Transcription
How do you write scroll-stopping Instagram captions? In this video, I'm going to share six copywriting tips with real-life examples that you can use to skyrocket your engagement. And be sure to watch to the end for my quick list of favorite social media tools.
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Hey guys, what's up? It's Alex. If this is your first time on my channel, welcome! I am so glad you're here. Make sure to hit subscribe below so you don't miss any more of my videos and ring that bell to be notified when my next tutorial goes live. Next week, I'll be talking all about eight profitable income streams for copywriters and online entrepreneurs. And if you're already part of the crew here on YouTube, welcome back! Give me a thumbs up below to let me know you're here.
Now, I am super excited about this week's video, because it is one that a lot of you have been asking me to do for a while now, how to write killer social media captions. Now I'll admit, it took me some time to release this video because I'll be honest, I am a big believer in only teaching things on the internet that you've actually done and have real results and evidence to back it up. I don't typically write social media captions for my clients as I tend to stick to those higher-level key conversion pieces like sales pages, webinars, and websites. But if you follow us over on Instagram at Copy Posse, then you might've noticed that we've been seriously killing it on the content over the last few months. Huge shout out to my amazing social media team. We've been experimenting like crazy in our posts and stories with different designs, formats, and techniques to grow and engage our audience... And we've been growing like crazy. In fact, we have more than doubled our following in the last three months alone and just this week we finally hit the 10K mark. So instead of doing a standard "How To Write Instagram Posts" tutorial and show you what everybody else is doing, I'm going to share our own best-performing posts and proven strategies that we've used to boost our following and engagement dramatically.
Now, first things first, like all types of copy, Instagram captions need to follow the ABCs of copywriting. So first, they need to get attention with a great graphic and a compelling headline. Second, they need to provide a benefit or some sort of value in the form of education, entertainment, or inspiration. And lastly, they need a strong close. They need to give people one clear and concise call-to-action. Copy that? All right, let's go.
Here are six tips for writing killer Instagram captions along with real-life examples from the Copy Posse.
Tip number one, to get more likes, share a relatable story. So, my most liked post of all time is this one. It is a known fact that actual photos of people do typically get more likes, especially for a personality-based brand like mine. So, yes, while this photo did help me grab attention, I opened the caption with a very strong and relatable question. "What if my client doesn't like my copy?" This speaks to one of the biggest insecurities that copywriters have no matter how long they've been doing this. Trust me on that and it's a question that I get a lot. In fact, this post was inspired by one of my Copy Posse Launch Pad students, who was feeling a little bit derailed after a client sent back her work with a bunch of slashes, edits, and comments. So I shared our quick exchange with my Instagram community because let's face it, it was real, it was authentic, and it was 100% relatable. I knew other people would benefit from hearing that even experienced copywriters like myself and my high-level coaching students have doubts sometimes. And yes, we often have to deal with less-than-glowing client feedback. So rather than trying to pull content out of thin air, as much as you can, share real stories and be as specific as possible. Remember, the more specific the story, the more relatable your copy. Lastly, don't be afraid to create polarity, take a strong stand for something you believe in, or own up to your own imperfections. Nothing engages people more than a story that validates their own concerns, doubts, and fears, or speaks to a shared cause, mission, or belief.
All right, tip number two, to get more saves, share your favorite tips and tools. So my three most saved posts of all time all share one thing in common. They are short educational lists of my top copywriting tools, courses, and books. So these types of quick top five or top 10 lists provide insider tips and invaluable shortcuts on a topic that is highly relevant to your followers. And there's just something about lists that we as humans just absolutely love, right? It's actually scientifically proven that we love lists because they're simple and they provide easy frameworks for us to process information quickly in an otherwise oversaturated and overwhelming information age. So now you'll see in the caption that on top of a compelling headline and a detailed list that supplements the graphic, we also have a clear CTA that says, "Comment 'yes' below for us to DM you the links." And sometimes we even include a "save for later" call to action in the graphic directly above the save button. That makes it really, really clear and easy for a follower to just click once, save that to their archive, and then they can refer back to it later whenever they want.
All right, tip number three, to get more shares, post a thought-provoking meme or quote. Oh yes, the biggest crowd pleasers of them all, memes and quotes, both are punchy, straight to the point, and offer a quick burst of fun, just like a tequila shot. Memes have the ability of uniting us using the universal emotion of humor. There is no better way to do this than through satire of real life. And while quotes may have gotten a bad rap lately, thanks to those spreading oversimplified, stolen, and sometimes painfully cliché wisdom, the numbers do not lie, people love quotes. The bottom line is this, both quotes and memes are indisputably powerful and share-worthy, especially when they are relevant to your audience and speak to their sense of identity, or a common belief system. So for example, this is my most shared post of all time. It's a funny quote and speaks directly to who we are as writers. Now here's a meme post that I created that was shared a lot too. Again, it brings us all together through humor and a sense of belonging. "Here's what people think copywriters do versus what copywriters actually do." Now while memes and quotes are punchy, you don't want to overdo it. One of the best ways you can distinguish yourself from just another random quote or meme account is to mix up your content and when you do share a quote or meme, use copy in your caption that provides context and even more value to your followers and whatever you do, don't forget the call-to-action.
All right, tip number four. To get more comments, ask a simple question. So one of the best ways to get your followers to comment on your posts is to ask them a question, of course, but here's the thing, you want to keep it quick and ask a question that requires very minimal effort. So I like to include the question in the graphic itself as well, because don't forget, we are in the scrolling generation so you can ask a multiple-choice question like I did in this post where I asked my followers to let me know where they're at on their copywriting journey. Or if you do want to keep your question open-ended, that's cool too. Make the question painfully easy to answer, like in my most commented post of all time, where I simply asked my followers to tell me where in the world they're from. It requires very little effort to answer, and it evokes a strong sense of pride and identity. So these types of posts are great to easily engage your audience as Instagram's algorithm tracks and monitors your engagement rate. So the higher your engagement rate, the more likely your posts are to be seen by more people and the faster you grow. But again, you do not want your entire account to just be these types of posts, because then you're not adding a lot of value for your audience. They are a great way though, to get conversation going and have a little fun between your heavier content posts.
All right, tip number five, to get more leads, provide valuable resources. Because Instagram prohibits hyperlinks in the captions themselves, it can be really challenging for brands to send their followers to their website. It requires a lot of interest and serious manual effort from the reader. Those three little words, "link in bio" require a surprising amount of work, which means you better be giving people a damn good reason to stop their scrolling, go to your profile, click the link in the bio, then to leave the Instagram app altogether to access your website, and then take the desired call-to-action, which is to sign up or buy something. With that being said, social media can still be a great source for leads, but see this as an opportunity to put on your marketing hat and ask yourself this question, "What can I give my followers that is so good that they'll want to stop what they're doing right now, leave Instagram and go get it?" So the answer to that is to share a highly valuable and relevant resource that helps them solve one of their most pressing problems. So for example, this is one of the posts that led to the most amount of link clicks at the Copy Posse. As you can see, it's a visual representation of my hot offer checklist and while the video does offer a tangible preview of what you'll get when you click the link in bio, I did not stop there. The caption brings the heat. I opened with a strong question headline, and then I offer tips on how to get the most out of this free resource and then of course, I end with one clear and concise call-to-action, to click the link in bio. By the way, you can get your copy of this checklist at the link below.
And now tip number six, to get more followers, make it playful and have fun. So the best posts of them all are the ones that get a lot of likes, comments, shares, and saves because those are the posts that keep people coming back for more and boost your following like crazy. So my most engaging posts of all time across all metrics was this power words post. Power words are a copywriter's secret weapon when it comes to giving your copy some needed pizazz. So in this good old-fashioned word game, we listed down some common adjectives and offered alternatives that can evoke more emotion and action in your copywriting. We then asked our followers to fill in the blank and find a better word for "increase". So these kinds of posts are really fun and easy to answer, but they also evoke our human competitive nature, add a ton of value, and provide a unique opportunity for your audience to interact with you in a fun way. By mixing up the style, format, and design of your posts, while of course always following the ABC copywriting rules in your captions, you'll boost your engagement and following in no time, plus you'll have a fun, creative, and exciting feed that keeps people coming back again and again and again.
Now, before I let you go, as promised, here's a quick list of my go-to social media tools that we use here at the Copy Posse.
Number one, Canva. So I am obsessed with Canva, it's so user-friendly and totally customizable and I love it that me, someone who has zero design skills whatsoever, can use these gorgeous templates and designs to create amazing, amazing graphics. Now, this platform has been a savior in my copywriting agency and academy because I use it for absolutely everything: the PDFs and worksheets in my coaching program, the downloadables like my Hot Offer Checklist, I use it for all of my social media posts and even my YouTube thumbnails.
All right, number two, pretty-caption.com. So this simple web tool is a game-changer for formatting Instagram captions. Now I'm sure you guys have experienced this before, where you actually paste a caption into Instagram and Instagram moves all the paragraph spaces and it turns your caption into this like crammed up long ass wall of text and it looks nothing like how you want it to. So this tool just makes it really easy to make sure your captions look exactly how you want them to look, beautifully spaced out and aligned. So to use it, you just paste your caption into this website and then you copy it into Instagram.
All right, now last one, number three, the Later app. So Later is a great tool for you to schedule your posts in advance so that you can plan your content timeline and actually preview your feed in advance. I also use it to manage all of my social media profiles in just one handy place.
Okay guys, that's it for me this week. Give me a thumbs up below if you found this video helpful. As always, thank you so so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss my video coming next week and in the meantime, check out my video on four digital marketing and social media trends that are taking over the internet. You can watch that video right here and I will see you again soon with a brand new tutorial. Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now!
Canva, it, blah.