If writing Instagram captions makes you want to scream into a pillow, ooh, do I have a
video for you!
Today, I’m sharing my best secrets to teach you how to write better Instagram captions
so that you stop the scroll, hook your followers and get better engagement on Instagram.
Hi my lovely people, it’s Natalia and welcome back to my channel where I help you create
better content and grow on social media!
Listen, I get it, creating impactful content consistently is hard enough but it seems like
what creators struggle with a lot is writing captions.
Well, I’m here to help you captivate your audience so that you’re no longer wasting
time on copy that nobody wants to read anyway.
I’ve got a lot of gold nuggets for you today, so let’s jump in.
1.
Learn about your audience
The foundation of a great caption is great knowledge about your audience.
Without understanding exactly who you’re talking to in your captions, you’ll likely
be sending your messaging through to no one in particular and that’s ultimately a massive
waste of your time.
That’s why you need to know who your audience is so that you can constantly relate to them
authentically, address their needs and pain points, and provide the solutions they’re
looking for.
Of course, all of it has to be done using the tone and language that works for them.
They need to vibe with what you have to say and therefore, it needs to be delivered the
right way.
Although we’re talking about captions only here, it’s worth mentioning that it extends
to the formats you’re serving to your tribe.
As an example, if they generally prefer to learn from carousels and they’ve always
engaged better with those types of posts (both from you and other creators in the niche),
then this format should be dominating within your content plan.
The language you’re using in those carousels, even in graphic form, needs to speak to them
precisely - for example, as a wedding photographer, your tone may be slightly more evocative and
emotional since you’ll be talking about creating lifelong memories, core relationships,
and the super-fun wedding day parties.
With a sports coach, chances are the tone may change to something a bit more motivational
for those who aspire to greatness but also scientific if you’re relaying vital health-
and fitness-related facts.
Setting the right tone for your brand messaging is so often overlooked, but it can have a
massive impact on how your captions (and other components of your online presence) are perceived.
I know I talk about understanding your audience a lot, but this is key to any strategy, both
in marketing and business.
If you’re still struggling with this bit, I’m sure this video right here is going
to help you figure out who your ideal audience really is and hone in on those crucial details.
2. Make it about them
This takes us to the very important mistake that a lot of people make when writing their
captions and that is making it about themselves.
Sure, there’s time and place for shameless self-promotion and actively talking about
your products or services.
These kinds of posts and captions need to be included in any strategy to actually sell
more.
BUT!
Even promotional posts have to be written from the perspective of the potential buyer!
A quick example would be a company posting a visually stunning photo of their product,
filling the caption with all the cool features that their product has, raving about the state-of-the-art
technology and innovative approach…
That’s all great but how is the reader supposed to know what it means to them?
It’s amazing that the technology is so advanced but how does that translate to what they can
do with the product, how does it improve their life?
This kind of mistake is super easy to spot within promotional posts because it’s so
common, but that doesn’t mean all the other kinds of captions are innocent of this.
Say you had an event you were invited to as a speaker and you rightfully so go and post
about it on Instagram, thanking the organizers, saying how grateful you are for the chance
to speak, and expressing how fun it was.
Seemingly nothing wrong with this, right?
Well, wrong.
This is such a missed opportunity to bring your tribe closer to this event, make them
feel like they were there and also, emphasize the power of determination, inspire them with
the steps that led to this moment, and showcase true leadership by empowering the audience
to take action and encouraging them with a key insight that they can take action on.
Sounds much much better right?
On the one hand, you’ve got a somewhat inspiring yet bland and generic post about some event.
On the other, an inspiring, story-driven caption from a leader that’s worth listening to.
There is a smart way to relay your own insights and experiences but talk to your audience
the whole time.
3.
Hooks and CTAs
But how do stories like this get told effectively?
Apart from knowing your audience and putting them at the heart of your messaging, you need
to captivate their attention and funnel this energy towards something actionable.
For the former, the attention-grabbing, you need an engaging hook that entices them to
read.
For the latter, the goal, a strong call to action to guide them to take a small step.
Let’s start with the hook!
It’s the very first thing you’ll be saying and since the whole point of it is to get
attention, it needs to be short, snappy, and spark curiosity.
When it comes to hooks for Instagram captions, being to the point is crucial because you
have to make sure it’s contained above the fold meaning before the viewers have to click
More.
This is what I’m talking about here…
When scrolling through the feed, the captions on Instagram are truncated and only the first
125 characters are shown initially.
That’s why you have to squeeze as much as you can out of this limit and make your first
sentence the most powerful one out of the bunch.
After all, unless it captures their attention, your followers are not going to read the whole
thing.
There are many approaches to hooks, but I like to think about them in two ways: it’s
either a strong value proposition explaining exactly what your audience is going to get
in just a second, or a burst of emotions in the form of a revelation, declaration, pain
point or simply an exclamation that’s too hard to resist!
For best results, combine them both!
It’s an effective way to craft hooks that really spark curiosity.
It can look something like this:
- My secret to getting more views that nobody talks about…
- 5 tips to 10x your growth this month…
- If you’re sick of low engagement, then you need to know this hack!
Make your hooks results-driven (DO THIS to achieve something, 10x your sales with, this
is the secret to getting X), highlight a negative outcome (i.e. avoid this, stop doing this,
don’t make this mistake), or sprinkle in some controversy with a highly unpopular opinion.
There are so many ways to write effective hooks, so don’t be afraid to experiment
and test what works on your ideal audience.
Oh, and throw in an emoji in there somewhere, it’s a little pop of color (and emotion)
which really stands out on the white background and brings attention to your hook on a subconscious
level!
Let’s not forget about a call to action a.k.a.
CTA!
We’ve grabbed the attention and painted the picture with the rest of the caption (more
on that in a moment), now it’s time to direct that attention towards something you want
them to do.
Every single post should have a goal and this is where you’re bringing it home with a
CTA.
If your goal is to promote your lead magnet, TELL YOUR AUDIENCE to download it through
the link in your bio or DM you a word and you’ll send it to them directly.
If you want to nurture your audience and drive more engagement, ask a fascinating question
that stops them in their tracks and makes them want to reply.
There will be as many examples here as there are goals and ultimately you’re the one
who needs to decide what action you want your audience to take this time.
But remember this, if you don’t ask, you shall not receive, and skipping a CTA is another
example of a missed opportunity.
4.
The anatomy of a good caption
We’ve got our hook, we’ve got our call to action, let’s dissect this a little further!
I’ll call this part the anatomy of a good caption.
After you’ve grabbed the attention with the hook, you want to fuel that interest and
start delivering on that value hard.
There are many models that you could follow as a sort of formula to help you write better
captions and provide value.
Probably the most well-known one is the AIDA framework which stands for ATTENTION, INTEREST,
DESIRE, and ACTION.
ATTENTION is pretty self-explanatory, we’ve covered it with a hook, then, we’re introducing
a unique point or an intriguing insight to spike INTEREST, then speaking to the audience’s
wants to build a DESIRE by showcasing what they’re going to get if only they follow
along, to finish off with a call to ACTION of course.
It’s a super simple model but a very effective one, not just for caption writing but from
a wider marketing perspective as well.
Another formula that I’ve found quite interesting comes from Justin Welsh on Twitter and he
called it VFCA.
V stands for the visceral opener which is of course our hook but the emphasis here is
on evoking a powerful emotional reaction from the reader.
F is for fresh perspective and it’s there to pique their interest by providing an intriguing
point of view that may go slightly against the grain.
C stands for challenge and is the part where you rock the boat a little, rebel against
the norm or show what is it about this norm that you reject.
The last bit is our aNAphora and it’s a classic rhetorical device which worked through
generations.
It’s that repeating pattern that tickles our brains and creates a rhythm that makes
the caption flow nicely.
Even though Justin focuses on Twitter here, I feel like this formula would work great
on Instagram as well.
I’ll link the original tweet in the description below so you can check it out yourself.
When it comes to my approach, it really varies depending on the style of a post I’m creating,
but I’ve found myself gravitating towards highlighting the pain points.
Since I’m always trying to solve problems for my audience or speak to what drives them,
this is where I like to really relate to them in a meaningful way.
To flesh out a big pain point and bring it right in front of them, I may first address
an unsettling feeling that people experience when they struggle with something.
Then, I’ll relate to it, showing them a real, human way in which it affected me too,
opening up authentically.
And for the juicy bit, I then introduce a solution, bringing value through education
and with easy actionable steps that provide my audience with a quick win.
Top it off with a primary call to action to fulfill the goal of the post and a secondary
one to build an engaged community and open up conversations, and we’ve got ourselves
a pretty good caption.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different formulas to see how they work for different
goals and which of them resonate with your audience the most.
But wait, there’s more!
Just like books don’t get published before they’re edited, your captions need a bit
of work before they can be presented to the world.
It’s one of the mistakes I see all the time.
No matter how good your caption is, if it’s not formatted and visually broken down so
that it’s easy to read, it’s not *going* to be read.
Instead of presenting it like an essay, make things really digestible by breaking it down
into very small paragraphs and guiding your audience’s attention with colorful visuals
in the form of emojis.
Take a look at the difference that it makes.
It’s really something.
The first one is stifling, feels crowded, it repels instead of encouraging and it’s
giving TL;DR.
The second one guides the eye effortlessly through all the key points, strategically
putting emphasis on the most important parts like the CTA with visuals.
It glides gracefully with little to no effort on the reader's part and that’s what we
want in the age of short attention spans.
And a quick note about the length, we’ve got a limit of 2200 characters but that doesn’t
mean you always have to take that space in full.
Although I still think a well-written long caption can nurture your audience in an amazing
way, there are plenty of reasons to mix things up in terms of length too, especially with
the formats that we’ve got available on Instagram.
If you’re already covering a subject extensively in a Reel or a carousel, you may not need
to go in-depth in the caption too.
In those cases, it can serve as a small addition where you’re grabbing attention with the
hook, making one bold statement to sum things up, and finishing off with a strong call to
action.
It’s almost secondary in nature since Reels and carousels should have hooks and CTAs too,
so your caption is only there to reinforce them.
That being said, if there’s still much left to say, by all means, knock yourself out,
it’s the result that counts!
5.
SEO & hashtags
But how to make those results better in terms of potentially increasing reach and searchability?
Well, with SEO and hashtags of course.
I don’t want to spend too much time on this part because I have two separate videos where
I go in-depth on these topics, but know this.
It’s worth optimizing your captions by sprinkling in some keywords and hashtags.
Search engine optimization has been gaining importance on Instagram since so many of the
social media platforms like TikTok are already being used as search engines by massive amounts
of people.
Including a keyword or two can help your post fare better because it increases the chances
of it being found through the search functionality.
Moreover, as confirmed by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, you have to add hashtags
to your caption and not post them in the comments.
It’s helping the algorithms understand your content better and deliver it to the right
people, and if you’re adding hashtags in a comment under your post, that bit is not
scannable for Instagram in this way so you are missing out.
I highly recommend you watch these two videos next to laser focus on your strategy and discover
all you can about your audience.
You’ll then be able to write more effective captions that reach your tribe the right way,
especially if you add in some of that SEO magic.
Let me know in the comments what your key takeaway is from this video, give it a thumbs
up to help the channel and myself deliver more content like this and of course, consider
subscribing too!
Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you… next time.