Engage Your Followers with Compelling Instagram Copy
As a persuasive copywriter, it is your goal not only to captivate your audience but to keep them under your watch too. Hence, various brands have gone to social media platforms, such as Instagram, to secure this goal. However, while you may have amassed a myriad of followers on Instagram, there is another task you have to do. That is, to convert them into customers.
How brands use Instagram
Unlike its contemporaries Facebook and Twitter, Instagram focuses mostly on graphics and visuals. It serves as the perfect place to promote not only products per se but lifestyle activities in which brands are involved.
Since marketing these days has shifted to valuing user experience, brands have taken to Instagram attract platform users who they deem to show interest in their products and services. It has also become more accessible for brands to promote their business on the platform through the help of “influencers.” These are people who have already gained a significant number of followers on social media.
The difference between followers and customers
While it is easy to gain a significant following on Instagram, they are not always the ones who bring in the money. This thin line sets the difference between followers and customers. Followers may be enamoured by the brand but do not necessarily subscribe to its products and offers. Only a small percentage of them are people who spend money on the brand’s items.
Where copy comes to play
A picture may paint a thousand words, but that’s not enough when you are writing copy for Instagram marketing. You not only have to be clear, crisp, and compelling with your words; you should also have the proper understanding of the Instagram environment and use it to your advantage.
Some of the best ways to engage followers with your Instagram copy-which, in this case, comes in the form of captions, include:
- Promote user-generated content.
In traditional long-form copy, testimonials show brand credibility from the perspective of its actual customers. On Instagram, you can do the same thing by promoting user-generated content on your copy.
User-generated content helps a lot in building trust for your brand. On Instagram, you can repost the said content with an additional caption that highlights the user’s insights and how followers can achieve the same experience.
- Utilise the emojis.
Instagram users include a lot of emojis in their posts. Sometimes, even influencers use only emojis and no other word or phrase to describe their IG moment. You can make the same approach too, especially when you are lighting an experience that cannot be explained merely by words.
Emojis help make a brand’s posts look and sound more human, as compared to just pure words. You can then use emojis for various intentions, such as:
- Showcasing the emotion that you want your followers to feel;
- Direct them to a call-to-action;
- Highlight and urgency regarding your offer.
Emojis also stimulate a “feel-good response” from readers, making them more enticed to buy or subscribe to your offers.
- Talk about real stories.
Alongside posting a photo, you may also want to tell the story behind it. After all, people love hearing stories, and they’d want to know more about the image you have posted. As a persuasive copywriter, make them curious. Get them delighted. Then invite them to learn more.
People who are captivated by your photo will definitely go through the caption that comes with it, even if it’s as long as 300 words (yes, IG captions can be this long). Better take the opportunity and pair your photo with a story that captures their emotions, until they are swayed to find out more about your brand.
