Don't bury the lede.
By Mitch Sullivan,
Q. What’s a lede?
A. The lede is the introductory section in journalism. It’s intended to entice the reader to read the full story.
Sometimes it’s spelled ‘lead’ not ‘lede’. It changed in the 1970s to avoid confusion, because ‘leading’ is another term used in journalism. In hot metal typesetting, a narrow strip of lead was added to create space between the lines of printed ink.
Q. Why shouldn’t it be buried?
A. To ‘bury the lede’ means to hide the most important and relevant pieces of a story within other distracting information.
Q. I’m a recruiter. What’s any of this got to do with me?
A. The same principle applies to job ads. If you bury the best bit among all the other details, people might not read to the end. When I say ‘people’, I mean ‘your ideal candidate’.
Q. What is “the best bit”?
A. The best bit is the main benefit of the job to the reader. The answer to their question; ‘What’s in it for me?’
Q. What’s the best bit of this update?
A. The lesson is that the most important facts belong at the start of any piece of writing. Important to the target reader, not the author.
Q. What should I do next?
A. Find out how else I could help you with your recruitment marketing.