9 Best Instagram Marketing Courses to Grow Your Following
Instagram is an essential marketing platform for any business, and it has even become an opportunity for individuals and up and coming brands to reach customers and make money online. With over 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps. That being said, simply posting your content on Instagram is not enough to reach and cultivate an audience of customers and supporters.
Whether you’re just starting out on your Instagram journey or you’ve been at it for a while without much success, you can learn from marketing professionals who have tried and true ways to grow an Instagram following. These Instagram marketing courses offer some of the best advice for creating great content and making sure your target audience sees and engages with it.
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- Instagram Growth Blueprint by Social Buddy
- Hubspot Instagram Marketing and Ads Course
- Instagram Marketing Basics Course by Simplilearn
- Increase Engagement to Your Instagram Business Profile by Coursera
- Professional Photography for Instagram by Mina Barrio
- Instagram Strategy for Business Growth by Dot Lung
- Social Media Marketing Course (Professional Certification) by the Digital Marketing Institute
- Instagram Unlocked by Neil Patel
- Meta Blueprint
Instagram Growth Blueprint by Social Buddy
The Instagram Growth Blueprint by Social Buddy is a comprehensive course that covers everything from setting up your profile to content creation ideas to strategies to make the most of that content. Social Buddy offers proven results from their own clients to show how anyone can grow their Instagram account to 100,000 followers and then some. Not only does the course help you gain followers, but it also focuses on increasing engagement as well to actually drive views, likes, comments, and potential customers to your business.
The Instagram Growth Blueprint course itself clocks in at around 4 hours of content, with six modules and 60+ videos covering (1) How To Set Up Your Instagram Profile for Success, (2) Growing Your Instagram Followers Organically, (3) How To Research & Curate Content Topics, (4) Creating Compelling Content, (5) Advanced Tactics and Tools For Instagram Growth, and (6) Monetizing Your Instagram Presence. The course offers relevant and helpful strategies for businesses, influencers, and beginner and advanced creators alike.
Once purchased, students have lifetime access to the course, including any updates as Instagram updates its algorithms. Students also have access to Q&A’s with the creator of course for specific questions and guidance. The cost is $297, but the Social Buddy Instagram Growth Blueprint is currently on sale for $97.
Features & Focus Areas:
- Instagram profile optimization
- Follower growth
- Engagement growth
- Content creation
- Leveraging analytics
- Keywords, hashtags, and captions
- Monetization
Hubspot Instagram Marketing and Ads Course
Hubspot is a CRM platform for businesses that offers marketing, sales, customer service, content management, operations, and commerce solutions. Being a big name in the marketing industry, Hubspot offers its expert advice in courses as well, and their Instagram Marketing and Ads Course is a great resource for marketing managers, aspiring influencers, and small businesses.
The Hubspot Instagram Marketing and Ads Course offers advice on how to build an Instagram marketing strategy, how to create engaging content to resonate with your audience, and how Instagram’s features work to grow that audience. The Ads portion of the course also focuses on how to use the Meta Business Manager to create ad campaigns on Instagram and optimize them for better click-through rates and conversion rates, so if you’re looking to create paid advertisements on Instagram, this course offers helpful tips to get started and grow.
The Hubspot course is a total of 2 hours and 46 minutes of content, broken into 6 lessons, 18 videos, and 5 quizzes to test your knowledge as you go. The lessons include (1) The Elements of a Successful Instagram Marketing Strategy, (2) Creating Engaging Instagram Content, (3) How to Get More Instagram Followers, (4) Expanding Your Instagram Audience With Influencer Content, (5) Instagram Ads, and (6) Instagram Marketing Course Next Steps. Instructor Crystal King has an impressive background in social media marketing, so you’re sure to get great advice!
Hubspot’s Instagram Marketing and Ads course is free, so it’s worth checking it out at no cost! Once completed, you’ll earn a certification to add to your resume and you can also access other Hubspot Academy courses.
Features & Focus Areas:
- Instagram strategy creation
- Content creation
- Follower growth
- Influencer marketing
- Instagram ads optimization
Instagram Marketing Basics Course by Simplilearn
If you’re just starting out, the Instagram Marketing Basics Course by Simplilearn is a great way to dip your toes into the world of Instagram! This course was made for beginners, so it does a great job of covering the basics surrounding social media marketing and how you can use Instagram as a marketing tool for your business or your personal brand. If you’re a more advanced Instagram creator or marketer, this course may not be the most helpful choice for you, but it can’t hurt to start with the basics when considering your strategy.
The Simplilearn Instagram Marketing Basics Course covers topics including how hashtags work and how you can use them to promote your content on Instagram, as well as how to find the right hashtags for your business. It also covers how to gain followers and how to use Instagram to make money or drive customers to your business.
Simplilearn’s Instagram Marketing Basics course is only one hour long, so it’s a quick and easy way to learn! The video courses are self-paced, so you can take your time if you prefer. The best part of this course is that it’s free, so you can check it out at no cost. Once finished, you can receive a course complete certificate to share on LinkedIn.
Features & Focus Areas:
- Beginner friendly
- Hashtags
- Follower growth
- Monetization
Increase Engagement to Your Instagram Business Profile by Coursera
For business on Instagram, it can be hard to get noticed. Even if you feel you’re posting great content, it can be hard to realy reach your target audience and get them to engage with you online. This course is focused on Instagram Business accounts, especially those run by small business owners or those in sales or marketing who are trying to grow their brand on Instagram. The Increase Engagement to Your Instagram Business Profile course on Coursera offers actionable advice and insights to optimize your business account and create a strategy going forward.
This Coursera course is interactive and hands-on, as you complete training tasks along with the videos. The split-screen format allows you to work alongside your instructor, so you can immediately put what you’re learning into practice. Don’t worry – you won’t have to download any special applications or software to do so, but you will have to use a desktop or laptop computer and not a mobile device.
The course is broken into 5 hands-on lessons: (1) Create an attractive profile for your Instagram business account, (2) Publish visually appealing images on your Instagram business page, (3) Make use of hashtags to reach your target audience on Instagram, (4) Discover Instagram Stories and design your first Story with Canva, and (5) Fill your social media calendar and schedule your next Instagram posts.
The Increase Engagement to Your Instagram Business Profile course is about 2 hours long, but you can take your time working through it at your own pace. While it is a guided project, it’s still beginner level so you don’t need prior experience to try it out. It’s free to enroll with Coursera and take advantage of this course, and you’ll even receive a grade at the end to get feedback on your project!
Features & Focus Areas:
- Instagram Business profile optimization
- Content Creation
- Hashtags
- Engagement growth
- Instagram story creation
- Social media calendar creation
Professional Photography for Instagram by Mina Barrio
If you’re struggling with the photography portion of your Instagram strategy, this is the course for you! It can be hard to get your photos to come out just right without the help of (or budget for) a professional photographer. Without high quality photos, it can be extremely difficult to perform well on a visual platform like Instagram. With the Professional Photography for Instagram course by Mina Barrio, you’ll get the advice of a photographer so that you can take better photos for your Instagram!
Mina Barrio is a product photographer for various popular brands, and in this course she offers advice on how to showcase your brand on Instagram using only a smartphone as your camera. This course goes over how to communicate your brand’s values and create a personal style with your photography. She also offers technical photography advice to help you take better photos, as well as editing techniques to make the perfect content for Instagram.
The Professional Photography for Instagram course consists of 16 lessons, with 11 downloads available as well. The lessons are broken into 5 units: (1) Introduction, (2) Before the Photo, (3) The shot, (4) Editing a photo, and (5) Instagram Stories. She showcases different editing tools you can try, including free options, and provides creative photography ideas so that you can come up with the best content ideas to try with your new photography skills.
No prior experience is needed to take this course, and it’s available for $19.99.
Features & Focus Areas:
- Instagram photography
- Product photography
- Content creation
- Instagram stories
Instagram Strategy for Business Growth by Dot Lung
Instagram Strategy for Business Growth by Dot Lung is a comprehensive and fun course for those looking to stand out and make an impression on Instagram. Dot Lung is known as the self-proclaimed Mother of Social Media Dragons, and she makes for an entertaining instructor as she offers her advice after years of developing social media strategies for big names like Wix and Facebook itself.
Dot Lung’s Instagram Strategy for Business Growth course is all about generating attention and lasting brand awareness on Instagram, including what to post, how to post, and when to post on the platform. She discusses how to create evergreen content, strategies to boost engagement, analytics, and even basics walking students through how she puts together a post. The course also covers how to create a long-term strategy for your Instagram account, including calendar creation so that you stay on track for consistent effort. This Instagram marketing course was made specifically for anyone with less than 10,000 followers looking to grow.
The course is made up of 21 lessons with 17 downloads, and it’s broken down into 4 main units, plus a final project of your own: (1) Introduction, (2) The Dragon Framework to Create Irresistible Content, (3) Putting the Dragon to Action, and (4) Secret Sauce. You can learn at your own pace, and join the online community to discuss questions, ideas, and more. The course costs $19.99 through Domestika.
Features & Focus Areas:
- Content creation
- Instagram content strategy
- Engagement growth
- Content calendar creation
- Instagram metrics
Social Media Marketing Course by the Digital Marketing Institute
The Digital Marketing Institute is a professional network of experts in various digital marketing fields, including, of course, social media! Their Social Media Marketing Course offers extensive knowledge on not only Instagram marketing, but also TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, and X. If you’re looking to create a full social media strategy across platforms, this course might be the right one for you.
The Social Media Marketing Course by the Digital Marketing Institute includes 10 interactive modules, covering social research, strategy, content formats, commerce and affiliate marketing, as well as specialized lessons for each of the different social media platforms. The course is regularly evaluated and updated by DMI’s Global Industry Advisory Council, so you’ll be up to date on the latest in social media marketing trends and techniques. Once you complete the course and pass an exam, you’ll get a Specialist Certification. Upon purchase, you also get access to the DMI Membership Hub, which includes other digital marketing resources.
This Social Media Marketing Course is longer than others on this list, clocking in at 29 hours of content. It is definitely the longest, so if you’re only looking to work on your Instagram stategy, this may be more extensive than you need. It does offer great advice for those looking for a full social media strategy, however! You’ll have 24 weeks to complete the course, so you can break it up over time. Because this course is so thorough, it is also more expensive than others on our list of Instagram courses – the total cost is $1442 at the time of this publication, but that includes 6 months of access to the Membership Hub as well.
Features & Focus Areas:
- Social media strategy
- Social research
- Social apps
- Social customer service
- Social commerce & affiliate marketing
Instagram Unlocked by Neil Patel
Neil Patel is one of the biggest names in digital marketing, and he created an Instagram course that’s available on his site and on YouTube. Instagram Unlocked covers everything from why Instagram works as a marketing tool to case studies and examples of brands succeeding on Instagram. Patel goes into foundational elements of Instagram marketing, like setting up your profile, as well as growth hacks, advertising on Instagram, and other ways of monetizing the app for your business.
Instagram Unlocked is broken into two modules that he recommends breaking up into two weeks of content, although the videos themselves are only around 2 hours of content. The course includes worksheets and other assignments to try out on your own, so you can implement what you’re learning as you go and even apply it on your own Instagram account.
Module 1 consists of a course introduction, foundational aspects of Instagram marketing like setting up your profile, bio, content themes, how to use stories, and creating a content calendar, and then covers all the different content types on Instagram, like giveaways, tutorials, videos, before and after, and other trends to try. Module 2 dives deeper into Instagram growth, looking at the Instagram algorithm, engagement tactics, influencer marketing, monetizing Instagram, and case studies of successful influencers and brands. The whole course is free, so it’s worth checking out this expert advice.
Features & Focus Areas:
- Instagram profile optimization
- Instagram growth strategies
- Influencer marketing
- Content creation types and ideas
- Instagram ads
- Engagement growth
Meta Blueprint
The Meta Blueprint isn’t a classic course like the others on this list, but if you’re using Instagram you might as well go straight to the source – their parent company, Meta. Meta Blueprint is an online catalog with tutorials and information for all things Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. Their Instagram section has instructional videos and articles for how to’s on everything from the difference between personal and business accounts to tips on how to test to make your Instagram ads more effective.
The Meta Blueprint Instagram catalog of knowledge is easy to search, so you can search for specific issues or questions you might have. It’s also got sections broken into categories like Instagram for Business, Connect with Customers on Instagram, Stories, Live, Hashtags, and Advertising on Instagram. The Meta Blueprint also offers extensive free training for creating ads for both Facebook and Instagram, and if you plan to use paid ads at all, it’s worth checking out how to set it up from the source so that you can learn your way around their advertising platform.
All of these resources from Meta are free and regularly updated, so you can keep up with the platforms in real time.
Features & Focus Areas:
- Instagram tutorials
- Instagram ads
- Instagram for Business
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