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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...
Sep 10, 2024
With Instagram Reels catching on like wildfire, they have become a gold mine to maximize engagement and raise brand awareness. However, although Instagram includes a built-in video editor, using other third-party reels tools to improve your content may be a better idea.
These tools offer additional editing capabilities, which give your videos that extra oomph to make them more memorable and engaging. They also have other advanced features like automatic subtitle translations or video repurposing, and even the ability to schedule reels. In this post, I’ll be covering some of the best reels tools currently available. So let’s get to it.
Instagram Reels now has 2.35 billion monthly active users and a year-over-year growth of 57.4%. With those statistics in mind, creating high-quality reels must be on your to-do list.
Here’s what to keep in mind when looking for an Instagram Reel tool to take your content to the next level:
Creativity and teamwork go hand-in-hand. Instagram Reels editing apps with built-in comments, approvals, and other real-time collaboration capabilities are excellent to ensure your videos roll out in tip-top shape.
Features that allow you to subtly change your video’s saturation, vignetting, intensity, and so on can take you a long way into editing reels that are on-brand and reinforce your company’s or client’s visual identity.
Functionalities like AI-powered background removers, automatic subtitle generators, as well as voice and text translations will take most of the editing grunt work off your hands.
On a similar note, having access to templates dedicated to Instagram Reels helps you streamline your editing workflows and get content released faster without compromising on quality.
The option to post Instagram Reels directly from your video editor eliminates the need of having to rely on multiple tools for different purposes. You get to save time and avoid any potential mistakes.
Planable is a social media management platform that allows you to collaborate and work on social media posts, video scripts, blogs, ad copy, and more.
The platform includes excellent scheduling capabilities — you can schedule social posts on all popular social networks, including Instagram. You can publish posts on all platforms simultaneously via the Sync Content feature, or turn it off to make changes specific to each platform.
Planable also offers a handy video editor that lets you choose between 13 filters, add texts or designs, fine-tune, trim, split, and merge snippets as well as leave feedback via comments and annotations.
Video editor included in Planable
Speaking of which, collaboration and approvals are Planable’s hallmarks. You can collaborate with teammates through comments, annotations, and suggestions. You also have the option to collaborate through internal notes and posts, which is ideal for hiding content away from clients until it’s ready.
Instagram reels collaboration in Planable
As for approvals, Planable includes four types of workflows: none, optional, required, and multi-level. Multi-level approvals are the stand-out here — you can set multiple approval layers, with each containing as many team members as you need.
Your post won’t be published unless it passes through each level, which is perfect for ensuring your content is as polished as possible.
Key features
Schedule social media posts across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Threads and Google Business Profile. Set up recurring posts, schedule the first comment, and keep track of your content through color-coded labels.
Plan content using the calendar’s list, feed, and grid views. Use Planable’s grid views to simulate and organize your Instagram layout (stories and reels included) via a drag-and-drop interface. Approve posts and leave feedback directly in the dashboard.
Drag and drop Instagram grid planning in Planable
Track social media metrics like follower growth, reach, engagement, and more. Easily identify your top-performing content, and zoom in on the details to see each post’s user interactions. Generate highly digestible reports with just one click.
Edit Instagram reels and create any type of content via Planable’s Universal Content feature. Leave comments-in-context and annotations on lengthier content, like video scripts, for precise feedback. Store and manage brand creative assets in the platform’s built-in media library.
Quickly generate captions for Instagram Reels with Planable’s AI writing assistant, or improve existing content by expanding on it or making it shorter or catchier. It can even suggest captions based on your images or videos.
Drawbacks: Although the platform offers Instagram analytics, Planable lacks social listening tools at the moment.
Pricing: There’s a free version available that allows you to schedule up to 50 posts. Paid plans start at $11 per user per month (billed annually). Planable’s pricing structure is flexible, depending on your desired number of users and workspaces.
Canva is a graphic design tool perfect for social media visuals and videos. It includes templates and tools specifically designed for multiple social networks.
For instance, its Instagram Reel Editor gives you access to 14,000+ community-made reel-specific templates along with straight-to-the-point editing options. Canva also stands out through its Beat Sync functionality, which synchronizes your videos with your soundtrack’s rhythm.
Drawbacks: The free plan includes watermarks and lacks Canva’s social media scheduling tool.
Pricing: Canva offers a free version while paid plans start at $14.99 per user per month (billed monthly).
CapCut is a free all-in-one video editing software solution with tools dedicated to editing Instagram Reels and Stories. You can select between numerous regular or animated fonts and aspect ratios (9:16, 16:9, 1:1, 4:3,) while CapCut’s AI features take the editing grunt work off your hands.
You can post Instagram Reels directly from CapCut with just one click. The platform also allows you to collaborate with team members through comments and annotations.
Drawbacks: CapCut only handles videos up to 15 minutes in length, which limits your content repurposing options. Android users also report bugs, crashes, and other performance issues following CapCut’s latest update at the time of writing.
Pricing: You can use CapCut for free.
Veed.io is an AI-powered video editing software that does all the polishing for you. One of the platform’s standouts is its AI translation tool. It automatically translates both text and audio to up to 125+ languages — perfect for boosting reach. Veed also offers the option to create custom AI voices so your translations seem more authentic.
You can also edit Instagram Reels by automatically resizing your videos to fit the right aspect ratios, and adding animated stickers, dynamic transition styles, and subtitles. Other notable functionalities include a built-in video compressor and converter and a dedicated audio editor.
Drawbacks: Storage and video export length is limited across all pricing plans. Limitations vary based on your selected package.
Pricing: There’s a free version available, with up to 2GB of file storage. Paid plans start at $18 per user per month (billed annually).
Repurpose.io automates content distribution by automatically publishing it across all of your social channels — be it Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and more. You can also easily cut longer videos into unlimited clips and then publish them across your social accounts.
Repurpose also streamlines the video editing process through its custom templates. You can set up templates including your video’s headline, sub-headline, or progress bar placement and design. These elements will then automatically apply to your selected videos.
Drawbacks: Repurpose.io’s video editing tools are limited compared to other solutions — it lacks any fine-tuning capabilities. There are also large pricing differences between pricing packages.
Pricing: Repurpose.io starts at $20.75 per month (billed annually) with a 14-day free trial available.
Adobe Rush is a straightforward tool designed for quick edits. Although it also works on desktops, its simple video editor, coupled with dedicated iOS and Android apps, makes Adobe Rush an excellent choice for editing videos while you’re on the go.
You can quickly add music clips from the platform’s built-in library, add transitions, and tweak aspect ratios. All that’s left to do is publish your videos on Instagram directly within the platform. Adobe Rush also allows you to share videos on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Behance.
Drawbacks: Adobe Rush lacks any advanced features like keyframe animations, audio and visual effects, etc.
Pricing: You can use Adobe Rush for free. There’s also a premium version accessible through Adobe Express, which costs $9.99 per month (billed monthly).
InShot is a mobile editing tool that stands out through its broad selection of animated effects, like 3D, outline, distortion, animated stickers, slow motion effects, and much more. It’s ideal for making your Instagram Reels more memorable and energetic.
The platform also covers automatic object tracking, which makes it a breeze to animate specific video objects.
Drawbacks: InShot raises some security concerns — it makes it hard to decline optional cookies (like location tracking) and demands access to your entire photo library.
Pricing: InShot is available for free on Google Play, App Store, and App Gallery (for Huawei devices).
Unfold is a straightforward mobile editor made by Squarespace. The platform stands out through the option to set up Bio Sites via numerous templates and promote them on Instagram Reels and Stories.
Most notably, if you already have a Squarespace website, you can automatically port over its content to your new Bio Site. You can also set up payment gateways through Stripe, PayPal, and even Crypto.
Drawbacks: Although there’s a free version available, features like the feed planner are locked behind paid packages.
Pricing: You can use Unfold for free. Paid plans start at $12.99 per month.
Keyhole is an all-in-one social media analytics platform available for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Keyhole stands out through its ability to track network-specific metrics, including Instagram Reels and Stories performance tracking.
Other notable features include the option to analyze social media trends, identify and track influencers relevant to your niche, as well as schedule social media posts directly from the platform.
Drawbacks: Keyhole’s entry-level plan is only available for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. There are also significant pricing differences between packages, which makes scalability a challenge.
Pricing: Keyhole starts at $66.75 per month (billed annually). There’s a 14-day free trial available for all pricing plans.
It depends on your needs, but Planable is the best all-around choice. The platform’s extensive video editing features, coupled with its excellent collaboration, approval, scheduling, and analytics capabilities make Planable perfect for managing your Instagram marketing strategy — all from a single place.
Other notable Instagram Reels editing apps are as follows:
You can use numerous AI-powered Instagram Reels editing apps, but Veed uses AI to its full potential. You can use it to automatically translate texts and voice-overs in over 125 languages and create custom AI voices to improve authenticity.
Other notable AI features include the option to set up AI avatars for your videos and automatically remove backgrounds. Plus, its eye content correction tool automatically edits your eye movement to make it seem like you are always looking at the camera.
Instagram’s algorithms prioritize videos that are authentic, relevant, and engaging. Some components of viral Instagram video clips include popular soundtracks, proper use of hashtags, and generally high-quality visuals.
In other words, don’t skimp on editing videos and research your hashtags properly. Use Instagram’s 30-hashtag limit to the maximum and include popular keywords relevant to your niche, audience, and current reels trends.
And there you have them — some of the best Instagram Reels tools currently available. Although some of these platforms excel in various categories, like AI-powered translations, or mobile editing, Planable is the most versatile of the bunch.
For one, its editing tools allow you to fine-tune your videos through a broad selection of filters, the option to split, merge, and trim video clips, and much more. Besides, you can schedule Instagram Reels directly from the platform (and push them to Facebook as well), while its content collaboration and approval features ensure your videos roll out in the best possible shape. Not to mention that Planable also covers social media analytics.
And the best part about it is you can get started completely for free. It’s worth at least a shot. Try it here!
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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