Creating an engaging Instagram caption feels like a mystery.
You spend all your time putting together a post with insane value and then crickets!
You post at the right time. Your content answers a question your audience has. You're engaging with everybody else’s content.
So why isn’t anyone responding? It must be the algorithm!
First off, I want you to put away the thought that the algorithm’s out to get you. You have no control over the algorithm.
What you can do, however, is focus on the things that are within your power to control. And one of those things is the way you structure your content.
That's why in today’s post, I’m sharing 4 formulas you can use to craft an engaging Instagram caption.
But first, let’s take a quick look at what engagement means.
Engagement is any interaction people have with your posts. It includes likes, comments, shares, saves and views.
Engagement is an essential ingredient of any social media marketing plan. It helps build reach and community. It also provides key insight into the kinds of content your audience wants to see.
To calculate your engagement rate, total the interactions on a single post. Then, divide the total by the followers you have.
For example, let’s say you get 8 likes, 2 comments (no saves or shares) on a photo post and you have 282 followers. Your engagement rate would be: 0.03%
(8+2)/282=0.03%
The average engagement rate on accounts below 10,000 followers is only 1.55%. And it gets worse for accounts above 10,000 followers--0.62%.
Here are a few more engagement statistics for different types of media:
- Photos: 1.03%
- Video: 0.75%
- Carousels: 0.86%
So yes, your posts are below average if your numbers are below these rates.
But let’s look at how we can structure our captions for more engagement.
Four Instagram Caption Formulas for Getting Engagement
Here are 4 caption formulas you can try to get more engagement on your Instagram posts:
- Awareness – Comprehension – Conviction – Action
- Magnet – Reason – Deliver - Action
- Qualify – Understand – Educate – Stimulate – Transition
- Problem - Agitate –Solution - Action
Do you know why these formulas work? They are based on copywriting formulas!
Think of it. You use copy to convince persons to take action like buy, call, or sign up for something.
On Instagram, you also want viewers to take action. Every caption should have a purpose and a trigger that gets people to take the action you desire. (E.g. like, comment, save, share, visit your profile or click the link in your bio.)
But here’s the thing. If you’re depending on people to react only because you ask them to, you’ll end up with very low engagement.
The best captions are usually the ones where you don’t have to tell people to engage at all.
It’s the viewer’s estimation of the quality of your content that stimulates them to act.
Let’s look at each formula in more detail.
Instagram Caption Formula 1
Awareness-Comprehension-Conviction-Action
With this formula, begin by bringing a problem to the attention of your audience. They may not be aware of the problem.
Next, help viewers better understand the problem by illustrating why it’s a problem in the first place.
Then, show them how illogical it is to maintain the problem.
Finally, give viewers an action item to help resolve the problem.
Here’s an example of this formula in practice from an Instagram account called Bami.brands.
Awareness – “Stop wasting money/time on marketing that doesn’t work”
Comprehension- “Andy invited 500 people to his exclusive pool party but only 20 of the people invited showed up. Now, 10 of the 20 people who came, left unsatisfied.
“To find answers to what he did wrong, he decided to find a way to interview 10 people who didn’t show up and the 10 other people who left unsatisfied.
“Their common reasons were:
- I don’t like pool parties
- I don’t know what the party was for
- Your party wasn’t my kind of party
- The setting of the venue wasn’t to my taste
- I didn’t like the music and food
“See what the problem was? Andy didn’t take the time to define which people would be the perfect fit for his pool party. So therefore, he invited everyone and didn’t know how to suit the party to the taste of those who even managed to come.”
Conviction: “This is the same way you’re wasting time on marketing that doesn’t work. You jump right into Fb/IG ads, SEO, Google ads, website design, etc. without clearly defining who it is you should speak to, what their needs and goals are and the role you play on their journey to getting what they want. Then you get frustrated because you aren’t seeing the results you hoped for.”
Action: “Set your brand foundations right before marketing.”
This formula works well because you’re satisfying your audience’s knowledge needs. Plus, you’re triggering a response by using “conviction”.
Instagram Caption Formula 2
Qualify – Understand – Educate – Stimulate – Transition
With this formula, start by identifying who you’re talking to. You do this by referencing location, sex, certain behaviour, age, goals, challenges etc.
Then, show your audience you understand where they’re at. Do this by referencing their thinking, desires and needs.
Next, you educate them on a better way and stimulate or tease them so that they want that better way.
Finally, you transition them from where they’re at to becoming your customer.
This formula works because you grab attention by first qualifying the audience.
It’s akin to calling someone by name when they’re in a crowd. No matter the noise level, people are likely to hear someone calling their name.
After you pull the viewer in, you keep them reading by showing you understand their position and then educating and stimulating them.
Take a look at how Instagrammer CanvaLorrd used this formula in a post about sharing quality content:
Qualify: “Helloooo Fb/Instagram Ads won’t save you”
Understand: “Running ads will bring all kinds of people to your page but it can’t make them stay”
Educate: “The best you will get is profile visits (unless that it all you want)”
Stimulate: “So if your goal on Instagram is to build an engaging audience that will buy from you… focus on your content. A good content is like a bath in ice water. It grabs your attention and leaves a lasting impression…AKA Addiction. It is what keeps them, build authority/trust and makes them buy from you again and again.”
Transition: “Join the Addictive Content Class. Let me show you how it is done.”
Instagram Caption Formula 3
Magnet-Reason-Deliver-Action
With this formula, begin with an attention grabbing headline around a specific problem. This can be a question, shocking statistic, teaser or negative headline.
Then, you communicate why your message is important.
Next, deliver an actionable answer to the problem at hand and end with an action statement.
The beauty in this formula is the delivery of actionable advice. People must feel like they are capable of completing an action to take action.
Here’s how I’ve used this formula on a post at Social Rebellion Marketing.
Magnet: “Don’t give people the content they want”
Reason: “What your audience wants is often not what they need. Let me explain. How many times have we chased shiny new objects only to waste our time? Yup! We often don’t know what we need. But how do you get people to pay attention to your content when they don’t know what they truly need?
Deliver: “Learn the art of reframing. What’s that?
“Meet Jason. He wants to increase sales from Social Media. So you create content about how to create the ideal customer persona. You know this well help Jason better find his likely buyers on Social Media. But Jason doesn’t think he needs this content. What do you do?
“Draw Jason in with the big goals. Create a post titled, 5 Reasons Why You Aren’t Generating Sales through Social Media.
“Jason takes notice because you’re talking about the business goal he wants. Then…
“Make the link between what he needs and the goal he desires. In your post, talk about the importance of creating your ideal persona for generating sales.”
Jason will see value and continue to read your posts because he wants to learn more from you.
Action: Help people understand what they need.
Instagram Caption Formula 4
Problem-Agitate-Solution-Action
This formula is very well known. Start by identifying the problem.
Then, agitate the problem by painting a picture of what it looks like or illustrating the impact.
Next, communicate the solution and follow up with a call-to-action.
The reason why this is so effective is because people tend to be more strongly motivated by the desire to end pain.
See Instagram Content Creator, Sun.yi, used this formula.
Problem: “Why is your brand story boring”
Agitate: “Here’s an example of how a typical brand story starts:
“I was terrible at managing finances. Everyone thought I was successful, but I was actually broke.”
"Boooo-ring…
"Using adjectives to describe your story isn’t memorable.
Solution: "Instead draw a picture of what “broke” looks like.
“I treated my friends to dinner on paydays, then a week later, I survived on ramen noodles waiting for my next paycheck.
"The details help people visualize the story."
Action: "Be specific. Bring your story to life."
Conclusion
If you’re struggling with engagement, you should take a fresh look at the way you are structuring your captions. I’ve shown you four formulas that you can use:
- Awareness – Comprehension – Conviction – Action
- Magnet – Reason – Deliver - Action
- Qualify – Understand – Educate – Stimulate – Transition
- Problem - Agitate –Solution - Action
They’re effective because they reflect tried and true copywriting formulas. With practice, you get faster at writing and you’ll even find ways to break these formulas to your advantage.
Now the examples I’ve given are all taken from Instagram carousel posts. That’s because the captions are literally in the carousel cards. But there’s no reason why you can’t apply them to captions beneath static or video posts as well.
Just be sure to have a strong headline that grabs attention.
Over to you. What do you think of these caption formulas? Can you see yourself using them? Let me know in the comments below.
I’m a content marketing specialist and owner of C.D BLACKMAN SOCIAL REBELLION MARKETING, where I make it easy for professional service-based business owners to create content marketing strategies that attract leads and clients more predictably.