Readers click on your post title but leave the post immediately without reading it.
Why?
The average visitor read only 25% of an article.
55% of visitors read your articles for 15 seconds or less
Shocking. Isn’t it?
You have worked hard to write a details informative post.
You have formatted your post to make it readers friendly as well as search engine friendly.
You have eliminated all the grammatical and spelling mistakes from your post to make it perfect.
You have written an enticing post title to lure readers to click on it.
But, after clicking on the post title your readers immediately leave your post without reading it.
Why?
The answer lies in the post introduction.
Your post introduction is not capable enough to attract your readers to read the rest of the post.
I often do it.
I click on a post title to read the post. But after reading two-three lines I leave the post if it doesn’t make any sense to me.
I think you do this too. You definitely do.
Why do we do this?
Because there is something missing in the post introduction. some ingredients must not present in the post introduction.
Then, what are the ingredients of a good post introduction?
3 Must-Have Ingredients of a Good Post Introduction
A post introduction is a few sentences at the beginning of a blog post.
When we sit in front of our computer, we just start writing an introduction. Then we start to write our points in the post body.
That’s totally ok.
You don’t have to write a super optimized post introduction just now. You can come back to the post-introduction later and can optimize it.
In fact, I do this.
I just start to write what should be needed for the introduction and come back later to optimize the introduction.
I have bolded four words in the above paragraph. Those are – what should be needed.
That’s the fact. What should be included in a post introduction?
Every good post introduction must have the following three ingredients –
- Ability to grab readers’ attention
- Reason for writing the post
- Benefits of reading the post
This is the magic formula for me.
Whenever I stuck to start writing a post, I just asked three questions to myself. Then start writing the post introduction. Those three questions are –
- Why should readers read this post? (Ability to grab readers’ attention)
- Why do I want to write this post? (Reason for writing the post)
- What will my readers get from this post? (Benefits of reading the post)
Let’s discuss how to write an introduction for your blog post that will hook your readers to the end of the post.
How to Write an Introduction for Blog Post That Hooks Readers
If you can write the three ingredients of a post introduction properly, your readers won’t be able to leave your post without reading it.
Let’s see how you can write those ingredients.
1. Ability to Grab Readers’ Attention
If you are able to write a catchy post title, readers will click on the title and land on post introduction.
After reading two-three sentences, readers tend to leave the post if you can’t grab their attention within these sentences.
So, first two-three sentences of a post introduction is an opportunity for you to grab readers attention.
So, write the first few sentences of a post introduction in such a way that your readers can’t resist to read the rest of the post.
But, How?
Use one of the following tips below in your post introduction –
-
Help Your Readers See What You See
You have a clear view of why you are writing the post.
Show the message to your readers exactly what you are thinking right now.
Let me give you an example.
I started this post with a message. That is – “Readers click on your post title but leave the post immediately without reading it.”
If you are in the same situation, I think, this sentence is enough for you to read the rest of the post.
So, help your readers see exactly what you see.
-
Ask Question
Another effective way to grab readers’ attention is to ask a relevant question.
If you can ask the right question, you readers will seek the answer to that question in your post.
Yes. People are always seeking solutions to their problems.
If you can talk about the problem in the form of asking a question, they will know that you will solve the problem in your post.
See how I asked a question in this post.
“Readers click on your post title but leave the post immediately without reading it. Why?”
Asking questions always work.
So, ask a question that talks to your readers’ mind.
-
Use Relevant Quote
This is a nice way to borrow someone else’s authority into your post.
We all love quotes.
If you use a famous author’s quote in your post, you not only borrow his authority, but your readers also love this.
See how Leo Babauta of Zenhabits uses a quote in one of his posts.
So, try to use a famous quote in your post introduction to force your readers to read the rest of the post.
-
Show Stat
Stats increase the authority and trustworthiness of a post.
If you show stats in your post introduction, your readers will trust you and love to read your post.
-
Tell a Story
If you are a good storyteller, you can start your post introduction with a relevant story.
I love stories. People love stories.
How would you feel when you start reading something like – once upon a time…..?
If you can get the art of storytelling, then you are a hero.
A story always gives some feel which will keep your readers engage to end of your post.
Okay. These are enough tips to start an attention-grabbing post introduction.
Only grabbing readers’ attention is not enough for a good post introduction. You will need to have something more in your post introduction.
2. Reasons for Writing the Post
Why are you writing the post?
Do you want to solve any problem in this post?
Do you want to prove something in this post?
You must have a purpose for writing a post.
After grabbing the reader’s attention, you need to present the problem or issue you will discuss in the post.
You have just grabbed the reader’s attention. You readers don’t know about the problem you will discuss in the post yet.
So, tell them the problem in details. So that they can know, what the problem you will address in the post.
3. Benefits of Reading the Post
In the overwhelming information world, if your readers don’t see any benefits of reading the post they will leave your post immediately.
So, show them the benefits of reading the post. Promise them you’ll solve the problem in the post.
A sentence or two is enough to address this. For example –
“Follow the step by step tutorial below”
Or
“I will show you how to do it… Read on”
Keep in mind that this is the last stage of post-introduction which will force your readers to read the rest of the post.
So, be concise, do a promise and give a clear view to your readers how you will solve the problem in the post.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I just want to say, don’t be stuck in writing post introduction. It’ll hamper natural fluency in your post writing.
Just write what you want to write in post introduction.
You always have an option to come back to the post-introduction and optimize it for grabbing readers attention.
Just keep the following three things in mind when optimizing your post introduction.
- Use an attention-grabbing hook
- State the problem, and
- promise, you’ll solve the problem
Your Opinion
How do you write a post introduction? Please share in the comments below…
great piece of information shared on introduction… I have never thought that introduction section is equally important content in blogging…I really got good information on introduction in this post ..thanks for this great post…keep it up…!!
Yes, Arvind. The introduction is really important for any piece content.
Hi very good article
Thanks for sharing
You are welcome, Ijaj.
Nice bro , keep it up , You always give the best content
Thanks, Aneeque.
Just struggling with my first blog. This article will help me a lot. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
You are welcome, Kabir.
nice and perfect article.
Thank you, San.
wow amazing article
Thanks for appreciating, Babir.
Thank you nice and perfect article.
You’re welcome, Hossain.
Hi very good article
Thanks for sharing. Thank you nice and perfect article.
Sir, this article is very helpful and there are so many people from here thanks sir