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The inverted pyramid method is a well-known method of writing in journalism that was initially developed with one aim – to grab the reader’s attention right from the start.
Being one of the most effective methods of writing, this technique can help you write incredible SEO articles, drive more engagement, boost brand awareness and social shares.
What is the inverted pyramid writing style?
When you are reading a novel, you are always in suspense what will help next and when the plot will begin to unravel.
The writer leads you through each and every chapter slowly preparing you for the climax.
And, this makes a perfect sense when writing a novel.
However, when writing a newspaper article or an article for a web, you need to get people’s attention quickly.
- You have to have the compelling headline.
- You need to make them want to read more.
- This is exactly what the inverted Pyramid writing technique lets you do..
In its core, the Inverted Pyramid Style puts the most intriguing and critical piece of the story at the beginning with the aim both to inform and engage the reader.
Big ideas come first, and details follow.
In that way, your readers don’t have to scroll down to get the main point, or even worse, jump from page to page on websites.
By giving them meat and potatoes of the story, the traditional W’s – who, what, where, when, why and how, you get them hooked and they will instantly want to get deeper into the subject. Journalists devised this technique as a solution to the problem where their readers have a very low “committal rate”.
What’s in it there for your readers?
- Your readers need less time to get to the point
- It motivates readers to scroll down for more information and read the entire article
- It gives value to all readers even those who skim
- It improves comprehension, the essentials are at the beginning of the first paragraph
What’s in it for you?
- It gives you a full control of the structure
- It allows you to edit articles more efficiently and quickly
- You need less time to get to the gist
How does it work?
1. Start with the lead
First, think of a headline, an attention-grabbing statement or an anecdote. This is known as a lead. Your lead must answer the following questions:
Who
What
Where
When
Why
How
For instance, if your story starts like this,
“On an early Sunday morning, I walked into a grocery store to buy some oranges, bread, milk and other things I needed to make a cake for my son’s birthday. As I was walking around the shop looking for oranges, I suddenly heard some strange noise. I turned around and saw a few guys in black pointing a gun at a girl at the cash register.”
It sounds a bit boring. However, if you put the breaking news at the beginning like:
“On an early Sunday, two men pointed a gun at a girl at the cash register”
You will definitely draw in the reader, and what’s more, make him continue reading to find out the background of the story.
In that way, you have answered the six questions:
Who: Two men
What: pointed a gun at the girl
Where: at the cash registry
When: on an early Sunday
Why: to take the money from the registry
How: by using a gun2.
Get into details
Once you tickled your readers’ curiosity, you are ready to go into details. Your readers would want to know the background of the story: “How did they get into the store?”, “What was the girl’s reaction?”, “Did they take the money?”, “What happened next?”. Give them what they are yearning for. By providing details, you’ll keep their attention and make them want to read the whole article.
To make things even more interesting, keep paragraphs in the same format: put the main points in the initial sentence and then build on that point. This stand-out first sentence is also known as the core sentence. It gives the reader what he or she needs and he or she can choose whether to read the rest of the article or not. Keep in mind that you should express only one point in each paragraph because it is easier for readers to follow the plot.
3. Tell the background story
After pointing out the details, you can move to the context. This includes the root of the problem and the reason why robberies happen so often. You can also touch on the statistics related to crime and criminal behaviour in the country and, in that way, trigger speculation and even discussion on that particular issue. This adds value both to the entire article and you as the author of the article. On top of that, it raises interests and engages readers potentially in the discussion.
What makes an inverted pyramid such a powerful technique?
- It helps us create “block-based content”
Does a term “block-based content” ring a bell?
It should because, recently, this movement has been making an impact on search engines. Google uses the whole chunks of texts – paragraphs to answer questions in search results.
By giving the blocks the structured data needed to let search engines know what specific content is in that block, we can increase traffic on our site. Hence, one more reason to write better, compelling and stand-out paragraphs.
- It adds value in terms of SEO
By structuring your questions and answers by using an inverted Pyramid technique, both your readers and search engines will digest it more easily.
In other words, when someone asks a certain question, go straight to the gist of the question and put it at the beginning of your answer.
Tell your readers what you know, move on to the details and only then get to the context. Finally, include the sub-questions, especially if the initial question is too broad and should be broken into chunks.
This will inevitably trigger the readers’ reaction. Finish the answer with some call to action and, voila, you have written the page which will potentially attract qualified leads and convert.
- It boosts awareness and engagement on social media
Attention span is a new currency. We are well aware of the fact that readers’ attention span is shrinking each year making a huge impact on the marketing in general. In terms of social media, we are given a very limited ability to grab the reader’s attention.
What makes people share the content?
Is it happiness, is it a controversy or sad stories?
According to the Jonah Berger, author of the book “Contagious: Why things catch on”, the things that go viral must have an emotional hook. It’s the emotions that will make people want to talk about that particular subject for days or even months.
And, what’s the easiest way to provoke the emotion?
By writing a compelling headline (a lead), good excerpt (details) and thematic and supporting captions (context) – all the essentials of the Inverted Pyramid technique.
Let’s wrap things up
So, the next time you start writing a new piece of content, don’t bury you key information somewhere in the middle of the third paragraph.
Put it up front, give your readers what they want, and make them ask for more. It’s a sure way to a great article.