Instagram is a highly versatile social platform for businesses. There are plenty of tools, like carousels and Instagram stories, that help you create exciting content and boost sales.
But the biggest treasure of Instagram is its users. As of June 2018, the number of active Instagram users has reached 1 billion users, and this number continues growing. Since Instagram introduced the format of Stories, the number of daily Stories users keeps growing, reaching 500 million in January 2019:
Due to such immense popularity of Instagram, this social media platform has already become essential for many online businesses. According to WordStream, 25 million businesses use Instagram as the primary platform for marketing.
We already know that the biggest advantage of Instagram is the variety of options that it offers, from Stories and Instagram TV to photos and videos uploaded as carousels. But if you want to boost sales on Instagram, visuals are not enough. First of all, you need to know the best time to post on Instagram.
After a person sees a photo or a video of a product that interests them, they immediately go to see the caption, and that’s where you can lose a potential customer. Instagram captions play a vital role in engaging new customers and boosting sales.
So how can you write captivating Instagram posts that drive sales? Here are some tips.
- Develop Your Brand’s Voice
Since Adidas has launched its Statement collection, its brand voice has become even more prominent than before. By creating sportswear exclusively for women, Adidas hit their target audience with a variety of awesome products, boosting their sales up to 20% and reaching almost 2 billion euros only in the European Union.
What’s the story behind such a success? Bold statements that show the brand’s voice.
This is a perfect example of a good Instagram post that is in line with campaign slogans and the brand’s voice. Such posts successfully promote products and drive sales because they are a direct representation of the message that a brand wants to deliver.
If your brand is not as famous as Adidas or you’re just starting your journey, you can work on developing your brand’s voice by creating a brand voice chart. To do it as efficiently as possible, Ethan Dunwill, a content editor at HotEssayService, recommends following these steps:
- Single out 3 to 5 adjectives that describe your product and the values of your brand;
- After that, describe each adjective, giving the specific details of how it is relevant to what your brand represents;
- After the description, write the Do’s – words and phrases you should use in your Instagram captions that emphasize the things you’ve written in the descriptions of your adjectives;
- Finish with Don’ts – things to avoid, when writing Instagram captions.
If you follow these steps, here what your final result should look like:
| Adjectives that characterize your brand’s voice | Description | Do’s | Don’ts |
| Authentic | We genuinely care about our customers, so we develop a product that suits their needs and significantly improves their daily life. | Write honest and direct statements in Instagram captions to show that you are as genuine with your followers as possible. If there are any issues, own them and show that you’re ready to improve. | Don’t overpromise.
Don’t overadvertise and oversell. Don’t use offensive slang or ambiguous phrases. |
| Passionate | We are ready to push harder in order to deliver the best products and services to our customers. | Use strong verbs and bold statements.
Use quotes to show that you and your customers are on the same page. |
Avoid lengthy sentences or overcomplicated sentence structure.
Avoid Don’t use passive voice. |
| Relevant | We want to be on the same page with our customers and deliver products and services that are relevant and up-to-date. | Talk more about current trends, engaging customers to try them together with you.
Use words and phrases that show that you keep your product updated according to the latest trends and requirements. |
Don’t be too casual.
Avoid vague pop-culture examples, try to concentrate on your brand and what it represents. |
- Plan, Edit, Proofread (write a story, important information first, emotions)
Don’t want to get embarrassed? Always plan, edit and proofread your captions, if you want to avoid mistakes like this:
Essentially, Instagram captions are descriptions, created with a specific purpose, in our case – to drive more attention to the brand and to increase sales. If you’ve already figured out how your brand’s voice sounds – good, now let’s take a look at how you can formulate your message better.
Tips for Planning Your Captions
- If you’re going for a short message, try to put the most important information first. You can create a sense of urgency to turn the attention of your followers immediately, just like Victoria’s Secret did with their IG caption:
- Tell a story. Today’s marketing is all about storytelling. No wonder: according to stats, 92% of consumers want brands to make ads that feel like a story. There’s something more to this format that just a plain old-fashioned ad. Storytelling creates more value, thus driving more engagement. Using storytelling in IG captions is a great idea to boost sales and promote your brand. That’s what Nike did, and their fans are loving it:
- Cater to the right emotions. IG captions that boost sales, often address a certain feeling or emotion. This can be a sense of urgency, of belonging, and even of priority. “A big trend today is when brands address an important social cause, engaging customers to buy their products and giving the proceeds to support a charity”, says Neightan White, a marketing specialist at Supreme Dissertations. That’s what Puma did, giving their revenue to fight gun violence:
Tips for Editing and Proofreading Your Captions
As it was already mentioned, editing and proofreading are obligatory. But when you have to make many posts in one day, do you have the time to do it yourself?
Of course, no. That’s when online tools can come to rescue you. Here are some of the most trustworthy:
- Grammarly: a classical tool to use if you’re in doubts, whether your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are correct. It also can help you correct your writing style and make the caption more readable overall.
- RewardedEssays: this is a community of professional writers, who specialize in different spheres, including marketing and copywriting. If you’re having troubles creating an IG caption that would fit your visual content, you can get some useful tips from someone, who does it professionally on a daily basis.
- GrabMyEssay: this is a favorite student community, which offers useful tools to edit and proofread different texts. You can use it to check your IG captions for readability as well.
- Hemingway App: this is one of the best free online tools to check the readability of the text. It also comes as a desktop app for your convenience.
- Play with Different Formats
Instagram is a perfect space to employ all your creativity. With tools like Stories and IGTV, you have every opportunity to create incredible Instagram posts that boost sales. This is also a great way to attract more and more engaged followers. One of the famous Instagram influencers, Valeria Lipovetsky, uses all accessible IG content formats to boost engagement:
Here are some things to remember about the most popular content formats on Instagram:
- If you plan on shooting a video for IGTV, think full screen. Although, according to the Instagram Business website, IGTV is built to be used both vertically and full screen, the second format is actually more suitable and convenient for your followers, as it allows to take a closer look at the content.
- On the contrary, Stories are often watched vertically, with 94% of IG users doing so, so make sure your content is fit for this format as well.
- Carousel has become the most fitting format, with 40% of brands using it to promote their products. This is also a great way to boost sales, as you show your product in different settings and from different perspectives, allowing your followers to take a closer look.
If you want to embrace a bigger audience and boost sales, try to create content that is a good fit for all these formats. This way it will not only be available to your existing followers but on the IG Discover page as well, where more people can see it.
Final Thoughts
Instagram is the best platform to increase brand awareness by creating unique content. It offers you all the tools to bring your brand to success and boost sales. Hopefully, these tips will help you learn how to write a captivating Instagram post that boosts sales. Good luck!
Author Bio:
Bridgette Hernandez is an editor at IsAccurate and a professional writer. She’s a Master in Anthropology and a true expert in creating engaging and informative texts. She’s planning to publish her book in the nearest future and invests all her time in creating articles and posts that are based on qualitative research and bring value to the readers.