Writing captions blocking your flow? Try these 5 tricks

Don’t you feel just PUMPED when you’ve made a reel!? 

The reel passes your internal quality control department, it looks great, and you’re so proud of yourself for taking the idea to fruition. You push the little blue arrow and that wave of accomplishment you were just riding disappears when you realize you have another daunting task ahead of you: writing the caption. 

This gets me, too.

Keep reading if you struggle to write captions for your posts. 

First off, many people won’t read your captions. Either that’s good because no one will judge your writing, or that’s bad because you can’t explain what you wanted. 

• You can invite them to read your caption by adding text at the end of your reel that says something like “see the breakdown below” or “here’s how I learned this ⬇️”.

Captions help the algorithms get your video to the right people so at the very least, put keywords in your captions that your dream client would use to find you. 

Are you a… 

super chill photographer?

Mommy creator sharing parenting tips?

Woman-owned mobile photo booth company?

(Click here to see how to research keywords)

• The BEST hack I have for writing captions is to actually *speak* them using dictation or the talk-to-text feature! I don’t know about you, but I never get talker’s block (writer’s block, maybe, but never talker’s block). Sometimes I start talking and all this wisdom just comes out. 

• Now, there are some instances where I wouldn’t worry too much about the caption. If your reel or carousel is jam-packed with information, just summarize it in a few sentences in the caption and invite your reader to take a step like follow you, drop questions, tag a friend. Then at the bottom of the caption, type out the keywords your dream client would use to find you. If you’re a lifestyle photographer, these could be: 

Super chill photographer

{your location} photographer

Lifestyle photographer

• Use the Hook + Story + Call to Action framework for every caption. Grab their attention, give them some background (an excellent use to add in keywords), and tell them what to do next. 

Create a list of hooks you like. I follow a lot of copywriters and they post hook ideas. Then I save them in a folder right on Instagram that I’ve named “Copy.”

If you think all the hooks you find feel fake, just ask yourself, “What’s the one takeaway I want them to get from this?” or “What’s the most exciting part of the story” and those can be your hooks. 

Find a hook that, when you read it, naturally inspires you to finish the sentence. Again, use dictation. After the hook, explain a little more about the subject covered in your post. Give us the story of how you learned what you’re talking about. 

• Repurpose a caption from a previous post you made with a similar message. Save your reel as a draft then go back to your wall and find a reel about something similar. Click the similar reel, click the 3 dots in the upper right corner, click “edit,” then copy and paste your caption, press “done,” and go back to the draft you were just working on, paste that caption, make any changes and you’ve just written a caption! (I’ll make a reel about this soon so you can see it step-by-step)

If you’re getting caught up on captions, you’re definitely not alone! If you try any of these strategies, tag me so I can share and support on social media! If you’d like a list of hooks and calls to action, I break it down in my Social Media Playbook . 

You’ll get better and better with practice! I can’t wait to see what you write. 

If you found this helpful, feel free to send this to a friend who also struggles to write captions.