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  • 8 Instagram Tools to Create, Manage, and Analyze Your Marketing Results

    by Jonathan Chan / June 14, 2016

    social media toolsAre you ready to improve your Instagram marketing?

    Wondering which tools can help you?

    To build a successful Instagram marketing presence, you need to have the right tools for the job.

    In this article, you'll discover eight tools to create, manage, and analyze your Instagram marketing.

    instagram marketing create manage analyze tools
    Discover eight Instagram tools to create, manage, and analyze your marketing.

    Listen to this article:

    Where to subscribe: Apple Podcast | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

    #1: Content Creation

    Instagram is a visual platform, so when it comes to content creation you want to make sure that you always publish high-quality images that grab people's attention. However, this can be tricky if you're not a graphic designer.

    The good thing is that you don't have to be a graphic designer to understand good design, and there are some amazing services out there to help amateurs. Try one of these two tools to help you bring more spark to your design.

    Typorama

    If you want to build an account using motivational quotes and images, a popular and beloved approach to Instagram content, Typorama can help you do it.

    typorama
    Typorama handles images and text overlays with ease.

    A mobile app, Typorama gives you the ability to do text overlays on images. You can choose from a variety of text and font styles, along with other design options like filters and overlays so you always have a consistent theme.

    Plus, you also can access the image database Pixabay, which is packed with a ton of royalty-free and attribution-free images that you can use immediately.

    typorama
    Typorama includes access to a ton of royalty-free images.

    At the moment, Typorama is available only for Apple devices and costs $1.99 to access all of its features.

    A Beautiful Mess

    A Beautiful Mess is another solid mobile app that you can use to create great-looking content.

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    What sets A Beautiful Mess apart from other apps is that you get access to hand-drawn features and designs from its creators and it's constantly being updated. So you can give your content more of an authentic and personalized feel.

    a beautiful mess
    A Beautiful Mess is updated often with fresh designs.

    Having that extra bit of authenticity is key when it comes to marketing. Potential customers appreciate it when it feels like they're talking to a person, not a brand.

    #2: Link Managers

    If you're looking to create a sales funnel over Instagram, you're probably looking to drive traffic to your website or landing page.

    One of Instagram's drawbacks is that it doesn't have a native tracking feature. To make up for that, try one of the following tools.

    Bitly

    Bitly is one of the most popular URL shorteners out there. With Bitly, you're able to shorten any distractingly long URL into a much shorter and more manageable form.

    For example, with Bitly you have a built-in platform to track everything from the number of clicks you get to where in the world these clicks came from.

    bitly
    Bitly generates a unique URL and tracks when users click on it.

    By analyzing this data, you can check how well your landing page is doing and whether your sales funnel is producing the results you want. After all, there's no point in producing great content for Instagram if you can't get people to click your link.

    Pretty Link

    If your website is hosted by WordPress, Pretty Link is a good choice. Messy links prevent people from clicking. If your URL is a jumble of numbers and letters, you're less likely to get clicks than if it were just a simple word.

    With Pretty Link, you can create your own custom URL for any one of your pages and track how many hits and unique visitors you're getting.

    prettylink
    Pretty Link helps make your links more clickable, especially if you use WordPress.

    #3: Analytics

    As mentioned earlier, Instagram doesn't offer any native features to track performance. There's no way to track important data like engagement, follower count, or growth using Instagram alone.

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    Without access to this type of data, you're unable to gain insight into how your content strategy is going and if you need to make any changes. With analytics, you'll be able to further refine your Instagram marketing strategy.

    Luckily, there are a few third-party tools out there that can provide all the data you need.

    Iconosquare

    Iconosquare is the go-to web application that most marketers turn to when looking for help managing and tracking their Instagram accounts.

    It allows you to track important metrics like the number of likes a post is getting, best times to post, and the number of shares your posts are getting beyond your followers.

    iconosquare
    Iconosquare reveals key information about your Instagram performance.

    With Iconosquare, you can even track and measure your followers. This is great if you're looking to do market research and want to see who is the most receptive to your message.

    You can even measure what type of followers you're attracting and how they found you.

    iconosquare
    Track and measure followers.

    Currently, Iconosquare offers a seven-day free trial to access all of its features. They have two plans, with the Plus plan currently at $28.80 a year and an Elite plan at $149, to access bonus features like hashtag performance reports and rolling monthly reports.

    Dash Hudson

    Dash Hudson is a relatively new Instagram analytics platform, but it provides metrics that no other application can right now.

    dash hudson
    Dash Hudson can track return on investment on share-for-share or shoutout-for-shoutout (S4S).

    Where it differs is its ability to track and measure your followers and your return on investment on S4S, which basically means you mention another account in your feed in exchange for them doing the same.

    dash hudson
    See how well your S4S efforts are doing.

    With Dash Hudson, you can track your return on investment with the accounts you choose to do S4S with. You'll be able to find out how many followers you gain per post and measure your brand's influence based on user-generated content.

    At the moment, Dash Hudson offers custom pricing and packages based on your specific Instagram needs.

    #4: Content Strategy

    No matter how great your content may be, it's not going far unless you have a solid strategy. Here are a few tools to help you fine-tune your Instagram content strategy.

    Later

    One of the more frustrating things for marketers using Instagram is the inability to schedule posts within the app. Thankfully with Later (formerly known as Latergramme), you'll be able to schedule posts weeks in advance.

    later app
    Later helps you schedule Instagram content … for later.

    With Later, you can schedule your posts at your peak times to improve your engagement and follower rate.

    When posting on Instagram, it's best to post around the times your audience gets up, when they go to lunch, and just before they go to bed. Later lets you prepare posts without having to worry about constantly creating new content on the spot.

    Unfortunately, Later won't post for you. Instead, you'll receive a notification that you've scheduled a post. A premium plan at $19 a month allows up to two users on one account to schedule up to 250 posts.

    Grama

    A key part of any good Instagram strategy is knowing exactly which hashtags to use with your post. Hashtags give your content context, and most importantly, put your content in front of your desired audience.

    With Grama, a free mobile app, you'll be able to do hashtag research in no time.

    grama app
    Grama takes the hassle out of hashtag research.

    By typing in a single hashtag, Grama quickly scours through Instagram to find the most popular hashtags related to your own. Using this app, you can maximize the discoverability and engagement of all of your posts.

    Note: Grama is no longer available to U.S. users.

    Conclusion

    Like any other sales funnel approach, marketing on Instagram is a process with many moving parts. To successfully achieve the results you want, you need to have the right tools for the job. These eight tools will give you all of the help you need to create a great marketing process from start to finish.

    What do you think? Can you use these eight tools to improve your marketing on Instagram? Please let us know in the comments below!

    Tips about eight tools to create, manage, and analyze your Instagram marketing results.
    Tips about eight tools to create, manage, and analyze your Instagram marketing results.

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    Tags: Instagram, Instagram Tools

    About the authorJonathan Chan

    Jonathan "JC" Chan is the Head of Marketing at Insane Growth and spends his time helping entrepreneurs achieve their 7 & 8-figure goals. Make sure you connect with him on LinkedIn!
    Other posts by Jonathan Chan »

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