On Instagram, cultivating beautiful photos and creating engaging graphics is just the beginning. To actually start seeing ROI from this social media platform, you need to focus on writing compelling Instagram captions.
Most entrepreneurs tend to way underestimate the value of Instagram captions. But they really are so important for contextualizing your posts, relating to people, providing value, and steering people to take action. Plus, captions allow you to have a two-way conversation by asking questions and prompting engagement.
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Why Are Instagram Captions Important?
Since Instagram tends to prioritize photo and video content, most of us don’t spend enough time carefully crafting compelling Instagram captions. But if you want to boost your engagement and see results from your content, captions are essential!
In your captions, you’re able to provide valuable details and context to your photos and videos. While those images and videos can stop the scroll and gain attention, a caption takes things to the next level.
Writing out compelling captions with clear calls to action allows you to connect with your audience and drive the results you’re hoping to achieve.
How To Write Better Instagram Captions
Writing better Instagram captions doesn’t have to be overwhelming! Here are seven tips to help you write captions that wow your audience.
Keep Your Instagram Captions Relatable To Your Audience
The foundation of great Instagram captions is that they’re relatable. Your goal with social media should be to build genuine connections with your followers…and that means relating to them. The captions you write have to resonate with your audience.
To make your content relatable, you first have to know your audience inside and out. What shared problems and obstacles do you face? What do you and your followers have in common in terms of likes, dislikes, and passions?
When you keep your audience engaged with relatable content, you also add a personal touch to your business’s social media. And since people love doing business with people, not corporations, this is a win-win!
Make Sure To Grab Your Audience’s Attention
Instagram is way too easy to scroll endlessly without stopping. With people’s short attention spans and Instagram’s picky algorithm, it’s hard to show up in people’s feeds. When your content does show up, it has to be engaging in order to garner a response!
Your caption is the main opportunity you have to grab your audience’s attention and foster engagement. Asking questions, using strategic ALL CAPS TEXT, and integrating your brand voice gives you a recipe for engagement.
Of course, the first line has to be engaging, too. If you’re writing a long caption, you need to entice people to hit that “read more” button!
Related: What Is The Instagram Guide Feature? Everything You Need To Know
Use Strong Calls-To-Action In Your Instagram Captions
If you want to write great Instagram captions, you need to include strong calls to action. These are crucial in every area of your marketing, but they often get overlooked in social media posts.
With your CTA, you can drive people to click the link in your bio, view your website, sign up for your email list, or make a purchase.
But on Instagram, you can also directly ask for engagement, like
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Tags
- Saves
These all help boost the chances that your content will show up for your audience — and the algorithm loves engagement!
Genuinely Serve Your Audience
You’re obviously using social media for some purpose, like growing your business and building your audience. But your business (and your Instagram captions) aren’t about YOU. They’re all about your audience.
And to build trust and create solid customer relationships, you have to serve your audience. Provide value and tips for free on social media. Help your audience solve problems, overcome challenges, and learn about topics in your niche.
Make Sure Your Instagram Captions, Photos, and Graphics Are All On-Brand
I know, I know—we’re talking about Instagram captions. But having everything be cohesive and on-brand is a huge part of seeing success with your captions! Your photos, graphics, and captions should all be branded.
For your photos and graphics, this comes down to colors, fonts, logos, and other visual components.
To take the stress out of creating branded graphics and photos, make sure to sign up for a Katie Harp Creative Membership. You’ll get access to thousands of styled stock photos and Canva templates to make this process way easier.
Stay Within The Character Limit For Instagram Captions
You’ll also want to write Instagram captions that meet the character limit. On Instagram, your captions can be a maximum of 2200 characters (which is around 330 words, give or take). That’s why writing clearly is so important!
Writing your content in another platform, like Google Docs, lets you keep track of the character count and stay under the limit.
Focus On Readability
The final tip to write great Instagram captions is to focus on readability. People don’t want to read huge blocks of text without any formatting.
Add bullet points, emojis, and line breaks whenever possible to make sure people actually enjoy reading your captions!
Writing amazing Instagram captions is a great way to boost engagement and see better results with your social media. These tips are an awesome place to start!