The Blog

Must-Have Instagram Tools for Marketing Your Brand

Instagram offers a plethora of features including photo filters and editing tools, but sometimes they just aren’t enough to run a creative and attention-grabbing Instagram marketing campaign. The Apple App Store and Android App Store are full of add-on tools to enhance your Instagram audience’s experience. Below I have complied a list of 5 must-have Instagram tools to consider using for your marketing campaigns.

AfterLight

If you ever get the feeling Instagram’s filters just aren’t working for your photo, then it’s time to download AfterLight. I use the AfterLight App on a daily basis, not only for my clients, but also for my own personal Instagram use. The app’s main features include: 59 filters, 66 textures (light leaks, instant film frame, and dusty overlay), cropping and editing tools, and frames. With AfterLight, you can explore 59+ other filters in addition to Instagram’s 20. The additional features are especially useful when posting food and landscape photos, where, for example, sometimes the original filters can give your food a less than appetizing appeal. With AfterLight, your food will look delicious on Instagram.

Frame tool on Afterlight. Light leak tool on Afterlight.
Instant film feature.
Instant film feature.

InstaSize

The InstaSize app is the solution for all those awkward auto-crop jobs that Instagram makes. In case you didn’t know, Instagram crops your photos into a 640 pixel by 640 pixel square photo. So what about your panoramic and rectangle photos? The InstaSizea app allows you to create Instagram images that fully display your content. You also have the option to choose the color of your background and add filters and text. Instasize is a must-have download for those looking to explore different depths of their photos while avoiding poor cropping.

Add a border to your rectangle photo to avoid auto-cropping. Panoramic photo with borders using InstaSize

 

Repost

Giving credit to an original author-photographer becomes easier with the Repost app. In just three simple steps, you are able to successfully re-post an Instagram to your followers. The Repost tool includes the original caption of the photo and also creates a banner with the original Instagrammer’s username and profile photo. Just follow these three easy steps to repost. There are a ton of repost apps out there, but I find this one by Red Cactus LLC to be easier to use compared to others.

Step 1: Select photo to Repost. Step 2: Pick the position of your Repost watermark. Step 3: Upload your Repost and then post to your page.

Pic Stitch

Pic Stitch was made for creating photos collages to be shared on Instagram. The free app offers up to 232 different collage frames in 15 different photo aspect ratios. You also have the ability to customize the collage borders with different colors and line sizes. Use Pic Stitch to create unique collages and to avoid the dreaded “multiple posts in one day” faux pas.

Create a collage of photos using Pic Stitch.

Over

When using Instagram to market your business, it can be very powerful to enhance your photos with text captions. The Over App helps you add text and artwork to your Instagram photos. This app was designed with the creative Instagrammer in mind and offers 30+ fonts and artwork graphics to amp up the creative element of your posts.

The Over App allows you to add text and artwork to Instagram photos.

Using different apps to enhance your Instagram photos is absolutely key to executing a creative campaign for your business or brand. Like I have mentioned before, Instagram is all about visual appeal. These tools are essential to standing out among competition and getting your photos noticed.

What are some apps you use to edit and enrich your Instagram photos?