You’ve published 5 Instagram posts this week and once again, you’ve hardly had comments. What gives? I see you, and I get it.

Because I’ve been there…

But I’m not anymore. What if I told you that you could get more comments easily on all of your Instagram posts, every single day? You may think I’m bluffing, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

What if I told you there is ONE big reason you don’t get comments on your social media posts? Are you ready to make this change in your business and start getting more engagement online?

These go-to call to action ideas will help you increase, engagement, clicks and sales so you can build relationships with potential customers, increase your brand awareness and generate more sales.

WHY CALLS TO ACTION ARE SO IMPORTANT

People make decisions in a fraction of a second on social media. On a website, it takes less than 15 seconds for someone to decide if they’re going to stick around. You can bet your bottom dollar that it takes way less time than that on a platform like Instagram.

So if someone gets to the end of reading one of your Instagram posts and you’re not spelling it out in black and white what you want them to do when they get to the end of your post...what do you expect?

The role of a call to action is to direct people into what they should do next. It’s used to tell the user exactly what action to take and how to take it.

We’ll get into how to create a persuasive and effective call to action later but first, let’s talk about the importance of CTAs.

A lot of businesses simply use the words “sign up” or “buy now” in their Instagram posts and hope that it’s enough to drive conversions. They put so much time, energy and money into the creation of their social media, blog, and email content, and then just slap a half-hearted call to action on the end. And then wonder why they fail.

We don’t just want any old call to action on our Instagram posts - we want a strong call to action that convinces people to act.

Really, there are two main purposes of a call to action:

To tell someone what they should do
To give them the motivation to do so

A lot of people remember to tell people what they should do, but they forget the why part of that equation. But without that, you won’t see the types of conversion rates that you should. While sometimes, your content before the call to action will answer this question, sometimes it doesn’t. Even if it does, a quick recap makes the call to action even more powerful.

WHY YOUR ENGAGEMENT ON INSTAGRAM IS LOW

I think we can narrow it down to 3 main reasons why you’re not getting comments on your Instagram posts.

#1 | You’re not asking for comments

If you’re not specifically asking people to “comment below”, they won’t! You might think it’s too obvious but you need to spell it out for people what it is that you actually want them to do. If you just end your post with a sentence and don’t ask a question, you can’t complain that you didn’t get any comments - you’ve got to ask for them.

#2 | Your call to action is too complex or vague

The key to a great call to action is keeping it simple. If you ask a question such as, “what are your thoughts on this” - that’s very vague and doesn’t really give your readers a good enough, or easy starting point for writing a comment on your post.

On the flipside, if you ask them a question that’s too complex or you’re asking them to share information that’s too personal, they’ll also be put off and won’t leave a comment at all. That’s why the best thing to do is to keep it simple.

#3 | Every call to action asks for a sale

If every single call to action on your feed says “buy now” or “hit the link in my bio”, we want to change this ASAP! The real problem with this is that if people become used to the fact that you’re always trying to sell to them, they’ll stop coming to your feed because they’ll assume you won’t give them anything else. Serve before you sell. Always.

THE BEST CALL TO ACTION IDEAS FOR PRODUCT & SERVICE BASED BUSINESSES

Before we get into the examples, let’s break down the two types of categories that most call to actions generally fall under. We want to make sure that every single one of our calls to action fits under one of these categories on our Instagram posts.

#1 | Engagement CTA

The first call to action is for engagement. Engagement on all social media is crucial. It’s the little “yes”. When you can get someone to comment on something, they are saying “yes” to you. Over time, enough of these can lead to the sale.

While engagement has always been important and a big focus area for me, I now believe that there is some added benefit to having a highly engaged audience on Instagram. Great engagement can push you out into the algorithm, as well as help you reach the Top Posts area for any of your given hashtags.

What I’m trying to say is: engagement is important! And luckily, it is somewhat within your control. These call to actions are great for inviting engagement by some kind of question or invitation for discussion.

#2 | Conversion CTA

The second call to action is where you direct people to the link in your bio to take the next step with you. Remember, you don’t own your Instagram audience (Instagram does!), so it is wise to move people to where you do business, an area that you can control - like your website.

This call to action has a specific purpose. Whether it’s to get someone to sign up to your opt-in freebie or check out your new product for sale, a conversion call to action is asking them to take action on something.

Remember - a social media audience is not the be all and end all. It really should be used as a vehicle to share your message and drive traffic to your own website, products and services.

Now, let’s tackle the elephant in the room: every single one of your Instagram posts should have a call to action, but not every single one should be a direct sell.

So, what can you use as a call to action instead of “hit the link in my bio”? Here are some of my favourites.

Call To Action Examples:

Double tap if you agree
Comment below if you…
DM me if you…
Tag a friend who…
Click the link in my bio
What is one word to describe…?
Can you relate?
Have you done this?
Have you tried this?
Vote for your favourite: A or B!
On a scale of 1-10…
Which is your favourite?
Can you guess what it is?
Share this with someone who needs it
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Powerful Words To Use:

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There you have it! If you want people to engage with your content, comment or take some sort of action, you need to spell it out for them. Now you have the ideas to do just that! Remember, selling comes from serving, not just advertising what you’re selling, so mix up your call to actions for your Instagram posts and take on the challenge to include one in every single post.

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO CREATE CONTENT THAT CONNECTS AND CONVERTS?

Register for my free 4-day challenge From Productivity To Profit - we kick off on September 21st!

ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Hi! I’m Holly Bray

I’m an expert at online marketing, a nerd when it comes to the numbers, and my obsession is teaching others how to know what tasks to focus on so they can create a business that GIVES them life (not one that takes it away).