[40] Shopify Instagram Tools To Grow Your Store Fast
Does Instagram marketing have to take up so much of your time? And how can you increase returns vs time spent?
Once you’re clear on your strategy for reaching out to your buyers, you need to be able to do more of it more effectively.
The way you do that is by employing some of the many Instagram marketing tools out there. A whole micro-industry of tools and apps has sprung up from the rapid lift-off of Instagram as the platform of choice for many ecommerce marketers.
The problem is that simply discovering the huge array of great tools and then unravelling the multiple features and benefits of each can be a bewildering task. How do you pick out the particular ones that might be best for your ecommerce business?
I’ve done all the scouting around and analysis so you don’t have to.
That’s resulted in 40 Instagram marketing tools that you can start using immediately to make life easier in your business. They will all make your Instagram marketing efforts more effective.
Of course, you won’t use them all – and some of them do the same things as others. But every single ecommerce marketer reading this should be able to pick at least four or five that will improve their business almost overnight.
The tools are focused on overcoming some of the key challenges Instagram marketers face:
- Making Instagram posts ‘shoppable’
- Rapidly growing your following
- Posting eye-catching images and videos
- Making content more engaging
- Improving search functionality
- Making sense of analytics
I have segmented these 40 tools into basic categories to make it easier for you to search them; or simply use the tags below.
For each tool, you will find an indication of price, a brief description, the pluses and minuses associated with it, as well as a link to where you can get hold of it.
You can thank me now ☺.
Plan & schedule content with these Instagram management tools
Let’s start with some time-saving apps. The most successful Instagram marketers create relevant, consistent, and timely content for their target audience.
To achieve this, you need to create, plan, and schedule posts before you publish them.
Designing and posting your content can eat up a lot of time (and memory!) – and these tools will help you reduce the time and effort involved in having to remember when to post.
SkedSocial
What does it cost?
7-day free trial; plans start at $20/month (from 0-20,000 followers) up to $100/month (for 1-2 million followers)
The basics
Scheduling tool for content uploading, editing, scheduling, and posting for multiple Instagram accounts.
On the plus side:
- Publishes content and even the first comment – useful for attracting activity
- Optionally sends email notification once content has been posted
- Upload single or multiple images at once to Instagram
- Can pre-write captions with emojis, hashtags etc
- Can manage multiple accounts from one log in – no logging in and out
- Can provide access for team members to collaborate if managing multiple accounts
- Inbuilt editor and filters available for images
On the minus side:
- No free version – only a free 7-day trial
Hootsuite
What does it cost?
30-day free trial; plans start at $14.99/month
The basics
Schedule content for posting on all the major social media channels, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
On the plus side:
- Well-established name in social media
- Allows you to cross-post the same content across Facebook, Twitter, etc
- Useful if you have a strong presence on several SM platforms & want to use one tool for scheduling all content
- Also allows monitoring and analysis of your Instagram account
- Can type captions from your computer keyboard rather than your smartphone
On the minus side:
- No free version – only a free 30-day trial
- If you are using only for Instagram, there are simpler scheduling tools
Autogrammer
What does it cost?
Free 7-day trial. Plans from $19/month – $179/month
The basics
Similar to Schedugram but can be used on other social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.
On the plus side:
- Easily manage & schedule content posts in advance on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
- Post now or schedule for later
- Can manage multiple social media accounts in one central place
- Also includes a basic photo editor
- Can upload bulk images with simple drag and drop
On the minus side:
- No free version available – only paid
- You may want to use a more comprehensive editor for Instagram content
Plann
What does it cost?
From FREE to $3-9/month (depending on Basic, Premium, or Unlimited version)
The basics
A visual planner and scheduler that is great for organizing your content feed and attracting new followers.
On the plus side:
- Easy drag and drop features for arranging content
- Aids branding so that you maintain a consistent message to followers
- Plan weeks in advance to ensure regular content release and to save time
- Manage several galleries at once
- Can zoom in on images
- Provides video support up to 60 seconds (paid)
- Supported on iOS and Android
On the minus side:
- The free version is very ‘light’ (limit 10 posts per month)
- Minimal video support
Later
What does it cost?
From free to $50/month
The basics
Popular app that allows you to easily plan consistent content to keep your feed engaging for your followers.
On the plus side:
- Available for web, iOS, and Android
- Syncs across your computer and mobile devices
- Easy-to-use interface with visual content calendar
- Can upload images from computer, Google Drive, or Dropbox, and pre-write a caption
- Copies the image to your feed and sends a notification for you to hit the ‘post’ button
- Makes it easy to feature user-generated content by searching by a particular hashtag
- Can create unique links with Linkin.bio to make your feed shoppable
- The free version is adequate for many small businesses
On the minus side:
- Can’t actually post for you (like Hootsuite does for Facebook or Twitter posts) because Instagram doesn’t allow third–party apps to post content. However, this changes almost monthly as apps try to manipulate the Instagram api before getting cut off again.
Create better posts (images & video) using these tools
Do you struggle to maintain the quality of your posts?
If so, then you are probably not using the tools available. The following apps can all help you create image and video posts that catch the eye on Instagram and elsewhere…
Over
What does it cost?
FREE or $3.99 for more features
The basics
Easily add text to images and be more creative with your Instagram image design – direct from your mobile phone.
On the plus side:
- Excellent for quickly adding text, creating graphics, and adding captions to photos
- Good for solopreneurs with limited graphic design budget
- Can also be used to design greetings cards
- Built-in store with many useful add-ons and font packs available
- Very customizable
- Keeps adding new features
On the minus side:
- Difficult to find any negatives: does what it does well and with variety
Pic Stitch
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pic-stitch-1-photo-video-collage/id454768104?mt=8
What does it cost?
FREE with in-app purchases
The basics
Create different types of collages and share them easily across social media channels.
On the plus side:
- Easy to combine multiple photos into a single picture
- Excellent for displaying products or lifestyle shots
- Up to 245 different layouts & 15 different photo aspect ratios
- Can add music to the collage
- Can customize photo borders
On the minus side:
- Some reports of app crashing
Landscape
http://sproutsocial.com/landscape
What does it cost?
FREE
The basics
Helps you quickly resize images for use across all the major social media networks.
On the plus side:
- Excellent for quickly cropping images to the right size
- Simple to use
- Reduces the time taken to produce multiple images for different platforms and purposes
- Allows you to spend time on making images high quality and original rather than on pure technicalities like size
On the minus side:
- Limited scope of features – does only one main job
Boomerang
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boomerang-from-instagram/id1041596399?mt=8
What does it cost?
FREE
The basics
Create one-second long videos to play forwards and backwards on a loop on Android or iPhone.
On the plus side:
- Created by Instagram so it is well-supported
- Easy to record short videos that catch the eyes of followers
- Videos play forward and backward on a never-ending loop on Instagram – great for capturing attention
- Simple to make basic edits
- Can turn a series of photos into a mini video
On the minus side:
- No advanced video editing features
VSCO
What does it cost?
FREE or optional annual subscription at $19.99 for advanced features and newest tools
The basics
Edit photos from a smartphone using high-quality filters for new image effects.
On the plus side:
- Has featured regularly in iTunes Top 100 Free Apps list
- Made by the company that created filters for Adobe Lightroom
- More filters available than Instagram’s own collection
- Easy to rejuvenate tired looking photos with a new look
- Great for atmospheric product shots and for maintaining branding
- Helps you stand out from the crowd
On the minus side:
- Few other editing features other than filters
- Occasional comments from users about lagging and slow loading
Enlight
What does it cost?
$3.99
The basics
Edit photos from your iPhone and add more of an original, creative quality to your image feed.
On the plus side:
- All-in-one photo editing tool for mobile (iPhone only)
- All the standard saturation and color temperature features – but more arty
- Two-toned gradients, decals, custom typography and curve adjustment provided
- Supports photo reshaping and includes a variety of brushes
- Photos can be turned into paintings or drawings
- Can mix several photos together to create a ‘double exposure ‘effect
- Adds originality and uniqueness to your Instagram shots
On the minus side:
- No Android version
Font Candy
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/font-candy-photo-editor-free/id661971496?mt=8
What does it cost?
Free or $3.99 for the full version
The basics
Mobile editor for adding text in different fonts and styles: great for creative, engaging messaging to your Instagram followers.
On the plus side:
- Easy-to-use typography app
- Clean, stylized text that can add a new dimension to images
- Includes spot-editing tools for hiding text behind image parts
- Most comprehensive font-editing tool available
- Can import and use logos in PNG format for branded content
- Captures attention with bold text or an amusing message on images
On the minus side:
- You must write a review on iTunes before you can change fonts, according to some users
- No free version on Android
Grow your Instagram following with these tools
To increase exposure to your target audience on Instagram you need to grow your following: you do this by reaching out to more of your potential buyers and managing existing followers more effectively.
Crowdfire
What does it cost?
From FREE to $200/month
The basics
Identify and manage people you follow, who follow you, and those you should follow.
On the plus side:
- Know exactly who is and isn’t following you – and who unfollowed you
- Easily unfollow people to tidy up your account and maintain a good follower:following ratio
- Useful for identifying and bulk following of competitors’ followers
- Quick way to significantly grow your account
- Identifies fans and admirers – followers you aren’t currently following back & your most-engaged followers
- Identifies blacklist and inactive accounts
- Also has a built-in content scheduler
- Available for iOS and Android
On the minus side:
- Free plan is very limited in features
Sprout Social
What does it cost?
Free 30-day trial. Plans from $59/month – $1500/month
The basics
A complete social media management platform, with tools to make your Instagram marketing more efficient.
On the plus side:
- Easily schedule content posts in advance and streamline the process – you receive a push notification when it’s time to post
- Can edit and store images in a central asset library
- Easy to organize and manage posts from team content calendar
- Helps you source user-generated content, manage comments, and monitor hashtags
- Able to seamlessly manage multiple accounts
- Can measure performance with Instagram reports
- Can also integrate with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter
On the minus side:
- Perceived as a little expensive for some small businesses – though it includes a lot of features.
SocialRank
What does it cost?
Free version available. Paid version with more features at $49/month; highest-end plan pricing available on request.
The basics
Makes it simple to identify and manage followers on Instagram (and Twitter too).
On the plus side:
- Allows you to easily manage your Instagram (and Twitter) followers from a simple dashboard
- Can sort by most valuable, most engaged, or other criteria and filters
- Helps you organize followers easily and segment your list
- Provides insight into follower demographics
- Can find followers and create custom lists to run campaigns (paid version)
- Great visibility of all your followers and their profiles
On the minus side:
- The free version is limited – only allows you to find and analyze followers, not run campaigns or see competitors’ followers
OnlyPult
What does it cost?
Free 7-day trial available. $12-65/month.
The basics
Track what your competition is posting and improve your own content to grow your following on Instagram.
On the plus side:
- Can view all competitors’ posts in one place
- Access info for up to 40 accounts from one easy-to-use dashboard
- Allows you to upload and schedule content
- Helps you analyse growth of subscribers, best time for posts, and the most popular hashtags
On the minus side:
- No free version – only a trial.
INK361
What does it cost?
FREE and Pro plan available (pricing on request)
The basics
Provides actionable insights that bring more quality and engagement to posts – which helps grow your following.
On the plus side:
- Easy-to-use dashboard
- Can analyze how well your posts are performing so you can quickly find out what’s working
- Able to view statistics for hashtags and filters, likes and comments
- Can analyze geographical origin of followers
- Helps you post more engaging content
- Allows monitoring and analysis of specific competitors’ accounts to see what’s working for them
- Helps you keep tabs on your follower: following ratio
On the minus side:
- No iOS or Android versions
Viral Tag
What does it cost?
Free 14-day trial version. Paid versions from $24-$249/month
The basics
Share visual content across multiple social media channels; schedule posts and monitor performance on Instagram.
On the plus side:
- Can manage multiple social networks from a single dashboard
- Can customize posts to each social network
- Allows you to upload multiple images at once
- Helps you analyze content performance and identify optimal times for posting
- Highlights failed posts and evergreen content that can be recycled
- Can track hashtags and repost easily
- Includes built-in image editing tools from Canva
- Allows simple collaboration with team members
On the minus side:
- No free version available
- Perhaps trying to do too many things at once – image editing may be better with a dedicated tool
Klear
http://klear.com/free-tools/instagram-analysis
What does it cost?
FREE. Paid plans start at $249/month.
The basics
Analytical tool to track Instagram influencers and brands in order to attract more major players with big followings.
On the plus side:
- Intuitive user interface
- Helps you build trust with your following
- Locates, follows, and helps attract influencers to your brand – on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and blogs
- Includes monitoring and analytics tools to measure performance
- Helps you manage relationships and analyze social profiles
- Basic (paid) plan lets you manage up to 50 Instagram profiles
- Used by some of the major brands
On the minus side:
- Free version has limited features – but may be enough for a single small business
- Paid plans may be regarded as expensive
Vibbi
What does it cost?
From $2.97 – $69.99/month
The basics
Social media management tool to grow your fan base, back up content, and stay up to date with social media news.
On the plus side:
- Can get more followers for your Instagram account by simply buying them
- Allows you to ‘buy engagement’ in the forms of likes and views from real viewers to demonstrate popularity
- Instaport service helps you download your Instagram posts to your hard drive for backup.
On the minus side:
- Buying followers, likes, and views may be perceived as ‘gaming’ the system – organic growth through posting top content is the best way to grow your Instagram account.
Increase ecommerce sales with these Instagram marketing tools
Q: Why improve your Instagram marketing?
A: To improve leads and sales.
This is where we look at a few of the tools that help in more direct ways to increase sales by making Instagram more shoppable. Instagram has traditionally discouraged commercialization but this has changed in recent times: many tools now bring your followers within a click or two of buying.
Soldsie (Formerly Have2Have.it)
What does it cost?
Free 30-day trial. Limited free plan available. Paid plans from $5 – $300/month
The basics
Helps your store create a virtual storefront by creating a ‘clone’ of your Instagram feed.
On the plus side:
- Simple to set up and use – provides a custom link in your Bio section of Instagram
- Increases clicks and traffic to your ecommerce store
- Can tag multiple products in images
- Users are able to buy by simply commenting on a shoppable post
- Can help you dramatically improve ROI from Instagram
- Can drive traffic towards product pages that help you convert more sales
- Helps you track performance with reports on conversions and clicks
- Provides inventory management tools
- Integrates with Shopify and is available for Web and iOS
- Helps you grow leads by collecting Instagram handles and emails from viewers
On the minus side:
- Not available for Android
- Users need an app to buy
Tapshop
http://www.olapic.com/tap-shop
What does it cost?
Free demo available. Pricing on request.
The basics
Helps convert more followers by turning your Instagram account into an extension of your store.
On the plus side:
- Seamlessly link your Instagram account to your ecommerce store
- Reduces the steps (clicks) between Instagram and your store
- Can send Instagram followers to dedicated landing pages to increase conversions
- Can link multiple related items on any Instagram post
- Users simply click a link to be taken to a page full of the products they’ve liked – and are able to purchase
- Users receive emailed links to any products that they’ve liked on your feed
On the minus side:
- No product pricing on website
Like2buy
https://www.curalate.com/product/like2buy
What does it cost?
Pricing available on request. Demo available.
The basics
Creates a gallery to help followers go beyond your feed to the product pages of your ecommerce store.
On the plus side:
- Simple set up with a custom link in your Instagram bio
- Creates a Like2Buy gallery with the products that followers tap on to like
- Helps turn ‘window shoppers’ into paying customers
- Helps you send quality traffic to your product pages
- Also assists with creating lookalike audiences to grow your following
- Analytics provide insight into what’s working and what’s not
- Used by some large ecommerce companies
- Reduces number of clicks from Instagram feed to buying products
On the minus side:
- No product pricing evident
Shopseen
What does it cost?
Free plan for one store available with a 10% commission fee. Other pricing depends on sales and store numbers: up to $499/month plus 1% commission (for the largest accounts).
The basics
Extends beyond Instagram and connects your followers to multiple stores – Shopify, eBay, Etsy etc.
On the plus side:
- Great for ecommerce businesses with multiple storefronts in multiple places
- Creates a virtual storefront through your Bio link
- Storefront linked to stores on Shopify, eBay, Etsy, and Woo
- Easy to manage and monitor inventory and sales as products are synched
- Simply collect payment by credit card – buyers don’t need an app
- Also includes scheduling tool for posts across social media channels
- Available for iOS
On the minus side:
- Not yet available for Android
- Paid plans take monthly fees and commissions
Like2Have.it
What does it cost?
Free 14-day trial available. $20/month.
The basics
Turns Instagram posts into shoppable images that send followers directly to your store’s product pages.
On the plus side:
- Makes it simple to curate and tag content that you want to make shoppable
- Works on all devices – mobile and web browser
- Very simple pricing – one flat monthly fee
- Integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, Big Cartel, WooCommerce, Etsy, and more.
- Can embed product-specific galleries on your product pages
- Includes scheduling tool to set up posts in advance
- Can customize appearance to your brand
- Includes ‘fanreels’ for UGC to show off your shoppable products
- Tools provided for tracking engagement levels with your galleries
On the minus side:
- If you have multiple stores you may need another solution – though Like2HaveIt is developing one
Inselly
What does it cost?
Free – no commissions
The basics
A virtual marketplace: sell your products directly from Instagram by adding the Inselly hashtag to posts.
On the plus side:
- Great for small businesses and sole traders starting up a store
- Easy to use – simply add hashtag #inselly plus any relevant product tags
- Simply log into Inselly, upload images, and keep product details up to date
- Informs followers that the posts they are seeing are shoppable
- Products on Inselly are easily, searchable, sortable, and shoppable
- Unlimited listings available for free
- Desktop & mobile stores provided
- Helps you keep track of orders
On the minus side:
- Larger brands will want a dedicated solution for branding purposes
FourSixty
What does it cost?
21-day free trial available. Plans from $50/month – $300/month
The basics
Send shoppers directly to your store using this popular, approved Instagram app that integrates with Shopify.
On the plus side:
- Shoppers can Add to Cart directly from tagged Instagram posts
- Allows you to embed product-specific galleries in the product pages of your Shopify store
- Includes a scheduling feature to set up content in advance for posting at the best times
- More advanced plans allow you to showcase approved UGC by monitoring particular hashtags and curating the content produced
- Can customize appearance to your brand
- Performance dashboard shows which content is driving customers to your store
- Google Analytics built in for extra tracking
On the minus side:
- Only integrates with Shopify
Showcase
https://showcase.abovemarket.com
What does it cost?
14-day free trial available. Plans at $29/month
The basics
Create shoppable Instagram galleries for your ecommerce store.
On the plus side:
- Simple to set up and for followers to use: a link on your Instagram bio points to your Showcase gallery
- Can tag multiple products featured in your posts so customers can shop directly from your gallery by tapping
- Helps improve Instagram traffic conversions
- Helps you display social proof on your product pages
- Can search for #hashtags and @users and add UGC to your shoppable gallery
- Appearance can be customized to your brand
- Includes a free mobile app
On the minus side:
- The free version doesn’t include shoppable galleries
Better measure and analyze performance on Instagram
Your return on investment (ROI) from time and resources spent on Instagram needs to be measured.
Your time is valuable and even though your Instagram account may be free, your time shouldn’t be. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools that help you to track and measure performance and assess ROI.
Iconosquare (was statigram)
What does it cost?
7-day free trial; monthly plans from $9 per account
The basics
Basically “Google Analytics for Instagram”: for analyzing all key performance indicators in order to optimize your marketing strategy.
On the plus side:
- Can easily monitor follower growth, influence, and locations
- Identifies optimal posting times
- Reports on post engagement rate – comments, likes etc.
- Provides benchmarking against competitors
- Monitor Instagram-based campaigns like contests or discounts
- Monitor hashtags and user-generated content
- Helps you stay on track with your marketing goals
- Available for web, iOS and Android
On the minus side:
- No free version – only a free 7-day trial
TrackMaven
What does it cost?
Free demo available. Pricing available on request.
The basics
Provides the data to determine ROI from Instagram and other social media campaigns.
On the plus side:
- Simple plug & play across all the major social networks
- Provides unified reporting across social media, blog, email, ads, and web
- Helps you prove the impact of marketing campaigns
- Can easily measure follower growth, traffic, engagement, and conversions
- Can measure performance against competitors, peers, and influencers
- Helps you optimize future campaigns by focusing on what works
On the minus side:
- Pricing not made freely available
Minter.io
What does it cost?
Free 14-day trial available. Monthly plans from $20-$500.
The basics
Analyzes your feed to provide in-depth data on your audience, engagement levels, and content mix.
On the plus side:
- Analysis of content helps you adjust and optimize your content mix
- Allows you to create more of what works and less of what doesn’t
- Shows number of posts, engagement rates, and source of engagement
- Simple analysis of best hashtags and filters
- Compare image and video content engagement
- Shows most popular time to post
On the minus side:
- No free version – only a trial
- Web only – no mobile app
Simply Measured
What does it cost?
Free user report available. Paid version has complete features at $500-$800/month.
The basics
Measure the effectiveness of posts and assess ROI from campaigns across multiple social media channels.
On the plus side:
- Helps you analyze posts to highlight which aspects of your content marketing strategy are working the best
- Identifies the best times to post and the best filters to use on images
- Reports on current engagement and interaction with followers
- Provides competitive analysis and keyword tracking in paid version
- Allows cross-channel social analysis (paid version)
- Allows you to find out the dollar value earned from marketing campaigns (paid version)
On the minus side:
- The free report (available to users up to 25,000 followers) has few of the best features
- Pricing not transparent on website
Social Insight
What does it cost?
Free trial. Business plans available between $29 and $79/month
The basics
Monitor and accelerate follower growth with in-depth analytics across multiple Instagram accounts.
On the plus side:
- Helps you immediately assess the best time to post content based on historic engagement
- Provides data on post engagement averages and maximums
- Includes complete data on followers gained and lost
- Can optimize your content using the most popular filters for images and video
- Can share data with a whole team of collaborators without sharing Instagram login
- Can link multiple Instagram accounts and easily switch between their analytics
- Regular new features added
On the minus side:
- No free version – only free trial (not made clear how long on the website)
Websta
What does it cost?
FREE
The basics
Manage your Instagram account more effectively by making more informed decisions.
On the plus side:
- Provides insight about posts, engagement, and relationships with followers
- Helps you identify the hottest brands, hashtags, and influencers
- Can view posts by theme to customize your Instagram feed
- Helps you manage interactions with followers for deeper insights
On the minus side:
- Web only – no mobile apps
- May be over-simple for some users
Miscellaneous apps that improve the user (or store owner) experience
We’ll finish with a few assorted marketing tools that can help you achieve greater things on Instagram.
Though they don’t really fall into any of the above categories, they are all loosely geared towards improving the user experience or bringing Instagram followers closer to clicking through to your store; and this is key to increasing sales.
Yotpo
What does it cost?
Free demo available. A range of plans available – pricing on request.
The basics
Makes it easy to gather user reviews from Instagram.
On the plus side:
- Brings great social proof to your brand – increasing potential traffic & sales from your store
- Sends reminders to customers to leave a review for products or your site
- Mobile-first set up makes leaving reviews simple
- Displays star ratings that are proven to have influence over buying decisions
- Helps you build a review library by importing existing reviews
- Can seamless share product reviews over other social networks to build trust
- Includes an on-site product review widget for direct reminders on your website
- Can also send upsell emails to increase sales
- Helps search rankings with Google Seller Ratings
On the minus side:
- Plan details available on website – but no pricing
Gleam
What does it cost?
Free with limited features and Gleam branding. More advanced plans range from $39-$149/month (with personalized branding).
The basics
Create competitions, email capture campaigns, and rewards systems.
On the plus side:
- Easy to set up high-quality competitions on Instagram in minutes
- Easy for users to enter contest –one click
- Helps you develop user-generated content and photo galleries for social proof
- Helps prevent fraudulent entries
- Also useful on your website for email capture forms and rewards systems
- Well-established: over 200,000 brands use Gleam to create competitions
- Fully responsive – suitable for mobile use
- Over 20+ languages supported
On the minus side:
- The free plan doesn’t allow customized branding
Wyng (was offerpop)
What does it cost?
Pricing only available on request
The basics
Manage User Generated Content effectively on Instagram and create contests to improve engagement.
On the plus side:
- Helps you set up campaigns that engage your target audience of followers
- Contest templates make it easy to come up with engaging designs
- Easy-to-configure campaigns to align with your brand guidelines
- Offers campaign previews and publishing to a landing page
- Can easily manage user-generated content from the content dashboard
- Works across other social media channels (Twitter, Vine) – not just Instagram
On the minus side:
- Pricing not freely available on website
Repost
What does it cost?
FREE
The basics
Easily share other people’s content to your Instagram following and showcase user-generated content.
On the plus side:
- Instantly share other Instagrammers posts (photos, videos and captions) with your followers
- Places a small text box with the handle of the user you’re reposting, to credit them
- Great for showcasing user-generated content
- Helps you build a community and grow relationships in your niche
- Helps you reach out to influencers
- Engages your community with relevant and original content from multiple sources
- Allows bookmarking to save and repost later
- Can search content by user or hashtag
- Available for iOS and Android
On the minus side:
- No web-based option
- Cannot actually publish the repost due to Instagram regulations
SnapWidget
What does it cost?
14-day trial available. Free plan available, with paid plans at $5-$7/month
The basics
Embed your Instagram feed on your ecommerce store: more visibility and social proof.
On the plus side:
- Easy-to-use tool that connects your Instagram feed to your website
- Enables you to grow your account by asking web visitors to follow you
- Offers several different Instagram feed layouts: grid, slideshow, or photo map
- Automatically pulls latest photos from your Instagram account to keep it updated
- Includes photo and video posts
- Paid versions support username and hashtag filtering
- Also work with Twitter and Facebook feeds
On the minus side:
- The free plan has ads
Mulpix
What does it cost?
FREE
The basics
Advanced Instagram search engine, helping users find images and videos using multiple hashtags.
On the plus side:
- Powerful engine designed specifically for searching Instagram
- Can use multiple hashtags to find the content you are looking for
- Can also search for captions, mentions, and tags
- Helps you improve your monitoring of competitors and curating of your own content
- Can search by industry/category or location – accounts are ranked by popularity
On the minus side:
- All it does is search – no other features (though some might see this as a Pro rather than a Con!)
Which five instagram marketing tools will improve your ROI?
To get the best results from your Instagram marketing, you need a clear strategy. But to put that strategy into place, you need help.
Trying to do it all manually takes too much time and will ultimately result in balls being dropped: quality will suffer and, ultimately, it will damage your results: fewer leads, fewer visitors to your store, and fewer sales.
The Instagram marketing tools outlined above save you time by automating what can be automated; help you grow your following by reaching out more effectively; assist with the creation of more original and more creative content; and help you track the progress of your marketing campaigns to improve overall strategy.
Few ecommerce businesses can afford to ignore that type of assistance.
If you haven’t already done so, go back through the tools and identify four or five you can test out. Most of them will start making a difference to your business more or less immediately.
