I made this mistake too since I came from business and academic writing in which the reader's attention to the content is assured. Took me a few tries before I grasped the importance of first grabbing their attention, giving them a bite of what the main body of the content should be, and then writing the rest.

I found the "3-30-3" rule of thumb to be a great framework for thinking about how to structure the articles I write for more general audiences. I've since modified it to "1-3-30" for Medium purposes.

The headline needs to attract the viewer enough to click on it after scanning it (1 second read).

The subtitle needs to make them want to find out more (3 second read).

The first paragraph is where they decide whether the rest of the article is worth their while or not (30 second read). I'm still learning how to find the balance here between giving the reader enough information to feel like they want to invest their time in the rest of the article and giving out too much information so that they feel they've got all they want out of it and moving on.