Do you struggle with coming up with new and authentic captions for business Instagram page?

With Instagram becoming more and more competitive. The captions you add with your photo have never been more important to connect with your audience.

Keep reading to find out 7x brilliant tips and 20x caption themes that will save you time and energy when writing your captions.

7 tips for writing captions

Tip #1: Know your caption themes

You will notice a pattern among the most successful Instagrammers. All of their captions are consistent on almost all of their posts.  

@EliseDarma from @Canupycontent recommends having 1-5 caption themes that you reuse across your Instagram. This way you keep your Instagram consistent and you already know what kind of caption you are going to write. It also creates great consistency for your reader. It makes it easier and faster for you to write your caption. 

Below we show you 20 different captions themes you can adopt for your Instagram.

Tip #2: Write your captions in batches instead of writing one at a time

The word ‘‘Batching’ has been coming a lot recently. It is essentially a buzzword that means dividing your project into a specific chunk of time where you are doing the same activity over and over instead of jumping from task to task. 

So once a week sit down and do a solid ‘batch’ writing session and write your captions for the week. Schedule a time to do each week and then when it comes to posting your not doing it on the fly. 

Tip #3: Plan your captions first and image second

This is how many magazine writers and bloggers create their content. Write the story first and then find the best images for what you have said last.

This also means that you create a bank of captions that you can use at a later time. 

Tip #4: Write as you talk

Don’t type like a robot. Use contractions in your captions. i.e instead of ‘Here is’ just write ‘here’s’. It’s how we talk and it's much nicer to read. 

It’s also a great way to come up with captions. Seth Godin makes a brilliant point in his blog that everyone has experienced ‘Writer's block’ but no one ever seems to have ‘Talkers block’ say to a friend what you want to say in your caption or record a message on your phone and type it up later.

Tip #5: Use the first line to lure in the reader

Have you ever binged multiple episodes of a Tv show? Us too. 

A TV show always ends on a cliffhanger and you just need to know what happens next. So you watch another episode. 

You need to do this with your caption. Instagram cuts off the first sentence so make sure you lure your reader in right away with the first sentence. You can write something dramatic, intense, shocking, raw or personal. 

Examples: 

• “If you want to own your own business..."

• “You may not want to hear this... But...” 

• “I’m excited, nervous and anxious to say...”

• “For the first time in my adult life, I finally...”

Tip 6: Separate your hashtags from the rest of your caption 

Hashtags are great for people to find your content but it can clutter the caption space. 

Separate your hashtags from the rest of your caption by burying them beneath periods and line breaks. 

Once you’ve finished composing your caption, tap the 123 key. Select Return and then enter a period, dash, or asterisk. Repeat those steps at least five times. Because Instagram caps off captions after three lines, the hashtags won’t be viewable to users unless they tap the “More” option.

Or use a scheduling tool such as later. You can now schedule the 1st comment with your hashtags to keep your post looking nice and neat.

Tip 7: Make your CTA (Call to Action ) Stand out. 

Don’t let people scroll past content without them doing the activities that you would like. 

A good call to action (CTA) is essential for businesses that want to convert followers into customers or clients. 

Also, you don’t have to bury your CTA at the bottom of your caption. Make it stand out by using emojis, and emphasize what you want the reader to do. 

CTA’s Examples

• Ask readers to like “ Double-tap or like the post, if you agree, 

• Ask a question: What’s your astrology sign? What’s your favourite breakfast? What’s your biggest concern about your hair?

• Ask readers to tag your friends: Encourage your followers to invite their friends to read your content by tagging them in the comment section. “ Tag friend that needs to hear this.

• Ask the reader to share this post by tapping the paper aeroplane symbol. This allows followers to add this post to their story and DM the post to a friend. 

BONUS TIP: Use a feature such as Linktree or Later to have multiple links in your Bio. 

Drive your followers to multiple destinations. Give your followers the options of seeing everything. You can have a link leading to your blog, website, event, socials and more. 

It also means your content can live longer and you don’t need to change the link in the bio with each new post. 

Caption Theme Ideas:

1. Micro Blogging

Micro Blogging is starting to appear everywhere over Instagram and for good reason too. 

Micro Blogging captions allow you to convey important news, tips, and other rich content quickly and effectively. Plus the instagram algorithm loves it. While no one really knows how the Algorithm works exactly. We do know that it rewards engagement. I.e the longer someone sits on your post, or comments, like etc Instagram sees this as good content and will show the post to more people. 

Marie Forleo effortless writes effective and engaging micro blogs on her Instagram posts. 

2. Success Story

Everyone loves to see a success. Whether it’s your own or someone else’s. Sharing a success big or small with your followers is a great idea. Particularly if you are a business and sharing a goal or review. It’s great content and reflects your self or business in a positive light. 

If you struggle writing positive things about yourself. Just pretend you are writing as if your success was done by someone that you love. Write how it it and don’t apologise for it. 

TribeSkincare is great at sharing the success from her company. 

3. Testimonial

This is almost a must-have for all businesses. Reviews are everything these days. People love to see that others have purchased from you and more importantly loved the product or service!. So when you receive a good one, let everyone know about it. 

Image: SummerFridays

4. Tease and Redirect

With so many social media outlets now. It can sometimes feel as though you are balancing a million plates in the air.

If you want your Instagram audience to move to Youtube, redirect your followers thereby giving a tease on Instagram and tell your audience to follow the link in the bio to see the big reveal or the rest of the video.

Cake designer Georgia's Cakes, does this well to get her IG followers to watch her cooking videos on her Youtube channel. 

5. The storyteller caption.

6. Relatable

Writing a super relatable caption is so refreshing to read. Avantcollaborative does this well. They know who their customers are and what they respond too. This style of comments work particularly well for B2B (Business to Business) Instagrams. 

7. Punny

Maybe you are a business that doesn’t have a physical product and you share a lot of knowledge. Later, a social media scheduling platform is the queen for making facts, and dullish news look amazing. With use of puns they tie is beautiful photography to captions to teach followers about new social media news.  

8. Quote

Use a simple quote for your caption. The quote can be motivational, inspirational, a line from a poem or maybe your favourite book.

Image: ThePlantyDropper 

9. Minimalist 

If you have a minimalist theme going then a minimalist caption is very fitting.  OUUR does this perfectly. Detailing only what needs to be said. Nothing more, nothing less.

10. Short and sweet

Simply state what the product is. Showpo an Australian Fashion online store nails this. They rely on their social media for most of their marketing and post several times a day. They keep their captions short and sweet. Stating the name of the products adds an emoji and uses their hashtag #showpo. 

11. Motivational Instagram Captions

Everyone love to see a motivational message and Bossbabe.inc does just that. The caption with a short motivational caption designed to celebrate and inspire women.

• 'Think of yourself as already BEING the woman that you aspire to be.'
• 'We women just have a lot to bring to the table.'
• 'If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?'

12. New Product Alert

When you release new products and services share this with your audience! If people are following you they want to see it so don't worry about seeming to salesy. 

Image: Seed and Sprout

13. Personal

Writing personal captions is a great way to build relationships with your audience. Generally, someone will relate to your post. Personal themes you could write about include:

• Trying something new

• A recent failure

• A setback

• How you got to where you are now

 Image: Erin May Henry

14. Industry Tip

Got a great hack, know a few industry secrets others would love to know. Inform your readers of things that could help them. Maybe it’s a new product you are loving or a motivational hack you’ve been using for months. Inform your readers of things that might not be known. They will love you for it and always come back for more. 

Image: Vanessa Lau

15. Question Captions

Put the ball back into the reader's court. Ask your audience a simple but direct question that your reader can easily answer. hellomissmay: Asks her audience in the below caption  “Left of right?”

Here are some other question examples:

• What do you think of this?
• How gorgeous is this?
• If you could be doing anything right now, what would it be?
• Which [fill in the blank] are you?
• Trivia Time: How many people have tried [fill in the blank]? 

16. The behind-the-scenes caption

Everyone loves a peek behind the scenes. Give your followers a glimpse into how the magic happens with a behind the scenes tour. Lush cosmetics does the BTS incredibly well. Showcasing their beautiful handmade products, the natural ingredients they use and the people who make them. 

Some ideas for Behind the scenes:

• Working on something new? Share a Sneak Peek!

• What do you do in your downtime?

• Take a Picture of Your Workspace

17. The informative caption 

If you are a thought leader (or want to be seen as one) in your industry. Let it be known. Spread some interesting informative information in your caption. National Geographic nails with great easy to read the content within their captions. Everyone feels a little bit smarter for following them. 

18. The instructional caption

Particularly good for crafts and cooking (or if you don’t have a blog) Give instructions within your captions. Tasty Buzzfeed adds the ingredients and methods into their captions for their recipes. 

19. The contest or giveaway caption

Free things are the best. Host a competition for something and watch your engagement unfold.

Image: Facehalo

20. The caption written in someone else perspective

This is one of our favourites and it’s starting to be seen more and more. Write the caption as if it was written by someone's else’s perspective. Ie. Baby, dog or BF

Dougthepug account does this. The captions are written as thoughts from Doug the Pug himself. It’s refreshing and fun content to post.