Instagram is a visual platform. However, if you want to succeed on this platform, you should create both stunning visual and textual content. You should write compelling captions for every picture and video you post as much as possible.
Do you need some tips for creating remarkable content that will attract brands and sponsors?
We’ve got you covered! Here are 6 essential writing tips that will help you to craft fabulous posts for Instagram and grow your Instagram following.
At A Glance
- Define your target audience
- Give it a personal touch
- Use hashtags to your advantage
- Use call-to-action phrases
- Add emotional appeal
- Consider using shortened words and internet acronyms
- Translate your captions
- Don’t forget to proofread it
- Use the right visual content
- Don’t try to look perfect
- Don’t steal someone else’s ideas
Define your target audience
What is “perfect branded content”, exactly? It’s content that matches the interests and meets the expectations of the target audience.
What first step should you take to create the perfect branded content?
You should define your target audience, its interests and expectations. You can do it by answering the following questions:
- Who are your followers? Describe demographics of your target audience (age, gender, marital status, income level, education level, etc.)
- Why do they follow your account? What do they like and dislike about the content you create?
- What interests, hobbies, and attitudes do they have?
- What type of content do they like the most (for example, reels, quizzes, before-vs-after photos)
Go back to looking at past content you’ve created and analyse your popular posts, videos and stories.
Once you get a clear idea of what content appeals to your target audience the most, you’ll understand how to create relevant branded content.
Give it a personal touch
Do you want your sponsored posts to resonate with your target audience? Write your heart out and share your personal story.
Why did you agree to advertise the chosen product? Did you use this product? Did it help you to solve a specific problem? Be honest with your followers, and they’ll appreciate that.
Let’s take a look at the following post. It’s just a perfect example of how you can add a personal touch to a sponsored post.
Quigley Goode is an LA-based content creator, who has 285K followers on Instagram. In April 2020, she was asked to advertise a hair mask by Not Your Mother’s brand.
Instead of writing a standard beauty product review like “this mask is great, it smells nice and has a smooth texture”, she shared a personal story. Quigley wrote about her struggles about removing hair extensions at home during the quarantine.
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[Source]At the end of the post, she mentioned that hair mask by Not Your Mother’s brand was a perfect solution for her damaged hair. The post itself doesn’t sound like an ad. It looks more like an honest customer review.
That’s exactly what brands pay money for.
Do you want to work with world-famous brands? Master the art of storytelling and learn how to turn a sponsored product review into a personal story. If you do it, you will achieve big success.
Read: Secrets of Famous Travel Instagrammers – Meet @tourdelust
Sponsored posts, just like ordinary posts, should always come with relevant hashtags. Basically, you should use 1 or 2 branded hashtags and 1 or 2 niche hashtags. That will be enough.
If you want to use more than 5 hashtags, add them in the first comment. Why so? If you add too many hashtags to the caption, your post will look “spammy”. If you write hashtags in a comment, they will get hidden under your followers’ comments.
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[Also, according to the legal policies set by Instagram, you should use a hashtag #ad or #sponsored. In such a way, you will inform your followers that they see an ad.
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[Use call-to-action phrases
Each of your captions should include a call to action. Depending on what marketing goal was set (for instance, to raise brand awareness, to increase sales), you can ask your followers to do the following:
- Check your stories
- Tag a friend
- Write a comment
- Vote in comments
- Visit a website to learn more about product X
- Caption a photo
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[Source]Well, you don’t need to use these specific phrases. You can come up with unique call to actions that better appeal to your target audience.
For instance, you can change the wording and ask your followers to tag not “a friend”, but “your fav people”.
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Add emotional appeal
When you’re expressing your opinion about sponsored products, you should express strong positive emotions.
If you write the phrase “I like this product”, you will drive no sales. If you say, “I’m obsessed with this product” and use relevant emojis, you will convince your audience that the advertised product is really good and appeals to you.
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[Source]In fact, you should use from 1 to 5 emojis in every caption. It will help you to set the tone of the post and deliver the brand message the right way as long as you don’t replace words with emojis! It’ll make your post hard to read, especially if the emojis don’t load, and that’ll result in decreased engagement.
Read: Secrets of Famous Travel Instagrammers – Meet @zeebalife
Consider using shortened words and internet acronyms
To create the perfect branded content, you should adjust your language to your target audience. If your followers use shortened words and internet acronyms, you also should emulate and use them too.
Do your followers write “fave” or “fav” instead of “favourite” and “lil” instead of “little”? Do they know what do hashtags like #tbt, #pfw, #acg mean? If so, you should adjust your writing style and start using these words and hashtags. It’ll help you to communicate a brand message to your audience in a more effective way.
Translate your captions
Are you a bilingual blogger? If more than 30% of your followers come from one non-English speaking country, consider writing captions in two languages. It’ll not take you much effort yet help you to engage your audience better. It’ll definitely personalize your message and make your posts stand out.
Basically, you don’t need to translate each and every caption. If you’re a busy blogger, you can translate only those captions, which are addressed to your local audience.
Take a look at the following example. Raquel and Miguel (@explorerssaurus_) are travel bloggers from Portugal. Most of their captions are written in English.
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However, when they create sponsored posts for Portugal-based companies, they write captions in Portuguese and add English translation.
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[Source]If you follow this example, it’ll be easier for you to promote your account locally and internationally. Your posts will appeal to local followers who speak your native language, and they’ll also appeal to the global users who like authentic, diverse content.
Read: Secrets of Famous Travel Instagrammers – Meet @xkflyaway
Don’t forget to proofread it
Proofreading is as important as writing; you should never forget about that. One typo in a caption can cost you your reputation and potentially lots of money. If you misspell the brand’s name, you’ll be unlikely to get paid. Please, be attentive to details and check everything you write using proofreading tools like Grammarly.
If you type captions using your phone, you should be even more attentive. Sometimes in-built text editing tools replace misspelt words with completely different words than you meant to write.
For instance, if you misspell the word “baked”, the system might mistakenly replace it with “naked”, and that will change the meaning of the whole caption.
You should understand that even AI-powered tools can’t substitute human proofreading. If you want to make your texts perfect, you should check them for mistakes manually. If you don’t want to do it (or simply don’t have time for it), get writing help online and check out writing websites such as TrustMyPaper delegate this task to professional proofreaders. It’ll ease your “blogger life” and improve the quality of your posts.
Use the right visual content
Let’s make it clear. Ads and branded content are 2 different things. Branded content shouldn’t look like an ad from a magazine or like a TV commercial.
In your post, you don’t need to talk about the benefits and features of the products. Your task is to present product X to your followers and convince followers to buy it. You’re free to do it in any way you like. Use your creativity and try to create a piece of content that’ll hopefully go viral online.
You can go beyond standard photo reviews and craft something special:
- Instagram-VS-reality pictures
- Before-and-after pictures
- Behind-the-scenes
- Memes
- Infographics
- TikTok-like dance videos
Instagrammers who know how to present products in an unordinary way are in high demand. If you want to make big money collaborating with brands, you should learn how to create one-of-a-kind visual content.
Here is an inspiring example for you: Irina Peicu @irinahp and Marta Sierra @marta__sierra collaborated with Zoé Lu brand. The task of the bloggers was to present new bags with interchangeable flaps.
Instead of posing with bags for standard photos, Irina and Marta decided to create more compelling visual content. They made a short video where they showed different “types of friends” and different “versions” of Zoé Lu bags.
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[Source]The video has been viewed more than 900K, and that’s a fantastic result. If girls posted ordinary photo reviews, they wouldn’t reach such a wide audience, and the results of the marketing campaign wouldn’t be that impressive.
If you want to become Instagram-famous, don’t stick to one type of content. Experiment with using various types of visuals and texts.
Don’t try to look perfect
A few years ago, Instagram was all about faking “perfect life”. Influencers and bloggers were trying to make their bodies/ houses/ families look perfect in photos. Eventually, most of them lost their authenticity and started to create typical, unoriginal content.
Instagram users got bored with such content. Now, they are more loyal to those influencers who aren’t afraid to be themselves and share both edited and unedited content.
If you want to succeed on the app and promote branded content effectively, don’t try to be perfect. Don’t edit each and every photo you post on Instagram. Show your followers your real life. Be your most authentic self – it will help you to connect with your followers on a deeper level and advertise brands in the most effective way.
Do you feel sad or depressed? Are you dealing with challenging problems? Share it with your followers, and you’ll see that you’re not alone with your problem. You’ll get the support you need and win the loyalty of your audience. Show people your vulnerability, and you’ll gain their trust.
Let’s consider an example to understand how it works.
Maya Vorderstrasse is a mom of 3. She has 222K followers on Instagram. Most of her posts look like this one – picture of smiling Maya and her happy kids plus fun caption.
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[Source]However, when Maya faces some difficulties in her life, she doesn’t pretend that everything is fine. She openly shares her thoughts and real-life pictures with her audience.
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Guess what? Such “not-Instagrammable” pictures get as many likes as professionally edited images.
Maya’s followers trust her, so when she publishes sponsored posts, her audience stays loyal to her and the brand she promotes.
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[Source]In other words, if you want your branded content works well, make sure that all content you create is authentic and personal. It’ll help you to achieve success in the short and long run.
Don’t steal someone else’s ideas
Branded content must be unique to be perfect, so please, never try to steal someone else’s content ideas or rewrite someone else’s captions. People will spot your “misconduct”, and that will kill your reputation.
Well, you can find inspiration in content created by other bloggers.
Just. Don’t. Copy. Other people’s works.
You should create every post from scratch. Keep developing your creative skills and try to generate new, brilliant content ideas on a daily basis.
What do you need to create perfect branded content? You need to know your target audience and use your creative skills. You should work hard to come up with exclusive content ideas and create something really special.
Are you feeling stuck in a creative rut? Reach out to brand representatives and ask for help. Or, contact fellow Instagrammers and ask them for feedback to assist you with brainstorming new ideas.
Companies expect you to produce quality content, so make sure that every picture you take and every caption you write are worth sharing on the app. By delivering exceptional content consistently, you will build your way up to success and always be one step ahead of the competition.
