Did you know, Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users? Brands and marketers have recognized Instagram’s enormous potential and are utilizing the platform in large numbers.

With a base of millions of users, Instagram has undoubtedly become the hub of businesses and entrepreneurs.

Over 80% of Instagram accounts, according to Instagram analytics, follow the brands they care about. Every day, almost 200 million Instagram users view company profiles.

Instagram marketing tools have been used by both small and large enterprises to effectively explore Instagram.

So, if you want to grow your Instagram followers, this is the place to be. Because we’ve provided you with the finest techniques to increase Instagram followers as well as tools to assist you along the way in this long journey!

Consistency is crucial to getting your posts seen on Instagram’s algorithmic timeline. Without any further ado, let’s get straight into it:

How to Grow Followers on Instagram

Following are some tried and tested ways how to grow your followers on Instagram:

Post on a regular basis

If you publish your posts frequently and receive a lot of engagement, Instagram’s algorithm will likely place them near the top of your followers’ feeds.

Of course, quality always takes precedence over quantity. More posting frequency does not always imply increased engagement.

Concentrate on developing material that will appeal to your target audience.

Instagram scheduling tools enable you to post regularly, not worrying about updating every day directly from the app.

Quality content that provides real value to your readers, on the other hand, should always take precedence over quantity.

Utilise hashtags

The appropriate hashtags can help you reach a broad and focused audience, and unlike other social media platforms, Instagram users don’t appear to experience hashtag fatigue.

Begin by looking for hashtags that are relevant to your target demographic. Display AutoHash and Purposes are two free Instagram applications that can help you select popular hashtags for your Instagram photos.

With Display Purposes, you simply enter in a few sentences about your image, and it will suggest the best hashtags to use.

Hashtags are crucial if you want to grow your Instagram following.

When others click on the same hashtag from another post, it makes your stuff accessible via search or filtering.

People may also follow their favorite hashtags to see the most popular content using that hashtag in their Instagram feed.

Instagram enables you to use up to 30 hashtags for every post, but don’t go overboard simply to get to 30.

For optimum engagement, nine hashtags are advised. Just make sure you aren’t using nine hashtags several times.

Instead, categorize your go-to hashtags so you can easily add a few popular hashtags to every post.

Post in the active times of your audience

When it comes to posting on Instagram to gain followers and engage most people, there is no standard answer.

However, there are methods for determining the best times for your audience.

To begin, use Instagram Insights to determine when your target audience is available.

From your Instagram business profile, go to the “Insights” tab, scroll to “Your Audience,” and then tap “See All.”

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see when your followers are most active.

You should also think about when your material is most beneficial.

Learn how the Instagram algorithm functions

The shift from a sequential feed to a sorted timeline caused a lot of anxiety among Instagram users at first.

Since the update, 50% more people have seen the average post than before. So don’t bother trying to outplay the Instagram algorithm.

Instead, concentrate on figuring out how to make the system work for you.

Relationship, interest, frequency, timeliness, usage, and following, are the six elements that influence what appears in each person’s timeline.

Relationship: Accounts a person engages with regularly

Interest: How much Instagram thinks a person will like the post based on previous activity

Frequency: How often a person uses the Instagram app

Timeliness: How recent the post is

Usage: How much time a person spends on Instagram

Following: Posts from the accounts a person follows

Instagram’s algorithm aims to surface the best content for each user.

So, while six different factors may seem like a lot to worry about, the best thing you can do is create high-quality content consistently.

Lastly, you can use Instagram tools to grow your Instagram followers.

 7 Instagram tools to help you out

1. InstaChamp

InstaChamp is an Instagram-approved DM automation tool that helps you develop your Instagram following, expand your brand’s reach, and drive more visitors to your website.

Use InstaChamp’s automated answering service to save time instead of manually responding to each DM.

The tool can set up auto-replies by generating configurable templates that deliver the same message to all users or varied reactions based on keywords in the text messages.

InstaChamp, which was established to give brands scalable customer service and interaction, allows e-commerce, artists, influencers, and coaches to boost organic Instagram engagement and grow their following.

Some features of InstaChamp are:

• With technologies that connect your Instagram following to your own SMS and email lists, you can develop your community and gain new followers.
• You may re-engage with your audience whenever you want by opening the lines of contact.
• To increase meaningful conversations with followers, customers, and future customers, you can add real-time DM replies to Instagram comments, mentions, and more. 
• InstaChamp is available to your audience and consumers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. People also use Instagram to contact the people, goods, and service providers they care about.
• You can start 24-hour answering services to sell, support, and communicate with customers with maximum efficiency and authenticity.
• Increase the visibility of your content in the feeds of individuals who mention and message your business account.
• Increase your reach by using auto-replies to incentivize your followers’ shares, comments, and mentions of your brand.
• Turning Instagram traffic into web traffic can revolutionise the way you operate sales funnels.
• To increase conversions and purchases, direct message your Instagram audience and leads to a website or sponsor’s platform.

Pros

✅With automatic Instagram mentions and Direct Messages, you can grow your Instagram following, reach, and engagement.

✅Create leads, acquire contact information, and send to Google Sheets using Instagram.

✅This application should be used by influencers, content creators, coaches, and e-commerce firms who wish to automate engagement with their following.

✅InstaChamp makes it simple to grow your following with sophisticated automated features that generate traffic and enhance exposure.

✅By engaging with your audience in real-time on Instagram, you can achieve your business goals like never before.

✅Auto-respond helps get information in DMs and obtain contact information for follow-up.

✅InstaChamp makes it simple to host competitions and giveaways that boost engagement and reward your followers.

✅To receive an auto-reply from your followers, you can use any term trigger.

✅InstaChamp makes it easier to grow your network with sophisticated automated features that generate traffic and boost exposure.

Price

1.   Plan A: $708/year
2.   Plan B: $1404/year
3.   Plan C: $2124/year
4.   Plan D: $5064/year

Seems a bit expensive, right?

But what if we tell you that you can buy this incredible tool at just a one-time cost?

Yes, you heard that right!

Check out the one-time cost plan you can avail on InstaChamp:

1.   Plan A: $59/lifetime
2.   Plan B:$117/lifetime
3.   Plan C: $177/lifetime
4.   Plan D: $497/lifetime

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite powers social media for organisations worldwide, from the smallest businesses to the largest corporations, with over 200,000 paid accounts and millions of users.

Hootsuite helps users create their brands, establish relations with consumers, and drive business results that matter to business leaders by incorporating social across the whole enterprise.

Hootsuite allows users to schedule posts across multiple social networks (including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube), manage organic and paid social content, track customer conversations, break down silos in internal collaboration, and gain real-time insights from social media to make critical business decisions—all from a single dashboard.

Key features of Hootsuite are:

• From a single dashboard, create and schedule posts for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
• Assign tasks, manage permissions, and track team performance to fine-tune how teams communicate.
• By automating postings to reach the right audience at the right time, you may reach more consumers and increase interaction.
• Monitor rivals in real-time to gain strategic insights, mentions of a brand, and significant industry themes.
• By delivering new messages across social accounts to the appropriate people in a business, users may streamline how they provide customer care and assistance.
• With analytics, you may gain a deeper knowledge of what customers desire and compile that information into customised reports.
• Manage and monitor social advertising performance to reach beyond loyal followers and attract new customers to a brand.
• Improve your talents with Hootsuite professionals’ industry-leading certifications training and strategic coaching.
• The Hootsuite mobile app allows you to manage and maintain your online presence from anywhere, at any time.
• With 200+ tech partners and apps in the Hootsuite ecosystem, you may discover new solutions or connect existing technologies.

Pros

✅Access to a variety of social media platforms. The main benefit of using Hootsuite is that it links more social networks than any other similar application.

✅Hootsuite integrates with well-known social media platforms such as Twitter,  Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, WordPress.com, Foursquare, and lesser-known sites like Mixi. 

✅The amount of social networks available to Hootsuite users depends on their account level: free, pro, or enterprise. Three networks are available in the free edition.

✅The Pro edition, which costs $9.99 a month, offers access to more social networks channels and profiles within those networks, allowing users to have one profile for personal Facebook accounts and another for business accounts (or multiple business accounts).

✅Streams enable users to segregate content within each social network.

✅A directory or library, unique to Hootsuite, provides access to more than 100 apps, including apps for YouTube, Salesforce, Google Drive, and SoundCloud.

✅ The apps, according to Hootsuite, allow users to track social networks and websites that aren’t on the normal list.

✅While having access to applications is convenient, it is still another factor to consider. In addition, several of the applications charge a monthly subscription in addition to Hootsuite’s.

✅Anyone who appreciates multitasking will love Hootsuite, particularly if they value having a constant perspective of all the moving parts of your marketing strategy.

✅The whole collection of suitable apps contained in the platform that users may install and connect to automatically earns Hootsuite a big tick.

Cons

❌Although the multi-tab, multi-task layout is ideal for some people, it can be a pain for others.

❌To say the least, people who are new to social media marketing methods may find having all of the information in front of them at all times intimidating.

❌New users of Hootsuite should expect to spend some time learning how to use the platform and navigating it before getting down to business.

Price

Starting plan: $19/month

3. Later

Later is an SMM solution that allows businesses of all kinds and agencies to manage social media marketing platforms to schedule and plan content such as posts, videos, and stories for Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest monthly using a drag-and-drop interface.

Managers can utilize the system to distribute user-generated material, boost traffic, and analyze the performance of their posts.

Later also proposes using hashtags and customized post creation tactics to produce a fantastic feed and attract people.

Later is a social marketing tool that helps businesses of all sizes manage and develop their social network.

Later also proposes using hashtags and customized post creation tactics to produce a fantastic feed and attract people. Pricing for Later begins at $15/month.

Some features of Later are:

• It’s as simple as dragging and dropping to schedule your social media material.
• Later makes it easy to identify on-brand material, personalise it, and share it on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest in just a few clicks.
• Linkin.bio transforms your Instagram profile into a mini-website with analytics.
• Later assists you in determining what works best for your company and makes specific recommendations for improving your social media strategy.
• You may explore and save content from your favourite Instagram business and creator accounts to your Media Library for simple scheduling.

Pros

✅Some of the basic features of Later are drag-and-drop post scheduling, calendar view, and media library for storing images and videos.

✅Later can be a helpful tool for you if you’re a blogger or handle a single Instagram account. 

✅Later features a detailed analytics dashboard with a massive variety of insights from the platforms you integrate with the software. 

✅ Later’s collect media tab allows users to save posts and content from other Instagram users for later re-sharing.

✅Later also has a Quick Schedule feature, which allows you to drag and drop postings into time slots on your calendar.

✅If you have a premium account, you may additionally tag locations and users and get hashtag suggestions on the business plans.

✅Linkin.bio feature enables you to make a clickable landing page that helps in generating quality leads.

✅The Analytics options are exceptional, especially in response to hashtag performance.

Cons

❌Provides scheduling for Instagram stories but only via push notifications.

❌It doesn’t post videos to Pinterest via the mobile app, only via the desktop version.

Price

1. Starter: $15/month 
2. Growth: $25/month
3. Advanced: $40/month

4. Crowdfire

Crowdfire is a social media management application that helps brands, individuals, agencies, and businesses improve and manage their social media presence.

These tools are generally used to improve engagement and give better insights.

Crowdfire works with a variety of platforms and assists content providers in their development.

Crowdfire also allows you to customize and automate your content to meet your specific demands. 

Instead of going to the trouble of segregating posts from each social page, this can be done automatically for all of them.

Crowdfire is used by nearly 19 million people around the world.

Some features of Crowdfire are:

• This programme allows you to curate and organise web information from a variety of sources. 
• The content curation feature allows an individual or a company to concentrate on content strategy while leaving curation to this tool. As a result, it is both time-saving and efficient. 
• The content curation technology not only curates material, but it also curates images. This is by far the sole social media management platform that can suggest Instagram photographs.
• You have the freedom to post your material whenever and anywhere you want. You can quickly schedule the posts you want to publish, and your content will be published on Twitter,  LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and everywhere else you need it when the time comes.
• This tool’s analytics will help you create and share a unique professional report with the data you need.
• Crowdfire also provides competitor analysis. You can quickly assess where you stand in relation to your competition and build a plan to improve.
• Every comment, mention, or reply may be traced and tracked with this programme. Nothing will go missed because this tool will assist you in constantly monitoring your social media.

Pros

✅The analytics in this application will assist you in creating and sharing a unique professional report with the data you require. 

✅You can include all essential data items in the report, which will allow you to track your lead creation, earnings, and progress. 

✅Crowdfire also does competitor research. You can rapidly examine your position with your competitors and develop a strategy for improvement.

✅Your team may need this life-saving equipment, and Crowdfire is prepared to provide it. 

✅It also allows businesses to track their competitors’ followers to attract individuals who might want their goods.

✅The software is suitable for all types of users, including e-commerce retailers and social media agencies, who want to expand their reach and maybe win more clients’ email addresses through social media.

Cons

❌It has restricted account linking options.

❌There are fewer options in the basic plan.

❌The calendar view scheduling is only available in the premium plan.

Price

Free and Premium ($7.48/month) 

5. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is the greatest Instagram account manager and analytics tool.

It gives you detailed information about your content’s performance on Instagram, as well as your engagement, followers, and hashtag analysis. 

This Instagram manager tracks location, follower growth, and daily follow-unfollows, among other things.

You may also keep track of your followers and likes and acquire detailed information about them, such as their location and amount of social media influence.

Iconosquare also provides information on links and your profile activity, as well as hashtag and competitor tracking.

You may also keep an eye on your rival by comparing their performance numbers to your own, so you can make the best decisions possible.

Some features of Iconosquare are:

• The Iconosquare suite keeps track of the team’s posts and assists them in planning the best upload schedule.
• Clients can organise their content and trust the auto-publisher to send it out appropriately.
• Brands can also compare their data to any competitors in their industry.
• Some of the more useful tools are reviewing follower increases and losses and tracking comments.
•  The programme also facilitates team collaboration, allowing team members to accomplish more while maintaining a consistent brand voice.
• Customers can use a handy tool in the system to see how their growth is advancing or halting on a daily basis.

Pros

✅Clients can use the customizable dashboard to track their daily progress and reach across platforms.

✅They can analyze their online content and how well it performs with their target viewers.

✅For improved collaboration, everything is multi-user accessible.

✅Iconosquare offers competitor monitoring and tracking to help brands get to the top of their game.

✅Influencers may track how well their posts are doing and compare them to what their competitors do.

✅Daily insights can help firms monitor their engagement at a glance by streamlining critical KPIs.

✅It is easy to reply to comments, find new followers, and track likes, thanks to the real-time reports.

Cons

❌Iconosquare cannot monitor client mentions across Facebook and Instagram.

❌It doesn’t monitor promoted posts.

❌The dashboard isn’t user-friendly and customizable.

Price

$29/month

6. Buffer

Buffer is a web application intended to make managing social network content easier.

Its primary purpose is to promote content across various social media channels widely used in today’s digital environment.

The software allows users to easily share material through a simple interface and link to social media accounts.

In addition, the technology makes it much easier for users to generate and schedule social media postings. 

Buffer will handle everything for you, so you won’t have to log into your Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other accounts separately.

Buffer also simplifies the process of creating and uploading posts. It comes with a browser extension that allows you to easily integrate the programme with Chrome, WordPress, RSS readers, and other tools.

Some features of Buffer are:

• It saves you time by scheduling posts, managing your company’s social media accounts, and providing you with critical marketing performance analysis.
• Buffer has a well-organized UI that makes it simple to keep all of your social media accounts up to date.
• Its automated feature simplifies post scheduling, and its user interface has an aesthetic design with options for adding social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
• Buffer also has a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari to share material across several web pages.
• Buffer’s analytics can help you determine whether or not your content and scheduling decisions are beneficial. Whether you’re a home-based or small-business owner, its inbuilt analytics provide a good balance.

Pros

✅Buffer is a well-organized tool that makes keeping social media accounts up to date reasonably simple.

✅It offers a feature that automatically allows you to schedule social media postings.

✅It includes a sophisticated user interface with possibilities for connecting to social networking networks.

✅The statistics of the app will evaluate whether or not the decision to upload a user’s material at a specific time is effective.

✅Small and home-based business users benefit from the incorporated analytics since it provides a seamless equilibrium.

Cons

❌It lacks keyword tracking and an activity dashboard.

❌Content and reporting/analytics feature are not as good as other options.

Price

1. Free plan: Free forever
2. Pro plan: $15 per month
3. Small business plan: $99 per month
4. Medium business plan: $199 per month
5. Large business plan: $399 per month

7. Combin

Combin is an Instagram management tool that focuses on managing Instagram accounts.

You can try out all of the major features by signing up for the free version. On the other hand, Paid accounts provide far more in terms of user engagement.

You can use hashtags, location, and followers to narrow your Instagram search.

You may also keep a watch on the remarks of your competitors throughout the entire system.

Consequently, you’ll be able to target specific people and learn more about what interests your target demographic.

You can also monitor how the competition engages those users because you can keep an eye on them.

One of the features that consumers appreciate is bulk commenting on several accounts.

Some features of Combin are:

• Combin is a new service created by a group of Instagram developers and users that allows you to cultivate an effective Instagram audience without worrying about breaking Instagram’s terms and rules or the platform’s limits.
• Combin is a very intuitive, basic, and easy-to-use design.
• You may make lists of certain accounts’ followers and commenters.
• You may use hashtags to track and geofence them, limit search results by amount or date, and much more.
• You can even create custom searches based on hashtags or accounts with Combin.
• To boost visibility across the platform, Combin allows digital marketers to discover and engage the intended audience.

Pros

✅Administrators can also track accounts that do not follow back, monitor audience activity, and locate influencers using a uniform platform, making marketing operations easier.

✅You may locate people using this search engine based on their location, hashtag, or mutual followers.

✅This tool will also assist you in locating and communicating with those who follow and interact with your competitors.

✅You can also do multi-faceted searches by combining two or more parameters in a single query.

✅Combin enables you to keep track of the comments, likes, and followers.

Cons

❌To use it, you must be a member of the email list.

❌There is an absence of a 24X7 customer care service.

❌There are fewer options available with the free trial.

❌In Combin, a bot performs all the tasks in many cases.

❌The dashboard only allows five accounts.

Price

1. Starter – Free
2. Personal – $18/Month
3. Business – $36/Month

Final Words

Now that you have explored all the 7 tools to increase your reach on Instagram, which one did you find helpful?

Though there is plenty of fish in the sea, InstaChamp is the perfect catch.

It is affordable and reliable at the same time. With hundreds of features and a lifetime purchase, one-time cost, who wouldn’t want to buy this deal?

Even though it’s a show-stealer, the decision is yours to take.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are Instagram marketing tools important?

Having the right Instagram marketing tools for your business can skyrocket your marketing strategy and drive tons of quality engagement for your brand. It can give your brand the edge that it needs to beat out the competition and increase leads and traffic through Instagram.

2. What are some Instagram tools to increase followers?

There are plenty of Instagram tools that could be used to increase followers. Some of them are:

• InstaChamp
• Later
• Buffer
• Hootsuite
• Crowdfire

3. Is Instagram a good marketing platform?

Overall, Instagram is a good marketing platform because it provides many options to promote your products or brand.

4. How to use Instagram as a marketing tool? 

To make the best use of Instagram for marketing, you should first strive to build a large follower base. 

Create trendy and engaging content, experiment with all content formats on Instagram, analyze and monitor your performance using Instagram analytics, and enhance your strategy using Instagram tools like InstaChamp, Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, etc.