Writing Instagram Captions That Increase Engagement
Famous personalities often post photos on
Instagram without any captions, and you’ll see that these posts garner
thousands, if not millions, of likes and comments. Brands and businesses
posting photos without saying anything don’t get the same reception, because
they don’t have as many followers as celebrities whose follower counts reach
millions. Businesses simply don’t have the celebrity factor, so they have two
options:
Those who can afford reach out to
famous celebrities and pay them to promote their brands. Even then, the company
would need to specify the caption that should go together with the celebrity’s
photo.
Brands and businesses that can’t
afford the services of a celebrity need to resort to ingenuity and proven
Instagram marketing tactics.
You can see the importance of crafting captions
for your photos, even though Instagram is mainly a visual platform, because how
else will your followers know where to buy your product? The fact is that
photos and videos may attract consumers’ attention, but they won’t drive
conversions. You need to accompany them with a clear and concise message, and
occasionally, a CTA or a call-to-action.
Now let’s check out some tips for writing
engaging Instagram captions.
Define the goal of the Instagram
post
Instagram captions should tell the story in
relation to the photo or video you’re posting, so before crafting your caption,
think about what you want to accomplish with the post.
If the photo is about a product
review from one of your customers, then the caption should detail the
customer’s story and how the product has helped them.
If the photo is about a contest,
giveaway, promotional event, or a sale, put in the complete details of the
campaign in the caption. Tell your followers how they can join, when it’s going
to happen, what’s at stake, and everything they need to know.
If your post is a random photo
related to your brand or business, let your caption explain how the photo can
impact your followers, when it was taken, and who is in the photo or video.
Keep in mind that images with more than a
couple of lines of text perform poorly on Instagram, so focus on capturing high
quality images and creating great captions to go along with it which are short
and get to the point.
Include a CTA
As everyone knows, Instagram allows users to
put one live link in the bio. You can’t place a clickable link in the captions,
so the best course of action is to ask your audience to “click on the link on
my bio,” or something like that.
This CTA is commonly used and is compatible
with almost anything, whether you want your audience to watch a video, sign up
for something, or download an ebook.
Aside from this CTA, there are also others
that will encourage your audience to engage:
Tag a friend in the comments: Encourage your
followers to tag other people in the comments section.
Share this in your Instagram Story: Tell them
to share your content as their Instagram Story.
Most users already have this capability now, so urge them to use it.
Tap to purchase:
Ask followers to tap shoppable tags and purchase your products.
The CTA you use in the captions should also go
with the photo you’re posting. In some cases, a CTA may not be suitable.
Followers may also find you too forward if you put CTAs in every post, so it’s
also important to find a balance.
Instead of obvious CTAs, you can also start a
conversation by asking your followers a question.
Short paragraphs are more
pleasing and easy to read
How your caption is formatted also matter to
readers. Personally, I tend to skip posts with long and run-on paragraphs as
they look tiring to read. If you are writing a long caption, divide it into
shorter paragraphs with spaces in between. This will look better and will
encourage your audience to read the whole thing.
Some words of caution though: Instagram’s
formatting will remove any space or emoji when they are placed at the end of a
paragraph.
Remove space at the end of a paragraph before pressing on the return
key. On most devices, double tapping the spacebar will
insert a period and a space at the end of a sentence. When you upload your post
to Instagram, the space you add after that will be removed, and your caption
will appear as one long paragraph instead of multiple short
ones. Before pressing the return key to start a new paragraph, delete the extra
space after the period which was created when you double-tapped on the
spacebar.
Don’t put emojis at the end of a paragraph. The
same thing happens when emojis are placed at the end of a paragraph. The space
will be removed and the next paragraph will be seen as part of the previous
paragraph. You can still use emojis, but make sure you don’t place them at the
end of a paragraph.
Bullet points, numerical lists, dashes, and
space breaks, are other ways to make your captions look appealing to followers.
While they don’t have any direct effect on your post’s performance when it
comes to Instagram algorithm, they can encourage your followers to read and
take action.
Creating captivating captions
Business and brands will find an increase in
engagement on their Instagram accounts when their captions are appealing and well thought-of.
With the right CTA, captions also help you reach your goal of converting
followers to paying customers.
Aside from the three tips above, here are
other things you need to remember when crafting your captions:
Long captions will be truncated: After two
lines, your caption will be truncated in the news feed, and people can’t read
the whole text unless they tap on “…more.” The story you tell in the caption
and the compelling CTA you added will be wasted if people don’t see the whole
story. Therefore, make sure that your first sentence is powerful and
captivating enough to make them want to see “more.”
The shorter the caption, the better: There
might be cases when multiple paragraphs are needed in order to convey your
message. However, remember that Instagram users are on the platform to look at
photos and videos, not read long texts. There are people who can capture their
followers’ attention just by a single line of text.
There are also others
who have successfully made Instagram into a micro-blogging site. It all depends
on what message you want to convey and if your audience responds positively to
it.
Finally, keep in mind that Instagram’s character limit is 2,200 for each
post, so use it wisely. Don’t forget that the key to writing engaging captions
is to make it relevant to the picture or video you’re posting.
Date: July 17, 2019 / Categories: Engagement, / Author: solmae