by 
Do you want to take your Instagram marketing to the next level?
Have you considered using tools to support your efforts there?
Adding the right Instagram tools into your marketing flow can help you project a more professional image and give you valuable analytic insights.
In this article you’ll discover six tools to improve your Instagram marketing.
Listen to this article:
Where to subscribe: Apple Podcast | Android | Google Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | Spotify | RSS
Scroll to the end of the article for links to important resources mentioned in this episode.
#1: Filter Your Images for a Signature Look
The first step to any successful Instagram account is to tell your company’s story. Your images are a reflection of your business, and you want them to appeal to your target audience on an emotional level.
It’s important to have a cohesive look to your images that unifies your brand assets. One tool that can help with that is A Color Story. This app makes it easy to fine-tune your photos and give them a more professional look before posting them to Instagram.
A Color Story comes with five free filters or you can purchase all of the app’s filters for $7.99.
The app’s filters will help enhance your images and make them pop; they won’t overexpose them or make them look grainy. You can use the app’s five basic filters for free or buy all of the filters for $7.99. It’s best to stick to one (or two) filters to give your photos a consistent look. Choose an attractive filter that unifies all of the images you post to Instagram.
Tip: Avoid posting images on Instagram that are unrelated to your business or the story you want it to tell.
#2: Embed Your Instagram Feed for More Visibility
You want your Instagram feed to get in front of your target audience as much as possible. One way to do that is to embed it on your website or blog with a tool like SnapWidget. Embedding your feed on your site gives you free advertising and social real estate. You can also use this opportunity to ask website visitors to follow your account on Instagram.
With SnapWidget, you can opt for a grid layout, slideshow, or photo map that lets users explore the places you’ve Instagrammed. Once you add the code to your website or blog, SnapWidget will automatically pull the latest photos from your Instagram account, and it will continue to update on your site automatically.
#3: Share Photos From Other Instagram Accounts
If you want to have a successful Instagram feed, it’s important to develop a supporting, sharing, and engaging community. This is one of the best things you can do for your business. If you interact with and support other Instagram users, they’ll likely reciprocate your actions and become active and engaged followers.
Sharing other users’ photos is an excellent way to build relationships with your followers and within your industry. Repost for Instagram, available for iOS and Android, makes it easy to repost Instagram images from other accounts and share their stories while giving them credit on your feed. This lets you develop relationships and at the same time share relevant and interesting images with your followers.
#4: Schedule Your Instagram Posts
Even though Instagram is life on the go, sometimes life gets in the way. You can’t always be glued to your phone and occasionally you need a few days off from the world of social posting. Maintain an active presence online with a tool like ScheduGram.
This web-based tool lets you post immediately to your Instagram account or schedule posts for later. You can manage multiple Instagram accounts so you don’t have to keep logging in and out of individual accounts. You can also grant access to multiple users so everyone on your team will have access to your Instagram posting schedule.
#5: Track the Performance of Your Instagram Content
You want to have a strategy behind every Instagram post. Are you trying to drive people to like your photo, leave a comment, or check out your website? Once you identify clear goals for your Instagram marketing, it’s important to monitor your analytics to see if you’re meeting those goals.
Use an Instagram analytics tool like Iconosquare to track your stats so you can see if your marketing tactics are working. You can view account metrics such as likes, comments, and engaged followers.
Iconosquare will reveal which of your posts received the most engagement on the platform. This lets you quickly see what’s working for your account and then create and post more of that type of content. Viewing analytics and monitoring what your followers like or don’t like is important for building an engaged Instagram community.
Collecto is another good web-based tool for monitoring and tracking the performance of your Instagram account. You can see an overview of your photos and engagement and a summary of the tags, locations, filters, and stats for your posts.
Conclusion
When it comes to marketing your business, Instagram is one of the most powerful social media platforms with over 400 million users. It’s a noisy platform, though, so you need to rise above that and create effective content that will catch your audience’s attention. The six tools in this article will help you provide fresh, consistent content that will engage your audience.
Get Expert Social Media Marketing Training!
Want to keep ahead of your competitors? Need to master a social platform? Discover how to improve your social media marketing at Social Media Marketing World 2020, brought to you by your friends at Social Media Examiner. You’ll rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media, soak up countless tips and new strategies, and enjoy extensive networking opportunities . Don’t miss the industry’s largest conference. Get in early for big discounts.
Sale ends Friday, January 24th, 2020.
What do you think? Have you tried any of these Instagram tools for your business? Are there other tools you can recommend? Please let us know in the comments below!
