Post captions: the first three lines decide everything
You wrote an eight-line caption, put your best work at the end, and Instagram showed three lines. The rest sits behind a "more" that almost nobody taps.
The problem is order, not writing
Most captions are written like a school essay: context, development, conclusion. The best part sits at the end. But someone reading on a phone decides in the first three lines whether to continue.
It is the same inversion newspapers have used for a hundred years: the story starts with what happened, not with the day the meeting was scheduled.
Four openings that work
None of these are tricks. They are ways of saying the point up front.
- The question, worded as the customer says it: "How far in advance do I need to order?"
- The opposite of what is expected: "You do not pick a wedding cake by flavour."
- The mistake you keep seeing: "Almost everyone gets the quantity wrong."
- The concrete number: "Three days. That is what separates a good cake from a rushed one."
What should never take the first line
"Good morning everyone!", "Just popping in to say", a lone emoji, and your business name. None of them say anything to someone who has not decided to read, and they are exactly the three lines you had.
The greeting does not disappear: it moves down. It works fine on the fourth line, once the person is already in.
Write the ending, then move it up
A practical method: write the whole caption however it comes out. Then find the strongest sentence, wherever it is, and move it to the top. It was almost always in the second-to-last paragraph.
Once you have done that, reread just the first three lines on their own. If they do not make sense separated from the rest, it is not ready, because that is how most people will read it.
ReadyMonth already writes in that order: the point on top, the rest behind. You read it, adjust the voice and publish.