One of the biggest things that hold people back from getting results on Instagram and one of the problems we’ve personally faced is this!

From all the accounts that we’ve run ourselves, to when we’re working with clients, again and again, and again the major thing that people struggle with and the major reason that they don’t get results, is this!

Consistency.

In this article, I’m going to share the three major reasons why being consistent and why approaching Instagram consistently is going to get you significant results.

First off……Do you trust me?

The first reason to be consistent is for your AUDIENCE.

We need to think about our audience and the journey we want to take our audience through.

Never forget, our audience are the reason we are building our business and brand. But the reason that we’re trying to build credibility on Instagram, the reason to be seen as the go-to expert, and the reason to become and be seen as the go-to authority in our niche is this….

To build trust with our audience.

The faster that we can move people towards trust and the feeling of trust, the more likely we are then to be able to convert them into leads, clients and customers for our business.

Know, Like and TRUST

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘know like and trust’.

The first one is kind of obvious. People cannot do business with us, if they don’t know we’re there; and we know that people tend to do business with people that they like, but they also do business with people that they trust.

They want to do business with people who they can trust to help them deliver an outcome, or the end result they are expecting.

If we don’t get the outcome or end result that we are expecting, then chances are, we’re not going to be satisfied and rapidly the trust is lost.

Over the past 12 – 18 months, building relationships and building trust, without the ability to interact with people face to face, and meet people in person has become increasingly difficult. So how, in an ever more online world, do we get from cold to customer or client fast?

How do we build trust and warm relationships quickly?

One word….. Consistency. 

Consistency in our social media posts, consistency in our content, consistency in our message.

These are all vital, because if we are consistent on Instagram, if we share consistently, show up consistently, be authentic consistently, then our consistency will show our reliability.

Reliability

If we are the type of business that posts regularly and shares regularly – on a daily basis, or three times or five times a week, whatever that might be, we are seen as reliable.

If you can be trusted to share posts on your social media consistently, then it shows that you are reliable.

It sounds very small but the little things matter. If we show up consistently, we’re going to perceived as more reliable, and we’re going to be seen as being more trustworthy.

Reason Number 1: Be Consistent for Your Audience because consistency, leads to reliability, leads to trust. 

Don’t Bite the Hand that Feeds You

The second reason to be consistent is for INSTAGRAM

When I started out on Insta, I understood the importance of consistency for our audience, but the second reason why consistency is key on Instagram is for the platform itself. We need to play the Instagram ‘game’ the right way.

FACT: Instagram wants us to be consistent.

Being consistent on and for Instagram, means doing all the right things and ticking the right boxes for the Instagram algorithm.

Yes, I said the ‘a’ word!

You can’t talk about Instagram for more than a few minutes without mentioning the algorithm, but it shouldn’t be something which scares us, or we shy away from.

When using Instagram for business, your mindset should be ‘I need to be posting consistently to build my brand, to build my audience’ and that’s absolutely right, but there are hidden benefits too.

One of the biggest mistakes people make, when using Instagram socially, is that they post sporadically.

“I’m going to post 15 of my holiday photos all the best photos this weekend, and then I have to work, so I’m not going to post all week”.

“Next weekend I’m going to meet up with my friends – I’m going to post more pictures; but then it’s back to work, and I forget to post for the week”, and it goes around and around, and up and down.

The Algorithm Hates Inconsistency!

For Instagram there’s no consistency, and the algorithm hates that, and when you upset the algorithm, it demotes your content!

Yep, demoted……

Our content isn’t going to be seen as often, and it’s going to be seen by fewer people.

But, if we show up consistently and post consistently, it is not just great for building trust and reliability with our audience, but we will also be rewarded by Instagram.

REASON Number 2: Be Consistent for Instagram – by showing Instagram we are great users, ticking the IG boxes and using the platform regularly, we will be rewarded – more people will see our posts, more frequently.

So let’s just get those first two really, really clear. The first reason that we focus on consistency is for our audience. The second reason we focus on consistency is for the platform that we are playing this game on, which is Instagram.

WIIFM

The third reason to be consistent is for ME (not actually me, although I’d love for you to be consistent, but for you!)

If you’ve been following me on Insta or have read any of my posts you’ll already recognise this acronym…. WIIFM – What’s In It For Me.

I usually refer to this when I’m talking about content, but the third reason for consistency is for ourselves.

For you to prove to yourself that you are committed, and serious. This isn’t just a hobby – this is your business, your brand, and you’re going to make it happen. I’m serious about getting results.

When we commit to that, we will start to see progress.

I have been reading a book recently called Atomic Habits by James Clear, he said something very poignant which is this…. Many people have the same goal. Many people want to lose that weight or find that perfect relationship or make a million dollars, whatever it might be, but not everybody gets it.

There are multiple reasons why that is, but ultimately the people that have a plan, and that implement on a consistent basis, are far more likely to reach their goals, because they are taking small but consistent actions every single day to make sure that they’re getting there.

So, if you show up consistently online, you’re going to improve, and it’s going to lead to massive improvement in how you communicate with your audience.

No matter what business, what product, what niche you are in, you’re going to see a massive improvement in the way you connect with people, and how you get your message heard.

You will increase your understanding of the needs, the wants, the pains, problems and challenges of your audience and you will be able to see immediately what’s working and what your audience is wanting to see.

REASON Number 3: Be Consistent for YOU – by showing regularly you’ll prove to yourself you can do it; you’ll improve and be able to serve your audience even more effectively.

So, in summary, there are three reasons why consistency is so important, and all of them ultimately get us to what we really want – RESULTS.

The most effective way to get results, is by being consistent.

1. Be consistent for your audience
2. Be consistent for Instagram
3. Be consistent for you.

You will start to see marginal gains on a consistent basis, and you will continue to grow and improve.

If you are looking to grow and improve and further your results with Instagram, be that through consistency or any other area I want to help you.

Instagram is always the best place to find me @jakeadamdavey

I’m very excited about chatting with you.

Instagram is a visual platform, so we often get caught up in the images we’re posting. By the time we get to the words, we’re pretty often already a bit burnt out!

The thing is, when you’re a business or brand on Instagram, a great visual is not enough.

The caption is really, really valuable way to share your message.

What are Instagram Captions?

Instagram Captions are simply the text below your photo or graphics. When you post an image on Instagram you also have a text field.

Here, you can type in quotes, questions, and descriptions.

When it comes to using Instagram for business, the words you write can also help you to persuade your followers or viewers to do something.

Through great captions, you can persuade someone take an action, whether that is to click, to buy, to sign up, to engage, to comment, or to share.

The text area is also where you include all your Instagram hashtags (I’ll share more on hashtags in a future post).

Instagram limits captions to 2,200 characters or around 325 words.

Your captions are a vital way to engage with your audience, so, skip the temptation for one-word captions or, worse, no caption at all. Readers want to engage with you; give gain some insight into you or your business through your posts.

Here are my 7 top tips to Create Instagram Captions for Business that Convert!

#1 – REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO

Before you sit down to write any ‘copy’ – and when I say copy, I’m talking about your Instagram captions, you need to determine exactly who your audience is. This is key to getting results from your Instagram marketing.

So before you start….. ask yourself these questions:

– What do your potential customers want?

– What problems do your potential customers have?

– What frustrates your potential customers most?

– Who else is selling something similar to you?

– Why should your potential customers believe you?

– Why should potential customers respond to you instead of someone else?

STOP!!!! ?

The next 50 words you read WILL change the way you think about writing your Instagram captions.

Did I get your attention?

Well, that leads me to Tip 2:

#2 – YOUR HOOK

Before your words can generate results, your viewers need to stop the scroll!

This means you need to capture the attention of viewers in the very first line of your text.

It’s a tried and tested storytelling technique where you jump into the action of the story straight away. Cut to the chase, show me the action!

It makes your reader STOP their scroll, want to know more, and actually click through to read the rest of your caption.

Remember, when people are scrolling they’ll only see the first two lines of your post.

Don’t waste this opportunity.

But what can you do to spark their interest and get their interest revved up?

OK, so today we’re talking about captions, but don’t neglect the importance of your IMAGE – Did you know that humans process visual images 60,000 times faster than text? Yep – crazy! So getting your visuals on point is vital to your Instagram marketing!

There are four types of caption formulas that you can use as a guide to craft your Instagram captions. Each has a different PSYCHOLOGICAL APPEAL that works like magic on consumers.

Here they are:

– State a powerful benefit of your product, your service or your system – ‘Lose weight, without giving up chocolate!’ or even of just the benefits of reading your caption / post – remember the benefits and value could be as simple as quote, a story or a top tip.

– Pique curiosity – “We’ve Discovered the Secrets of Weightloss” again, this doesn’t relate to sales posts – curiosity will definitely stop the scroll!

– Write your subject line with a news angle – “We’ve just Launched Our New System”

– Offer immediate gratification – “Download your free recipe guide now and start your weight-loss journey today!”

Homework: Write at least 25 SUBJECT LINES for your captions – before you even think of the body of your caption think of you headlines!

#3 – WIFM?

Remember it’s not about you! Sorry, but it’s not!

‘I like to call it Social Youdia, not Social Media’

People are busy, and be in consciously or subconsciously they’re usually thinking ‘What’s in it for me?’  – WIFM

Answer that question in your captions.

Be clear on why exactly your audience should care about what they’re reading.

For example:

“Today I am sharing some amazing recipe ideas so that you can lose weight whilst eating more”.

Your “so that” is the benefit for the reader that solves a problem they have.

 People want to know what’s in it for them (in this example losing weight) – So lay it out.

Homework: List every conceivable benefit your product, service or system has.

What’s the difference between features and benefits?

Features describe the product; benefits describe the results of using the product. Features appeal to logic…logic justifies emotion…emotion drives sales (check out Tip 4).

Here`s a rule of thumb for benefits: ask yourself “What can my product or service do for my customer?”  – WHAT`S IN IT FOR THEM (WIFT). Tell them how much better life will be for them after they buy from you. Tell them how much better they`ll feel. Tell them how their peers will respect them more.

#4: ADD VALUE AND BECOME THE AUTHORITY

People will only buy your product or service, if they believe that your offer is credible and that you (or your product) will deliver as promised. They need to trust you.

You can build trust through your captions.

How do you do that? By giving value

What exactly does that mean?

Well value doesn’t mean giving away your stuff for free. But it does mean adding ‘value’ or improving your viewers day in some way.

There’s three simple ways you can add value as a business owner:

• Information – tips, guides, recommendations, or tutorials
• Inspiration – quotes, or by sharing aspirations of the lifestyle and the end result that your followers want. This could be through stories or testimonials.
• Entertainment – Yep, if someone’s scrolling their feed and your post makes them laugh, you’re definitely improving their day.

Homework: How can you add value to your audience? Generally, one of these three areas will fit most comfortably within your brand and business niche.

#5: REMEMBER PEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON EMOTION NOT LOGIC ?

When promoting anything to anybody, you must remember that buying decisions are based upon emotion and later backed up by logic. Before you write a single word, determine what emotional hot buttons you need to push to “jumpstart” your prospect.

Selling health supplements? Go for the “fear of illness” button with “A Natural Way to Save Your Eyesight.” Selling political bumper stickers? Hit the “anger” button with: “Let the President Know What You Think of His Policies.”(That was for our US friends ?)

Other buttons include curiosity, greed, ego, vanity, hope, and/or fear of scarcity or security.

#6 – WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

This happens all the time…..

Someone writes a fantastic caption, and then doesn`t tell their viewers what they want them to do.  So their viewers do nothing.

Always Put a Clear Call to Action in Your Caption

When you’re writing a caption, make it very clear what specific action you want your reader to take and only ask them to do ONE thing.

Don’t be vague, and don’t give too many options

Here’s some examples:

“Like this post”

“Send me a DM”

“Click the link in my bio”

“Comment below for the link”

“Share this post if you feel your followers would benefit from it.”

“Tag someone who needs to hear this today”

#7 – THE EYES HAVE IT ?

It`s a well-known fact: Large blocks of copy are intimidating and will often send people running for the hills or at least the scroll button.

The solution? Break up paragraphs into two to four sentences. Use several subheadings throughout the caption. And use emojis ? to give your copy more rhythm.

Bullet points are excellent eye-catchers – use them whenever appropriate.

Final BONUS TIP: Write Instagram Captions in Batches

My biggest time-saving tip is to write your captions in batches, not just when you decide to post. This is definitely easier said than done, but if you do this, you’ll definitely get into a rhythm and the captions will flow!

There you have it, my tips on how to write scroll stopping Instagram captions for business.

I would love to know your #1 takeaway from these tips!

Comment below and let me know what tip you’ll be implementing for your next Instagram post ?

And don’t forget to follow along @jakeadamdavey

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Today, I want to walk through one of the major changes that happened on social media recently and that’s having a huge impact on business owners, and entrepreneurs, and how they generate leads for their businesses using social media. 

Just for context, this blog / video went out live on the INfluence podcast this week as episode 99, hence the title – so here it is ‘99 problems but the FB IOS update ain’t one!’ (thanks and sorry Jay Z!)

Fact: Business owners have problems, we’ve got challenges, we’re struggling with this, this is an issue, there are always things that we’re working through as entrepreneurs, as business owners. 

There’s always something that we need to overcome and work through. But the one thing that I don’t want to be a challenge for you, is the new changes with Apple, and specifically, iOS 14, and the impact it’s having on Facebook ads. 

But Jake, why are you talking about Facebook! 

Well, Facebook owns Instagram, so it impacts on Instagram ads as well. 

First of all, you may or may not have heard about the changes. You might not know what any of those words even mean! What is iOS, what does 14 mean? What are the issues with the ads? Well, let’s keep it real simple first of all and just give a bit of a kind of high level overview about what this means. 

Then I’m going to share with you a couple of ways you can work around this. 

This change has directly impacted our business and so we are now focused on workarounds and looking at other alternatives and other options to continue to grow and scale the business. 

The one thing I would say just before I dive in, is that, initially I thought that this was a problem, a really big frustrating problem, because I can no longer as easily identify people, target people or find the type of clients and customers that are going to be ideal for me to help, and are going to be the right type of people for me to work with. 

But, the other thing that I thought was, well actually, how do we work around this because there’s always a work around and having looked at this in a lot of detail we now have an action plan going forward. 

I’m actually excited because it means that we have to get even better at what we do. First and foremost, people that are better at what they do will thrive, not just survive but they will thrive, it also means that as we get better at what we do, as we learn more useful tools, tricks and ideas and systems, we can share those with our clients, and it’s going to improve their results as well.

As frustrating as it may be; and when people say they don’t like change, remember the only constant is change. 

I’m excited because, as we move away from Facebook ads or as we shift how we run them, it means that we need to get better and even better at generating leads through different sources, and as we do that, of course, we can share those ways with clients. 

Let’s just give a bit of context about iOS 14. 

Well, the major conflict (or difference in interests shall we say) is between Apple™️ and Facebook™️. Some of the largest companies in the world.

It’s pretty well documented that Facebook has an incredible volume of information on us. There was a documentary that came out, I think last year, maybe the year before, called The Social Dilemma, which talks about the amount of data points, and the amount of information that Facebook has on us, and it’s something crazy like 5,000 different data points.

Of course, we can get angry, upset or frustrated about that, or we can say well that is the situation as it is right now, how do we use that for our business? How do we actually use that? How can I best use this to find my audience? . 

The Social Dilemma set alarm bells ringing, it certainly brought it to the public eye and the public forefront, that there are companies out there that have a seriously large amount of data on us and information about us, and how are they using it, how can we trust them with it, and such. 

Apple now has made changes to its operating system, which means that as you either use apps, or download new apps onto your Apple device, when you download apps or when you use apps that perhaps you’ve not used for a long time, it will now ask you if you are ok for advertisers to track your activity on this app.

Are you okay for ‘people’ to track your activity when using the app?  

Yes or no? 

Previously, it was automatic that people could track your app or that Facebook could track how you use different apps on your phone. Now, Apple is asking you ‘Do you want to be tracked? Yes or no? 

We anticipate that the majority of people will say no. I’ve got to be honest, I said no, because I don’t want to be tracked! But if I’m saying no, then how can I expect other people to say yes.

That means that suddenly, from all these different data points that Facebook has on you, all this information that Facebook is able to learn about how you search, fine detailed information about your major interests, things that you enjoy, doing topics of conversation, anniversaries, birthdays and things that might be coming up, all of this, that they may be having you is starting to get weaker and weaker, and they have less of that type of information on you. 

So what does that mean?

If Facebook has less information on you, it means that when they are running adverts, and when they are creating or giving people the opportunity to run ads, then it is more difficult for those advertisers to target the ideal client specifically. 

If you’re giving less information to Facebook, it becomes harder for advertisers that want to get in front of you to find you, because Facebook doesn’t have as much information on you. 

That’s where the challenge comes, and this is where the biggest kind of discrepancy and the kind of head to head has come about between Apple and Facebook. 

Facebook ads are now no longer having the same impact, it is proving harder to reach people than it was previously.

What does that mean for us?  And what specifically can we do about that? 

1. Go Organic

Immediately this puts a huge emphasis back on organic. 

I’ve talked previously about organic versus paid traffic. 

The basis being that the content that you share, the posts that you put out, the direct messages that you send, the engagement that you have on other people’s content, and other people’s posts without any paid advertising, without any pay promotion that is organic. 

We actually teach the importance of building a large audience on Instagram, and we don’t really talk much about advertising, so that immediately puts a smile on my face, because we need to be focused on organic. 

If we can’t accurately target people through advertising, certainly on Facebook at least, then we need to look more effectively at our organic strategies. 

• How are we creating content, sharing content, distributing content that speaks directly to our ideal audience? 

• Are we building our brand and building our credibility and such in a way that speaks directly to our audience as well? 

• And are we nurturing those relationships and engaging with people the right way so that they want to do business with us, either immediately or later down the line? 

Organic is making a return, bigger and stronger than ever. 

2. ‘Own the Racecourse’  James Scramko

The second thing is something which I’ve borrowed from James Schramko.  James talks about owning the racecourse, and what that means is that right now is that we need to be very aware, and constantly reminded that we are building our business on somebody else’s land. 

What we do with Facebook, what we do with Instagram, what we do with Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, all these different platforms. We’re building our business on somebody else’s land. 

We don’t own Facebook, we don’t own Instagram, we don’t own any of these platforms, and with the flick of a switch or a click of the fingers, you could lose your Instagram account, you could lose your Twitter account, your Facebook account, and there’s not a lot we can necessarily do about it. 

We’re playing on somebody else’s land, where they get to decide the rules. 

3. Build Your List 

James Schramko talks about owning the race course – the importance of moving people off the social platforms, off Instagram, off Facebook, or Twitter, and building an email database. 

Now as you build that email database and build that email list, you have direct control over how you connect and reach with those people, through direct email marketing to build and nurture your community. 

Every day I speak to people who say I don’t love Instagram and at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if you like Instagram or not, Instagram probably doesn’t particularly like us, it really doesn’t matter! 

What matters is that it is a tool you’re using to connect with your ideal client. 

The reason that we use Instagram, and the reason I teach Instagram, is because I fully believe that Instagram is the best platform right now for you to get in front of the biggest audience possible. An audience who are ready to start doing business with you, who know that you’re the right person because the way that Instagram is set up, allows you to build and strengthen great relationships with your audience.

It doesn’t matter whether you like it or not, but if you want to actually find people that are suitable for your business and help people, then you need to find and use the best tools to do that. For us, right now, that is Instagram. 

We might be having a very different conversation in five years and 10 years 15, 20 years time, as these platforms come and go, and different things change, and that’s okay. 

The goal we focus on is ‘owning the racecourse’ so that we can build an email database that we can come back to again and again and again with our marketing offers, programmes, products, and services. 

Final Thoughts

So you may well have 99 problems in your business (hopefully not that many…. Seriously  I do genuinely hope that there’s not that many!) but I definitely do not want the iOS 14 changes to be one of them! 

Focus on organic, own the racecourse, build an email database, and continue to have, and strengthen great relationships with your audience. 

I hope that was useful, and I look forward to speaking with you very soon. 

>> Send me a DM on Instagram <<