It’s no secret that Instagram has come a long way from a simple photo uploading and sharing site. In fact, Instagram is holding its own against platforms like Facebook and Pinterest. However, you may have mastered the consistent sharing and taking great photos but Instagram captions are a huge piece of this sales conversion puzzle.
Think about this for a moment ….
A recent stat suggests that 72% of Instagram users reported purchasing something after seeing it on Instagram. With a user base of 500 million users – daily – that percentage is kind of enormous!
So, if you’re playing in the space anyways may as well maximize the time you’re already spending there. The following tips are specific to your newsfeed or timeline content but should also be implemented as well through your Instagram stories.
How to Write Instagram Captions that Convert into Sales
Ready for some good news? You do not need to be masterful writer to write Instagram captions that convert. You do however need a little creativity and practice. The goal like any social media platform is to achieve engagement, right? You want to encourage your audience to be social on your posts – always.
And, when they do respond to your content make sure you love back on them! A buying audience is a heard audience.
Stay True to You in your Verbiage
One of the key things we want to note is never write copy that doesn’t sound like you. It is so important to stay true to who you are as an human first and entrepreneur second. Remember, your audience connected with you because they felt they could relate to you in some way.
Perhaps you entertain, educate or have gone through similar experiences as them. Don’t go from human one moment to salesperson the next – it is not a good look! Additionally, if you have already uncovered your colors and visual branding – keep your sales content inline with that as well.
Basically, you want to create a seamless transition from who you are and what your business is (assuming of course you are using a personal Instagram account).
Think, Evaluate, Take Action
Like any great social media content, Instagram captions require some thought and strategy. Where possible, it’s best to plan out your content a week to two weeks at a time. This will not only help you stay on task and productive, but it will allow you some time to evaluate your Instagram captions before executing them.
This is especially important if writing just isn’t your thing. Some of our best captions were ones that we drafted several times before sharing. Don’t hesitate to take some time to ensure you’ve met the ideal caption bar that you have set for yourself.
Because people are generally on this platform for imagery – know that you have a super short time to grab their attention with your caption. And so, create an ongoing list for yourself of content and captions you want to execute – this way they are always accessible and you avoid being impulsive or worse — sales heavy.
Instagram Captions NEED Calls to Action
Without becoming too redundant on this topic — humans don’t like to admit it but we love to be told what to do. If you have a dynamite image and a solid caption to match what do you want the viewer to do after loving it?
One of the things you can consider is adding a link in your bio where you have more details about you or the content you were showing them. Add something as simple as saying ‘check out my bio for more info!’ Or, ‘send me a DM and let’s talk more about this!’.
Obviously, use what fits best in your strategy but never ever leave the CTA out.
Use Relevant Hashtags and Emojis!
Instagram highly favors relevant hashtags. Please do yourself and your brand a favor and make sure you stay inline with the content you are posting. For a long time, the word ‘sky‘ was a high trending hashtag and for whatever reason everyone started using it in their content.
Unless you are talking about the sky somewhere – don’t use it! Otherwise you are likely confusing your audience, right? And hate to break it to you but a confused consumer rarely purchases.
Additionally, don’t hesitate to use an emoji or two in your Instagram captions. They are great attention grabbers and in their own roundabout way – add a little personality to the caption itself. Like anything, avoid overusing them of course but don’t be shy to use them all together.
Lastly, know that Instagram captions – writing effective ones – should be part of your strategy whether you are spending much time there or not. Any time spent is time worth maximizing! Let us know if you are an IG user – we would love to connect and follow you there! And, if you have any tips that you are finding are helping you absolutely crush it – share away!
