Instagram is much more than a social media platform for sharing pictures with friends and family members. It is also a commercial marketing platform for businesses to share promotional advertisements with their most loyal customers and followers.
If you were to buy 1000 Instagram followers to get your channel started, then it would get your business off the ground in no time.
Pro Tip: be careful where you buy Instagram followers from. Not all outlets provide legitimate followers. Some are bots!
However, it is not enough to obtain followers. You must also publish attractive Instagram graphics that will catch people’s eyes and make them want to click on your posts. Many newbies fail to understand this and assume that a few selfies or snapshots will be enough to attract a wider audience. That is not the case, though.
All you must do now is create graphics that look attractive and help grow your business to a higher level. If you don’t know how to create graphics, you should try one of the many social media graphic design apps available. They simplify the graphic design process so that you don’t need to design any graphics from scratch.
Below are the top five ways you can make excellent Instagram graphics to promote your business.
1) Canva
Canva is an online graphic design platform that lets you create professional graphic designs for various purposes, including Instagram Story and Instagram Post. It does not require you to have any graphic design skills either.
The platform gives you access to more than one million stock images and templates to quickly and easily design a graphic. It has drag-and-drop functionality, so no coding or artistry skills are needed. Just drag around the shapes, icons, frames, and images until you create the ideal design for your graphic.
And, of course, it allows you to input personalized text into the graphic to accommodate your advertisement. If you’re new to social media or have no idea how to create graphics, then the best place to get started is Canva.
2) Adobe Spark
Adobe is one of the most recognized computer software brands in the tech industry. They develop the most advanced software creation programs for big businesses, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals/hobbyists.
Some of their most popular graphic and picture creation programs are Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. However, they require you to have a certain level of skill before you can use them effectively. If you can learn how to use them, you’ll have the most impressive social media graphic creations in your company’s niche.
On the other hand, if you need to design many graphics without learning complicated design skills, you can settle for Adobe Spark instead. Adobe Spark is a more straightforward tool for creating graphics from your computer or smartphone. It offers Instagram Stories templates, stock photos, and design filters to create the perfect Instagram graphics for your business.
3) Pixlr
Do you want to have a little more control over the quality of your graphics? Pixlr is an online photo editor that is like a watered-down version of Adobe Photoshop. It lets you edit Photoshop templates and image files by applying various filters and effects to them.
You’ll have a layer palette and tools palette, just like in Photoshop. The difference is that Pixlr speeds up editing time with a much simpler interface and an extensive stock image library of borders, icons, decorative text, and stickers.
If you don’t have any photo editing skills, it might take you some time to grow accustomed to Pixlr. It is easy to learn, though, because it doesn’t require you to have the same level of skills that you would need to use Photoshop effectively.
We recommend you take photographs with your smartphone and upload them to Pixlr. Use the effects tools to make the photographs stand out and professionally reflect your brand.
4) Venngage
Business promotional content is not all about graphic and text advertisements. Sometimes, it helps to educate your target audience with scannable content that teaches them something about your brand and what it sells. You can do that if you create infographics.
Did you know that infographics are liked and shared three times more on social media? With a software tool like Venngage, you could create informative and eye-catchy infographics that people will love.
All you need to do is choose a template and add charts, images, and icons from their stock library.
From there, you can add text and modify the colors and fonts to your liking. More than 21,000 businesses use Venngage to promote themselves, including Microsoft, Harvard University, Forbes, HubSpot, Airbnb, and Google.
5) InstaQuote
Have you ever come across an Instagram post with a quote graphic? It might have a beautiful background with styled quote text over it. The quote could be a common saying, phrase, or words of wisdom that attract people’s attention. Instagram users post quote images and graphics all the time to deliver a short and simple message.
InstaQuote is a free smartphone app available for Android and iOS. It lets you create quote images in a variety of ways. You can upload a unique photograph of your own or use one of the stock photos available. Then you can add your custom quote and edit the text font and color scheme to match your brand’s colors.
Do not underestimate the power of quotes. They might seem simple on the surface, but they can be memorable if the words are influential to the viewers. In fact, many of Instagram’s top influencers utilize the power of quote creation software to satisfy their clients. Perhaps you could do the same if you’re running an influencer business on Instagram.
Extra Tips
Most of these graphic design software tools give you access to stock images, which are royalty-free images that you can use for commercial purposes. You’re not allowed to sell the photographs individually, but you can use them to create Instagram graphics without having to pay royalties.
In the end, the words you place over the images are everything. The images are only there to give visual support to the underlying message of your promotional content. If you choose to use stock imagery without added text, it might look repetitive if other companies use the same images in their Instagram posts. To stay ahead of the competition, edit your graphics so that they look as original as possible.
We’ve given you a list of the five best tools for designing graphics and editing photos. They are the most straightforward tools for newbies to learn. After a few months of actively posting social media graphics, you should see your Instagram account add many new followers. And most importantly, you should see your business gain more leads and customers.
