10 Best Instagram Marketing Tools For Real Growth In 2023

Read on to learn what Instagram marketing tools and strategies you can use in 2023 to grow your following and reach.

Instagram has come a long way since its debut in October 2010. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger originally created it as a photo-sharing application. But with Facebook’s acquisition in 2012, it became an excellent marketing channel for business owners, advertisers, and influencers.

Marketing on Instagram is extremely competitive. There are over 200 million businesses currently marketing their products on this social channel. If you’re serious about growing your business on this social channel, we’ve listed the Instagram marketing tools that can help you achieve your business goals and gain a lead in the competition.

We will include each tool’s key features, benefits, and examples to understand how to use them and what they can bring to your business. Try any of these tools and choose one that works best for your business to help you save time, build lasting customer relationships, and create stable revenue. Let’s get into the details.

9 Best Instagram Marketing Tools To Grow Organically

Instagram marketing tools have different features and functionalities. Here, we will discuss 9 marketing tools that align with Instagram’s core functions and best practices.

1. Iconosquare

When using Instagram for business, your first mission is to get your business profile searchable on the platform. Profile optimization is one social marketing strategy you should implement. It helps you showcase what your brand does/offers, what users can expect to see from your feed, and where they can find you.

Assuming you successfully built your Instagram profile, you may wonder how well you do the job. This is where Iconosquare comes in handy. It gives you a free tool to perform an Instagram audit. It has a simple workflow:

Step 1: Connect your business account
Step 2: Run a quick audit
Step 3: Provide you a free review, including a score

The score will represent how well or poorly you optimized your profile. Let’s say your profile isn’t as well-optimized as you expected. Iconosquare provides valuable tips to improve your profile. If you want to improve your overall performance on Instagram, you can count on its advanced analytics tool (starts at $49/month, billed annually).

It provides a detailed report showing how you’re meeting your business goals and pointing out the areas that need improvement. This powerful analytics tool features a customizable dashboard to ensure you’ll only see the metrics that matter to your business and precise needs.

Three important insights you can expect to track are content engagement, competitor analysis, and community growth. The latter includes the audience’s age, gender, and the languages they speak. All insights are easily understood, accurate, and displayed on a single page.

2. Sprout Social

Like other digital marketing strategies, understanding your audience is the top priority. You can never market effectively on Instagram if you don’t know the following:

Who your customers are
What pain points they’re facing
What are their needs and preferences
Lastly, how your business fits in the overall market

Instagram makes it simpler for businesses and influencers to understand their target audience. It provides an Account Insights section that displays your account’s performance and followers. It also shows the audience’s engagement for each content you’ve posted (posts, stories, videos, reels, and live videos). It’s an excellent way to determine their interests, lifestyles, locations, needs, and more.

If you want to dive deeper and extract more consumer data, the Sprout Social listening tool (available as a premium add-on) is the go-to option. It’s a powerful tool that monitors and analyzes social conversations about a specific brand, topic, and competitor.

It provides a single dashboard to track brand-related conversations and catalog them alongside the audience information. It’s intended to understand consumer sentiments better and provide a unique customer experience. All these are organized in visually appealing reports that you can easily share with the stakeholders. Other core features your social media team can use are listed as follows:

Audience Analysis: Identify the audience’s preferences
Consumer Research: Understand audience demographics
Campaign Analysis: Measure success and understand audience reactions
Influencer Recognition: Identify relevant industry thought leaders and influencers
Trend Identification: Track consumer behavior based on the current industry trends
Sentiment Research: Understand customers’ opinions on specific topics, products, competitors, and more

3. Plann

Plann is an all-in-one scheduler, social strategist, designer and content calendar where you can schedule and plan your Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and LinkedIn. It is loved and trusted by 3-Million+ of the best brands.

4. SISTRIX

Another crucial factor in increasing your following and reach on Instagram is using the right hashtags. It starts with a “#” symbol followed by words (no space in between) that best describe or are closely related to your brand, product, or services.

Coming up with a catchy hashtag can take time and effort. It can be simpler by using SISTRIX’s free tool, Instagram hashtag generator. This simple tool can quickly pull over 15 billion hashtag combinations. It has a straightforward workflow: input three hashtags you wish to search, then press Enter. The result page will show you the best 30 tags for each relevant hashtag.

Let’s say you plan to promote sports supplements that can supercharge performance while protecting the users’ muscle mass. You can search the most popular hashtags like sports nutrition and supplement. You also have the option to use product-specific terms. Look at the screenshot below to get an idea.

A heads up, SISTRIX limits your search to 25 queries a day. Once you reach the limit, it will give you the option to sign up for an account or wait the next day to refresh your limit. Popular hashtags are helpful for you to grow on Instagram. But don’t forget to include your personal hashtags.

Branded hashtags are proven beneficial in encouraging your audience to get involved in the conversation. Since these hashtags are customized, you won’t need to compete with anyone else, and all the engagement it will receive is hyper-relevant to your brand. So, you can never go wrong with your branded hashtags.

This is the strategy a sports supplement manufacturer applies to its business. They use hashtags #athohana (ohana means family) and #athorganic to build a community of healthy athletes and sports enthusiasts while subtly promoting their plant-based supplements.

5. Answer The Public

Be it an image or video post, the content remains the most important element to grow on Instagram. You must captivate your prospects’ attention with useful and emotion-evoking content. Inspirational and educational are two types of content that social media users like and share the most. If you’re looking for more content ideas, Answer The Public can help you uncover what people are interested in.

Answer The Public is a free search engine listening tool for content marketing. It can track down all questions people frequently search on Google (for example) and collate them. You can even set an alert (available on Pro Plans, starting at $99/mo.) to get the latest queries around your target topic or keyword.

This popular tool has a straightforward process. Input the topic, brand, or product you offer and set the location and language preferences. After hitting the search button, it will display a visual, circular image (also called a search cloud) that contains valuable questions and phrases people are asking about your target keyword.

Here’s an example to give you an idea of what the result page will look like. Let’s say you’re targeting a niche for professional consulting for MBA programs. As standard, this tool accepts 1-2 words per search. But you can extend it to 3-4. I’ve used the words “MBA admissions consulting” as a sample target keyword.

The first figure includes people’s questions that start with why, who, how, and more. Each phrase/question is highlighted in different shades of orange so you can quickly determine its search popularity. The lighter the color gets, the lower its popularity. The second figure contains related queries.

The results give you an idea of what topics you can feature in your social content. You can create a blog post highlighting students’ common pain points during admission and present various solutions. You can also provide free MBA programs catalog, admissions guide, and other relevant resources to help students on their journey.

You can also leverage Answer The Public to identify the most pressing questions you should highlight on your website’s FAQ page. This is especially helpful for contemporary services the public has little to no knowledge about like this virtual personal assistant services. Tools like Answer The Public can help them pinpoint questions visitors will likely ask about.

6. Canva

Assuming you finalize your content, you can plan how to present it on Instagram. Since this social platform is all about visuals, you must create a unique and attractive post. Canva can help you do the job right. It features a central platform packed with basic and advanced features, including free templates per content format.

Instagram reel: 8,168 templates
Instagram live: 18,925 templates
Instagram post: 436,919 templates
Instagram story: 256,443 templates
Instagram Shopping: 84,620 templates

You can also access its 1+ million photos and graphics and 100+ design types for other social media posts. Do you have an original image? Thanks to Canva’s continuous development, you can now edit and enhance your image like a pro.

Crop, animate, blur or convert text to image are only a few things it can do. Video editing features are also available, but it’s only suitable for simple tasks like splitting, trimming, and turning off/replacing the audio. Canva may not be a marketing tool, but it (an online graphic design tool) plays a vital role in making your posts look good and professional.

7. PowerDirector 365

Did you know videos receive a higher engagement rate than other content formats on Instagram? It’s true. It receives 38% more engagement than static posts.

It’s the best time to add video creation to your content marketing strategy to boost your reach and follower growth. Currently, there are four different video formats you can create: in-feed, stories, reels, and IGTV. Whichever you choose, PowerDirector 365 can help you produce quality and engaging videos.

It includes all the tools you need to edit your videos like a pro. The video effects use artificial intelligence to create a movie-like appearance. A few of the VFX are listed as follows:

Green screen
Motion tracking
Object detection
Sky replacement

PowerDirector 365 also provides third-party plug-ins to cater to the needs of modern digital creators. Screen recording, live streaming, and GPU optimization are a few of the good options.

This video editing app may look intimidating, but it’s not. It has a friendly user interface with drag-and-drop functionality. So users of all experience levels can use it with ease. It offers a free and paid version ($69.99, billed annually) and has an individual app for mobile devices and desktops.

8. Repost App & CrewFire

Creating original content remains to have a higher level of value. It helps you establish authority in your industry while keeping ahead of the competition and reaching new audiences. Unfortunately, many find it difficult to produce unique content consistently. One solution is publishing user-generated content (UGC).

UGC is the social media content created by your customers or followers. Most of the time, it’s in the form of a review to let others know if the product is as good as advertised. By default, you can discover different kinds of content created by users on Instagram by searching hashtags, location tags, and phrase searches.

Let’s say your business is a digital marketing agency offering different training courses and certifications. You can search for users who recently passed their certification examination. I’ve used the hashtag #CertifiedDigitalMarketer to get an exact match. Browse through the posts until you find an individual’s post showcasing their newly acquired digital marketing certifications from your training program.

You can ask that person’s permission to use their content. Assuming the owner grants you permission, you can use the Repost app to publish it into your Instagram feed.

It’s easy to do. Copy and paste the Instagram post link on the text box, and it will automatically generate a new post with a caption. You can purchase the Repost app at $4.99 per month if you want a more personalized appearance.

Manually finding UGC is time-consuming. CrewFire can save you time because it lets you add specific Instagram activities you want to track on its Activities Dashboard. Include clear instructions, and it will display all the published UGC relevant to your search. The best part is it can also track down other social media channels and online review sites.

CrewFire doesn’t offer a free version. You can purchase it starting at $1,000 per month and add 2 admins and 500 ambassadors. Watch the training video below to see how it works.

9. Agorapulse

Growing your following and reach on Instagram takes a lot of work. You need to post compelling content daily and effectively engage with your audience. Choosing the right social media management tool can save time and effort.

There are plenty of options available, but one that stands out is Agorapulse. It features an all-in-one management solution for social media managers, agencies, and businesses of all sizes. One of its core features is the unified social inbox.

It helps you boost your response rate by managing all incoming messages (direct messages, comments, or reviews). Ease your mind that you will never miss any sales opportunity and can resolve issues quickly. Other excellent features available are listed as follows:

I. Content Creation

Plenty of in-tool features to optimize your posts for maximum engagement. Image cropper, video thumbnail customization, and post preview are a few to mention.

II. Intuitive Publishing

Posting quality content consistently on Instagram can maximize your organic reach. Agorapulse lets you schedule posts, stories, and carousels through your mobile devices and desktop so you can do it wherever you are.

The scheduling feature can publish a single post and in bulk. The process for bulk scheduling is simple, and you can do it by uploading a CSV file. You can also enjoy unlimited scheduling on this Instagram scheduler, starting at $49 for every user per month.

III. Shared Calendar

Give your clients and marketing team an organized calendar where they can view all the scheduled content. You (as admin) and the clients can also approve and reject content. While your team can brainstorm ideas or give feedback on the individual post.

If you need help planning your content, you can download its free social media calendar. It’s a workable CSV file containing 20 post ideas for social accounts, holidays, and hashtags.

IV. Social Media Listening Tool

Discover what people say about your brand and your competitors. This listening tool can instantly capture public conversations (direct messages and mentions) about your Instagram business profile.

V. Social Media Return On Investment (ROI)

One of the important features of Agorapulse. It provides detailed analytics to identify which conversations and posts on Instagram drive conversions, leads, and traffic the most. All generated reports are easy to read and customizable.

10. Kicksta & trendHERO

There’s no instant success in growing your follower count. If you’re thinking of buying fake followers, STOP. Fake followers negatively impact your Instagram shop or business profile performance. It can destroy your credibility; worse, Instagram can permanently delete your account.

The sad news is that some might follow you even if you don’t buy fake followers. It’s a good idea to eliminate them before they mess up with your marketing metrics. Kicksta is a handy tool to grow your Instagram followers with no bots or fake followers.

It uses artificial intelligence technology to create a negative target list, blacklisting fake/ghost followers. It’s also helpful if you want to avoid targeting your competitors. Kicksta price starts at $49 per month. If you prefer a simple fake follower and audience credibility checker, there are tools available, like trendHERO (it also helps to track follower growth).

You can also spot fake followers manually, and here are some of them:

Check the profile picture, username, and bio. Fake accounts often use a free stock photo or leave it with no profile picture. Their username contains many numbers (@john123456789), and their bio doesn’t match their published content.
Compare followers count to engagement rate. If a user has 10,000 followers but only gets less than 10 likes per post, it’s a clear indication that it’s a fake account.
Check the comments they left. Active users always leave comments relevant to your post. So, when you receive spammy and impersonal comments, it’s safe to say it’s from a fake user.

Conclusion

Humans are visual creatures by nature. That’s why Instagram has become a global sensation. Take advantage of its popularity and grow your brand’s reach and following. With the right Instagram marketing tools, you can grow in no time. When choosing a tool, ensure to check its ease of use, features, and reliability.

Remember to optimize your bio, post consistently, and schedule posts based on the best time to post on Instagram. When creating posts, ensure to experiment with different content formats. It’s an excellent way to learn what works best for your brand and target audience. If you’re having difficulty finding the right topic for your content, here are some practical ways to find Instagram post ideas and other trendy topics that your followers and prospects will love.

The year 2023 is a great year to unlock new business achievements. We hope this list of Instagram marketing tools can help you meet all your business objectives and goals. Do you have other social media marketing tools to recommend? Share it with us in the comment section.