How to Hook Readers with an Irresistible Introduction

Remember the red dress

You have to sell that red dress. If you don’t, you can’t pay the rent for your fancy boutique. Then you’re back to excel sheets in a grey cubicle. Hey, a classy girl is looking at it through the shopping window. How do you get her to buy it? Get her to try it on, she’ll love it! Or you’ll have to kiss herbal infusions goodbye and say hello to a happy hour with white collars again.

When you write, the red dress is your headline. The subhead is when the buyer looks at the price and decides to go into the shop. When the reader finally tries it to see how she looks, that’s the introduction. It sells your whole article. You can’t give the buyer a small or a torn one. Give her the size that fits. Make her try it and she’ll give you the money.

People won’t read your piece if you don’t grab them by the throat from the start. Here are the ways to not let them bounce away from your post at the beginning:

Draw the Readers’ Attention

If you repeat what you said in the headline, you are Goodbye, Charlie. Instead, give a new piece of information or say something disruptive, break their expectations of the world, so they want to keep on reading.

Here are a few techniques that work well:

Start from the end

Say from the start someone managed to do what your readers want to achieve. They’ll be eager to learn how.

Ask them a surprising question

“What do people say about you when you’re not around?” — pickthebrain.com

Avoid rhetorical questions such as: “How are you going to attract more readers?” They came to you for the answer, don’t waste their time.

Also stay away from obvious questions: “Do you want to be happy?” The readers will roll their eyes because it’s the same as if you said “Water is wet.”

Write an intriguing statement

It will make them keep on reading. Push their buttons by saying something controversial. They will want to argue with you or ask themselves if they’ve been wrong all this time.

Start with something that seemingly has nothing to do with your topic

Like I started with the red dress in a post about how to write an introduction.

Use a quote

But not Mark Twain or Lady Gaga. Avoid overused ones. If you can’t remember a good quote, just google: “Quotes self-acceptance,” “Sayings about love,” or “Quotes for Instagram.”

I’m lucky English is not my mother tongue, so I can use plenty of sayings by smart people you’ve never heard of. If English is your second language, use the abundance of your native language.

Start with an Anecdote, or a Story if Possible

The human brain works on the cause-and-effect model. People have been listening to stories for 30,000 years, and there is no better way to present the point.

An anecdote and a story are quite different. An anecdote is a short account of an incident that happened to someone. A story is a sequence of events with a conflict and a resolution. Stories are like small novels or dramas, incidents are more like “I got splashed by a bus,” or “I saw them kissing behind the building.”

These are tips to make your piece more believable:

Show your expertise

People will believe you more. The 2009 study by Greg Berns of Emory University concluded people accept advice as facts if it comes from credible sources. Their decision-making parts of the brains shut down when they received advice from financial experts. There was no critical thinking anymore as if the experts were telling them scientific laws.

Make the reader a character in your story

Start your story with the word “Imagine…” Describe to the reader what it would be like to go through what your character had been.

Trigger their imagination with sensory words. Use the words of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste to activate the parts of the reader’s brain as if the reader really saw, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted what you are depicting.

The Readers’ Emotions Are Your Allies

Writers can be manipulative. They can persuade you into anything with allegedly rational arguments. They know people decide based on their emotions, not reason. This is what makes the piece more effective:

Connect with the reader by showing empathy

Let them know you understand their situation. State the symptoms the reader has. Show your vulnerability. Don’t shy away from humor if it fits the overall tone of the article.

Appeal to their desire

Suggest the solution to their problem, they’ll crave to hear it. Desire incites our behavior more than a reward. In an experiment on mice Dr. Kent Barridge from the University of Michigan concluded that when lab mice are stripped of dopamine (which is a hormone of desire more than of enjoyment), they stop consuming sugary water although they can still feel pleasure. When they lost motivation to achieve rewards, most of them died. Appeal to your readers’ intrinsic motivation. Let them know you hold the key to their desire.

Use a cliffhanger

A cliffhanger is a dramatic introduction that stays open and makes the readers wonder what’s going to happen next. Leave things incomplete. Our minds dwell on the open endings and the unfinished, so they will keep on reading. The brain wants to reduce uncertainty by getting more information. This is known in psychology as the uncertainty reduction principle.

If you read Elena Ferrante, the queen of storytelling, you’ll see how cliffhangers can make you read The Neapolitan Novels (1696 pages) as if they were only100 pages long.

Write The Introduction When You Finish the Body of the Post

Once you are sure you said everything right, get back to the beginning and think about how to emphasize the main point. Jot down your introductory story. Is it appealing enough? Change it for a new one if you have to. No one will read your elaborate thoughts in the middle of the post if you don’t draw their curiosity at the beginning.

Cut Every Excess Word

Once you are finished with the draft, be brutal. Eliminate the excess fat. Make it short and simple. For a stronger effect, replace every adjective and adverb with nouns and verbs where possible.

Make the introduction fit into two to three paragraphs. Long enough to present a plot but short enough to delete the redundant. Cut everything that doesn’t directly support your main point.

Don’t forget to state why you are writing the article in the first place. Make it straight to the point, not descriptive. Don’t write overly long sentences with too much information. Put one new piece of information per sentence. And make it flow naturally.

There is plenty of advice on how to write a good post or an attractive headline. But it’s all worth nothing if your readers bounce off before they get to your key point. Get them to try the red dress so they want to buy it.

Grab their attention. Don’t repeat what you already said in the heading and the subhead. Say something disruptive or give useful information. A surprising question or a statement will do. Use quotes or say what you managed to achieve.

Start with an anecdote or story because that’s the way our brains work. Show you are the expert in the subject. Or make the reader a character in your story. Use an emotional appeal. Feel for the reader. Suggest you hold the key to their problem, they will want to read all about it. Try to create your own little drama by starting with a cliffhanger.

And write the introduction in the end. Distill your thoughts into a story with the gist. Present it with sensory details. They will be able to see a clear picture. Respect your readers’ time and be straight to the point. Cut the extra. Remember you are not writing War and Peace (1,296 pages). There is still a lot of quality content on the internet.

And one last tip: Stay away from exaggeration and drama unless it really happened. It sounds illiterate, immature, and of bad taste. Remember, it’s all about the measure.

I’ve created a 5-day free course on writing that you can read on Medium. Check it out: