Writing good Instagram captions is more important than you might realise!
Especially if you use it for your business.
So should your Instagram captions be funny? Serious? Inspirational? Should you use emojis and hashtags? And what about your call-to-action?
To help you get started and create Instagram captions that are as great as your photos, here are some top tips:
Why Are Instagram Captions So Important?
A great Instagram caption will stop a scroller in their tracks — and the longer someone spends reading your caption and engaging with your post, the better your post will rank with the Instagram algorithm!
Captions are a powerful tool that can be used to encourage likes, comments, and even visits to your website. And if your post gets enough engagement, it might even end up on the Explore Page!
What’s more, captions are a huge opportunity to build a stronger relationship with your audience.
For brands and influencers, lengthy captions that champion story-telling and authenticity are driving great results
The “micro-blogging” caption trend is a great way to connect on a deeper level with your followers, which in turn can boost brand loyalty.
Not forgetting that a good Instagram caption with an effective call-to-action (CTA) is one of the best ways to inspire your followers to comment on your posts. And that means even more engagement on your account!
WIN WIN!!
In a nutshell, you can’t afford to leave your captions as an afterthought.
While creating beautiful content for your feed is ultra important, if you want to get more engagement on your posts, and maybe even reach new audiences, writing good Instagram captions that drive engagement is a great strategy.
How to Write Good Instagram Captions
So what does a good Instagram caption look like?
In its simplest form, a good Instagram caption is one that provides context, adds personality, and inspires your followers to take action.
But writer’s block is real, and when you’ve spent time and effort perfecting your Instagram images, crafting a caption can seem like added work you don’t have time for.
To help you start writing good Instagram captions that convert readers into loyal, engaged followers, we’re sharing our top tips!
Tip #1: Write a Killer First Line
Making the first part of your Instagram caption super-engaging and enticing is a sure-fire way to boost the amount of time people spend viewing your post.
The trick is to ensure that you deliver the punchy, attention-grabbing element of your first line before the caption is truncated (shortened) — so it’s visible in someone’s feed without them having to click “more”.
You could spark your followers’ curiosity with an intriguing statement, or capture their attention with hard-hitting stats, trigger an emotional response or share an exclusive offer.
Whatever tactic you choose, just remember that the goal is to pique your followers’ interest, so they’re more likely to read your full caption and engage with your post.
Tip #2: Add a Call-to-Action
The simple act of including a call-to-action in your Instagram caption and inviting your audience to comment or like a post can go a very long way it when it comes to driving more engagement.
And the best bit — the engagement doesn’t stop with Instagram!
A good CTA can inspire your followers to engage with your business website, sign up to a newsletter or shop online!
Here’s how to nail your CTAs in your Instagram posts:
Using Call-to-Actions to Drive Engagement
If you want more engagement on your posts, all you have to do is ask!
Add a call-to-action to your Instagram captions like “double tap if you agree”, or ask a personal question to encourage more comments on your post.
Not only will this strengthen the sense of community on your Instagram account, but it will also provide positive indicators for the Instagram algorithm — which will lead to more exposure for your post.
Try to keep your CTAs fun and easy to do to encourage as many engagements as possible.
Another great call-to-action that will boost your post with the Instagram algorithm is to ask your followers to tag their friends in the comment section of your post.
This can be as simple as saying: “Tag a friend who needs to hear this!”, or “Tag someone that would wear this!”.
Alternatively, you could run an Instagram contest that requires users to tag a friend in the comments section in order to enter.
If you’re planning on running an Instagram contest, it’s a good idea to include “contest” or “giveaway” at the beginning of your caption to really capture your followers’ attention!
Using Call-to-Actions to Divert Traffic to Your Site
You can also use call-to-actions to encourage your audience to visit your website or purchase a product
If you have over 10k followers on Instagram, you can add direct links to your Instagram Stories and invite viewers to “swipe up” to learn more.
Tease the Value of Completing a Call-to-Action
To make your call-to-actions even more effective, let your followers know what they stand to gain by doing it.
This can be as simple as adding “so that” to your captions — such as: “enter my competition so that you can win…” — or by setting out what your audience will learn by following your CTA!
Adding a simple reason for why your followers should follow your call-to-action will encourage them to do so, which will help you achieve your goals!
Make Your Call-to-Actions Stand Out
As captions get longer, it’s easier for your call-to-action to get lost amongst all of your caption copy.
To combat this, you can use a custom font to jazz up your captions and draw more attention to your call-to-action.
And creating a custom font is easy!
All you have to do is paste your call-to-action into a custom font tool, like IGfonts.io, to generate a whole range of fonts that you can simply copy and paste into your caption.
You can also use eye-catching emojis, capital letters, or symbols to make your call-to-actions extra visible!
Tip #3: Add Line Breaks to Longer Captions
Keeping your Instagram captions short and punchy is a great way to ensure your message gets across — but what about when you’ve got lots to say?
Adding line breaks to your Instagram captions will keep them easy to digest, even when you’ve got several points to make!
This simple spacing hack is great for breaking up hefty captions, that could be a serious turn-off for your followers.
Simply add individual symbols, like stars or dashes, each on a new line of text, to create line breaks in your captions, ideally you would do this in the notes section of your phone and copy and paste it into your Instagram caption
Tip #4: Use a Consistent Brand Voice
Aside from the obvious tips on using proper grammar and spelling, one of the most important parts of any good Instagram caption is a consistent, and on-brand, voice.
Your Instagram captions should mirror your brand personality, and they should sound and feel like the rest of your marketing channels.
In general, it’s a good idea to take a more informal tone in your captions, as this will make your posts more personable — which is great for encouraging engagement!
A quick tip is to read your captions out loud and or dictate your caption to your phone using your voice notes. If it doesn’t sound like how you’d naturally speak, then it might be worth going back to the drawing board.
Tip #5: Pick 2-3 Focal Themes
A consistent Instagram feed aesthetic is one of the best ways to grow a large and loyal following while showing off your brand’s unique style and tone — and the same applies for your Instagram captions!
Consistent Instagram captions will give your account a stronger personality and focus, reinforcing that you’re an expert in your domain — whatever that may be!
An easy way to do this is to set 2-3 themes that you can write about time and time again.
You can even assign a regular time slot to share posts related to a specific theme.
Tip #6: Include Eye-Catching Emojis
When you aren’t using emojis to draw attention to your call-to-action, you can use them to add personality to your Instagram caption.
You can insert multiple emojis at the beginning of your caption to catch the eye of your followers with a bit of color, so they want to click to read more, or you can replace whole words with an emoji.
Even if you just add an emoji at the end of your Instagram caption, it will make your caption more inviting to your followers — and why not? Everyone loves an emoji!
Tip #7: Write Your Captions in Batches
One of the biggest reasons people have trouble writing Instagram captions is because they try to do it on the fly, which definitely isn’t ideal.
Instead of jumping from task to task, it’s much more efficient to write your Instagram captions in one solid batch writing session — so you can really get in the zone!
So whether that’s first thing on Monday morning, or it’s your last task before the weekend, carve out some time and dedicate it just to captions.
If you want to get organized with captions, you can plan your Instagram posts ahead of time with various different apps so you can craft and edit all of your captions in one go:
And once you’re happy with your captions, you can schedule and set your post to automatically go live when you want them too — making your content calendar even easier to manage!
Tip #8: Use Hashtags to Boost Your Discoverability
Not only can hashtags help you gain more Instagram followers, but they’re a great way to connect with customers, find content created about you by your followers, and build long-term relationships with influential partners!
How Instagram Hashtags Work in Captions
Hashtags help organize and categorize photos and video content, which means that Instagram knows when to show your post to viewers who have searched the hashtag, or are browsing the Explore page.
For example, a food blogger could post a picture of a smoothie bowl, and then use the hashtags #superfoods, #cleaneating, and #vegansofig when it’s uploaded to Instagram.
How to Be Strategic With Hashtags
In order to be successful with hashtags, it’s important to be strategic about your hashtag usage.
The “most popular” Instagram hashtags are just simple words, and while tagging #love, #happy, and #dog may get you a few more likes, it’s not going to do much for your growth in the long run.
Instead of using the most popular Instagram hashtags, it’s better to use the top Instagram hashtags that have an engaging community behind them and are specific to your audience.
The narrower the scope of the hashtag, the more engaged the users are. You’ll be surprised by just how niche hashtags can get!
Tip #9: Optimize Your IGTV Captions
When an IGTV preview is shared to your Instagram feed, the caption is automatically pulled from your IGTV video title and description.
With this in mind, it’s worth thinking about how your IGTV video title and description works as a feed post caption — as previews are one of the best ways to drive more views to your video content!
Your IGTV video descriptions are also the only place where you include clickable links on Instagram (aside from your link in bio) so it’s definitely worth encouraging your audience to watch your full IGTV video in your feed preview captions!
Coming up with good Instagram captions might seem hard, but if you want to be successful on Instagram, it’s important to not let your Instagram captions become an afterthought.
Writing good Instagram captions can be a game-changer for your Instagram engagement!
Give it a go!
Read Our Blog – How To Add Value Through Your Social Media Content – Here
