If you’re running a business these days, you know that social media is a huge part of getting customers interested and buying from you. Whether you’re running a brick-and-mortar store or an e-commerce fashion line, you need a strong social media presence. And one of the most important platforms you need to master is Instagram.

What may have started as a fun app for sharing pictures has now transformed into one of the most important platforms businesses use to interact with their customers. So you need to master your Instagram game if you’re going to be successful.

However, due to its popularity, you need to use all the right tools to gain as many followers as possible. Simply posting pictures regularly and using your brand’s hashtag isn’t enough anymore.

To learn about the best tools you can use for Instagram marketing, read on:

Grum

If you’re planning on scheduling a majority of your Instagram content in advance, Grum is a great tool that allows you to upload your content and have it automatically posted to your account at a later time. Additionally, you can use it on a desktop or laptop, so if you prefer to work with that format or have large files you can’t upload to your phone, this tool makes your life way easier.

Hashtagify

One of the most important elements of any Instagram post is its hashtags. This is what will get you new followers, and will help you to make connections in your industry. Generally, you need your own brand’s hashtags, niche hashtags, and ones that are trending to really make your post gain as much traction as possible. But it’s a hassle to do hashtag research, especially if you’re starting a new business and haven’t got the hang of it yet. That’s what makes Hashtagify such a great tool: they do the hashtag research for you so that you don’t have to worry about it.

Did you know: Seven out of ten hashtags on Instagram are branded–which is exactly why it’s time for you to make your mark with the right ones.

SocialSteeze

These days, having a tool that gets followers is simply part of the game. But some of these tools get you fake followers, which you definitely don’t want. That’s what makes SocialSteeze much better than their competitors in this field. SocialSteeze provides you with real Instagram followers, which means that you’ll end up with an audience that wants to connect with you. Considering that the ‘like’ button is used 4.2 billion times a day on Instagram, using a tool like this will make your likes count more than others.

Instagram Insights

No social media campaign is complete without analytics. After all, understanding how your posts are working and who your main audience is becoming is a huge part of improving your posts over time. Instagram Insights comes free with any Instagram business account (switch to that now if you haven’t already) and provides you with the basic analytic information you need to stay up to date on your audience.

Popmatics

If you don’t have time to chat with all your followers–after all, engagement takes a lot of time and effort–then one great tool to use is Popmatics. This tool uses AI-powered bots to chat with potential followers, which saves you time so that you can focus on improving your business. At the end of 2018, more than one million advertisers published their ads on Instagram, so this is a great way to stand out among the many businesses on this platform.

Quintly

If you tend to be a visual person, then Quintly is a great tool that allows you to see your analytics with visualizations instead of just numbers. It’s also flexible enough that you can decide what metrics you’d like to focus on; you can also check out how your competitors are doing so that you can learn from their social media efforts. Considering that 80 percent of Instagram users are outside of the US, using a tool like this can help you understand an audience you may not reach otherwise.

Instagram Stories

Even though this isn’t technically a tool outside of Instagram, you definitely need to be using Instagram Stories if you aren’t already. Influencers are using it, and teenagers are making it their version of a Facebook status update. So if you want a strong Instagram game, use this feature. 31 percent of people who make more than 75k per year are on Instagram, and this is a great way to get their attention.

So there you have it, some of the best tools out there for Instagram marketing. We’ve provided you with some great info, but be sure to check out other resources to expand your business, too. There are great podcasts to listen to and other information to help you transform your social media strategy. What other tools help you with your business’s social media strategy?