Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

17‘A Good Lede Invites You to the Party and a Good Kicker Makes You Wish You Could Stay Longer’

Give special love to the first and last sentences of your piece—the opening and closing, or the lede (lead)¹ and kicker—in traditional journalism terms. Why do that? As Articulate Marketing's Matthew Stibbe explains, “A good lede invites you to the party and a good kicker makes you wish you could stay longer.”² This rule honors him.

A good lead, then, sets the tone for your writing and hooks the reader into wanting to know more. Here are some options:

• Put your reader into the story. Put your reader—or someone just like your reader—into the story. You might share an anecdote about someone grappling with a problem your piece solves, or set up a scenario your reader will recognize. For example, consider this lede to a MarketingProfs article by Ernest Nicastro, on what marketers can learn from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:

  It is a crisp, clear autumn afternoon, about 1:30. A full sun hangs in a bright blue sky. A large crowd mills about.

  Imagine that you are there. You jostle for position. You strain your neck to get a glimpse. You cup your hand behind your ear…as the 16th President of the United States steps to the center of the platform and begins his “few appropriate remarks.”³

• Describe a problem your reader can relate to. This lead from online publication Thrillist puts ...