There are a plethora of ways to grow your business with Instagram marketing. Using paid ads, influencer marketing, video marketing, and publishing various formats and post types, all while trying to crack the secrets of the algorithm.
But what about hashtags?
Many wonder if having a hashtag strategy is important and if hashtags should be included in social media strategy.
I mean, they are just some words, right?
Wrong.
They play an essential part in reaching your target audience.
So, if you're not sure how to use them to your advantage, or you want to upgrade your Instagram hashtags strategy, this article is for you:
If you're serious about growing your business with the help of social media marketing, Instagram hashtags should make the top of your list, as they are the secret sauce to success.
Searchability is possibly the most significant flaw in Instagram marketing, as you have limited chances of being found by a new audience. There are a few ways to get discovered by the target audience that is not among your followers:
Instagram hashtag acts as a keyword. As such, it helps the algorithm understand better what your post is about, which increases the chance of getting discovered by your target audience.
On the other hand, an Instagram hashtag can help a user find a solution for their problem, a particular product, inspiration, reviews, user-generated content, and so much more.
To sum it up, Instagram hashtags can help you drive business results by:
But to do this, you have to be strategic about them and pay attention to a couple of rules.
Let's go over some important factors that you need to count on when creating your Instagram hashtag strategy for your business profile before we cover some of the most frequently asked questions.
1. Be creative, but don't overdo it. Obscure, creative hashtags can only get you so far. And if you're not a world-famous brand, you probably won't achieve much. The only time you should get "creative" and create unique hashtags is for a contest or to encourage your followers to provide you with user-generated content. So be extra cautious when choosing small business hashtags.
2. Keep in mind the goal of hashtags. There are a few hashtag categories, and each one has a different goal:
3. Keep your campaign hashtags short and sweet. When creating unique hashtags that encourage your audience to use them, ensure they are easy to implement. The longer the hashtag, the greater the chance of making a typo and losing valuable content.
4. Don't use the same hashtags for each post. We're sure your social media content tells a great story, and each post promotes a different part of your business.
This is why creating social media content pillars and assigning specific hashtag lists are important. Strategically tagging your content groups will help you:
Learn more about content pillars with our deep dive webinar.
Now that you have a better idea of which hashtags to use on specific occasions and for different content groups, let's go over some quick hacks that will help you optimise your Instagram marketing strategy.
It's entirely up to you to position your hashtags in captions or the first comment of your Feed post. But there are some benefits to including them in the comment:
And don't worry - social media management tools like Sendible allow you to publish that first comment automatically so that this hack won't require any additional effort from your side.
You can add up to 30 hashtags under your Feed Posts and up to three to your Instagram Story.
But should you use all 30?
Not really.
It's not likely that a social media post can include 30 targeted keywords. Some articles don't have that much!
Instead, choose a maximum of 11 hashtags per content pillar! The best practice would be to have three to five permanent pillar hashtags and a few specific to the post you're publishing.
There are three ways to find popular hashtags to improve the reach of your Instagram posts:
Go to Instagram's Search and type in the keyword. Then go to tags and scroll down the list to see related hashtags. Pay attention to the volume, and once you've chosen the one you deem worthy of your posts, check out the top posts to see what format performs the best. This way, you'll be able to decide strategically which format to create (Instagram Carousel, Single Post, IGTV, Reel).
You can use a hashtag tool to find hashtags that describe your posts the best. Here are some you might want to try:
When choosing your social media management tool for your business or agency, you must ensure it includes hashtag suggestions. Sendible, for example, has a Hashtag Selector feature that allows you to pick the right hashtags by search volume and automatically add them to the caption or first comment under the post. This is a great way to override manual research, additional tools, copy-pasting and do everything in one place.
Source: TheFoodieDesigner
Use #brandedhashtag to be featured on our channel
Finding the right hashtag can be challenging, and falling into the trap of using popular Instagram hashtags can be very easy.
But, dividing your Instagram hashtags per corresponding content pillars will help you adjust your hashtag strategy, as it will be easy to compare the performance.
These two steps will help you optimise your hashtag lists by replacing those that underperform, adjusting the number of hashtags you use, and even tweaking your social media content strategy by updating your content pillars to fit your target audience's needs better.
Unfortunately, there is no secret formula or a combination of the best hashtags that will get you millions of impressions overnight. But if you stick to these rules, you might get to the point where you don't need to rely on hashtags to extend your reach:
To help you get started with your hashtag strategy for your Feed posts and Instagram Stories, we have created a couple of lists of popular hashtags divided by industries:
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Pro tip: Make sure to add location hashtags and geotags to maximise the reach of your post.
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More often than not, digital marketing agencies completely forget about taking care of their own social media presence.
And since hashtags play only one role in the overall marketing strategy, we have written this guide packed with inspirational examples to help you promote your agency on social media platforms.
Learn how social commerce can help you grow your e-Commerce business.
Experiment with mixing some of these general hashtags with a topic-relevant hashtag, such as #onlinelegaltraining, #techlaw, #intellectualproperty, #disabilityrights, #divorcelawyer.
Learn more about social media marketing for law firms with our practical guide.
Source: @CharlotteAime
An additional tip for fashion brands:
The new generation of consumers cares deeply about causes you support, so make sure to tag your holiday and cause campaign posts with adequate hashtags such as #supportlocal, #prideweek, #blackfriday.
Learn how to run successful fashion marketing campaigns with our handy guide.
An additional tip for SaaS businesses: Try combining these general hashtags with hashtags that are targeting your audience's pain points or interests.
As long as they are relevant to the post, this tactic will help you reach the right people. Learn more about social media marketing for SaaS.
An additional tip for healthcare brands: While you should use some of these hashtags in your posts, you need to keep in mind that a lot of other, non-healthcare brands use some of these hashtags to raise awareness.
This is why you should include more precise hashtags to target the right audience.
You could experiment with combining location and service hashtags along with the above-mentioned ones (e.g. #blooddonation, #teethwhitening, #dentalsurgery, #periodontist, #cancerprevention). Learn more about healthcare social media marketing with our in-depth guide.
Hashtags make up for an important part of your overall Instagram strategy. As with everything related to social media, it will take time to figure out what works and what your audience engages with most.
Sendible's social media analytics feature can help you keep track of how your posts are performing. By identifying your top-performing posts, you can hone in on the hashtags that work for your brand.