Instagram captions are where most makers lose the sale they just earned. The photo did its job and someone stopped scrolling. Then they read two lines of hashtags and a sentence that could sit under any product, and they moved on.
These are the five mistakes we see most often in captions from handmade brands, and what to do instead.
1. Starting with "Hello everyone" or "New in the shop"
Only the first line shows before the "more" button. If it is a greeting or an announcement, nobody taps. Open with the thing that makes someone curious: a detail, a small problem, a question, a result. "Six weeks of curing for one bar of soap" is a better first line than "Look at our new soap".
2. Describing the photo
"Handmade ceramic mug in blue glaze" repeats what everyone can already see. Use the caption for what the picture cannot show: how long it took, why you made it this way, how it feels in the hand, who asked for it. The photo shows the product. The caption gives the reason to care.
3. Writing for everyone
A caption addressed to "you all" lands with nobody. Pick one person, maybe a customer who wrote to you last week, and write to them. Questions you really get asked make great captions, because many other people are wondering the same thing.
New candle in our shop! Hand-poured soy wax, lovely scent, perfect for autumn. Link in bio. #handmade #candles #soywax #autumn
This is the candle I make when the first cold evening comes. Soy wax, poured by hand in batches of eight, with a smell of toasted cedar and a little orange peel. It burns for about forty hours, so it lasts through the whole of November. Which room would you put it in?
Both versions are invented to show the difference. The second one is longer, but it gives the reader something to picture and something to answer.
4. Hiding the next step
Every caption should leave the reader with one thing to do: ask a question in the comments, save the post, visit the shop, send a message. "Link in bio" at the end of a vague caption is not a next step, it is a hope. Say what you want and why, in one short sentence.
5. Burying the caption in hashtags
A block of thirty hashtags makes a post look like an advertisement and does little to help it spread. A few specific ones, placed at the end or in a first comment, are enough. Spend the time you save on the first line instead.
A quick checklist before you post
- Does the first line make someone want to tap "more"?
- Does the caption say something the photo does not?
- Is it written to one person, in your normal voice?
- Is there one clear thing to do at the end?
- Are there only a few hashtags, and are they specific?
- Would you say this out loud at a market stall?
Want a second pair of eyes?
If you would like to know how your own captions read to a stranger, we can send you a short outline: what already works, what to change, and two rewritten captions. It is free.
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