort in managing your Instagram account.
3. Hashtag research: Planoly provides hashtag research tools that can help you discover new and popular hashtags related to your brand or industry.
4. Instagram analytics: The tool offers Instagram analytics that can help you track engagement rates, follower growth, and audience demographics.
5. Collaboration and approval workflow: Planoly offers team collaboration features and approval workflows, which can be helpful for businesses with multiple stakeholders involved in Instagram content creation.

Disadvantages:

1. Cost: Planoly can be expensive, especially for small businesses or individuals who are just starting with Instagram marketing.
2. Limited social media management features: While Planoly offers Instagram planning and scheduling features, it has limited social media management capabilities, such as monitoring and responding to Instagram comments or DMs.
3. Learning curve: Planoly has a learning curve, and it may take time to fully understand and utilize all of its features.
4. Limited support for other social media platforms: Planoly is primarily focused on Instagram marketing, and it may not be as useful for businesses looking to manage and analyze multiple social media platforms.

Conclusion

Though there are tons of other marketing tools for Instagram out there, these are the ones I trust and prefer. Even though many other services offer the same features as above, they either cost higher or are less reliable in terms of quality or service. I hope you are able to harness the power of Instagram as a business platform for your social media marketing strategies by using these tools. If you’re using any other Instagram marketing tool, please do let me know about it in the comments section.

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