Stephanie Donelson

Did you know the average amount of time spent on a webpage is 54 seconds?

That’s not a lot of time for focused blog reading if you ask me!

It seems getting people’s attention to even click on your blog post from search, social media, or via an email is only half the battle. Then you have to keep them on your blog, hopefully longer than 54 seconds – and your into can be what keeps them there or what sends them bouncing!

While your title is what gets their attention, your blog post introduction is what has to keep their attention and set the right expectations for the rest of the post. Writing blog post introductions can be daunting – and is actually often one of the last things a blogger will write before publishing their post.

But writing a great blog post introduction doesn’t have to be a daunting task, whether you do it upfront or after you’ve written the rest of the blog. Today, I’m rounding up some of my favorite tips for crafting strong blog post introductions

1. Use the 5Ws

Let’s take it back to Journalism 101! When writing news articles it’s common that the first paragraph or two addresses the 5Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

Who is this article for? What are they going to take away from it? Is it evergreen or very timely? Is the topic applicable everywhere or to a specific location? And most importantly, why will a reader care about the blog post?

The 5Ws can also be stated as the TL;DR version where you summarize what’s coming up in the post and the reader can choose to find the section that interests them or they can invest their time and energy into reading the whole thing.

2. Pull a Romeo & Juliet

No, don’t stab or poison your readers! But tell them the ending. We immediately know the ending to the classic Shakespearean play but knowing the ending only makes us want to understand how it came about.

By stating the most important takeaway upfront, not only do your readers feel like they got something valuable but they’ll be more likely to scroll and read through to find out how you came to that conclusion.

3. Ask a question

Put the reader right into your blog’s content by asking them a question or two to engage them early. This is also a common tactic to use in your blog’s conclusion to encourage comments on your post or shares of your post but it can be just as effective in the beginning of your blog.

Questions I could have worked into this blog introduction:

• When’s the last time you took a closer look at how you write blog post introductions?
• Do you know how your blog post introductions compare to your competition?
• Does the blog section of your website have a higher than average bounce rate?
• Do you even read blog post introductions when visiting other blogs?

Questions are an easy one to work into any blog post introduction as it allows you to write more informally and invite the reader into the experience of reading your post instead of clicking away as they want to answer your question.

4. Show me the numbers

Did you see the stat I used at the beginning of this blog post? I’m betting (or, at least hoping) it caught your attention.

We like numbers and statistics. They’re easy to digest and understand and make us want to learn more. And the great thing with data is that there are so many ways to position your stats or numbers.

You can highlight common problems in your industry (XX% of marketers struggle with ROI in social media advertising), you can share comparisons (XX% of consumers prefer brands send them postcards in the mail while XX% of consumers prefer email), or you can simply share statistics (XX% of people report checking Facebook every XX minutes).

5. Tell a story or share a quote

Another good option for starting a blog post is to invite another author, somewhat.

Use a quote that’s relevant to your topic by someone relevant in your industry or in the shared culture. You don’t have to be blogging in the political space to use a quote from a former president, but your quote from a well-known marketer might not carry the same weight when you write for the wedding industry.

You can also pull a food blogger and talk about the beautiful fall weather that inspired you to make this great fall-themed dish. Stories and quotes can add authenticity and validity to your blog post and help you explain your point in a more engaging way.

I recently read James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones and pretty much each of his chapter start with a story about someone who exemplifies the point he’s making in the story. These stories convey the theme of the chapter but through a model we recognize: storytelling. It’s not the dry, bare bones writing of “to succeed at X you need to focus on Y and Z.” It was “Famous Comedian So-and-So did Y and Z against the odds and achieved X.”

Of course you can also do a mix-and-match of these ideas to write really great blog introductions! No matter what method you choose, always keep your reader in mind and make sure the content is relevant and valuable to them.

What’s your preferred way to start blog posts? Sound off in the comments below!