The 5-Step Process to Writing a Killer Blog Post Introduction

What would you say is the most important part of a blog post?

The title? Maybe.

But there is something more important, and that is the blog post introduction.

According to a study by Microsoft, the average person’s attention span is only eight seconds.

Eight seconds!

That means you have less than eight seconds to grab the reader’s attention and reel them into your content before they move on to shinier objects.

Fail to do this, and your blog post will be gathering dust in the basement of search engines with no light in sight.

Granted, your fantastic title is the only reason someone will click-open your blog post. However, it’s the introduction that will determine whether they read past the first paragraph or not.

Bore a hundred readers with your long, uninteresting introduction, and Google decides your article is not even worth reading. Make a hundred readers scroll on to the end, and Google bumps up your blog post up the ranks. That’s how important an introduction is.

It is literally the lifeline of your article.

So, how do you write an introduction that’s so captivating, it blows the socks off your readers?

Let me show you how.

1. Nail the first sentence

You’ve probably heard people say things like, “grab the reader’s attention” or “create a hook.”

But how exactly do you grab someone’s attention and hook them like a fish?

It boils down to saying something unusual. Your first sentence must be unexpected, captivating, and thought-provoking. If it’s odd enough to stop the reader in their tracks, they will want to read the next one.

Here is the kicker, the secret to writing a captivating, mind-blowing first sentence is not really a secret. With these four tricks, you can turn the average wind-chaser into a faithful reader.

Use a Bold Statement

When we say a bold statement, think confidence or controversy. Those two always do the trick.

Check out how Scott Adams started this article.

As a reader, that one sentence blows your mind with questions- Which course is that? How can I get my hands on that gold? Will it help me too?

By trying to answer your questions, you find yourself halfway in the blog post.

Use a Question

When your first sentence is a question, you force the reader to think about an answer. In this particular blog post, we started with a question.

Here is the interesting thing about human beings. After they answer the question internally, they still want to know if their answer is right, so they keep reading.

But there is another way to make a question more interesting. Ask a question in fact form.

Here is an example.

Did you? Neither did I.

Such a fact-based, thought-provoking question makes you stop to wonder and then draws you in to read the next sentence. Before you know it, you are knee-deep inside the article.

Use a Statistic

Think about the 2020 Covid-19 news reports. What do you think was the most captivating aspect of the reports? It was the numbers.

Every day, the reporters would tell us that 1,000 people died of COVID that day, or 2,000 people were admitted. Without the numbers, the news wouldn’t have hit such a nerve in your brain.

Examples of statistics include;

• 50% of all marriages fail.
• An average of 36,000 people die of the flu each year.
• You are 19 times safer in a plane than in a car.
• 75% of all suicides are men.

See how those numbers pop out? All you have to do is find fascinating factual statistics, and you have the reader eating out of your hand.

Use a Story

Everybody loves stories. They are interesting and fun to follow. It thus makes sense that a story would be a fantastic way to start a blog post.

But there is a caveat. You must keep the story short and relevant. The last thing you want is a story that goes on and on for paragraphs until you lose the reader.

See how Neil Patel kept it short and sweet here.

Tell the Reader to Imagine

Imagine waking up in a different town every week. No mortgage weighing on you, no property taxes, and no more lawn mowing. You live where you want, eat where you want, and work where you want. That is the life of a digital nomad.

See what I did there?

Take the reader into a mental journey where they imagine themselves there with you, and you have them hooked.

2. Build upon the first sentence

So, you have nailed the first sentence and reeled in the reader. Now what?

You have to build upon the first sentence. As you can see from the different examples above, the second and third sentences are just backups or explanations to the first sentence. This accomplishes two things;

• You don’t leave the reader hanging.
• You seamlessly connect the first sentence to the rest of the introduction aspects.

3. Cover the pain point

A pain point is basically the problem you are trying to solve with the article. Often, it is stipulated in the headline, and all you have to do is expound on it.

Let’s go back to the egg article above,

Unfortunately, even the easiest way of cooking an egg, which is boiling it, can be a hit or miss kind of activity.

If you had any doubt, the pain point here is that cooking a perfect egg can be problematic to many. Mentioning the reader’s pain validates their reason to read your article. They feel connected to you and hope to dear life that you have a solution for them.

And that brings us to the next beautiful point.

4. Demonstrate relevance

The only reason someone is reading your blog post is to solve a problem or to learn something. Make it crystal clear that you will solve that problem for them if they keep reading. Show them why it’s important to read on.

In the introduction of this post, you will recall this paragraph,

Bore a hundred readers with your long, uninteresting introduction, and Google decides your article is not even worth reading. Make a hundred readers scroll on to the end, and Google bumps up your blog post up the ranks. That’s how important an introduction is.

The goal there was to connect the issue of writing a great introduction to the greater desires of ranking higher in search engines and eventually making sales.

5. Transition

You have reeled in the reader, touched their heart by recognizing their pain point, and showed them how reading your blog post will help them. The only thing left is to connect the introduction to the rest of the blog post using a transition sentence. This will articulate what the blog post covers and smoothly slide the reader into the article body.

As Neil Patel will say, do not be afraid of blatantly saying, “In this article, I’ll talk about Y” or “This article is about X.”

Other variations include;

• You are about to find out….
• I am going to show you how…
• Let me show you…

With that transition sentence, you can jump right into the body and build the rest of your blog post.

The 4 Rules of Introduction

1. Keep your sentences short. With an attention span of mere seconds, you can be sure a long-running sentence will lose your reader. Short sentences are easy to digest, easy to remember, and can pack quite a punch when done properly. So keep them short and sweet.
2. Obey the 10% rule. There is no written law as to how long a blog post introduction should be. However, common sense dictates that the intro should be at most 10% of your article. If the blog post is 1000 words, keep your introduction to 100 words, give or take. If anything doesn’t need to be in the introduction, remove it to keep it clean.
3. Use the word ‘YOU’. The word YOU is powerful to the reader. It says you are addressing them directly and not the world at large. Avoid saying ‘they’ or ‘them’ and stick to YOU. It’s one of the best ways to connect emotionally with the reader because you are speaking to them. Granted, this does not apply when you are writing a personal narrative or a case study.
4. Include the primary keyword. Keywords play a critical role in SEO (search engine optimization). You should therefore place relevant keywords strategically throughout your blog post. One such place is in the introduction. If you can, include one primary keyword and one secondary keyword organically. Read more about keyword placement and SEO here.

Introduction Takeaway

There you have it. The 5 step formula to writing a killer blog post introduction. Next time you sit down to write one, think about what readers want to see. Short, captivating, and helpful. Anything short of that is simply unacceptable.

The art of writing a fabulous introduction however doesn’t manifest overnight. Sometimes, you have to write and rewrite several times before you hit that dream balance.

When that happens, remind yourself that it’s all worth it if you can keep a few more readers inside your post for more than a minute.

What other tactic do you use to make your introduction interesting? Let us know in the comment section.