Are you stumped on how to get visitors to scroll past the title and read the rest of your article?
No, that is not a stupid problem, and yes, many of us were facing the same issue.
Many writers overlook the power of the introduction, which leads their blog to failure.
The introduction is the essential part of your article, where you convince your readers that you can help them solve their problems.
Based on this, people get to decide whether or not they will give your article a shot or search for different solutions.
Trust me, introductions aren’t hard to write.
All you have to do is follow the right steps and learn how to use them properly.
Today we will provide you with simple steps on how to write an introduction for an article to boost the readability of your content and make people read it till the end.
Let’s get started!
What is Introduction?
The introduction is the first thing your readers see after they click on your blog title.
When describing the introduction's importance, I usually compare them with the stairs. Now, imagine yourself in front of the stairs that are supposed to lead you to the first floor.
If these stairs seem solid and resistant to pressure, you will want to explore the floor above. However, if they are rusty, you will no longer be interested.
The same goes for introductions. If you see the title "How to boost traffic to your website by 406%?" your readers will be interested to find out more. They expect a hint of what your solutions offer that other articles don't have.
A sloppy or overwhelming introduction will chase them away. Thus, the key is finding a perfect balance without being too vague about the hint.
A well-balanced introduction is:
- Extension of the title — It provides more insights into the topic.
- The bearer of the message — It conveys the overall idea of the article.
- Problem summary — It describes the main pain points of the subject.
- Solution proposal — It is proof of your expertise on the subject.
And now that we've established this, let's go over how to write an introduction for an article on your own.
How To Write an Introduction for an Article — 6 Simple Steps To Nail It Down
1. Hook With A Strong Opening Line
Once you've 'dared' to write an appealing title that will pique readers' interest, you must back it up with a statement that will justify your bravery rather than becoming a tasty lie only to gain clicks.
In the example of the title "How to boost traffic to your website by 406%?" you shouldn't start your opening line with the sentence "Good positioning on Google can bring you tons of traffic." right?
Instead, it would be much wiser to offer some statistical evidence to support your claims in the title.
For instance, you can use sentences like "Did you know that users spend an average of 5.59 seconds looking at written content on a website?"
You must keep up the momentum after making a bold claim in the title.
The same goes for general titles such as "Become An Influencer Using These x Easy Steps".
For example, Neil Patel employs a similar method of creating an intriguing opening line by including some facts:
By providing your readers with bold statements in the opening line, you give them a reason to be curious about your content and discover more.
They are excellent trust boosters that will help you engage your audience more quickly and efficiently.
Pro Tip: If you get stuck with writing seductive opening lines, AI writing assistants, such as TextCortex, can help you with that.
For example, to start your blog article with TextCortex, you need to specify your title and keywords, then choose text length and creativity level.
Here is how the blog article generation feature works:
Some AI writing assistants, including TextCortex, allow you to modify your text on the spot with an editable canvas, which makes the whole writing process much more manageable.
2. Tell What Is The Story About
After the opening line, the second crucial thing to tell is what the article is about.
The audience reads the introductions to determine if they address the pertinent issues around the topic they are interested in.
For example, if we want to talk about the subject “How to keep calm under pressure?” we want to cover the most critical pain points of the issue, which are panic and anxiety attacks, right?
Thus, when writing your introduction for an article, it is essential to cover only the key milestones relevant to your readers for a particular subject.
Here is an example:
Using storytelling to explain vital areas of the problem, you will encourage your readers to move further into the text and reveal more about what you have to suggest.
However, that doesn't imply revealing everything about the subject.
Your audience requires the piece's overall message, with the rest to be discovered along the way.
The introduction's role is to invoke curiosity and engage your readers in a way they want to scroll further.
3. Give Your Unique Point Of View
It is not enough just to state what the article is all about to make it engaging.
Remember, the introduction is still part of the article and needs to be aligned with the rest of the text.
And there is no better way of making it engaging than to engrave your point of view on the subject, such as in this example:
With thousands of content cycling around the web on similar topics, anyone can copy and paste the information to make an article.
What makes them differ one from another is the level of authority you provide within your content.
Providing your opinion on the topic will increase readers' trust and give them a sense of empathy.
Sometimes, especially at the beginning of the writing career, it is not so easy to organize your thoughts to make your writing sound more professional.
In those times, AI rewriting tools can come in handy.
For example, here is how TextCortex’s rewriting extension can help you rewrite entire paragraphs in bulk without changing their original meaning:
Rewriting your thoughts can help you better convey your message and boost the readability of your content.
4. Engage Audience With Rhetorical Questions
Another excellent method for making your introduction more appealing is incorporating a rhetorical question to engage your readers.
These questions do not require replies, but they are helpful when you wish to elicit specific emotions in your readers, such as urgency, empathy, and compassion.
Here's a great illustration of how rhetorical questions work:
Rhetorical questions will not only make your readers wonder about the specific point you need to convey, but they will also give them the impression that you understand their problems.
After convincing the audience that we know what we're talking about, it’s time to provide solutions that interest them in reading the piece.
5. Offer Potential Solutions To The Pain Points
It is crucial not to leave out the solution to the critical components of the issue you want to address in your article to finish the entire introduction.
That, again, doesn’t mean you need to list all the solutions in the introduction, but rather to convince readers about the outcome they can expect when implementing those solutions.
Here is an introduction example on the 7 reasons why you should start your business:
The solution part in the introduction is practically your conclusion to the overall message of what your audience can expect to achieve if they decide to invest time in your article.
And, it is imperative, to be honest about these solutions.
In the example above, the article offers 7 valid reasons to start a business. Your readers expect solid guidance on what to do with ideas and interests to make such a decision.
Offering unclear solutions in your content will only make the solution announcement in the introduction look like a cheap marketing trick.
This move can cost you long-term reliability and ruin your image as a reliable source.
And last but not least — Call-To-Action.
6. Tell Your Audience What To Do
This is one the biggest content writing mistakes you can make when writing your article — disregard CTA.
It is not uncommon in online business to tell people what you want them to do in order for you to accomplish it.
Exactly for that purpose, today we have CTA’s all over the place — landing pages, social media posts, articles, emails, etc.
Here is an example of CTA in the introduction:
Maybe this can look stupid to some of you, but the statistics show that the highest CTR (click-through rate) for the CTA button was almost 70%.
If you are not sure what you can use, here are some hints:
- Let’s get started!
- Stay tuned!
- Let’s dive in!
- Let’s get going!
- Let’s find out!
- Let’s move on!
- Let’s begin!
Even though we don’t use buttons in the introduction, the idea behind CTA is to tell people what to do next and influence that tiny push toward better content performance.
Sometimes, believe it or not, that is all that is required.
Furthermore, incorporating CTA within your info's can't hurt, as it only adds 3-4 more words.
Conclusion
Do you remember the balance we discussed at the beginning of this article?
Following all these 6 steps will ensure you balance your introductions and gain the readability of your articles that you deserve.
Of course, that only applies if you have already mastered engaging content writing.
But what if we tell you that there is a 100% chance for you to get rid of 80% of your writing work and gain 10x more content within just a couple of clicks?
For that purpose, we created TextCortex.
It will produce natural-sounding content with each generation, save your projects for future use, and allow you to edit any text in an editable canvas.
TextCortex is available as a web application and rewriter extension.
The web application will help you write any content type:
- Blog titles and articles
- Product titles and descriptions
- Social media posts
- Facebook and Instagram Ads
- Emails and more
Furthermore, our rewriter extension is available on 30+ platforms, including TextCortex editor canvas, and will transform text with features such as:
- Rewriting — reword your sentences and paragraphs in bulk.
- Blog post — write a blog article in any text box from a single sentence.
- Bullet to email — transform your bullet points into compelling emails.
- Expand text — add more information from a single sentence.
Our free version offers 15 free daily creations with no limitation to features ( no credit card information required).
Would you like to give it a try?
Claim your free account now and see how TextCortex enhances your writing skills while boosting your content engagement and visibility.