Imagine:
You sit down at your desk, open up Instagram, ready to press “share” on your latest post. You took the time to write a well thought out caption, considered what your audience wants to hear, and you’re excited to share with them… and they? BARELY respond.
It’s frustrating to spend time on something, especially when you feel you’re doing ev.ery.thing right. You want to throw your hands up, curse the Instagram algorithm, and swear you’re over IG for good…
Which is why it’s so important to understand some key data, in order to not take things personally, and know where to focus so you can make improvements.
bc here’s the gut punch —
On average, ONLY 20% of readers make it past a headline (… aka before they have to “tap” to read your full Instagram caption).
YUP. WOOF. I know. The numbers game can be brutal.
Your Instagram headline is the gatekeeper for all other ACTIONS you want your audience to take (to join your email list, sign up for a waitlist, click to your shop; etc).
So once you know WHAT to write about… the next step is to write attention grabbing captions that s-t-o-p their scroll, so that you will:
1. build a more loyal community (bc you’re getting their attention and they’re engaging with your content)
2. see more people take action (bc the first step to taking action is they need to be aware of what we want them to do)
3. get better results from marketing on Instagram (bc if we’re going to spend time on a platform, we want our time to be well spent. ie = get results)
If you’re thinking “What about my loyal people? Isn’t that the point of building a community?”
YES 100%. Your warm-to-hot people 🔥 may stop and read just because it’s YOU. It’s the same reason why you almost always read your friend’s emails… you like them, you know each other well, you have a good give + take relationship.
On the flip side, your cold-to-warm audience likely needs that attention grabbing, scroll-stopping headline… because they’re not 100% bought in yet on whether it’s worth their time.
Which is exactly why it pays to work on your headlines — it will grab the attention of your cold/warm audience, while still meeting the needs + wants of your warm/hot people.
5 Scroll-Stopping Headline Ideas:
ONE. Make a big statement of exactly what they’re going to get.
“The spring rug collection is back in stock. How to get your feet on one…”
TWO. Make it a list (what it solves + for who)
“5 ways to keep your kids entertained as a working parent”
THREE. Make them curious
“The $10 kitchen gadget that’s making my at-home coffee feel like a treat…”
FOUR. Go against the grain
“We’re over the white paint trend. here’s why …”
FIVE. Start in the middle
“and that’s when I decided I would never DIY from a ladder again…”
Okay, so that’s 5 ways to get started this week!
Keep in mind these aren’t the only ways – you don’t have to put yourself into a box to be successful. But it is helpful to use proven frameworks and as you scroll, I bet you’ll recognize a few of these in use for the posts that catch YOUR eye!
When you put one in action, let me know! @theshopfiles
