5 Tips for Crafting the Perfect Instagram Caption
Capture the content, write the caption, and go viral…simple, right? Wrong.
There is no one-size-fits-all technique to ensure your Instagram post gets seen by the masses. However, there are some strategies you can implement to share captions that are engaging and relevant to your audience.
We have outlined five tips to help craft a compelling, specific, and audience-targeted caption that stands out from the competition.
1. Know Your Audience.
Before you consider what you’d like to say in an Instagram post, ask yourself: who is my target audience and what do they want to know? The answer could differ for each post you share, so you’ll want to ask every time you create content for your account. This includes understanding their age, their interests, their location, their gender, and anything that could impact their connection to you.
2. Add Value
Captions are there for a reason - to add value to the image or REEL you share. As Shopify highlights, you want to be intentional with your posts. Whether you are sharing new menu items, promoting an upcoming event, or a current offer, your caption should add some value to a user's feed.
To write an effective caption, you must identify what you want followers to “get” out of the post. Consider your value add first, and then incorporate it into your caption.
3. Catchy Hook
Hubspot emphasised that although Instagram captions are allowed to be long, they cut off after the first three to four lines of text and require users to interact to “see more.”
So, what does this mean for you? You want to grab their attention and get to the point ASAP. That’s why we always recommend leading with a catchy hook. Essentially, you want to “front load” your captions and put all your most important and gripping content within those first three lines. Write something that sparks your followers’ interest right away and stops them from scrolling past your content.
4. Call to Action
Every post you share on Instagram you share with intention. When writing the post's caption you always want to ask yourself: What action do I want users to take after seeing this post? The answer can vary here but includes things like encouraging people to engage with your content (i.e. like this if…), creating a conversation in the comments (i.e. this vs. that…let us know your fave in the comments), or even visiting your site (i.e. book a table via the link in our bio).
You won’t necessarily need a call to action in every single post you share, but where relevant, you should identify what kind of action you want to encourage before writing and use this CTA to guide your caption.
5. Relevant Hashtags
Instagram uses hashtags to categorise content and make it easier for all users to find related posts. Using hashtags can help you appear on your potential target audience’s feeds, but it’s important to understand how to use them effectively.
Your hashtags should align with the individual post and its intended goal. Essentially, don’t use hashtags just for the sake of it, but consider the searches you’d like a given post to appear in and narrow down on those. It’s far better to choose one or two effective hashtags than 29 unaligned ones.
Start Writing
Writing an Instagram caption can be extremely daunting and takes up a lot of time and energy. Next time you’re writing, consider the above five ideas when crafting captions for your business account. If you are looking for more guidance on how to craft successful captions from our in-house Instagram experts request your free marketing review.
