Why You NEED Better Instagram Captions

With Instagram’s ever-growing user base, unrivaled engagement rate and increase to average sales value, you already know that being present on Instagram is non-negotiable. 

You post high-quality pictures, daily stories, have all the right hashtags, tried influencer marketing and constantly work to ensure that you have an aesthetic looking feed…

Only to be left questioning all of your past decisions and cursing the damned Instagram algorithm because your post didn’t get much traction.

But when it comes to thinking about your Instagram captions you take 30 seconds to slap a few sentences together, throw in an emoji and hit share.

The thing is… it’s not the algorithm’s fault.

It’s yours.

Because that caption you barely gave a thought to? It’s the key to increasing your engagement your reach, and (yup, you guessed it) even your sales!

As a mentor of mine, Joanna Wiebe, has pointed out, captions and visuals need to work together:

“…the image may capture attention – but it’s the copy that closes people”

-Joanna Wiebe, Copyhackers.com

Take a look at the most-liked post in Instagram history:

With over 50 million likes, its an EGG. The same kind you have with your family every Sunday morning.

It’s not even a very interesting picture of an egg either.

But the caption gives people a reason to like, comment and share. The caption is the reason it went viral. And without that caption, it would never have become a world-record-breaking egg.

The more people that liked, commented and shared the egg, the more people it reached because:

The Instagram algorithm absolutely loves engagement!

In 2016, Instagram introduced its first major change to the algorithm, and many thought this would be the end of Instagram. It seemed as if all hope was lost.

Social media agencies were in tears. 

Online businesses were on the verge of collapse!

But, believe it or not, the algorithm is a good thing for your account.

Like most social media algorithms, it exists to create a more positive user experience by showing relevant content first (so users stay on the platform longer).

And, according to Instagram, what users see is directly tied to which accounts they engage with and spend the most time viewing.

This is something you can use to your advantage!

And even though The Egg has shown us that your Instagram captions are crucial to increasing engagement, many brands still consider captions to be an afterthought.

But not you.

Not any more.

You’re different. You’re smarter than that. You know that pretty pictures and videos only get you so far.

From this day forward, you’re going to use your captions to engage your audience, sell your services and increase customer loyalty.

You in? Awesome, let’s write some scroll-stopping captions!

Start by getting their attention, fast.

Instagram users are in the habit of scrolling, double-tapping and sometimes skimming the first couple words of a caption. This means those first words need to sink a claw into their eyeballs if you want to have any chance of keeping their attention.

Think of it like a blog title or email subject line – if you want someone to read more, you need to lead with your most important message. It’s like those clickbait YouTube titles. Do they exaggerate and go a little overboard? Ya, they can be guilty of that, but unless they’re blatantly lying to you, you’ll click anyway and click again next time.

Pique their curiosity, pick a fight with a common ideology or belief, or tease them with what they’re about to learn, and you’ll have them hitting the read more button rather than looking for something more interesting.

You can even throw in an emoji or some caps here to help draw the eye to your first line. My advice to you, however, is to let that first line sit on its own so it can do its thing.

To make things even better, if you share your post to your story (which you should, because it gives your post extra reach), you can choose to have the first line of your caption show there too – enticing people to click through to your post!

Why did The Egg do so well? Because its caption played on one of the oldest tricks in copywriting.

Establishing a common enemy! 

In The Egg’s case readers were prompted to unite against Kylie Jenner (a very polarizing figure in media today) to claim her title of “most liked picture on Instagram.”

Here are 3 easy tricks to take your Instagram captions to the next level:

1. Give them something to stop for!

Instagram users are selective with what they’ll pay attention to, so if they’ve deemed you worthy, then you’d better make it worth their time. The unfollow button is only a short distance away and they won’t hesitate to tap it!

Avoid being ignored, muted or unfollowed by creating content that educates or entertains (ideally both, if you can manage). As I wrote previously in my blog post about the importance of email lists, providing value is the most important thing in every piece of content you release!

People.

“People don’t just value practical information, they share it. Offering practical value helps make things contagious.”

-Jonah Berger

To achieve this, find out what your target audience struggles with and create content that teaches them how to solve that problem. Developing an in-depth client prototype will make this so much easier.

2. Format, format, format

If people don’t read every word of a blog post, they’re surely not going to read every word of a lengthy caption.

The truth is that most people are scanners – which is why you need to format your caption in a way that makes it more scannable.

Instagram makes it pretty difficult to do anything fancy with your formatting but you have a few options:

-Line breaks to separate paragraphs;

-Emojis to create visual interest;

-Brackets, all caps or *asterisks;

-Strategically placed hashtags can also work (because they show up as bright blue).

So even though your options are limited, there’s no excuse for assaulting your readers’ eyes with an impenetrable wall of text.

Instead, break up your caption using line breaks, emojis, asterisks, and caps to create visual interest.

3. Keep it casual

Instagram isn’t the place to be overly formal, but you also want to avoid trying too hard to fit in with slang and abbreviations…

With that in mind, here are a few tips for creating a friendly, casual voice on Instagram:

-Aim for casual language and a conversational tone. Keep in mind how your audience speaks;

-Whatever your Instagram voice is, keep it consistent;

-Avoid trust-destroying and straight-up confusing inconsistency by dialing in on your Instagram voice. Especially if there are multiple people handling your social media account.

It’s that easy!

You now know that crafting compelling Instagram captions is just as important as finding the perfect visual elements, and you know exactly how to use your social media copy to capture attention, build trust, and influence purchase decisions.

Which means it’s time for you to take action, level-up your Instagram captions and get ready for your Instagram engagement to soar.

What are you waiting for?

If all of this seems a little too overwhelming for you, that’s completely normal. You’re already running your own business, putting in 40-60 hours a week to make your dream a reality.

That’s why at Bonaventure, we specialize in learning all there is to know about social media marketing and growth so that we can help our clients by taking a load off of their shoulders and saving them the trouble and hundreds of hours involved in learning the ins and outs of social media marketing.

If you’d like us to help you with your social media, book a free consultation call with our team of experts. We’ll learn about where you are, where you want to be, and figure out the most cost-effective strategy to get you there.