How To Write Instagram Captions That Engage Your Audience
Instagram may be all about the image, but a large proportion of it is all about the caption too. If you want to build community then writing Instagram captions that engage is really important for increasing meaningful interactions on the app. During February’s The Insta Chat Twitter chat, a poll of the participants showed that 91% of them read the captions on posts more often than not. While of course this isn't the most scientific piece of research in the world, it does anecdotally suggest that Instagram users in that particular community are engaging in meaningfully with the entirety of the post, rather than just spraying likes around.It might be that that fact strikes you with fear (“I’ve never bothered with my captions, I didn’t think anyone even read them!”) or it makes you worried about your level of engagement (“well if people are reading my caption, why aren’t they commenting?”).
The art of writing an effective Instagram caption isn’t a dark one, but it is an art. Particularly if you’re using Instagram to grow your brand, you need put as much thought into your captions as the images themselves – throwaway comments just aren’t going to cut it.In this blog post I’m sharing the top ways that you can make sure your captions drive engagement with your posts, and conversions onto your website. These are the very simple ways that I caption my own posts, and are things you can implement straight away.
Make them readable
Ok, this seems obvious, but you need to make it really easy for people to be able to read your captions. Of course this includes checking for typos and all that basic stuff, but what I’m talking about here is layout. Consuming online content has kind of ruined the way we read, so most people will be put off by a big chunk of text but be drawn to smaller succinct paragraphs. If you have a lot to say in your caption, then breaking up the text is a surefire way to get more people reading it the whole way through.Now Instagram doesn’t make this easy for us as they don’t allow paragraph breaks in captions, but you can get round it by adding in punctuation marks or emojis where you’d like a paragraph break (to do this you hit ‘return’, type the punctuation, then hit ‘return’ again). You can also type out your caption into your notes app and paste it into Instagram to make sure it has the layout you want.
Ensure they have value
I want to be clear here that value in an Instagram caption is relative – you’re certainly not going to be providing the same value you do in a blog post. It also doesn’t have to mean valuable in an educational sense, a beautiful written mini story or poem has just as much value as tips or advice.In terms of providing value in your captions, think about the four purposes of content: to entertain, to educate, to inspire, to convince. I’d only use captions to convince once in a blue moon when you have a launch or event to promote, but the other three will be really useful for thinking about your captions. An entertaining caption might be a funny story about your day, an educational one could have a mini step by step guide, and an inspirational caption might have a quote or whimsical observation.In order to decide which of these purposes to use, think about your brand and what you want to be known for.
Personally, I want to be known for having simple, actionable marketing advice, so I use more educational and inspirational content. It might be that you’re naturally witty and gregarious and want to build a personal brand around your blog, so entertaining might be a focus for you. Take your audience into account here too – look back at your previous captions and see what style people really engaged with, or even poll them to see what they like to read in captions.
Our aim here is to create captions so consistently valuable so that whenever people see your picture in their feed they’re eager to read your caption because they know it’s always great.
Have a beginning, middle and end
We all need a bit of structure and an Instagram caption is no different. A long rambling caption is prone to be skimmed, or given up on half way through; having a tight, concise structure allows you to ensure you’re making the most of the value you’re providing and getting people down to the bottom of the caption.Just like a blog post your caption needs an introduction, only here it is a hook to inspire them to keep reading. It might be that you open with a joke, or a little bit of harmless clickbait (“You will not BELIEVE what happened to me today”); if your caption is educational, you can pre-empt the value they’re going to get (“Anyone else been struggling with managing their emails? I’ve stumbled across a foolproof system this week that I’m going to share with you”); if you’re going for inspirational, you can preface the caption with a title or explanation (“Let me tell you a story about a girl who found a shiny penny”).
Once they’re hooked by the introduction, you put the meat of your value in the middle, written concisely and broken up in some way, either by bullet points or adding emojis as a visual break. At the end of the caption, you can add a mini conclusion or summing up statement – this is especially good if your middle is little long winded as it may prompt skim readers to go back and read more closely. The end of your caption is also a good place to drive engagement by including a Call To Action...
Have a Call To Action
We all feel a bit cringey about using Calls To Action; we don’t want to insult people’s intelligences or appear pushy. But the fact is, Calls To Action are an integral part of internet language and are crucial to directing people around and through your channels. Just like at an exhibition or museum where they have signs telling you where to go next; they seem kind of pointless but without them you feel lost. A Call To Action is simply a signpost telling people where to go next, and are so innocuous now that most of us don’t recognise them when we see them.Although they can feel stupid (of course everyone knows the link is in your bio), they are there as a prompt for the reader, to make it easy for them. CTAs ensure that their last contact with the caption is an invitation for them to engage. And it doesn’t have to be all 'link in bio' stuff – you can ask them to comment if they have any ideas, have experienced something similar, have a story to share. Some people like to go with a ‘double tap if you agree’, or ‘tag someone who inspires you too’. If the aim is to create captions that engage, we need to extend the invitation and make it as easy as humanly possible for someone to engage.
Ask a question
The best way to do this is to ask a question (and I've written more about this in this post 'Questions Are Content'). A question might go at the beginning or the end of a caption, but if you can get one into the majority of your posts then you’re onto a winner. Questions are particularly good because they encourage meaningful engagement. Rather than commenting ‘beautiful story’ or ‘great tips’, they can think about your question and give a more thoughtful answer. What you’re doing is getting them to engage in a more cerebral way; if they are lingering over your caption thinking up their answer, then they’re more engaged with your words, and with you. And that’s how you build great relationships.
