You have 15 seconds to get people’s attention before they bounce.
Is your content generating a high bounce rate? You’re probably missing a good lede.
We’ve covered above vs. below the fold — the numbers are clear. You lose a good chunk of your audience before the reader leaves the first page. The average bounce rate is around 50% across all industries; it’s hard to get people to engage.
That’s where your lede comes in.
Here’s how you can create a lede that keeps people reading your content.
What Is a Lede?
Simply put, a lede is the opening sentence or paragraph of an article that grabs the attention of the reader. It’s an old term from newspapers; it can be spelled “lead” or “lede,” though “lede” seems to have gained preeminence; “lede” was used to distinguish important segments that needed different typesetting. The misspelling was deliberate; it removed ambiguity when typesetters were working on multiple editions of papers. It’s survived to the current day even though everything has moved online.
Ledes are important to your article because they:
- Attract and engage the audience.
- Highlight the subject of the article.
You have to grab your audience’s attention and tell them why they need to care.
If you don’t, your bounce rate will remain high and your readers will disappear before they get below the fold. The point of content marketing is to move people down the funnel, and if they don’t keep reading and engage with your content, you’re not going to make any sales.
Good ledes keep people engaged. Bad ones lose attention. Let’s see what makes them tick.
What Makes a Bad Lede?
A bad lede is one that doesn’t fulfill those two requirements.
There are three ways most people go wrong on ledes.
- Too clever. This is an issue for a lot of writers (myself included); we write ledes with a clever turn of phrase that arouses attention, but it doesn’t lay out clearly what the article is covering. Don’t fall in love with your own prose. Write something that serves the audience.
- Too rambling. A good lede gets in, makes the point, and gets out. Stick to two short sentences maximum, and keep them pithy. Get other people to look at it. If they can’t tell you what the point of the article is after reading the lede, it rambles too much.
- Cliche or pun. A cliche or pun can work, but it needs to be an inversion or a modification of the phrase. If you’re using something that people have seen a hundred times before, like “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” or “better safe than sorry,” your audience will turn off.
One of my tricks is to write the lede and then let it sit for a day. If it still makes sense and achieves its purpose, I’ll start writing.
There are plenty of bad ledes floating around the Internet; Poynter curates the worst of them if you want to take a look. Avoid these pitfalls when you’re writing a lede.
What Makes a Good Lede
There are many well developed writing guides on creating a good lede. Here are the recommendations you’ll find most commonly.
Be Clear and Concise
As already stated, a good lede is clear and concise, no more than two sentences. Remember, you have 15 seconds to make an impression good enough to keep people engaged. Don’t waste them; tell your audience what they need to know.
Articulate the Main Points
To quote NPR, “leads [sic] sum up the news in a straightforward, clear way — in a single sentence. They also hint at the broader context in which the news occurred.” You may not be writing news, but your intention is the same.
In the evolving world of AI content, most churned-out articles and AI-driven pieces struggle with ledes because they don’t have a clear idea. Make your lede clear and straightforward. Give your audience a quick summary of the article.
Create Interest
The goal of the lede is to grab the reader’s attention and keep them engaged. For engagement, use one of the following structures:
Facts
A surprising fact is a great way to anchor your lede. If you have something that will shock your audience, bring it in early. Take Cole Schafer’s article “You’re fired” as an example:
“Your company cares about you. But, they care about their bottom line more. Over the past couple of years, AliExpress has laid off 624 employees, Carvana has laid off 2,500, Ford 580, Noom 500, Robinhood 300, Peloton 2,800, Nestle 474, Unilever 1,500 and QVC 1,900. The list goes on.”
Anecdotes
Marketers often rely on personal anecdotes in their ledes. Use examples and other stories. Take Rand Fishkin of SparkToro as an example:
“Last Saturday, I received an email from Rich Wilan, founder of Fascinate Productions. Rich and his team help podcast creators build audiences and top charts, and they’re very good at their work, helping clients like Zoe: Science & Nutrition, Startup Dads, A Cuppa Happy (and more) launch, grow, and reach chart-topping numbers.”
Scene Setting
Set the scene. If you can put people inside a scene they want to learn more about, they’re likely to keep reading.
Look at Gay Talese’s classic biographical article, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold:” “Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette in the other, stood in a dark corner of the bar between two attractive but fading blondes who sat waiting for him to say something.”
First-Person Storytelling
A first-person account can be a great way to introduce a story. Using a lede with personal value anchors your audience in who you are, which can be incredibly powerful, particularly if you are writing for a personal brand.
Stefan Georgi’s piece on “Upsells at a Restaurant” has a good example of this kind of lede: “Some time ago, my wife and I spent the weekend in Las Vegas celebrating our wedding anniversary … There was one moment at a dinner that weekend that I’m particularly keen to share, because it contains a good marketing lesson.”
Observational
An observational lede is a quick overview of a broad situation and grounds your audience instantly in a wider context. Take this recent Atlantic piece as an example:
“In 2012, Jeff Bezos claimed in a letter to Amazon shareholders that the company was serving humanity by eliminating old-fashioned “gatekeepers,” like book publishers, that stood between creators and their audiences. Today, nearly three decades since its founding, the company has indeed replaced these businesses with an even bigger and more centralized gatekeeper: Amazon itself.”
All of these types of ledes work— they grab attention and showcase the idea the piece is built around.
Strong ledes keep people reading and get them engaged. When they’re engaged, they’ll keep coming back, and you can move them down the funnel — the whole point of content marketing.
Get Your Audience to Care
Your audience needs to care what you have to say — and if they’re bouncing in the first 15 seconds, they don’t. A good lede will help your pieces stick. Don’t leave your engagement to chance, and don’t rely on the body of the piece to keep people engaged. The hardest part is getting them started.
Spend the necessary time and effort on your lede and follow these tips to keep your audience reading. And if you need a hand with your content marketing, feel free to reach out. Just drop us a line, anytime.
Best Regards,
David Brandon
Copywriter
Rainmaker Digital Services