Mastering the art of writing introductions

Happy Friday,

I am writing to you after an interesting trip to the hilly town of Abeokuta.

Abeokuta is famous for the Olumo Rock landmark - a hill that served as a hiding place for the Egba people during the slave-taking expeditions of the Yoruba Civil War – and the town itself is named after it, as Abeokuta means ‘under the rock’. 

That’s the image from my hotel though 🤭

Before we get into the topic of the day, I have been doing some thinking about the best way to ensure you all get value out of these my weekly missives. If you have any topics you would love me to tackle, or feedback on the format - please hit the reply button.

And as always, do share with your friends or colleagues who you think will find the newsletter useful.

This Week I Learnt 

Blog introductions!

Blog introductions are like first dates. You only get one chance most times to impress. Making the wrong move can be disastrous for your content strategy. Even if readers are enticed by your headline, most are still skeptical when they start reading your piece.

Especially if you are dealing with an expert-level audience.

You don’t want them assuming you don’t understand their pain-points or their situation. To stop them from clicking the “Back” button you must prove them wrong in the first few sentences.

While there are tons of examples out there, and I’ll share some resources later - here’s my preferred formula:

Step 1: Describe to yourself who the reader is. Create a simple persona like any marketing exercise. Hubspot has a great buyer persona tool/template you can use for FREE.

Step 2: Think of how they are encountering your post. Did they get there via a Google or Facebook?

Step 3: Think of what makes your article specific or original. This is the hard part. It will force you to answer some really tough questions such as:

• Is there anything specific and original about your post or is it the same old content everyone else writes? If it’s the latter you’ll have trouble writing a good introduction.

Step 4: Pick a few angles of specificity or originality to start with and try them out. Get to the heart of the matter. Don’t waste your time with questions and other background filler. Write the most direct statements about why your post is good (specific or original). If you’re writing for your own blog, consider starting with a personal story (original). If you’re writing for another blog, state the exact specific angle this post is taking.

Now, this isn’t the only formula for writing introductions.

• WordStream has a great article on this topic that you can check out here.

• I also think this piece by Grammarly is an amazing treatise on the topic.

My biggest lesson of the week

Stop thinking in terms of a "career".Instead, focus on building a skillset. You can then build a career or business of that skillset.

What I am up to?

• Working on an expert roundup titled - “X Experts Reveal How Lazy Writers Like Me Can Explode Engagement on My Blog Using Irresistible Introductions”. Any thoughts on that headline? 

• Been studying this wonderful document on “The Art of DeckMaking” by Aisha Hakim, founder of The Fellow App, a mentoring tool for women. Gosh, it’s an amazing lesson on visual communication.

Have a great weekend folks,

P.S - Please tell a few friends if you’d like.

Dozie!!!