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Email marketing is one of the oldest and best tricks in the communication playbook, and newsletters are an excellent tool for brand awareness, audience engagement, and lead nurturing. But newsletter planning is challenging. Coming up with and delivering fresh ideas...
Nov 5, 2024
Instagram Stories, posts, reels, influencer collabs, user-generated content. That’s a lot on the Instagram marketers’ plate, especially when you’re managing multiple accounts.
You’ve come to the right place looking for help, as I’ve compiled a list of the best Instagram marketing tools currently available. I’ll cover everything you need to manage your Instagram accounts effectively — from scheduling tools and analytics platforms to photo editing apps or working with influencers. Let’s get to it!
Contents
Content sits at the core of your Instagram marketing strategy, but posting it manually can be pretty headache-inducing. You’ll need a solid Instagram tool to seamlessly plan and publish content, so here are my top picks:
Instagram approved post for being scheduled in Planable
Planable is the ideal Instagram marketing tool if you value collaboration, pixel-perfect previews, and a neat presence across multiple channels. It allows you to work on any type of written content, whether it’s social media posts, ad copy, blogs, or newsletters. With Planable’s feedback features and multi-level approvals your content will always be on-brand and error free.
The platform also includes solid scheduling features. You can schedule posts across multiple social media platforms via a straightforward calendar. You can then rearrange upcoming content through the drag-and-drop interface and organize it via color-coded labels. Other notable scheduling features include the option to set up recurring posts and post content across multiple social media accounts simultaneously.
Rearranging upcoming posts by colors in Planable using drag and drop function
Planable includes the following Instagram-specific tools:
Social media content calendar for different platforms in Planable
Besides Instagram, Planable is also available for the following social media channels: X, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Business Profile, and TikTok.
Cons: Planable’s direct publishing tools are only available for social media.
Pricing: There’s a free plan that allows you to schedule up to 50 posts. Paid plans start at $11 per user per month (billed annually).
Meta Business Suite is the native social media management tool for Facebook and Instagram. The platform covers all the features necessary to manage and grow your presence on these two social media channels — from bulk scheduling to monetization management and performance tracking.
Here are some of Meta Business Suite’s standouts:
Cons: Meta Business Suite lacks collaboration and content approval tools. It’s strictly limited to Instagram and Facebook, and users report frequent changes in features and UI, which can make the platform confusing.
Pricing: Meta Business Suite is free.
Hootsuite is an all-in-one social media management platform with powerful publishing, analytics, and content curation tools. You can also use it to track and manage ads across your Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well as improve organic post visibility via its post boosting functionality.
Other notable features include inbox management with auto-responders, team productivity reports, and competitive benchmarking. For Instagram, Hootsuite helps you streamline your content production efforts through the following tools:
Cons: Hootsuite’s collaboration tools are only available starting from the Team plan, which costs $249 per month (billed annually), while approval workflows are reserved for the Enterprise plan.
Pricing: Hootsuite starts at $99 per month (billed annually, for one user) with a 30-day free trial available.
Stories are excellent for your Instagram marketing campaigns. They feel more personal than traditional posts, perfect for humanizing your brand and running more memorable advertisements.
Fastory is a Facebook and Instagram marketing tool that helps boost fan engagement and increase brand awareness via interactive, mobile-first stories. You can use the platform to set up quizzes, polls, contests, and even mini-games.
The interactive stories are easy to set up. Simply choose a theme and personalize it with copy, buttons, and video backgrounds as well as animations. Fastory integrates with Giphy, Pixabay, and Canva, opening up endless customization options.
Besides story creation, Fastory includes the following features:
Pricing: From $499 per month (billed annually), with a 7-day free trial available.
Unfold is an iOS and Android app made by Squarespace. You can create stories for Instagram, TikTok, and more. Unlike Fastory, Unfold offers a free version, while paid plans are more affordable. Unfold includes 400+ templates specifically designed for reels, stories, and posts. You can then adjust background colors, customize fonts, and add numerous effects or filters to your photos.
Here are Unfold’s notable features:
Pricing: There’s a free version available. Paid plans start at $12.00 per month, with a 7-day free trial available.
Storybeat is an all-in-one video and photo editing app for Instagram Threads, Reels, and Stories, as well as TikToks. Like Unfold, Storybeat is available for both iOS and Android. It also offers numerous templates, filters, and effects to create and customize content quickly.
Storybeat brings a few unique features to the table:
Pricing: Storybeat is free, but it also includes in-app purchases.
Data is crucial for Instagram marketing. Story completion rates help you determine how engaging your Instagram stories are, while demographic reports reveal everything you need to know about your audience—a must for creating content that converts and resonates with followers. Having an Instagram analytics tool, allows you to track these vital metrics effectively, ensuring your content strategy aligns perfectly with your audience’s preferences and behaviors.
Instagram analytics in Planable
Planable Analyics is an analytics tool for Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn (with new platforms coming soon). You can use it to gather insights into the performance of your social media campaigns.
In terms of Instagram campaigns, Planable Analytics handles the following:
Content performance metrics. Easily spot the posts that perform best and correlate them with any labels you assign from the planning stage (for example, a specific campaign or type of content).
Create easy-to-read reports. When it’s time to show the impact of your content or support a strategy change with data, create custom reports and gain your clients’ and stakeholders’ trust.
And the best part, the analytics features is integrated in Planable’s complete social media management platform. This makes it the best solution for teams focused on Instagram marketing that place a high value on collaboration, as that’s Planable’s shining capability.
Pricing: Planabe Analytics comes as an add-on for any Planable paid plan (which start at $11/month). For analytics, you’ll pay $9/month/workspace, and you can test it through a 7-day free trial.
Storyheap is a social media marketing tool available for multiple social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. Although it covers a built-in social CRM and scheduling tool, Storyheap emphasizes its reporting capabilities.
More specifically, Storyheap handles the following:
Pricing: Storyheap starts at $750 per month (billed annually).
Although Instagram has built-in photo editing tools, they’re rather limited. They don’t offer much in terms of filters, while advanced features like object removers are non-existent. Since Instagram is all about visuals, you’d be much better off with third-party tools.
Think of Photoshop Express as Photoshop’s smaller brother. It’s a straightforward photo editing app specifically made for mobile devices. Photoshop Express offers all the features you need to make quick edits while you’re on the go, like adjusting saturation or adding filters and effects.
Although Photoshop Express is a simpler version of regular Photoshop, it still has a few note-worthy features, perfect for social media posts. More specifically:
Pricing: You can use Adobe Photoshop Express for free. There’s a Premium plan that costs $9.99 per month (billed monthly).
VSCO is a photo and video editing tool for desktop and mobile. The platform stands out through its emphasis on collaboration. You can invite collaborators to store content in shared spaces and leave comments under each image—perfect for crafting visuals with your team or gathering inspiration by connecting with the VSCO community.
Other notable features include:
Pricing: There’s a free version available. VSCO’s Plus plan costs $29.99 per year, while its Pro package will set you back $59.99 per year (for iOS only).
Influencers help humanize your brand and raise awareness. But how do you find them, and how can you know if they’re the right fit?
Besides, fake followers are sadly a little more common than we’d like to admit—and you wouldn’t want to pay just to reach a bunch of bots. That makes searching for influencers rather tricky. Luckily, the tools listed below have got your back.
HypeAuditor’s Influencer Discovery tool helps you search for relevant influencers within your niche on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and Twitter. You can also narrow down your search via the HypeAuditor’s broad set of filters. For instance, you can search for influencers by niche or follower counts.
If you already work with a specific brand ambassador, the platform allows you to look for other similar influencers through its Lookalike filter, which highlights social media personalities that share identical audiences and content topics.
Other note-worthy functionalities include:
Pricing: You can use the Influencer Discovery tool for free to reveal the top three influencers according to your filters. You’ll need a paid account to view the full list. Pricing is upon request. HypeAuditor also offers marketing tools for campaign management, analytics, and market research.
Publicfast is an all-in-one influencer marketing tool. You can find influencers relevant to your niche, collaborate and approve content, as well as manage social media campaigns. Publicfast has a database of 20+ million influencers spread across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and LinkedIn—complete with contact details and average price per post.
Some of the platform’s standouts include:
Pricing: Publicfast costs $99 per month (billed monthly), with a seven-day free trial available.
Planable is one of the best Instagram marketing tools you can get. Its grid view lets you plan and preview your Instagram layout, while the feed view helps visualize how each post or story will look in your followers’ feeds. It also includes customizable multi-level approvals, which ensure your content rolls out error-free and in tip-top shape.
In short, develop a unique brand personality to stand out from your competitors. Use relevant hashtags that align with your company and niche to boost visibility and attract qualified followers. Perform social media monitoring to see what people think about your brand and get involved in conversations to leave a positive impression.
Digital marketing enthusiast, language nerd, and content writer. Horea loves writing about SaaS and anything that involves boosting online presence – from SEO to social media, web design, and more. His content is allergic to fluff and eats research for breakfast.
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