Many moons ago when I was a novice writer, I once lost a big client because I wrote an article for them with a 300-word introduction…
She said: “If I wasn’t so fascinated by the fact that it just kept going on and on and on, I’d have probably fallen asleep. Sorry, we’re going to look elsewhere.”
“Yea, that’s fair enough,” I replied.
Never made that mistake again – and nor should you.
Want to write attention-grabbing blog intros? Read on and I’ll share 5 tricks I’ve picked up over the years…
1. Ask a question
A great way to start a blog intro is to engage your readers immediately with a question. What is it that they are going to gain from reading your blog post? Ask them, rhetorically, if it’s something they’ve been interested in.
In this case, I’ve asked if you want to grab your reader’s attention and avoid losing out on potential business. If you’ve made it this far then I’m guessing the answer was yes!
Mini stories are fun and they can set the tone of a piece immediately, whilst offering a little comic relief.
In this case, I’ve shared a true, personal story about just how terrible I used to be at writing introductions. It hooks the reader because…well, you’re keen to see if I’ve actually learned from my mistakes, right?
3. Use descriptive / emotive language
Your readers have powerful imaginations and you should use that to your advantage. Write with descriptive language that evokes imagery in their mind. This is a very effective way to start a blog post and immediately grip your readers.
4. Make good use of analogy and metaphor
Just as writing with descriptive or emotive language can be an effective way to engage the reader, you may also wish to consider kicking things off with some form of analogy or metaphor.
For example, in this article I could liken writing attention-grabbing blog introductions to approaching a woman in a bar:
- If I stroll up and chew her ear off with a 300-word introduction she’s going to think I’m mental.
- If I bowl up and hit her with some sappy, cliché chat up lines, I’ll get a hard pass.
No. If you want to have any success in making a good first impression you’re going to have to get a little creative…
5. Present your readers with an interesting statistic
We love stats! Which is why it can be interesting to start a blog post by hitting your readers with some fascinating numbers. For example, I could have started this blog with something along the lines of:
- “There are roughly 70-million new WordPress blog posts published each month and if you don’t grip your reader in the first few seconds you are losing out – big time!”
Conclusion: Take your time
Take your time when writing your blog post introductions. Once you’ve nailed it, not only will the rest of the article come naturally, but the published piece will be far more likely to succeed and start making you money.
Alternatively, you can get all of the information written down and worry about crafting an introduction at the end. However, the former tip works best for me, I find.
If you are struggling to write engaging blog posts and would rather leave it to the pros, there’s an SEO agency in Singapore with over 500+ 5-star reviews so they must be doing something right.
In any case, we hope you enjoyed this piece and that you now have some ideas to use in your own writing. Good luck!
