6 Writing Tips You Should Know When Creating a Business Blog

Creating an introduction for a blog post isn’t easy. There are tons of blogs out there, 600 million+ to be precise, and many of them are competing for the same audience that you have. So how can you set yourself apart? 

SEO expert services can come in handy here, but if you’re on your own, this list will help you get off to a good start with content creation.

You must be able to create an engaging, well-written, compelling, and reader-oriented introduction. If you do it right, it will lift up your entire post and, as a result, generate more traffic.

It’s simpler than you realize. It only takes a few things:

• • • Get their attention
    • Highlight their main pain points
    • Let the reader know exactly what they should expect from your post

However, there is one caveat – you must understand your target audience in order to write a decent blog post intro. So, you’ll want to do your research first!

1.) The Opening Sentence

An opening sentence, while a small part of the overall blog post, has a lot going on with it. It should be interesting, concise, and provide a snapshot of the overall appeal and tone of the rest of the blog post. People, on average, only spend around 37 seconds skimming an entire post these days. So, getting their attention at the beginning of the post is essential.

If you can get this right, you won’t have any issue getting your readers hooked enough to stick with it until the end.

Here are some ways you can make your first sentence more interesting:

• • • Begin with a quote
    • Start with a statistic
    • Use metaphors or comparisons
    • Begin with a question
    • Lay down the groundwork for future pacing
    • Make a controversial or bold statement
    • Begin with a story
    • Mention a problem (this is called the PAS method: problem, agitate, solution)

2.) Use Statistics

The reason that people are reading your blog is to learn new things or find solutions to their problems.

So, begin by introducing your post with an illustration showing them that you know their pain and can help them find a remedy. The easiest way to do that is to state the problem and then validate their concerns with numbers and statistics. That’s because statistics are considered an objective way of providing proof to support your statements.

When you establish some common ground early on, it will be much easier for people to put their trust in you and remain engaged while reading your blog post.

3.) Make Them Feel Emotions

If you are able to make readers feel emotions from the get-go, then your readers will more likely remember it.

But what kind of emotions should you be striving to evoke? The most effective for digital marketing purposes is FOMO (fear of missing out), frustration, empathy, and excitement.

To do it properly, you’ll need to know your audience’s most common concerns. But what if you don’t know what those are? A good way to find out is to create a survey form for your website. The answers will be helpful not only for your blog post intros but also for your overall marketing strategy.

4.) Make a Promise

First impressions are critical in blog posts. After all, you only have a precious few seconds to capture their attention while the post is loading. If they don’t see the value in your post right away, they’ll exit.

You want them to see that if they stick with reading your post, it will be worth their time. Make them believe it’s worth it by promising them something that they want. It can be as simple as showing a list of everything that you will cover in the post, the potential results they can achieve, and what they can learn from it all.

5.) Consider Using the 5 Ws

The 5 Ws of marketing are timeless and will never go out of fashion. They are: who, what, when, where, and why. These can be incorporated into the intro of your blog post if you just think about the topic in question. For instance, let’s say that you’re writing a blog post about building computers.

Your 5 Ws might look like:

1. 1. 1. Who is this post for?
      2. What are the main obstacles or challenges that people face when building a computer for the first time?
      3. When is it a good time to build your own computer?
      4. Where can people find the parts they need to build a computer at an affordable price?
      5. Why would someone want to build their own computer (advantages vs. store-bought PCs)?

When you can answer the above questions in an interesting way, then the tone will be set for the remainder of your blog post, and readers will be engaged from the very beginning.

Remember to keep the Ws short, though, if you’re going to use them in your introduction. Each “W” should be no more than 2-3 sentences in length. Otherwise, your intro will likely be too long.

Keeping content short and concise is harder than it sounds. Many people cannot write in this manner, which makes SEO expert services invaluable. 

6.) Start Off With a Question

Starting with a question right off the bat is an excellent way to get the reader engaged. However, the question should be creative, well-formed, and crafted in a way that captures the reader’s interest. It should also lead to more questions.

Additionally, a question is a great way to humanize your brand. From the reader’s perspective, it will be as if you’re inviting them on a journey of discovery for the answers that they’re looking for. It’s an easy way to establish a friendly tone for your post right away too.

Basically, it will encourage readers to continue reading to get the answers they seek.

Some ways that questions can be formed are:

• • • Simple yes/no questions (have you ever experienced X?)
    • Open-ended question (for instance, asking the reader about their current situation)
    • Rhetorical questions

Also, if the question is relevant to the topic at hand, you should answer it in the body of your blog post as well as summarize it in your conclusion.

Conclusion

Your blog post intro plays a vital role in persuading your readers to hang around until the end, so be sure that you perfect it as much as possible.

This blog post covered 6 ways to create a good blog post introduction, but there are other strategies as well that we might cover in a future part 2. Also, it is not necessary to use every single strategy in this list. Feel free to stick with one type or mix and match as desired.

Just remember to keep your intros short and sweet, provoking the reader’s curiosity, and inform them on what they’ll learn and how they’ll benefit from reading the blog post. 

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