Growing an Instagram account takes a lot of time and energy. While running Instagram ads and reaching out to influencers are highly effective, there are certain tools that you can use to boost the growth of your Instagram business account.
So strap in and enjoy the ride as I take you through 7 of our favourite Instagram tools. When applied correctly, these tools will effectively complement your growth strategy for your Instagram marketing efforts.
Before I get started, if you are a small business owner with big plans, head to our blog right here to discover more articles that can help your business grow. Each week we release a new article that gives critical knowledge you need to grow your business. Articles are packed full of step-by-step guides and examples, that if applied correctly, could generate thousands in revenue for your brand. Last week's article was on influencer marketing. Featured was a complete step-by-step guide to an influencer marketing strategy. Packed with useful information for menswear store owners and real messaging templates to use when reaching out to influencers.
Without further delay...
Here are the 7 best Instagram business tools for 2021.
#1. Facebook Creator Studio
#2. Storrito
#3. Big Vu.
#4. VSCO
#5. Canva
#6. Preview
#7. Brand Collabs Manager.
Now, let’s get into each of these Instagram tools that can help you grow your business account and set you apart from others.
Let’s start with the best Apps to schedule Instagram posts - An essential tool to help you save time and publish content consistently.
#1. Facebook Creator Studio – Your free Instagram scheduling tool.
I’m sure there was a time in the past where you asked yourself:
How the heck is this brand able to post 6 days a week?
Whilst you might have found your answer in scheduling platforms like Hootsuite and Later, Facebook actually has its own tool to schedule Instagram posts called Facebook Creator Studio. Like Hootsuite’s and Later’s basic plans, Facebook Creator Studio is free and easy to use. Images and videos can be published directly to your Instagram or Facebook from Facebook Creator Studio with the captions, mentions and hashtags you want to use.
Tip: I personally like to use Facebook Creator Studio as you can dedicate a few hours at the beginning of every month to schedule all your content for the upcoming month. Like this, you can focus on achieving a high quality of social post scheduled up-front and spend the rest of the month focusing on up-skilling your staff and wowing your customers. It’s a really great tool for growth, as it keeps you on track to posting content consistently. And we all know that consistent content is great for growing your Instagram account.
#2. Storrito – Your best App for Instagram stories.
A drawback with Facebook Creator Studio, Hootsuite and Later’s free plan, is that you are not able to schedule Instagram stories. So, for scheduling our Instagram stories, I like to use Storrito.
This tool allows you to schedule up to 50 stories for free when you sign up. Then you need to upgrade to a paid plan, but it's only $15 per month. You can also add location, mentions and avail of other design features available in the Instagram App within Storrito’s dashboard easily.
Though a scheduling tool is crucial in growing your presence on Instagram, it's equally important to publish quality content. Posting, just for the sake of posting, does no good.
Nowadays, brands can better than ever leverage social to connect with their audiences and build community. So the focus for any serious store owner should be to post content that connects with their audience, and video content generates more engagement than any other content type on Instagram.
So, to help you feel more comfortable getting in front of the screen, chatting and building those valuable relationships with your followers through videos, let’s look at the best Instagram video Apps.
#3. Big Vu – Your Instagram video maker App.
This is my latest favourite discovery, and I can’t wait to try it with the guys in the office.
If you are a small business owner, you understand the importance of having a personal connection with your audience on Instagram, because having a personal connection increases engagement. And the more engagement you get on a post, the more likely Instagram favours and pushes your post to more people.
Getting on camera and chatting with your followers is going to build communities. However, not everyone is comfortable. Not everyone is a pro when it comes to putting themselves online. That's why I love Big Vu.
Big Vu is an Instagram video maker App, more specifically, a teleprompter App. It will help you script and shoot your video so that you can speak on camera like a confident pro. It’s also going to automatically transcript your words into captions which makes your videos more inclusive and more of an engaging experience for the viewer.
#4. VN - Your video editor App for Instagram.
VN Video Editor Maker is a free Instagram video editor tool, best known for its filters. So, if you are looking to tighten up your branding, sticking with one or two VN Instagram video filters and applying those to your posts are going to help you develop your brand, look and feel whilst creating a sleeker consistent looking Instagram Profile. Having a consistent brand, look and feel is going to help boost your engagement and it’s going to boost your followers. Because having a clean coherent brand Instagram profile will help you convert new account visitors into followers, and eventually, turn them into customers. (More on this later)
So, if you want to grow online, it’s definitely time to start creating good consistent video content.
Whilst video content is important in driving engagement and interest, a strong, coherent and clean Instagram profile is needed to turn new visitors into followers.
In a concept first developed by marketing genius, Russell Brunson, he explains how you should view social media as a place for networking and your Instagram business profile as your home. When someone heads to your home (aka your Instagram profile) to get to know you better, this will be the first impression they have of you.
Ask yourself:
How do I want my business to come across when people see my profile for the first time?
Professional, one that seems to have their house in order, or one that’s all over the shop?
To help you design a pleasantly aesthetic and coherent Instagram profile, these are our favourite tools to manage the look and feel of a sharp-looking Instagram Profile.
#5. Canva – Your Instagram graphic design tool.
Canva is a free web-based graphic design platform where you can really easily layout professional looking content. You can design graphics, animations, stories and more, and you can use your own original photos or you have the option of using stock photography. And the best thing, you don’t need a degree in design to use their program. Even if you are not 100% comfortable with technology, Canva makes it super easy to design what you want for your Instagram. You can lay out some company news or sales events. Whatever it is you are looking for, Canva makes it really easy. I use it a lot for my work.
#6. Preview – Your Instagram feed layout App.
Preview is a free tool to help you with your Instagram feed layout. It allows you to plan ahead of posting with the goal to create a visually cohesive feed.
Here’s an example of how we use Preview to create a more cohesive and clean profile for our Instagram business account.
With Preview, you can easily move your photos around where they look best and you can schedule them in time for your brand campaigns. For me, this has been a huge time saver.
Now that you got your content and your home (Instagram business profile) in order, it’s time to invite some people to drop by. To start crafting our list of invited guests, we look at tools that can help us get in front of the right audience.
#7. Brand Collabs Manager - Your Influencer marketing tool.
Brand Collabs Manager is also one of my latest favourites. This is a platform designed to make it really easy for compatible brands and influencers to find each other and then collaborate on campaigns. Brands can look up a list of creators based on their past partners, creators that likes their account or set up audience matches.
Here’s a result from the research I did using Brand Collabs Manager for our latest influencer marketing campaign. As you can see, I searched for micro influencers and mid Irish influencers that have an audience that is mostly men with an interest in fashion.
Instagram is a really great tool to get people talking about your brand. But if you lack the team and the time (perhaps still the knowledge) to scale up your Instagram, we are giving away a free 3-month social media management package (equivalent to a full-time social media manager) to every business owner that signs up with RJ MTM's Retail System during the month of August.
With RJ MTM’s simple to use, in-store and on-the-go system, menswear shop owners can easily switch: from offering set styles and fixed sizes to their customers, to customers having control over exactly what they buy from your store.
Thanks to full control on fabric, designs and fit, designing a garment from scratch has never been easier. It’s never been faster. It’s never been more scalable.
Get in touch with us for a Visual Tour with my colleague Frank. Find out how your store and brand can wow customers, keep them coming back for more products and do both of these things by lowering your monthly inventory costs by up to 50%!
All you need to do is to send an email to Frank at info@rjmtm.com, telling him briefly about your business and a date and time that works best for him to call you.
If you found this article useful, make sure to give it a big like or a comment. It will help me and my fellow writers know what type of content you enjoy and what type of content you find helpful. So that we can serve you better in the future.
Cheers,
Camilla
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