Visuals Aren’t Enough — You Need to Engage Instagram Followers with Copy

You probably think that Instagram is just a visual platform.

Instagram started out as a cool app that made it easier than ever to share beautifully edited photos with your friends and family.

And unlike Facebook, you had to post something visual on Instagram. You couldn’t just share a text post.

Today, IG Reels are the big thing. Quick <30 second videos basically rule the platform. Even if you have 43 followers, your Reels can get thousands of views.

I have an Instagram account with 164 followers. I’ve gotten 17,000+ views on 7 Reels that I’ve posted. It makes sense because Reels are usually very visually appealing.

It’s been clear since Day 1 that Instagram is a visual platform.

Just like Twitter is a text-based platform. Photos, graphics, and videos don’t do well on Twitter.

Does that mean you can ignore the caption portion of your Instagram posts?

Do you need to give any thought to what you write? Or will a few words and your favorite emoji work just fine?

I’m a writer, so I’m a bit biased. But, if you want people to take action instead of just being entertained, then you need to engage your IG followers with text. You need to give a second thought to the captions you’re writing.

If not, they’ll be entertained by your photos and Reels, but they’ll never take the next step. They’ll never buy your products, or visit your website to learn more about your business.

Your words are the difference between an entertained follower and a paying customer.

Don’t be afraid of long copy

People have this idea that everyone has the attention span of a goldfish.

That’s not true at all.

People have a low tolerance for boring stuff. If you bore them, they’ll scroll right on by.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use 250+ words in your Instagram caption. Instagram gives you space for 2,200 characters in your caption. That’s more than the length of this article so far, which is about 350 words.

That’s a lot of copy for a social media caption. It’s definitely longer than the average person is posting. That’s like posting a short sales pitch. Most people are posting a sentence or two because they’re afraid that people won’t read it.

Sure, some people won’t, but the people that do read your long copy will give you a huge algorithm boost. Instagram will see that people are spending more time looking at your post and show it to more people.

You should avoid being long-winded, but don’t be afraid of saying too much. Longer copy almost always outperforms short copy, and you can’t convince anyone to take action with just a few words.

You need to take advantage of all the available space.

Most people spend an hour on Instagram every day. They have plenty of time to read your 300-word caption — as long as it doesn’t bore them.

• Tell them a story about your business.
• Share info that goes beyond the surface level.
• Tell them all the details about your new product.
• Keep it casual, like you’re having a conversation with a friend.

Grab their attention twice

The goal of your visual — photo or video — is to grab attention and get people to stop scrolling. If you can get people to pause, you’re on the right track.

Your next step is to get them to pause again.

You do that with the first 2–3 lines of your caption. People will look at your visual and then look to the caption for more info. Your next goal is to get them to click on that little “…more” button.

You don’t want to give everything away in the graphic.

That probably won’t look great, and it won’t attract people’s attention. Give them a hint of what your post is all about and promise them value in exchange for a few seconds of their attention.

Instagram does this well on their own account.

They share a photo of a person — usually doing something interesting — and then tell you more about their story in the caption. They grab your attention with the interesting visual, and that compels you to learn more by reading the caption.

You get about 125 characters before people need to click on the “…more” button, so that’s where your second hook goes.

If you can get someone to stop their mindless scrolling, and then get them to click on the button to read your entire caption, they’re much more likely to pay attention to whatever you’re saying. And they’re more likely to take whatever action you suggest next.

Write for the scanners

Even when people click to read your 300-word caption, they’re not actually going to read it. They’re going to scan it as quickly as possible in search of the most valuable information.

You need to write your caption for scanners, not for readers.

If your caption looks like a book page — a big wall of emoji-less text — people are going to change their mind.

And

if

it

looks

like

this

they’re

going

to

leave.

Your caption needs to be visually appealing and easy to read. That means you’ll use a variety of 1–3 lines of text per paragraph. And you’ll use a few emojis that match your message.

This post from Laura Belgray is a great example of well-structured caption copy. She’s a professional copywriter, so it makes sense.

The visual gives you a quick tip and aims to grab your attention. Then when you go to the caption the first line leaves you wanting more. And then the rest of the caption looks easy to read.

It’s about 250 words, but because it’s broken up into small 1–2 sentence pieces, it looks much easier to read. I can easily scan through each sentence.

You can also use visual cues in your caption to attract attention to an important point or stat that you want to highlight. Use arrows, pointing finer emojis, caution signs, a numbered or bulleted list. Use them sparingly, because when you try to make everything important, nothing is important.

Tell people what to do next

Now that you’ve had their attention for 30 seconds, you need to tell them the next step. Don’t just end your caption.

You don’t need to tell them to buy something, but you need to give them the next step. Don’t be timid.

It can be something simple like “share this post with a friend” “tag someone in the comments” or “click the link in my bio to join my email newsletter”. Your readers have already made two decisions when they stopped scrolling and when they clicked to read the rest of your caption.

Don’t leave them hanging now!

One of your main goals is to keep engagement high. That means your followers need to do what the Insta algorithm likes: liking, sharing, saving, and commenting on your posts.

The majority of your CTAs can be one of those things. Simply ask people to engage with your post.

Then — because you keep providing value and showing up in people’s feeds — they’ll be eager to buy something from you or follow you to another platform.

A few years ago, there was an article about an IG influencer who couldn’t sell 36 t-shirts. I just looked at her Instagram and there’s no thought or effort put into the captions.

They’re a few words. No interesting stories, stats, or call to action.

No wonder why people hit like and keep scrolling. They’re not being told to do anything else.

If you want any of your followers to become your customers, it’s going to happen through the words you write.