Forget the foreplay in today’s information-overloaded world
We were all told growing up that when we wrote or produced other content to tell a gripping story with an opening that built up to the big point you were trying to make at the end. But with all of the distractions in our lives, you now have to “get right to it” with your blogs, advertisements, audiocasts or videos or risk losing your audience.
Yes, that means starting with the conclusion- or the climax- first. Get straight to the big finish and then support it with evidence, more details and the like. If you don’t, your audience may never stick with you long enough to find out your important point, if they even give it a shot in the first place.
You can do this in several ways. One strategy that I use is an attention grabbing headline that gets straight to what you want to say. I also use paragraph headings where I bold the intro to the paragraph with the conclusion, and then let the rest of the paragraph give the backup facts. In video, I have used similar strategies calling out the issue first and then making my case.
So, sorry to all of those English teachers out there…the art of the story has gotten a little lost in today’s world. If you are a business owner trying to capture your customers’ attention, often you are going need to “get to it” without the foreplay.
