Even though Instagram is a visual-based social network, neglecting to caption your photos is almost as critical as not putting a picture. Indeed, these few lines of text help give context to your image but also help highlight your brand’s personality. For example, you can share a story, tell a joke or ask a question to your target audience, which is almost impossible to do with a simple photo. So use a perfect Instagram caption; you’ll see a ton more engagement and can Get more Instagram followers.
Your Instagram description tells a story
Did you know that storytelling helps brands sell more products? It’s just a psychology thing. Whether you’re renting an apartment or selling sneakers, storytelling has been proven to drive sales.
How to create an effective Instagram caption?
Even though Instagram is a visual-based social network, neglecting to caption your photos is almost as critical as not putting a photo. Indeed, these few lines of text help give context to your image but also help highlight your brand’s personality. You can share a story, tell a joke or ask a question to your target audience, which is almost impossible to do with a simple photo. You only need seven ingredients to write a perfect Instagram caption. Use them, and you’ll see a ton more engagement and maybe a few conversions.
1. Your Instagram description tells a story
Did you know that storytelling helps brands sell more products? It’s just a psychology thing. Whether you’re renting an apartment or selling sneakers, storytelling has been proven to drive sales.
You can put this into practice and use stories to drive engagement on your Instagram page, including selling a lifestyle. Let’s see this put into practice: GoPro uses its Instagram caption to promote its products – and uses captions to sell a lifestyle.
You may think that no matter how good their camera is, you can’t “sell a lifestyle” for a camera. But GoPro can do it. Using carefully crafted captions and user-generated content to populate their Instagram feed, GoPro tells a story about the user’s journey. Here is an excellent example from one of their clients who used one of their cameras to take this great shot on the coast of San Nicola Arcella (Italy).
While there’s no doubt that the photo grabs the user’s attention, it’s the caption that keeps people sticking around and interacting with the post. The idea of a place that is “a hidden treasure” inspires travelers to explore new destinations. Additionally, GoPro urges these travelers to take action – precisely to capture their adventures with GoPro products – by telling them to share their photos with GoPro’s Instagram account. They all aim to have their image selected to be featured on the GoPro account seen by 13 million people. Considering the brand is associated with fun, adventure, and excitement, this type of Instagram content encourages audiences to go out and capture their memories.
Leverage Instagram Caption Length
Did you know that the length of your Instagram caption affects its readability in the post feed? Although Instagram allows 2200 characters in captions, it’s wise to cut yours well before that point. To give you an idea, the caption in the image below is 1872 characters…that’s long.
You must have clicked the “…more” button to see the full text. However, your audience might not always be so intrigued. Why? Instagram is a platform where content is consumed quickly. With so many photos posted, users want to see them all. Unless you write your caption with something catchy or with essential details, chances are it will be forgotten. The purpose of a well-crafted caption is to engage your audience (a well-known factor that influences Instagram’s algorithm) through comments, direct messages, likes, and views.
Instagram’s caption length limit of 2200 characters means around 400 words, but you don’t have to use them all. Instead, you’ll need to A/B test and gauge your engagement rates based on caption length to try and get a clearer picture of the ideal size for your captions. Remember that the caption is cut off after the first three lines in a user’s feed.
Use hashtags in your Instagram photo caption
Twitter and Instagram made the hashtag symbol what it is today. However, when you use them in your captions, it goes beyond “#likeforlike” and “follow4follow.” The platform now allows users to follow a hashtag (previously, you could only follow other profiles).
However, you should be wary of the hashtags you use and ensure only to use those relevant to your photo. For example, you don’t want to annoy people following the #makeup hashtag with a picture of men’s basketball. However, by carefully selecting a series of relevant hashtags in your captions, you could hit the jackpot by exposing your content.
Mention other pages in your caption
You already know influencers are taking over the internet. These social media “stars” are taking over traditional forms of brand promotion. 92% of consumers trust an influencer more than an advertisement or a celebrity. These influencers are not that inaccessible. You can reach out to them and potentially get in front of their audience – by mentioning their profiles in your caption. Think about it: influencers always want to share something they said. This reinforces their influencer status.
Call to action in your Instagram post description
While you can’t add clickable links when you post, that doesn’t mean calls to action are useless. Calls to action get people to do something. In a world of social media where businesses can leverage these online connections, you should always drive your target audience to act if you want to see actual results.
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What is the best way to do this? You guessed it: through your Instagram caption. Depending on the nature of your content, you want to give visitors an action to take that relates to your business goals. For example, if we post a picture of candles we have for sale, our call to action might be “click the link in our bio to buy yours!”. “
Conclusion
There are many ingredients to make a perfect caption. However, the logic is simple: ensure your Instagram captions are fun, engaging, and spark conversation. Not only will this help you boost engagement on your business profile, but you’ll start cultivating a community around your Instagram posts by creating thoughtful captions.