They say a picture is worth a thousand words, however this isn’t always the case.
Gone are the days of Instagram just being a photo sharing app, nailing the perfect caption is just as critical as getting ‘the shot’. Captions are a powerful tool that can make or break a post, they give businesses the ability to add further context to their posts to drive engagement, bio click throughs and follows.
Your Instagram caption allows you to showcase your brand’s personality and build relationships with your audience. It can be as long or as short as you need it to be, just remember the more creative you are and the longer someone spends reading your post, the better it is likely to perform.
So what makes the perfect caption, I hear you ask? In a nutshell it is one that provides value through either education or entertaining and inspires your followers to take actions. We’ve broken down the following steps to help do just that!
Skip through the section below
1. The Hook
Instagram gives you 1-2 sentences (125 characters to be exact) to grab the attention of your followers before they need to ‘click’ to read more, so make it count!
Start with an attention grabbing hook like a polarising statement, for example ‘We took an online store from 10k to 40k in sales per month with this single channel’’ (true story – but a post for another time!) or a question you know your audience wants you to answer such as; ‘How do you write engaging captions that get you more likes and sales?. Creating these ‘cliffhanger’ moments leaves your audience curious and wanting to know more.
With only seconds to capture your audience’s attention it’s important to think outside of the box when it comes to those first couple of lines of your Instagram caption, play around with the use of emojis and capital letters to get your audience to not only stop the scroll but click and read more.
2. Setup
The setup is exactly that, laying it all out to pull your audience in further and give them the context they need to know by briefly stating what’s in it for them. “So that” is an amazing bridge from your hook as to why they should care.
For example:
Today I am sharing the best ways to batch your Instagram content so that you have more time on your hands.”
As you can see the answer to ‘so that’ offers a benefit for the audience and solves a problem they have before you go on to add further value to your caption.
3. Share
Next, it’s time to share your knowledge and add value to every post. Making captions valuable is a key part of driving engagement. Connect with your community by sharing a compelling story, answering FAQs, or a how-to tip.
Treat this space like a micro-blog to deliver purposeful content to your audience, adding value to your captions is a sure way to encourage your audience to share, comment and save your posts as you become their go-to source for information and advice!
Feel free to use as much space as you need here, just be sure to break up your content with bullet points and line breaks to make it way easier to read. This helps draw the reader’s eye to different areas of the content, making it feel manageable to digest. Not to mention, when you divvy out your text into short paragraphs, you’ll help increase the likelihood of your followers clicking through on your CTAs.
Which brings us to our final step.
4. Call to Action
Close out your caption with a strong CTA, this is a non-negotiable and tells your followers exactly what you want them to do next.
Depending on the end goal, there are two types of call to action you can incorporate into your caption:
- Engagement CTAs
- Conversion CTAs
Engagement CTAs
Encourage your audience to tag, comment below, double tap, share or save to boost interaction with your post.
Conversion CTAs
Want your audience to take action by clicking the link in the bio to visit your website, signing up to newsletters or asking them to buy a product.
No need to limit yourself to just a single CTAs, why not use a combination of both to help reach your short and long term business goals.
Coming up with a good caption isn’t always easy but it’s important not to let your captions become an afterthought. At the end of the day nailing your captions can be a game changer for engagement!
We can’t wait to see you try these caption tips and let us know if we’ve helped you or get in touch if you need our help.
