The inverted pyramid style is a process used in journalism which inverts the logic of the way a story is told. Rather than start from the story details, you start from a hook, which is critical to get the reader interested, thus giving it a quick pay off.
Aspect
Explanation
Definition
The Inverted Pyramid Style is a writing and communication technique commonly used in journalism and other forms of written content. It prioritizes delivering the most essential information at the beginning of the content, followed by details in descending order of importance. This approach aims to capture the reader’s attention quickly and ensure that even if they read only the initial portion, they still grasp the core message. The name “inverted pyramid” reflects the structure, with the broadest part (the most critical information) at the top and narrowing down to less crucial details as the content progresses. This style enhances clarity, facilitates quick comprehension, and is often used in news articles, reports, and online content.
Key Concepts
– Prioritization: The Inverted Pyramid Style prioritizes information, placing the most important details first. – Clarity: The approach aims for clarity by ensuring that critical information is immediately accessible. – Engagement: Capturing the reader’s attention at the outset is crucial for engagement. – Efficiency: The style is efficient for readers who may only skim the content. – Hierarchy of Information: Information is structured hierarchically, with the main message at the top and supporting details following in descending order of importance.
Characteristics
– Lead with the Most Important: The opening paragraph (the “lead”) contains the essential information, answering the who, what, where, when, why, and how questions. – Inverted Triangle: The structure resembles an inverted triangle, with the broad base representing the initial information and the narrowing top containing less crucial details. – Conciseness: The style promotes brevity, ensuring that the main message is concise and to the point. – Easy Skimming: Readers can quickly grasp the key message by scanning the beginning of the content. – Progressive Detail: Supporting information is presented in subsequent paragraphs, providing context and additional details.
Implications
– Effective Communication: The Inverted Pyramid Style is effective for conveying information quickly and clearly. – News Reporting: It is commonly used in news reporting to deliver critical facts immediately. – Online Content: The style suits online reading habits, where users often skim content. – Attention Capture: Capturing the reader’s attention early is vital in a content-saturated digital world. – Engagement: It encourages readers to engage with the content and read further for more details if interested.
Advantages
– Quick Understanding: Readers quickly understand the main message without having to read the entire content. – Efficient: It is efficient for busy readers who may only have limited time. – Engagement: The approach engages readers from the beginning, increasing the likelihood of them continuing to read. – Clear Communication: Ensures that important information is not buried in the content. – Applicability: Suitable for various content types, including news articles, reports, blog posts, and presentations.
Drawbacks
– Limited Depth: The Inverted Pyramid Style may not provide in-depth analysis or storytelling. – Monotony: Overusing the style can lead to predictability in content. – Audience: It may not be suitable for all types of content or audiences. – Reduced Suspense: In narrative content, the style may reveal key plot points early, reducing suspense. – Challenging for Creativity: It can be challenging to incorporate creative elements into content structured in this way.
Applications
The Inverted Pyramid Style is commonly used in journalism, news reporting, press releases, and any form of written content where the quick conveyance of essential information is paramount. It is prevalent in online news articles, blog posts, and reports.
Use Cases
– News Articles: Journalists use this style to report breaking news, with the most critical information in the lead paragraph. – Press Releases: Press releases employ the Inverted Pyramid Style to ensure that important announcements are immediately clear. – Online Content: Bloggers and content creators often use this style to engage online readers who may skim content. – Reports: In business and academic reports, the executive summary follows this style to provide an overview of the document’s key findings. – Emergency Communication: Emergency alerts and notifications prioritize crucial information for public safety.
Table of Contents
Where to start with the inverted pyramid?
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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 every chapter slowly preparing you for the climax.
And, this makes 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 and journey of the reader
It allows you to edit articles more efficiently and quickly (as you have control of the structure for your articles)
You need less time to get to the gist (as it becomes a process)
How does it work?
I broke down the process in a few simple phrases:
Start with the lead in mind
Get into details
Tell the background story
Start with the lead in mind
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 gun
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.
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 behavior 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?
Three main reasons why the inverted pyramid is a powerful technique:
The inverted pyramid style helps 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.
The inverted pyramid also 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.
The inverted pyramid enhances 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
If you’re stuck and you feel you’re experiencing some writer’s blocks, it’s because you lack a writing process. There is one process which is used in journalism called, inverted pyramid style.
What’s interesting about it is that it inverts the logic of the way a story is told. In short, rather than start from the story details, you start from a hook, which is critical to get the reader involved.
This system is quite effective because it aligns both the reader and the search engine crawling the page, thus by making the page also SEO-friendly.
After the hook, you keep going with details and context, which makes the readers wanting more!
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.
Guest Contribution by Marko Velickovic
Marko Velickovic is a certified and results-oriented SEO specialist with 10 years experience in the SEO domain. He is the founder of Serpline.com and SeoProLab. You can connect with Marko on LinkedIn.
Key Highlights
Introduction to Inverted Pyramid Style: The inverted pyramid style is a journalistic writing technique that starts with a captivating hook to immediately engage readers, followed by essential information and gradually delves into details.
Benefits of Inverted Pyramid Writing: This writing method is highly effective for creating SEO articles, driving engagement, boosting brand awareness, and encouraging social shares.
Inverted Pyramid Structure: The style places the most intriguing and critical information at the beginning, answering the who, what, where, when, why, and how questions. It ensures readers get the main point upfront without the need to scroll down.
Engaging Readers with a Lead: A powerful lead or headline captures the reader’s attention by providing a concise and intriguing summary of the story’s core.
Building on Details: After the lead, the article delves into details, keeping paragraphs structured with the core sentence at the beginning. This allows readers to choose whether to read further.
Adding Context and Background: Following the details, the article provides context and background information to deepen the reader’s understanding and potentially spark discussion.
The Power of Inverted Pyramid Technique: The inverted pyramid style creates block-based content, making it more appealing to search engines like Google. It enhances SEO by providing structured information and increases engagement on social media by triggering emotions.
Grabbing Attention and Going Viral: The technique’s ability to provoke emotions through compelling headlines, details, and captions makes content more shareable and memorable.
Overcoming Writer’s Block: The inverted pyramid style provides a clear writing process, ensuring the most critical information is presented first and engaging readers from the start.
Embracing a Sure Way to Great Articles: By implementing the inverted pyramid style, writers can effectively align both reader interests and search engine optimization, resulting in engaging and SEO-friendly content.
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Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
7 thoughts on “How to Write Incredible Content With The Inverted Pyramid Style”
What makes an inverted pyramid such a powerful technique?
Awesome, Gennaro!
Thank you Zara 🙂 It is an incredible process/technique. The credit goes to Marko, which contributed to the blog.
Thank you, Gennaro!
Zara, thank you for reading. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Thank you Marko!
Thank you, Marko!
Outstanding post mate! Making compelling headlines is very important. It carries a lot of responsibility.
Thanks for reading!