In fact, content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images and receives more social shares. This statistic is for real, proving that having a visual content plan is vital to attracting qualified prospects to your funnel in generating leads and increasing exposure.

And with over 600 million active users, Instagram is now a key consideration – not only is the platform buzzing with your target audience, it’s an ideal option for executing your visual strategy. Top brands are successfully using Instagram to boost their brand image, foster follower relationships, and increase revenue. Including Instagram in your digital marketing strategy can accelerate real growth in your business.

There are many options for using visuals in your marketing. A good idea is to establish a plan that aligns with your overall business goals and can be integrated in your overall marketing plan.

Once you get to this point, here are a six tools to help bolster your digital marketing efforts with Instagram.

1. Crowdfire

This is one of the top apps for Instagram, and a must-have for any business looking to grow their Instagram following.

Crowdfire provides a list of your new followers, as well as those who have unfollowed you. Crowdfire also suggests other users who are likely to be interested in your service that you might want to follow to help boost your presence. The tool also recommends the best times to schedule and post your images and suggests hashtags to use. These are key ingredients to boosting engagement with your followers. You can increase, manage, and engage your Instagram audience using Crowdfire.

2. SnapWidget

An effective way of getting your Instagram feed in front of your audience outside of Instagram is embedding it on your website or blog. With SnapWidget, the latest photos from your Instagram account will show on your site, updating automatically as you post new image content.

Embedding your feed gives you free advertising and increased social real estate. This also presents the perfect opportunity to grow your followers by asking website visitors to follow you on Instagram.

3. Schedugram

Be efficient with your time and effective in your social media marketing with Schedugram. The beauty of this tool is the ability to set up all your posts and schedule them in advance to hit your feed at a later time, enabling you to maintain an active presence on Instagram while fulfilling other business duties. You can also manage multiple Instagram accounts through one easy web-based interface.

Schedugram also lets you easily upload images from your computer to your Instagram account, eliminating the need to transfer photos to your phone before uploading them.

4. Repost

Reposting and sharing other users’ content on Instagram is an excellent strategy for building relationships with your followers, highlighting influencers in your niche, and starting new conversations. This technique positions you to create an engaging community around your brand, giving you a competitive edge in your social media marketing.

Repost lets you easily repost images on Instagram with the tap of a button while giving credit to the original poster. It’s a great way to repost user-generated content, your favorite pics and videos using this tool.

5. Social Insight

This is an Instagram analytics tool to monitor engagement, follower growth, interactions, and overall progress to gauge your Instagram marketing success. Social Insight is important to your Instagram strategy because it lets you know what’s working, and what’s not, enabling you to focus on the content that is truly generating results.

Essentially this tool allows you to see data on lost and gained followers, gauge the best time to post based on history and account engagement, and link to multiple Instagram accounts. Social Insight also stays on trend with the market changes, rolling out new features and tools almost monthly.

6. Facebook Power Editor

Sometime this year, Instagram’s mobile ad revenue is projected to reach a remarkable $2.81 billion. It’s on track to becoming one of the most powerful advertising streams online, and since Instagram is owned by Facebook, you can use Facebook to run sponsored posts on Instagram.

With advanced targeting to hone in on your buyer personas, call-to-action buttons to boost conversions, and flexible pricing, Facebook Power Editor is an ideal tool to start a successful paid marketing campaign on Instagram.

Instagram is the perfect platform for executing your visual content goals and increasing your brands exposure. By utilizing these tools, you can optimize your efforts, boost follower engagement, and ultimately achieve better results and a greater ROI.

Article Written by Brad Friedman of Social Media Today