Write captions that work with the sound off

A huge share of people scroll with sound off, so a caption that only makes sense once you have watched the clip is missing most of its audience. I write my captions to carry the point on their own, as if the video was not attached at all. If someone reads only the caption and moves on, they should still walk away with the idea intact.

This matters because a caption is not decoration under a video, it is a second chance to land the same point in a different format. Treating it as an afterthought wastes a real opportunity to reach the people who never press play at all. A strong caption can even outperform the clip it sits under.

Try this today: read your last caption out loud without picturing the video behind it. If it does not make sense on its own, rewrite it so the point comes through in the words alone. Save that version as your new standard going forward from here.