Crafting Instagram Captions That Sell
You’ve posted a great photo but it flopped, right? I get it. But Instagram isn’t all about pretty pictures. It’s the captions that drive users to take action. Think of the first line as the hook. It has to grab your audience. It needs to have personality, be compelling, and it needs to show off your brand’s personality. This is the key to captions that sell.
Stick to best practice
What’s the best length for an Instagram post? 138-150 words of content is the ideal length. But be engaging – you don’t want your audience to scroll on past – or fall asleep! What about hashtags? Make sure you #hashtag in the captions. They don’t always have to sit at the bottom of the caption either. You can hashtag throughout your content, but use all thirty of your allocated hashtags for the best reach. Emoji time? Go easy on the emoji’s. Yeah, they’re cute but you want to look professional.
Hot tip: Tag all key brand sources in your post. This often gets forgotten but it is important for your Instagram posts reach.
Sound like a human
Break up long captions into digestible chunks or paragraphs. If your caption is one long paragraph, it’ll be too hard to read. You need to think about content that’s easy on the eye. Stay punchy, concise, and conversational. It’s Instagram, not an essay, so don’t be stale and uptight (unless that’s your brand), and write as you speak. It allows people to see the real you.
Remind your followers what to do next
Call-to-actions are a must! You need to tell your followers what to do next – trust me! Not every post needs one, but any post where you want to redirect someone to your website or to a landing page should have a call-to-action. For example, “link in bio” takes your reader to the next phase of the buying journey. But be sure to drip feed this information throughout content – it’s not the time to sound like an infomercial.
You don’t need to be a modern day Shakespeare to make people fall in love with your brand. You just need to know the Instagram basics and be yourself. But above all, you need to engage with your audience. This gives you the best chance of selling to them. In the end, it’s a social platform.
Felisha Mendoza Mina is a multidisciplinary creative, teaming up with brands across Australia, North America and Europe. With 6+ years of experience across Graphic Design, Creative Direction, Videography, Photography and Marketing, she takes a highly integrated approach to media and communications that uses a breadth of technical and analytical skills to help industry leaders look better, work smarter, and create with efficiency.
