What’s more intimidating than an angry Dwayne Johnson holding a baseball bat?
A blank page.
Scores of perfectly capable, talented writers have sat down with a fantastic idea for a blog, only to see their momentum come to a screeching halt when the time comes to write the introduction. What many people don’t realize is that many of the best writers follow formulas. By following a formula, you can take the angst out of writing your blog introduction, eliminating that roadblock and gaining the momentum you need to get your blog written.
What is this formula? Read on.
As someone who’s written and edited hundreds of blog posts for Clariant Creative’s clients, I simply don’t have the time to be held back by blog introduction paralysis. And as a marketer, neither do you.
So, because this isn’t a recipe blog, I’m going to get straight to the good stuff instead of making you read through a bunch of navel-gazing personal stories.
Let’s dive into each of these elements.
You didn’t expect a blog about blog introductions to lead off with the image of an angry Dwayne Johnson holding a baseball bat, did you?
That element of surprise doesn’t simply highlight the fact that I’m a little weird (and a big fan of The Rock). As it turns out, surprise has benefits that you can use to your advantage as a marketing writer.
To put this into practice, let your creative mind flow free. Maybe your blog topic reminds you of a song lyric, or a movie, or well-known quote. Or perhaps you can relate the topic to a common life experience like shopping for jeans or taking a road trip.
If all else fails, tap into emotion and find surprising similes:
Once you have your quirky or surprising analogy or simile fixed in your mind, jot it down and head to the next step.
What IS your blog about? As delightfully surprising as your audiences may find your references to your brother-in-law holding a basket of puppies while riding a roller coaster, that surprise will only carry them so far. Your readers want to know: What are they going to get out of reading your blog?
The answer to this question should be distilled down into one sentence (you can get away with two if they’re short but try to keep it to one).
In this blog, I’ve gone with a “By doing X, you can X…” framing, but how you write the sentence can vary, as long as it clearly tells the reader what they can expect if they keep reading, and more importantly why they should keep reading. After all, if the blog isn’t going to inform, entertain, or help them in any way, why would they want to read it?
Once you have your sentence (or two) figured out, congratulations, you now have the end of your introduction.
Wait…what? The end of the introduction? That’s right.
Saving your main takeaway for the end of the introduction not only gives your intro room to breathe, it’s a satisfying, weighty way to end the intro, providing the reader with another mini-reward and gearing them up for what comes next.
You have your element of surprise for the first bit of your introduction. And now you have the key takeaway for the end of your introduction. What about the middle? That’s where you tie it all together by going into more detail:
The smart folks at HubSpot, when describing storytelling, say that conflict is an integral component to an good story. This makes the middle of your blog introduction the perfect place to introduce this conflict, to pull the reader further into the topic, and to show them that this subject is relevant to the challenges that they’re currently facing.
“That’s all well and good for marketing blogs,” you say. “But surely that won’t work for technical or niche B2B industries!”
It does work (and don’t call me Shirley).
Let’s look at a couple of topics, and create an introduction using the Clariant Formula:
Can this formula be used for every blog? Absolutely.
Should it? No.
You don’t want your formula to become, well…formulaic. And using the same format for every single blog introduction you write will soon grow both tedious and obvious.
Instead, consider the Clariant Creative Blog Introduction Formula as yet another powerful content marketing tool—one that you can haul out when it’s needed (i.e. when you’re stuck on the introduction and simply can’t seem to get over the hump) and use to powerful effect.
Writing blogs can be difficult. By keeping a reliable blog introduction formula in your toolkit, you can be better equipped to create the helpful, informative, entertaining content your customers will love to read, and can get it done with time to spare.