12 Instagram Marketing Tools & Use Cases You Should Implement ASAP

Finding Instagram marketing tools specific to the platform can be frustrating because it’s a unique social media platform. 

This is because Instagram is focused on image-based content, allows for fewer characters than other platforms, and purposely makes it difficult to link to your website.

However, Instagram continues to gain in popularity and is less of an option for marketers and more of a necessary channel to create a steady flow of content for.

According to Instagram, the platform will reach 112.5 million U.S. users in 2021. That’s one out of every three Americans. 

Furthermore, 37% of American adults use Instagram daily according to Pew Research and can be segmented by the following age ranges:

• 18–29 = 67%
• 30–49 = 47%
• 50–64 = 23%
• 65 and above = 8%

So, how can you leverage Instagram for business?

When marketing on Instagram, you’ll need to have software for generating leads, making cool images, creating videos, scheduling posts, business promotion, and analytics. And we have you covered. 

Here are 12 use cases on how to use the best Instagram marketing tools in 2021:

1. Best Chatbot for Instagram
2. Run a Contest on Instagram
3. Image and Video Editing Software for Instagram
4. Instagram Analytics for Business
5. Software for Selling on Instagram
6. App to Create Videos for Instagram
7. Hashtag Generator App for Instagram
8. Schedule Posts on Instagram
9. Add Instagram Feed to Website
10. Instagram Video Ads
11. Put a Link in Instagram Bio
12. Instagram Analytics App

Did you know that you can create a chatbot for Instagram? Well, you do now.

Customers.ai enables companies to proactively engage with audiences via live web chat across multiple channels in order to generate leads, re-engage customers, and offer real-time support. 

Using OmniChatⓇ technology and chatbot marketing automation, Customers.ai instantly connects customers and prospects to brands through native web chat, SMS text messaging, Facebook Messenger, and other popular messaging apps like Instagram, all from one platform.

Using Customers.ai, you can send messages to your Instagram followers, but not in the way that you can mass message people in Facebook groups, for example. 

However, you can direct your Instagram followers to your business’s Messenger window so that they can interact with your chatbot. It’s a bit of a roundabout way to do things, but it can be done.

In addition to sending mass messages to your Instagram followers, you can also use Customers.ai to run interactive Click-to-Messenger Ads on Instagram.

Check out how to create a Messenger chatbot for Instagram to see how it’s done!

#2. Instagram Marketing Tools to Run a Contest

Running a giveaway or contest on Instagram isn’t quite as rewarding as running a giveaway on Facebook. I’ve actually run this exact same contest manually in the past on Instagram, and it was a bit of a headache. 

However, how to do a giveaway on Instagram just got a whole lot easier with the release of Customers.ai’s Instagram bot, which is 100% approved by Instagram itself! This would be my first choice, always.

And if you’re looking for even more Instagram marketing tools, ShortStack is another one of the few that simplifies and automates most of the legwork.

ShortStack Instagram contests can be used to collect and display user-generated content (UGC), interact with your followers, and increase your brand’s visibility.

Using ShortStack, you can allow fans to submit to your contest without ever leaving Instagram. All you have to do is ask entrants to post to Instagram, include both your unique contest hashtag and the @mention of your Instagram business profile, and those posts will be collected in ShortStack as entries. 

Every post will spread your unique hashtag and your Instagram profile with the @mention, and you’ll be able to pull in all of the comments made on your posts. Comment entries include the commenter’s username, the comment they left and a link to the comment.

Then, use ShortStack’s random entry selector tool to draw one or multiple winners and announce the winners on your Instagram profile.

#3. Instagram Marketing Tools for Image and Video Editing

Instagram Stories provide marketers various ways to interact with consumers. And 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day, according to Instagram. 

The problem digital marketers run into today is that Instagram Stories don’t guarantee the level of engagement they once did. 

Therefore, as a marketer, you need to create more compelling stories, with strong visuals. And this is where Unfold comes into play.

Unfold is great for creating the visual journey of your Instagram Story. It allows you to: 

• Create engaging stories with user-friendly templates
• Edit photos and video with filters and effects
• Use advanced text tools with curated fonts and styles
• Export your stories and share them on Instagram

Unfold has both a free and paid-for version for iPhone and Android. Additionally, the paid plan is super cheap starting at just $2.99 per month.

#4. Instagram Marketing Tools for Analytics

Instagram analytics are especially useful for keeping track of hashtags and identifying influencers that match up with your brand identity. 

However, there aren’t as many digital marketing tools that are built specifically for Instagram as there are on other social media platforms. 

Analisa.io is an AI-powered platform that provides Instagram specific analytics for any public Profile, Hashtag, or Followers.

You can use Analisa.io to get Instagram campaign reports and follower demographics. Some of its most useful tools consist of:

• Follower authenticity
• Content engagement
• Influencer mapping
• Historical data
• Tagged relationships
• Competitive analytics
• Hashtag analytics

#5. Instagram Marketing Tools for Sales

Making Instagram “shoppable” isn’t easy due to the nature of the platform. 

However, Curalate’s Like2Buy product helps to drive traffic and revenue to your business from Instagram by providing your audience with a way to take action on the visual content you share.

Instagram only allows your fans to more-or-less “window-shop” your products, services, and content. 

With Curalate’s Like2Buy gallery, your audience can browse your shoppable Instagram feed, read your stories, reserve a room, or take any other action you wish. And according to Curalate, Like2Buy-referred visitors spend more time browsing on-site, view more pages, and have a greater average order value than the average mobile consumer.

To make your Instagram page shoppable, you can connect your product feed and select the content you want to feature. Then, Like2Buy will auto-generate a link for your bio, so your customers can shop.

#6. Instagram Marketing Tools to Quickly Create Videos

Magisto is a mobile application for iPhone and Android that you can use to quickly create Instagram videos.

With Magisto’s Instagram video maker, you can choose music, styles, and animated text from their library to add to your own videos which capture more attention.

Additionally, Magisto’s AI-powered video maker can analyze and edit your Instagram videos

Lastly, if you upgrade to a Magisto Pro or Business account, you can get Vimeo’s professional-level video tools for free. So that’s a pretty compelling offer and integration to consider for your Instagram marketing tools.

#7. Instagram Marketing Tools for Hashtag Generation

RiteTag has been my personal favorite hashtag generator and tracking tool for Instagram. And that’s because it gives you instant hashtag suggestions for your Instagram posts based on real-time hashtag engagement data.

RightTag has many cool features, such as: 

• Integrations with many social media scheduling tools like HootSuite or Buffer and allows you to add selected hashtags inside those platforms.
• Email alerts when new popular hashtags are receiving engagement in your niche.
• Measuring and comparing the metrics of different hashtag groups you’ve created.
• iPhone and Android apps for when you’re using Instagram on the go.
• Color-coded hashtag suggestions to make sure you choose the right hashtag according to your marketing goals.

One of RiteTag’s most useful features for Instagram is its ability to generate hashtag suggestions for an image. All you need to do is right-click on your Instagram image, select Get Hashtag Suggestions, and RiteTag will provide multiple options based on image analysis.

#8. Instagram Marketing Tools for Scheduling Posts

Later is more of an ‘all-in-one’ Instagram marketing platform that allows you to create a visual content calendar, preview your feed before you post, auto-schedule your posts without the need for notifications, and use analytics to figure out what content is working.

In addition to planning and scheduling your Instagram posts, Later provides the ability to keep all of your Instagram content in one place, and access that content on any device. This means you can: 

• Import media from a mobile device, desktop, Google Drive, or Dropbox.
• Search all your photos and videos.
• Create different content libraries for each of your Instagram accounts.

Lastly, with Later you can also find and repost user-generated content (UGC) by searching for hashtags, saving posts to your content library, and share the original content with your own followers.

#9. Instagram Marketing Tools to Add IG Feed to a Website 

Social Photo Feed by 10Web for Instagram is the leading WordPress plugin to easily present a customized Instagram feed on your website.

So, if Instagram is one of your top marketing channels and you’re on WordPress, this is the tool for you.

The Social Photo Feed for Instagram’s settings and features allow you to take full control over how to display the feeds and the content on your website.

Most businesses use Social Photo Feed on their website to:

• Increase user engagement
• Send more traffic to your Instagram feed
• Increase brand and blog awareness

It’s a great tool to add to a blog, photography website, travel and food blogs, and for WordPress users that want to spice up their posts with up-to-date images and videos from their Instagram profiles.

Learn 15 secrets on how to increase engagement on Instagram!

#10. Instagram Marketing Tools for Video Ad Campaigns

If you’re looking for a more powerful Instagram marketing tool for video, consider taking a look at Shakr.

Shakr is focused on creating video content for Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns and providing analytics on their performance.

Using Shakr you can do the following:

• Create mobile-optimized videos in minutes and test their performance.
• Engage your audience with personalized creative at scale. 
• Use data and many variations of videos quickly to determine which video version has the most relevance.

Shakr also provides its own graphic designers and custom creative services if you don’t have your own in-house design team.

#11. Instagram Marketing Tools for Instagram Bio-Link

Rebrandly is a URL shortener with custom domains that you can use to brand and track URLs with its link management platform. And their product LinkGallery is perfect for Instagram because you can create your own dynamic bio-link.

LinkGallery lets you manage one bio-link for all your social media platforms. However, as most Instagram power-users know very well, a bio-link for your Instagram page can be much more valuable. 

It enables you to direct your audience to all the different articles, events, sites, and shops that matter to them most.

Additionally, you can use Rebrandly’s LinkGallery tool to:

• Create a unique bio link and add new content to the gallery over time.
• Get detailed click stats from your audience to understand what they interact with the most.
• Enhance your users’ experience by directing them to specific destinations based on their browser.

#12. Instagram Marketing Tools with Actionable Analytics

Owlmetrics is another Instagram specific analytics tool that provides real-time, actionable insights.

Slightly less expensive than Analisa.io, Owlmetrics clean user interface simplifies the ability to understand your audience and measure growth.

Use Owlmetrics to do the following:

• Find out what resonates with your audience, and which hashtags trigger engagement.
• Track how much traffic you are driving to your website by adding a tracking link to your Instagram bio.
• Manage your team from its administrative tools.

So if you’re looking for a more simplified Instagram analytics tool, Owlmetrics could be the right choice for you and your team.

Explore More of the Best Digital Marketing Software

Looking for even more marketing tools for 2021? Check out our highly vetted lists of the best:

• NEW! Chatbot for Instagram.
• Free marketing software
• Tools for digital marketing agencies
• Marketing automation tools
• Trending digital marketing tools
• Social media marketing tools
• Ecommerce marketing tools

Important next steps

• Get started with SMS marketing campaigns by building a free Customers.ai OmniChat™ chatbot. Get Customers.ai for free today.
• Talk and learn about chatbots with other enthusiasts. Join Customers.ai Island, a Facebook group of over 35k marketers and entrepreneurs that are ready to support you.
• Advance your marketing performance with Chatbot University, a free chatbot tutorial and training area for chat marketers.

See all the tools in Customers.ai’s multi-channel chatbot platform by getting started with Customers.ai for free.