Mastering Engaging Opening Lines: 11 Creative Strategies to Hook Your Readers

‘Hi Michael, it’s nice to meet you’

…which was both funny and memorable since my name is DARREN, not Michael!

 

Ever wondered how some posts keep you hooked while others don’t catch your eye?

It’s all in the opener. The first words you utter or write can set the tone for any relationship or conversation…

Just like in real life, the opening lines of your blog post can make or break your reader’s engagement.

 

In my last post in this ‘how to craft a blog post’ series I identified your blog’s title/headline as the most important words that you’ll write in a blog post and I said that the purpose of the title is to get people to read your opening line.

The second most important words in your blog post are those that follow the title – your opening line. Their purpose is to get people to read the next line – to draw people deep within your post. Here’s how you can craft compelling opening lines to captivate your readers from the get-go.

 

11 Effective Strategies for Blog Post Openers

So how does one craft an opening line to a post that effectively engages readers and stimulates enough interest to get them to read your blog post? Here are a few tips that I’ve found helpful.

1. Identify a Need

Kick off your post by pinpointing a reader’s problem or need.

Sound familiar? It should – I’ve talked about reader needs and problems in my post about choosing a topic and crafting your post title.

If you haven’t got it by now you should be starting to see that I place a lot of importance on identifying a reader’s need and solving it as a key to writing successful blog posts. You don’t have to solve the need or problem in the opening line but an effective way to get readers to read deep into your post where you do solve it is to tell them that you will in the opening line.

2. Ask a One-Answer Question

Engage readers immediately by posing a question that nudges them to say “yes”. This is a technique that copywriters have been using for a long time and it works. I did it in the first line of this post: “Ever wondered how some posts keep you hooked while others don’t catch your eye?”.

Asking this type of question does a couple of things. For starters you’re communicating what the post is about and the need that it will fulfill in the reader; but secondly (and more importantly) you’re drawing out a response in your reader and one which puts the need that your post will solve squarely in their mind. Anyone reading and answering ‘yes’ to my question above enters into this post having just said that they want to discover how to write engaging opening lines – this ‘buy in’ helps in the communication process that follows.

Asking ‘yes’ questions can actually be something you use more than once in a post. Ask a series of them scattered through your post and you can actually take your reader on a journey that leads them to your call to action.

3. Pose an Intriguing Question

Spark curiosity with a question that promises an interesting revelation and leaves readers eager for the answer.

Questions like:

• “What do Bill Gates and Martha Stewart have in common?”
• “How did I take my subscriber numbers from 0 to 51,346?”
• “Is the Nikon D700 the best Digital SLR Camera Ever Invented?”

All of these questions will appeal differently to different audiences – but all leave readers wondering what the answer will be and give them a reason to read on further into a post.

4. Offer a Surprise

Use an unexpected fact or personal anecdote to grab attention. Sharing something unusual or personal, as I did with my wife’s greeting mix-up, can make your post more relatable and engaging.

The opening story I include in this post attempts to do something a little ‘different’ or ‘surprising’ to grab readers attention by sharing something personal and at a first glance ‘off topic’. I don’t talk about my family often on ProBlogger – so this opening line is designed to break the pattern and encourage readers to take a second look. I find that when I do this it seems to ‘snap’ readers out of the way that they normally approach your blog and take a little extra notice for a moment or two (which can be enough to hook them into reading your post).

Of course – the unexpected opening line should relate to your post’s topic on some level.

5. Tell a Story or Share an Analogy

Stories or analogies can transform a mundane topic into an intriguing narrative. Whether it’s a brief anecdote or a detailed account, stories often make your content more relatable and absorbing.

I find that telling ‘stories’ to open posts can be one way of snapping people out of their ‘ho hum’, ‘eyes glazed over’ state that many of us have while surfing the web. This is particularly true on a blog that is more serious or formal in nature – to share a story means you’re switching genre’s for a moment or two which can be enough to grab your readers attention for at least a moment or two. Stories can be short (a one liner like I did above) or longer (although you probably won’t want to go too long). They can be your own personal stories or stories of someone else. They can be true or even fiction.

I’ve often open posts here on ProBlogger with ‘tangents’ – analogies or stories from my life that are a little off topic – but which go on to help illustrate a principle. I find that these types of openings often draw in a new type of reader and get more reader engagement with others. Perhaps it’s just a refreshing change from the normal type of posts or perhaps it shows a more personal side that appeals to some.

For example (titles and opening lines):