Instagram remains one of the most popular social media apps in 2024. The growth of its new sub-platform, Threads, looks to increase that reach as people migrate from sites like X to Threads and from Threads to Instagram. Creating an efficient and compelling Instagram strategy is challenging, but we’ve found our ten favorite tools that will make your venture into Instagram a success. 

Free Tools

Some of the best things in life are free, sometimes for Instagram, too. Free tools are usually limited in what they can do – either in the number of posts you can make or in your ability to track performance. However, free tools are an excellent way for new and emerging brands to get started marketing on Instagram. Notable free tools include,

• Mailchimp – More than just an email marketing tool, Mailchimp allows brands to create and share ads to Instagram and provides performance tracking as well. 
• Canva – Canva provides both free and paid features. Its free features allow you to create and share Instagram posts (if you want to schedule, you have to upgrade). While the free tool doesn’t give you analytics, the ability to create and share in one place is a convenient timesaver, and Canva has a number of free templates to help you get ideas.
• Instagram Professional Dashboard – Instagram provides its own native tool to help professional accounts track performance on the site. While it takes a little time to learn how to use the platform, the dashboard is free and offers up-to-date insights on posts.
• Pablo – Do you ever wonder where users share those beautiful pictures with affirmations that everyone loves to share? Pablo is one place. Users can upload their own photos and add messages to them in a variety of fonts and styles. They can also choose from a gallery of stock images. 
• Linktree – So, you have a website, a vibrant Medium blog, three different social media platforms, and a YouTube channel. How do you share all of those on your Instagram profile? With Linktree. While Linktree offers some premium features, its free service is perfect for collecting all of your links in one place and providing a simple link you can put in your Instagram Bio.

Premium Tools

While free is good, when it comes to marketing tools, you get what you pay for. Investing in a good marketing tool will help you step up your campaign. These premium tools also work well with the free tools in your arsenal, allowing you to take advantage of premium features with one and cost-saving with the other. 

• Buffer – Buffer is one of the most popular Instagram marketing tools. Schedule posts, track analytics, and comments, and utilize Instagram tagging. Buffer includes a calendar feature for scheduling that helps you plan out your posts for your Instagram marketing campaign. 
• Unfold – Unfold by Squarespace allows brands to create compelling and engaging Instagram stories. It includes templates and other tools to help make creation and tracking easy. While the app offers a free version, the upgrade to premium features is worth the investment. 
• Adobe Lightroom – If you want to post the very best visuals to Instagram, then Adobe Lightroom is just the tool you need. Lightroom brings the functionality of Photoshop to your mobile device, so you can take photos on the go, edit them to provide a professional finish, and then post them through the app directly or another tool. 
• Hootsuite – Like Buffer, Hootsuite offers posting, scheduling, and analytic tools for posting to Instagram and other social media platforms. Hootsuite also allows users to compare their performance to competitors and connects to Google Analytics to provide a wider view of your campaign’s performance. 
• Iconosquare – Inconosquare provides brands with end-to-end analytics tools to monitor posts and campaigns. This app also helps you identify Instagram influencers and suggests influencers relevant to your brand for potential growth and connection opportunities.

Are You Building Your Instagram Presence?

Media Components can help you build and market your brand. Whether you’re an entrepreneur starting out, a small business, or a large company, we have digital marketing solutions we can tailor to your needs. Contact us today.