Recruitment advertising – don’t bury the lede
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 that information 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 we say ‘people’, we mean ‘your ideal candidate’.
Q. What’s 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?’ You’ll learn more about how to identify benefits on any of our training courses.
Q. What’s the best bit of this update?
A. The lesson that the most important facts belong at the start of any piece of writing.
Q. What should I do next?
A. Find out how else we could help you with recruitment ad writing.
