The contrarian opener
A contrarian opener starts by disagreeing with something your readers have heard a hundred times. "You don't need to post every day" is one. "Open houses rarely sell the house" is another. The reader either nods or wants to argue, and both of those keep them reading.
The disagreement has to be real, and it has to come from you. The rest of the post earns the opener by showing why you think so, usually with something you saw in your own work.
Stop sending the "just checking in" email. I sent forty of them last spring. Two people answered and both sounded annoyed. Now I send one line about something that changed for them, like a new listing on their street. People write back.
Making it yours
Think of a piece of advice everyone in your field repeats that you've quietly stopped following. That's your first line.
Use the second line to say what happened when you did it the usual way. Spend the rest on what you do now. Keep the post about the advice and not about the people who give it.
Where it goes wrong
Picking a fight gets attention, but rarely the kind that brings in work. If you can't back the claim with something from your own experience, soften it.
"Here's why I stopped doing this" is still contrarian, and it's much easier to stand behind when someone pushes back in the comments.
Did this shape work for your page?
Type in the numbers from a few of your posts and see which ones beat your usual.
Open the outlier checkerStop typing the numbers in
The SwipeKeeper Chrome extension adds a Keep button to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn posts you're looking at. Click it and the post lands on your desk with its visible counts, scored the same way as here. The free Field plan holds 25 posts.
Desk is $19 a month or $190 a year. Atelier is $149 once. Pricing