4 Instagram Story Tools Every Small Business Needs

At least half a billion people view Instagram stories every day, with 58% saying they became interested in a brand/product after seeing it in their stories. Your business can only tap into that potential if you’re making use of your Stories.

Instagram Story tools can help you make the most of that. With the right Instagram Story tools, you can quickly create compelling graphics, branded brand/product photos, and videos.

Why You Need Instagram Story Tools

Create better Visuals for Your Stories

Unlike feed posts, you can’t write anything in the caption. You have to tell your story and include all the details in the visuals you are posting, which is why high quality visuals are important.

Instagram Story tools can help you with that. With these tools, you can create graphics, edit videos and photos for your Instagram stories.

Save Time and Money

With the help of Instagram Story tools, you don’t need to pay a professional to create graphics or edit your images/ video. You can do that by yourself.

You can either opt for the free plans of the paid tools or subscribe to the paid plans, which are quite affordable.

Apart from saving money, these tools also save time. You can create your stories quickly. It saves you the time and stress of looking for a professional to help you with your graphics.

Schedule Your Stories

With some of these tools, you can also schedule your stories. With the scheduling feature, you can create stories in bulk for the future. All you have to do is save and schedule your stories.

If the tool can’t post directly to Instagram, you’ll get a notification when it is time to post.

The Best Instagram Story Tools

Canva

Canva is a top designing and editing app. It has thousands of graphics templates to pick from, and within minutes, you can create custom graphics. All you need to do is select a template and edit.

It is perfect for helping you create posters, flyers, and product images. The app is easy to use and is suitable for all users, from a beginner to a professional graphic designer.

With Canva, you don’t need any graphic designing experience to start creating branded graphics for your page. Once you’ve figured out your Canva template, you can create branded images and videos for your stories within minutes.

Pricing

The Canva app is free for both iOS and Android. There is also a free desktop version.

Canva Pro offers access to more features with access to 75+ million premium photos, videos, and elements. Canva Pro is billed at $9.99/month in a single payment of $119.99 annually or $12.99 monthly.

How to use Canva

You need to create an account to start. The dashboard is clean and easy to use. From your dashboard, you can start designing. The design templates are categorised into several groups.

how to use instagram story tools canva

To create a new design, brand your image and video, select Create a Design, where you’ll be led to the design page with access to all the editing tools. You can also choose a template to start.

how to use canva

There are custom templates for Instagram posts and stories if you don’t wish to start from scratch. Select any of the designs and start editing. You can change everything on the graphics and customise them to your taste.

Pros

  • Canva helps you maintain consistent aesthetics across your stories, posts, and page.
  • There are ready-made templates to choose from to help with your design
  • You can use the app both on desktop and mobile

Cons

  • You can’t post directly to Instagram.
  • There is no way to schedule posts.

Later

Looking for a tool that can help you schedule your stories? Later is an excellent option.

With Later, you can plan your Instagram stories in advance and see how they all look together.

Furthermore, the media library lets you upload as many media and visuals as you can. That makes it easier to collect the media to plan and schedule your stories ahead.

With the Collect Media feature, you can curate visuals and hashtags from several sources for your stories.

Pricing

Later offers a free plan with 3 paid plans from $12.50 to $40 per month. Besides that, you can customise your plan to meet your social media needs.

You have to be on the paid plan to schedule stories.

How to Use Later

You have to start with visuals. Later is designed to serve visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat so you must start your content creation by selecting visuals.

instagram story tools later

From there, drag and drop your stories on the storyboard. From the storyboard, you can arrange and plan your stories as you want. You can click on the Calendar view to see how your stories are planned out.

how to use later

When it is time to post your stories, you will get a notification on your phone. Upon opening that notification, your stories are immediately downloaded to your dashboard, including the captions/links. You can then post to Instagram easily within seconds.

Pros

  • You can upload as much media as you want.
  • The platform is very easy to use.
  • It's easy to upload visuals and schedule Instagram and TikTok posts with media library and collect media functions.
  • The Suggest Hashtags feature helps to come up with great hashtags that can help you extend the reach of your post.
  • Top-notch scheduling post feature. The preview function lets you see all your upcoming stories at a glance. You can also change the time for scheduled posts by moving them around on the calendar.

Cons

  • The pricing is relatively expensive.
  • There are occasional glitches with the post notifications.

Mojo

With Mojo, you can easily create short, captivating videos and animations for your Instagram stories. The app contains hundreds of animated templates for any kind of content you want to post.

These templates are easily customisable as well. All you need to do is find a template and tweak it. You can add effects, titles, animations, change colors, and speed in minutes.

how to use mojo

Pricing

It is free for both Android and iOS

How to Use the App

To get started, you need to download the app from either Google Play Store or App Store. You can use the animated template to show text content or engaging stories. You can also add custom fonts to make your animated video stand out.

instagram story tools mojo

Apart from that, you can brand your videos with Mojo with several editing tools, including Fonts, Colors, and many more.

how to use mojo

Pros

  • Hundreds of animation templates to choose from that make it easier to create a video.
  • It is easy to use
  • It is free
  • Makes it possible to edit and brand videos for Your Instagram Stories

Cons

  • No desktop version available
  • It works for only animation and short videos.

Over

Looking for a way to add some text to your videos and texts for Instagram stories? Over is a great tool to consider.

What’s more, you don’t have to do the designing yourself. The app has many templates, fonts, and graphics you can choose from. It is an excellent option if you’re looking to add some creativity to your Instagram stories.

Pricing

Over is free for both Android and iOS

How to Use the App

To get started, download the app on your phone from either Google Play Store or App Store. There are several templates available to create your visual/animation.

how to use over

The Stock Video Library contains many animations to help you add movement to your text/picture.

instagram story tools over

If you ever run low on ideas for creating your stories, you can use the #bestofover to get inspiration from other creators.

Pros

  • It is free
  • Customisable templates make it easy for you to create images and animations.
  • The app is simple and straightforward to use.
  • It saves time; you can create your stories within minutes.

Cons

  • No desktop version available
  • No scheduling feature available

Conclusion

Instagram Story can be an essential part of business marketing if you use them well. To get the best results, you need high-quality visuals - graphics, photos, and videos.

Instagram Story tools can help you with that. With these tools, you can create graphics and edit stories, schedule and post stories. These tools are simple and easy to use.

Heroes of Digital is the best social media marketing agency in Singapore, helping over 600 clients improve their Instagram marketing.

If you find yourself struggling to come up with new ideas for your Instagram Story, or are simply seeking a second opinion, get a free digital marketing consultation and learn how to transform your Instagram Story into an excellent marketing tool!

Shane Yuen
Co-Founder, Managing Director
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