Three Ways to Write Compelling Captions on Instagram®

Writing the perfect caption for your Instagram post is tricky business.

How often have you looked on in envy at someone else’s feed and thought ‘I wish I could caption like that!’

You’re certainly not alone, as so many people struggle with captions. While some people are just naturally good with words, you don’t have to be to post compelling captions underneath your pictures.

Here are three simple ways you can improve your caption writing on the Gram.

Have a purpose to each caption.

The primary objective of a caption on Instagram is to provide more information about the image you’ve uploaded, and to try and boost engagement.

As such, you need to ensure whatever you write has a specific purpose and is designed to elicit a particular response or action.

Start by thinking about what you hope to achieve by posting this image. Are you hoping your audience thinks about something in a specific way? Or perhaps you’re encouraging them to respond to something that you’ve shared?

By thinking clearly about each caption’s purpose, you can make it easier to know what to write.

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Add a call to action

You can use captions as an opportunity to direct the actions of your followers by including a call to action. Do you want them to download a freebie? Or perhaps check out a different page or specific product? Or maybe you want them to read your blog or watch your new YouTube video?

Whatever action you’re promoting, make it clear to your audience what you expect from them.

You should never assume that your followers know what you want them to do. Also, they often need some motivation to check out a carry out some action, so you should try and add value to the call to action and explain why it will help them to do what you’re saying.

Include a captivating hook

The first few words of your caption need to grab your audience’s attention. Why? Because if they’re not interested in what you’ve got to say, they won’t bother reading on and will just scroll past your post. Think about starting with a pain point or by promising to solve a recent struggle they have been facing.

It’s also common for captions to shock followers into action, if they’re worded in a particular way.

Throwing in a shocking statistic or revealing an exciting revelation about your brand can be enough to get people to want to read your post and engage with you as a result.

Closing thoughts 

Writing compelling captions to accompany your images on the Gram is certainly not easy, but it’s something that you should work on to ensure you get it right.

Well written captions encourage people to interact with your posts and will help you build your following, something everyone with an IG profile would be happy with.