Writing Clear and Concise Blog Introductions

ChatGPT will write your blog intro. Why are you spending 2 hours on it? Yes, I’m not saying ChatGPT can’t write. It can generate 6,000 words in a few minutes. But will that intro - Hook your reader in the first 3 lines? - Speak to their exact pain points? - Your ICP’s real frustrations? - Position your product naturally without sounding salesy? - Use insights from what customers are saying on G2 and Capterra? That’s the difference between “an intro” and “an intro that converts.” Here’s what I did for a BOFU blog targeting hoteliers 👇 Instead of prompting: “Write an intro about hotel management software…” I followed a simple framework. First — empathize. “The hotel management software you’re using isn’t bad. But it’s not fully meeting your property’s needs.” Second — validate the problem. We collected real feedback from revenue managers who felt stuck with tools that promised efficiency but delivered friction. Third — back it with research. We analyzed reviews on G2 and Capterra to understand: • Missing integrations • Limited reporting capabilities • Support and onboarding gaps Finally — set a clear promise. By the end of the blog, readers would know: • Whether their current system is holding them back • What features actually matter • Which alternatives align better with their property goals That’s how you write a blog intro that doesn’t just “introduce” — it pulls readers in and moves them closer to a decision. Don’t let ChatGPT think for you. Use it to sharpen what you already know. P.S - If your BOFU blogs aren’t converting, let’s fix that.

10 hooks that always grab attention: (And templates you can use in under 30 seconds) Hooks are like headlines on the news. If it’s not urgent, high value or emotional - no one stops to read them. Yet people make the same mistakes: ❌ Try to sound inspirational over interesting, “Believe in yourself…” ❌ Vague promises that mean nothing, “This changed everything for me.” ❌ Follow a generic AI template like, “It’s not X, it’s Y.” Then wonder why their content is ignored. AI fatigue is at an all-time high. Every third post sounds exactly the same. The same hook, the same tone, the same problems and solutions. In the sea of sameness, clever hooks don’t stand out. Original, personal hooks do. The ones that spark tension, curiosity, even a little anxiety. Try using these 10 types of hooks (and their templates): 1/ Authority Hooks • Hooks rooted in personal stories and expertise build trust. • “We analysed 318,842 LinkedIn posts in Q3 2025. And LinkedIn has changed…” 2/ Conversation Hooks • A real dialogue instantly pulls readers into a moment. • “CEO: I’m firing our VP Sales. Me: How long have they been here?” 3/ Curiosity Hooks • State a bold claim, then tease the evidence. • “This chart is the clearest signal of where the internet is heading.” 4/ Contrarian Hooks • Challenge an accepted belief to create instant tension. • “Stop building your personal brand. Build this instead.” 5/ Pattern Break Hooks • Interrupt the reader with an unexpected truth. • “Your skills aren’t the problem. Your perspective is.” 6/ Personal Story Hooks • Go emotional and relatable without oversharing. • “Growing up, I never thought I’d get married. I was terrified I wouldn’t be a good partner.” 7/ Numbers Hooks • Data and specifics build credibility fast. • “You commit the 7 deadly sins of prompting - here’s how to fix them.” 8/ Disagreement Hooks • Attack a widely accepted “truth” to create friction and interest. • “Boring content is dead. You can follow every “rule” - and still be forgettable.” 9/ Nobody-Tells-You Hooks • Reveal a hidden truth people feel but never say. • “I interviewed 50 people who quit their jobs in 2024. Nobody tells you the real reason why:” 10/ I Was Wrong Hooks • Admit a mistake that leads to an unexpected lesson. • “The day I stopped fearing smart people was the day that changed my life.” Don’t try to sound clever. Aim to make the reader feel something - tension, excitement, or even a bit of fear. That’s what makes people stop the scroll. 📌 Want a high-res PDF of this sheet? Get it here: https://lnkd.in/gKzZUq-b ♻️ Repost to help your network write better hooks. ➕ Follow me (Will McTighe) for more like this.

Most biotech founders don’t fail because their ideas are bad. They fail because their messaging never stood a chance. Not because they didn’t “communicate benefits” clearly. They wrote posts that ignored how people think. As a founder, you’re used to facts, logic, and evidence. But your audience doesn’t read your LinkedIn post like a peer-reviewed paper. They skim. → They filter. → They fill in the blanks. → Then they forget. The Cognitive Bias Codex is one of the best tools I’ve found for writing posts that work with these patterns, rather than against them. Here’s how to apply it: 1️⃣ Catch attention (Too much info): People are overloaded. You need contrast. → Use the bizarreness effect. Start with something unexpected. → Use the Von Restorff effect. Make one idea visually or conceptually stand out. → Use confirmation bias. Start with what your audience believes, then challenge it. 💡 Instead of “Our study shows a 12% increase,” try: “Most device teams think 40% uptake is the limit. Ours hit 52%.” 2️⃣ Build trust (Not enough meaning): People fill gaps with stories. Give them the right one. → Use the narrative bias. Share a decision, failure, or conversation. → Use the halo effect. Mention credible names or data sources. → Break stereotypes. Show something they didn’t expect. 💡 “We thought this device wouldn’t work in elderly patients. It did.” 3️⃣ Prompt action (Need to act fast): Your reader is scrolling. You need to interrupt the autopilot. → Use loss aversion. Show the cost of ignoring your insight. → Use the sunk cost fallacy. Highlight why clinging to outdated methods hurts. → Use the availability heuristic. Reference a recent news item or post. 💡 “Still relying on 2022 data to plan your 2025 trial?” 4️⃣ Boost recall (What do we remember?): You don’t need to be memorable to everyone. Just to the right people. → Use the peak-end rule. Start strong. End clear. → Repeat key phrases. → Tell stories where the smart choice looks obvious in hindsight. 💡 “We bet on the unpopular strategy. It paid off in 3 months.” Most content tries to sound smart. The best content works with how people think. 👉 Which part of the Codex feels most relevant to your work right now? 💬 Let's discuss in the comments. ♻️ Repost for others. ---- 👋 Hi, I'm Sébastien, Founder of Mywebtechcare®. I help life science founders grow visibility, trust, and long-term opportunities on LinkedIn.

How to write strong intros (find your stance) Most intros just rehash the topic. Yours should do better: Sell your approach, not the idea that the topic matters. Here’s how to do it in 3 steps: 1. What do most people say about this topic, and what do you disagree with? Look for advice that feels overhyped, outdated, or missing nuance. This is where your unique point of view starts to shine. Examples: - “Most productivity advice pushes morning routines. I work best at night.” - “Everyone says to post daily on LinkedIn. I post once a week and get better results.” - “Writers obsess over intros. I think most of them miss the point entirely.” 2. What have you personally learned or experienced that made you see it differently? Use real stories, data, or outcomes. This gives your stance weight and credibility. Examples: - “I followed every productivity guru and still felt scattered until I started planning around energy, not time.” - “When I stopped worrying about tone and started mirroring the reader’s mindset, my emails got 3x more replies.” 3. What’s the specific approach, framework, or mindset shift you want to share? This is the heart of your piece—the part that makes your take worth reading. Examples: - “I use a simple two-bucket system: Glass vs Plastic priorities.” - “I replaced generic CTAs with ‘value previews’ and conversions doubled.” - “My approach to writing intros is simple: skip the stakes, spotlight the stance.” The result? Your intro goes from: “Writing better emails can help you close more sales.” To: “I used to spend 20 minutes writing emails no one replied to. Now I use a 3-line structure that gets responses in under five. Here's how it works.” Or from: “A good content strategy is essential for growth.” To: “I helped a $50M brand triple its traffic without using buyer personas. This post breaks down the exact strategy.” You're not just summarizing a topic. You're inviting the reader into your world, showing them what you know that others miss. That’s what makes people stick around and trust what comes next.

Do content intros actually matter? Whenever I post about intros, someone in the comments section will say: "I don't think intros are important. Just get to the good stuff." But... Done right, the intro IS the good stuff. Intros matter to the extent that the content matters. If the content is of the "Here are some words, here's a stat, here's another stat, love you byeee" variety, then no, the intro doesn't matter. Neither does the content. You'd be better off doing basically anything else with your marketing budget. But if you're trying to use content to engage an audience, then OF COURSE the intro matters. It's how you get someone to read the content. Also: If you're a freelancer, then I cannot overstate the importance of being able to write a banger intro. Your intros are what will make your portfolio stand out. They're your job security. Now, I could go on about how to level up your intros. But, in sum: 1. Think about what you want your content to do. 2. Realize that your intro has one job - to make me want to read the rest of the thing. 3. Think about what would do that. For example: - If you want to teach me how to do something, your intro needs to a) tell me that I'm in the right place to learn the thing, and b) tell me why I should listen to you. Then get on with it. - If you want to catch my attention, your intro needs to be unexpected. So reach for a weird metaphor, a story, a vulnerable moment, or a blunt and feisty take. - If you want to convince me that you're really smart, then data can be a good flex if you've got something original. If not, go with the attention-grabbing option. Note: The attention-grabbing option can be tough to do, and it takes a bit of practice. I'd recommend that you: - Read some great intros to get you in the mood. Try The Economist. Or read some of your favorite content marketers. - Relax a bit. This is a creative exercise. It's not going to come along if you try and force yourself to "be creative right now!" - Ask yourself, "What am I thinking about when I think of this topic? What am I picturing? What stories are coming back to me?" 4. Do not do the following with your intro: - Try and sell me on the topic. If I'm reading "How to write a great sales proposal", I already think sales proposals are important. - Try to describe the "landscape". I already know that sales changes fast. And that AI has had an impact. Stop wasting my time. - Tell me what you're going to tell me. You haven't convinced me that you're worth listening to yet, so I don't really care what you're going to tell me. Hope it helps! Side note: I'm curious. I'm thinking about teaching a short course on how to write a great intro. Is that something any of you would pay for? DM me if you'd be interested.

If your intro starts with: “In today’s fast-paced digital landscape…” You’ve already lost. Data from 1.2M ChatGPT responses shows AI rewards clarity, not vibes. This is how it actually pays attention. Kevin Indig analyzed 18,000+ verified citations across 1.2 million responses. The pattern is brutal, and statistically indisputable (P-value 0.0). Here’s what the data says: 44% of citations come from the first 30% of the page. If your key insight is buried in paragraph 12, AI won’t wait for it. The “ski ramp” effect is real. Top-heavy attention. Sharp drop-off. Slight comeback at the summary. Definitive language wins. “X is Y” beats “In this article, we’ll explore…” Question-style H2s outperform abstract headings. AI treats your heading like a user prompt. Entity density matters. A lot. Cited content has ~20% proper nouns. Salesforce > “a CRM tool.” Balanced sentiment beats hype or dryness. Not Wikipedia. Not LinkedIn guru energy. Analyst voice. Business-grade writing wins. Clear subject–verb–object. Not PhD-level complexity. Inside paragraphs, AI looks for information gain. It often cites the middle sentence, the one carrying the most complete idea. So what should you actually do? - Start with a direct definition. - Put your strongest claim in the first 20–30%. - Turn H2s into real user questions. - Answer immediately after the heading. - Add real entities (brands, tools, numbers, dates). - Replace hedging with confident statements. - Add a proper summary before the footer. The uncomfortable truth? We’ve been writing for dwell time. AI optimizes for extractability. High-visibility content reads like a structured briefing, not a slow reveal. Lead with the answer. Make every sentence carry weight. That’s how AI pays attention now.

Bad writers wait too long to get into the good stuff. You can think of your title, subtitle, and first few sentences as a sales funnel. Even after somebody's opened your piece, you need to persuade them to keep reading. Here's how you can write better intros: 1) Surprise: Create Suspense You don't need as many words as you think. Sometimes, it only takes one sentence to capture a reader's attention. These one-sentence hooks work particularly well for thrilling and suspenseful pieces. • "On two separate occasions, I've woken up to an intruder breaking into my home after midnight (years apart and in different states)." • "I wanted to strangle mother but I’d have to touch her to do it." — Loretta Hudson • “Every time I see it, that number blows my mind." 2) Insight: Teach the Reader Though these ones are a little bit longer, it doesn't take long for the reader to learn something, and that spark of insight launches them into the piece because they come to see the author as an authority. Both the examples below make the reader say: "Hmmmmm..." • Everyone knows that to do great work you need both natural ability and determination. But there's a third ingredient that's not as well understood: an obsessive interest in a particular topic. — Paul Graham • During a regular dive in the sea, Alexey Molchanov can go 131 meters deep (or about 43 stories) while holding a single breath for nearly five minutes. In that period, his body experiences more gravitational stress than an astronaut during a launch into space. — Polina Marinova Pompliano 3) Set the Scene A few sentences is all it takes to throw the reader into the story. You don't need many words to create a narrative arc, and the words you do choose set the frame for the rest of the piece. • Steamboat Willie put Walt Disney on the map as an animator. Business success was another story. Disney’s first studio went bankrupt. Later cartoons were monstrously expensive to produce, and financed at onerous terms. By the mid-1930s Disney had produced more than 400 cartoons – most of them short, most of them liked, and most of them losing money. Disney and his studio were nearly broke. — Morgan Housel • On February 10, 2002, in a New York State prison cell, the bestselling author and twice-convicted killer Jack Abbott hanged himself with an improvised noose. That same day, the body of the man I murdered washed ashore on a Brooklyn beach in a nylon laundry bag. My reason for connecting these events is to account for my crime. — John J. Lennon To hone your knack for writing introductions, study stand-up comedians. Note how quickly they set the frame for their jokes. They rarely need more than 1-2 sentences to set the scene and make the audience laugh. Your introductions don't need to be funny, but they should be captivating, and you don't need many words to do that.

Everyone says "Just hit that blue post button” But no one tells you how to make your post stand out. After hitting 8000+ impressions in 2 weeks of posting, I have figured it out. Steal my entire “make your posts valuable” playbook: 1. Give value to your reader Always have a takeaway for your audience. ↳ Give in-depth knowledge. ↳ Make them learn about a topic. ↳ Make it real-time actionable tips. But also, stick talking to 1 burning problem. Don’t shove 2-3 different problems. The goal is to get specific about the value. You print money when you go deeper, not wide. 2. Don’t tell, show Telling them to write clearly won’t make you an authority. You need to show them how. ↳ Signed a $1000 client? Show a step-by-step process ↳ Had a viral post? Share what you learned from it ↳ Hit 20k followers? Do a breakdown strategy People won’t believe it unless you’ve done it. That’s how you’ll build trust and proof. 3. Write your hook strong Your hooks are the first few lines people see on their feed. If it doesn’t grab their attention, they’ll ignore: ↳ Write your hooks in 1 liner. ↳ Tell them what to expect from the post. ↳ Include numbers, use simple words & be specific. ↳ Share a polarizing statement to interrupt their reading. You are fighting the attention of 2 million posts. So, keep it enticing enough to stop the scroll. 4. Match the context with your hook Don’t be a clickbait. It will piss people off Don’t promise 1 solution & deliver a different solution ↳ Write your posts with a focus on a single message. ↳ Focus on 1 reader, 1 problem, 1 solution, 1 action. ↳ Keep your hooks, meat & CTA focused on 1. That’s what defines a high-value post. 5. Edit like a crazy person Make sure your writing is tight. Nobody has time for fluff, extra information or repetition. And the best way is to edit after 24 hours of writing: ↳ You’ll find unnecessary words. ↳You'll come up with new ideas to fill in. ↳ You’ll find lines that can be written better. Don’t write & edit at the same time. It will stop your creativity. Keep this in mind before you hit the post button. Most people continue to post without evaluation. Don’t be like them. Evaluate and hit "post", always. P.S. Do you follow a checklist before publishing your post?

You can write a “good” post… and still get ignored. That’s the part people don’t expect. The advice is solid. The idea makes sense. It’s well written. And still… nothing happens. Because good content isn’t the goal. Connection is. Most content stays at the idea level. It talks about: • strategy • mindset • best practices But it never gets specific enough for someone to recognize themselves in it. So the reader has to do the work. They have to think: “Does this apply to me?” “What does this actually look like?” Most won’t. They’re scrolling too fast. This is where content breaks down. This is the shift: Start with a real moment Not a concept. A situation someone has actually been in. Make it easy to recognize If someone can’t see themselves in it quickly, they move on. Reduce thinking. Don’t make them translate your idea. Show them what it looks like in real life. Write to one person. Not an audience. A specific person with a specific problem. When you do this: • people stop faster • they read longer • they engage more Because it feels like it was written for them. That’s what makes content land. Not how smart it sounds. How quickly it connects. Quick win: take one of your recent posts and rewrite just the opening as a real, specific situation someone has experienced. That alone will change how it lands. #LinkedInStrategy #LinkedInCoach #PersonalBranding #Networking