Loading summary
Transcript2 lines
- [00:01]
A
You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business podcast, where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnol shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in.
- [00:20]
B
Hey, welcome to episode 129. Today we're going to address what I hear so many local business owners say, and that is no one reads my captions. So if you have been thinking that, you are wrong, and I say that with so much love, but I'm going to show you exactly why your captions might actually be the most important part of your post, plus really how one good, thoughtfully written caption can really lead to your next local client. So, number one, the fact that people don't read your captions just isn't true. But there are some really heavy lifting things that your captions on social media can be doing for you that you may be missing if you are not spending the time writing the really thoughtful captions. So I know what typically happens. I hear people say like all the time, like, I just don't know what to say, or no one reads my captions anyway. And then that's when we end up with the really fluffy captions like Happy Tuesday or I had so much fun working with this client. And the caption just really doesn't say anything at all. It's not really talking about what you do. It's not telling your people how you can help them. It's not compelling your audience to reach out and get started now. And that's what we want to fix. When I work with my students inside the LocalPreneur Academy, this is one of the first things we address. This is one of the main things we address because it really is one of the fastest ways to start converting your followers on social media into clients or your future people who are going to find you into clients quicker. And here's just the math of it. On average, in 2025, about 35% of Instagram users are reading the captions. So that's just the number for Instagram. I couldn't find exact data for Facebook, but from the research I was finding it sounded like more people was reading were reading the captions on Facebook, which makes sense, but we're going to use Instagram as our example. That's usually what I hear people talking more about anyway. But 35% of users on Instagram are reading the captions. So that means for every 100 people who see your post, 35 of them are reading your captions, 35 real humans. And if I had to guess, those 35 people are your most interested, most ready people who are looking for what you do. They are clicking on the post, they are clicking. Read more. They're taking their time to read. They are interested. So that's the 35% that we're really writing the caption for. Like, those are the people who are ready today. So again, it just isn't true factually that no one is reading your captions. 35% of your people are reading your captions. And that really means your most ready people, your most interested people, your most interested followers are reading your captions. And I love that for us. Now imagine if you only focused even on converting just one of those 35 people. That's huge. Like, think of just the impact of that, that that would have on your business. That's how important our captions really are. So I want to talk today about really putting the effort, why we want to put in the effort to our captions, the powerful things that your captions are doing for you because I do want you to spend more time with them. I just follow so many local business owners and when my clients first join me inside the LocalPreneur Academy and when we do their Instagram audits, one of the most common things I see is just the fluffy Instagram captions. The captions not saying enough, not saying the right things, not speaking to their customers, not using the keywords, not being compelling, sometimes not even talking about what they offer or inviting people to work with them at all. So let's talk about some of the powerful things that your captions have the ability to do for you in order to boost your sales. So number one, your captions help you get discovered. So I know I just dropped that data that real humans are reading your captions. But also Instagram is reading your captions. Google is reading your captions. This helps you get discovered locally so so you can get more buyers. When you are writing captions, it helps Instagram push your content to the people who may be the most interested in it. So if you're using keywords and you're consistent with what you're talking about, Instagram gets clearer on who you are and what you do and where you are. It's going to start putting you on the discovery page or putting your post in people's feeds as suggested post. So every time you write a caption, you are telling Instagram what you're all about. You are helping Instagram understand you and index your content. And it will make it easier for people to find you. People are using Instagram also as a search engine. And of course, people are using Google to search and Instagram content like your Instagram post can now show up in Google or other search engine results as well. I feel like I could do a whole podcast on this. I have done podcasts on this. But listen, I have a mini training called the Local Instagram Formula. And it is on this exact thing about how to use very specific keywords in your bio in your post. Really utilizing this local, this Instagram SEO so you can get found and discovered locally. Really optimizing your Instagram account. I'm going to link it up in the show notes. Definitely, definitely, definitely go grab it. It changes everything for people. It is one of the most foundational things you can do to set up your Instagram account as a local business owner to make sure you can get found and discovered and in front of the right local audience. Okay, so the second thing that your captions can do for you is, is it's giving people another way to consume your content. Sometimes people are in a place where they can't always listen to your video, or sometimes we put text on our videos or on our reels, and it goes by so fast and people miss it. They miss what we're saying. So we're not really converting them into clients. Like, if you ever had a reel that you had to watch like 29 times just to see what the person was even saying, like, it goes by so fast or like you're. You're sitting. I do this too. I sit there and take screenshots of things just so I can stop it and pause it and try to read it just to see what they're saying. But when you write out your caption and I'm not talking about the captions of you talking on the video, I think that's great, too. But when you really type out a full caption for someone to read, it reiterates what you're saying in the video or what's on your reel. It's really just giving the consumer another option, another way to consume your content. People really do have different learning styles. And I don't think this is talked about enough on social media. But there are visual learners, there are auditory learners, and reading is a learning style. I am that person. Like, I can listen to and I like to watch things, but I really do have to go back and slowly read through things sometimes to, like, even just comprehend or see what people are saying. And I used to Be a teacher. I taught seventh grade English for seven years, and it was required that we gave our students multiple ways to learn what we were teaching. Like, we would get graded as teachers and we would lose points on our score if we didn't give students multiple ways to learn what we were teaching. So I may have had like a video station set up and then a more interactive station set up, maybe where they could like act things out or touch things, and then one where they could talk it out and explain it to each other, and then maybe another station where they could journal things out, write it out. And that was so I could hit all those different learning types that we have. So this is really you also doing that for people. When you, when you're creating reels or even carousels or live videos, you also are taking the time to type out a full caption reiterating just what you're saying, going deeper on it. And it doesn't have to take a lot of work. You get to reuse what you're saying in the video and like I said, basically reiterate it or summarize it or sometimes you can even copy and paste what you're saying in the video. If you ever script it out, just copy and paste it so they can see it again there. So this is going to be great for people like me who would rather read the captions. Or maybe people are just in situations where they can't always consume the video format of your post. They're in quiet places, they can't hear what you're saying. It's going to give them the opportunity when they do see your post. I know we always struggle so much with reach. It's like, hey, we got them. We got their eyes on the post. Now let's make sure we give them every possible way to digest and consume our content. And we can do that by making sure we're fully explaining things in our captions as well. Okay, so number three, your captions are selling your people on working with you or buying with you. And this is like the most important thing. It's 20, 25, and even with all the flashy video editing and all the reels and all the AI, words are still what sell. The words we say, the words we write. Words are still what make people decide to buy with us or not to take action now or later, which is just instantly leading me to the fourth thing. So that means your captions are where you have the opportunity to go deeper with your people. It's your chance to say everything you need to about what you sell or how you help your people. When people haven't bought yet, it's just because they haven't heard what they needed to hear yet. So your captions are truly the place where you get to dive in and say everything you need to say, like questions. People have objections they may have that you can overcome, where you can share all the details, where you can talk about your process. You can just come at it from so many different angles. It's literally your opportunity to just keep talking about what you sell and what you do and how you help them in so many different ways. You get the opportunity to do that every day in your captions over and over. Now, the fifth thing, which to me is the highest way we boost our sales with our captions. Your captions are where you tell people what to do next. Your captions are where you are inviting them to take the next step to work with you. It's where you give those calls to actions. You have to tell people what to do next. Like, what is that next step? To reach out or to buy from you or to get started. This is where we tell them in our captions. Our captions move them along in their buying journey. It gets them where they're going faster. So just to recap, your captions get you discovered locally on Instagram and in Google. Your captions give people another way to consume your content that they may have missed just by watching your video or reading your carousel. Your captions sell your people on you, on them, on what you sell. Your captions give you the opportunity to go deeper and talk about what you offer from all the different angles and say the things that you need to say and that they need to hear. And your captions are where you tell people what to do next. So if you have been posting on social media with captions that are an afterthought, or maybe you avoid captions altogether, drop some emojis in. Like that's what I see people do a lot. Like, this is just your chance to change that. Your captions are really one of the most powerful tools that you have to get discovered, to talk to your most ready buyers, to warm up everyone else and to get them to move and take action and buy and reach out. Today, inside the localpreneur academy, I'm not going to tell you just that your captions matter. I'm going to show you exactly how to write them. You will get my proven caption writing formulas, my local go to content pillars, my post ideas, and just the clarity to know exactly who your ideal clients are and what to say to them. So they are excited to work with you. They are excited to take that next step. And the best part is you don't do any of this alone. You can post your captions and your any of your marketing materials inside our community and I will personally give you direct feedback to make sure what you are writing is clear, it's compelling and that it will help you convert your people. So that means no more guessing on your end. No more just sitting and staring at a blank screen saying that I don't know what to say and no more wondering if you're saying the right thing or why it isn't working, why it doesn't have people reaching out to you. So if you want your social media captions to bring in clients consistently, consistently, come join us inside the LocalPreneur Academy. You have lifetime access to all the trainings and my direct coaching to help you stand out as that local go to in your city and to help you get fully booked. So the link is in your show notes. You can join now, get instant access and let's really start turning your captions into local clients. I'll see you inside. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy ME. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local goto in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information at lesliepressnel. Com and I'll see you inside.