Regardless of what industry your business is in, chances are you need a strong social media presence.
A prominent social media following is crucial for allowing your customers to become more familiar with your brand, improving customer loyalty, and also giving you a platform to reach new customers.
The most important social media platform for any business continues to be Instagram, although TikTok is closely catching up with the rise in video content.
200 million plus businesses use Instagram—and for good reason. While it might seem like a personal platform for friends and family to interact, more than 90% of Instagrammers follow a business account, and 50% claim the platform helps them decide to buy a product or service.
The platform is apparently much more than a tool to keep in touch with your Uncle Steve or look at cute pictures of dogs.
However, growing an engaged audience is easier said than done. It requires patience, top-notch content, a bit of know-how, and really good Instagram captions. We can help you with all of that.
Instagram Stories continues to gain popularity, but it’s still not as widely used as the basic Instagram post. Stories provide above-and-beyond customization, with the ability to boomerang, rewind, superzoom, add stickers, and more. Posts, on the other hand, really only give you 2 custom fields:
- The Image/Reel
- The Caption
With just 2 elements to play with, it’s important you juice them both for all they’re worth. Nail your content and caption strategy, and you’ll be well on your way to growing your Instagram followers, engagement, and (ultimately) revenue.
8 Best Practices for Writing Really Good Instagram Captions
Now, let’s look at some of the best practices you can undertake to craft a killer Instagram caption. Using these practices, you’ll discover the sweet spot of creative, informative, and engaging.
1. More can sometimes be better
In many walks of life, less is more. However, that isn’t always the case with Instagram captions. The average caption length has steadily risen in recent years and has now averaged out at around 405 characters, which is around 70 words.
That might seem like a lot, but when you start writing, you’ll quickly realize it’s not as much as you first thought!
Data shows that posts with longer captions generally receive higher engagement rates than those with short captions. Higher engagement rates not only build deeper connections with your audience but also help you appear on the Explore page, which exposes your content to new soon-to-be followers.
Experiment to see what works best with your followers. Shorter captions have performed better in the past, but in 2023, it appears more words lead to more engagement. Try adding 70-100+ words to your Instagram captions for a few weeks to see how your audience responds. If you see an increased engagement rate, keep making them long.
Ultimately, though, the best practice is to treat each post uniquely, writing the amount of words that suit that specific piece of content.
That’s the approach we take at Foundr—we like to mix it up with everything from super-long captions to one-liners. While it can be tempting to only go for long posts, given the data above, it’s still important to remember that each post is different, and just writing more words for the sake of each defeats the purpose.
2. Emojis are your friend
In the past, Emojis may have been seen as “unprofessional” or “tacky,” but in 2023, it is now widely agreed that they have a place on social media.
Research shows that 92% of people have used or regularly used emojis in their messaging, and in recent times, businesses have started to pick up on this trend. Data says the more emojis you use, the higher your engagement. One study showed using these adorable pictograms and smileys can increase Instagram engagement rates by as much as 48%.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should just add an emoji after each word, and certain emojis should probably stay on your personal account (unless you’re an eggplant salesperson, of course.) Start by adding a few, and see how your followers respond. If the response is positive, try adding a bit more.
Emojis might not feel “on-brand” for your business, but the numbers suggest they’re certainly worth a try. Experiment with adding a few of the less cutesy emojis into your post to see if they make a difference.
If you’re hesitant, maybe try starting with the rocketship or fire emoji instead of the smiling-heart-eyes face or the rolling-on-floor-laughing face—they’re a little more brand-neutral.
Don’t Skip: Instagram Bio Ideas – What to Include… and What Not to
3. #UseHashtags
When companies started using hashtags in their promotional content, many looked at them with an element of confusion and dismissed the process as corny or cringeworthy.
However, it is now a widely adopted practice for many reasons.
They expose your brand to new audiences by putting you on the For You page, increasing your reach, exposing your brand to new audiences, and boosting your followers.
Hashtags can also allow your followers to engage with your brand, using specific hashtags you coin for your brand.
But here’s the burning question we know you’re dying to ask: how many hashtags should you use? And here’s the response you probably didn’t want to hear:
It depends.
Studies’ results have been all over the place because Instagram profiles and their content are all over the place. The number of hashtags you should use will be mainly determined by your industry, your number of followers, follower psychographics, and the types of content you share.
If you want a golden number to target and experiment with, many brands recommend around 11 hashtags. However, we suggest milking the hashtags for all they’re worth and including 30 hashtags per post (which is the Instagram limit).
The next question to cover is where your hashtags should go, in the comments section or the caption.
Accounts with 100,000 followers or fewer will see higher reach rates when they put hashtags in the caption. Accounts with more than 100,000 followers will be more focused on engagement than reach, so we recommend adding your hashtag to the first comment instead of the post description.
4. Engagement is essential
As a business, each post you publish should have a clear call to action that you want your audience to take.
Every post should have a goal, whether that’s to build awareness around a campaign, encourage your audience to interact with your brand, increase traffic to your website, share a product discount, or boost signups to your newsletter.
Every good Instagram caption needs a strong call to action (CTA) that tells your followers exactly what to do. Here are a few of our favorite Instagram caption ideas:
- Double-tap to show your support
- Tag a friend to enter the giveaway
- Post an image/Reel using the hashtag
- Follow us to receive more great content
- Give us your feedback to help us improve
- Comment to get more content
You get the idea. Adding a CTA makes people more likely to complete your goal action, so ensure every post has one in the caption.
5. Quality over quantity
Everyone is on Instagram for a purpose. They’re looking for inspiration, searching for a friend, evaluating a product, second-guessing a job offer, procrastinating, or just scrolling out of habit.
Regardless of the reason, social media is a self-driven online world where people are looking to satisfy a need.
So if you create content that doesn’t satisfy those needs, don’t expect to receive high-quality engagement. Before posting anything, ask yourself, “How does your content satisfy a need?”
Design content that satisfies those needs and answers the question: “What’s in it for me?” Whenever you include a CTA, don’t forget to mention why someone should do it:
- Follow us to receive your daily dose of startup inspiration
- Tag a friend in the comments to show them you care
- Visit the link in our bio to save 25% off your next purchase
- Comment below to help us design the perfect product for you
Even saying something along the lines of “Follow us so we can hit 10,000 followers by midnight” helps your audience feel included—like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.
6. Hook Your Reader Within the First 125 Characters
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But what’s the worth of a thousand words? A whole lot if you write well—not very much if you don’t.
Words pack a punch, but their placement determines the strength of that punch. Instagram captions truncate beyond 125 characters, meaning you only have a sentence (maybe 2) to hook your reader into clicking “…more.”
Good Instagram captions lead followers to read on rather than scroll down. If your post tells a story, that means you can’t give away the entire plot in the first 125 characters. Be intentional with your words—especially the first sentence. Add intrigue. Add suspense. Make it irresistible to skip the rest of your caption.
The best Instagram captions tie together closely with the posted image or Reel—the two can’t be separated and retain their value. Think of what your follower’s journey is like:
- They scroll down the page, seeing the image or Reel first.
- If they’re interested, they’ll take a second (maybe half a second) to glance at your caption.
- They’ll see the first 125 characters or less.
- If that hooks them, they’ll click “more” and read on.
- If the caption continues to intrigue them, they’ll read to the end.
- Once a user reads an entire caption, they’re much more likely to take the action you requested in your CTA.
Lose them at any stage in your caption, and they’re gone and onto the next Instagram post.
7. Format Your Captions to Improve the Reading Experience
Big, long paragraphs of text are perhaps the #1 way to scare off any reader. Use line breaks throughout your captions to make them easier to scan and digest.
Look through this article, for example—there’s hardly a paragraph that’s longer than 3 sentences. Use the same tactic to an even greater degree on your Instagram posts.
Social media expert Derek Halpern performed a study to determine the best-performing paragraph length.
“The problem is, to ensure maximum comprehension and the appearance of simplicity, the perfect line length ranges between 40 and 55 characters per line,” says Halpern. This ends up being around 8 to 11 words per line.
Now, you can’t really adjust the width of your Instagram captions, but you can apply the principles behind this study—keep it simple and easy to read to improve comprehension.
8. Ask Questions
What’s the easiest way to engage with your audience and build a more loyal community?
Asking questions, of course!
By asking questions, you engage directly with your audience, pushing them to comment on your content and leading to them becoming more loyal to your brand.
If you post a thought-provoking piece of content, why not follow up, asking for them to share their thoughts in the comments?
Are you considering launching a new product? Ask for feedback from your most loyal customers. By using questions in your Instagram captions, your audience feels like they are talking with you rather than you are talking at them.
Keep Learning: How to Get More Followers on Instagram
Practice Makes Perfect
Now you have all the caption secrets you need to write killer content that engages and forces your audience to act.
Don’t be discouraged if your first or second post is a dud—there’s a lot more at play than just your caption’s quality. Instagram algorithms, time of day, and even your image or video content will all play a part, too.
Keep trying. Practice makes perfect. Writing good Instagram captions is an art and science, and it’s hard to master those 2 things overnight.
In the end, captions are 1 element (albeit a critical one) of your Instagram strategy. You can optimize a lot more things to accelerate your follower growth, engagement, and sales.
Our exclusive Instagram training course has you covered everything you need to know.
The best part? It’s completely free,
We’ll take you behind the scenes and show you exactly how we generated 500K followers in 12 months (and 1M+ in 2 years).
This training includes our secret posting strategy, bio formula, and content creation process. And we’re giving it all away for free. The training starts soon, so enroll in the masterclass today while there’s still time.
