My Pinterest Manager sent over my monthly analytics report today and I was blown away that the highest performing pin by far was ‘how to write a blog post quickly’ … so it got me thinking in the business world there are SO many tasks to do and it’s hard to find the time to actually finish them, let alone have a life and do everything well.

Due to the high popularity of the pin, it got me thinking about what other tips I can give to speed up the time you spend on certain tasks. Today I wanted to share with you 3 quick tips for how to write Instagram captions, quickly!

SO let’s dive in!

#1 Have content buckets

I learnt this tip from the amazing Jenna Kutcher. I have 5 categories that I rotate through, which enables me to think quickly of what to write. There are so many things we can say in a caption, and half our time can be spent thinking of what to write about, so by having these categories, it can narrow down that time. I don’t follow them perfectly, but they give me a guide.

My content buckets for Instagram are:

Inspiration: I like to write something inspirational for my reader whether it’s an encouragement letter, a quote from a book I’m reading or something I saw on Pinterest.

My work: This is where I talk about a testimonial, what I’m working on, a tip, an offer.

Relationship building: Here I like to give a pep talk of encouragement and build relationships by showing my ideal client I am someone they can trust.

Community highlight: someone in my world I’m thankful for [e.g. a friend, a client, a family member etc]

About me: I often do a monthly review and talk about my goals, or introduce myself or write about what I’m learning

#2 Have content banks for inspiration

I have found that the captions which get the most engagement are the ones I wrote when I felt most inspired. Three ways I spark inspiration for my captions are:

• Buying caption starters [I love Elley’s and Ashlyn’s]

• Saving captions on Instagram from other people that I like and that inspired me [not to copy, but to help spark a thought of my own], here’s an example of some recently saved posts of mine

• Keep the notes of your phone handy… I will often write a caption idea or prompt if it comes to mind, because inspired captions are better than forced captions

#3 Write with a person in mind

It would take me soooo long to write a caption that I finally felt would have an impact on every person that read it… and the more I focused on trying the craft the perfect caption, the longer it took me. I believe it’s important to have captions that will have real impact, rather than looking perfect. I often have someone in mind when I write my caption… maybe it’s a friend, maybe it’s a client, maybe it was me 2 years ago. I not only think about writing it to the one person, but I also want to consider my instagram as a diary or a book, a place people come and feel encouraged and invited into reading about my story.

I know that you have something to say through your instagram captions, so try these tips and do your best.  

If you have any topics or workflows that you would like me to write a blog post on, comment below or send me an email at hello@withhannahmurphy.com

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