The conclusion may be the last part of a blog post or article, but that does not mean that it should be an afterthought. When you are creating custom content for your customers, the conclusion is your opportunity to tidy up any loose ends and to offer your readers an action to take. Stop wasting space at the bottom of your posts with lame endings or, worse, skipping the conclusion altogether. Use this 5-step process to exceed expectations with your endings.
1. Give it a Heading
For blogs, articles, and other custom content for the web, you'll be breaking up your text with plenty of headings, bulleted lists, and numbered lists. Slice your conclusion off from the rest of the text by giving it a heading of its own. If you have an opinion or recommendation to offer based on the rest of the writing, you can even use the word "conclusion" for the heading. Otherwise, use a heading that suggests an action to take or offers some inspiration that goes along with the main body of your post.
2. Summarize (This is not synonymous with "repeat")
We are not writing five paragraph essays here, so the "tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em; tell 'em; tell 'em what you told 'em" formula does not work so well. Don't waste space in your summary by restating what you have already said or people will skip over it. Instead, summarize in no more than two sentences what the main takeaways should be from your post. This will help bring everything full-circle, and send any skimmers back up to the main body of the text to pick up anything they may have missed.
3. Inspire Action
Now that your readers have gathered some useful information from your content, give them something useful to do with it. What this should be depends on the customer and the audience. In most cases, when we are creating custom content our customers are looking for a call to action in the conclusion. Call now! Click here! Register today! In other cases, you only need to be a little inspirational. For example, if you are writing five ways for homeowners to boost their curb appeal, you can tell your readers to get out there and fancy up those frontsides!
4. Kindly Ask for Interaction
The purpose of most custom content is first to get the reader to like the company and to take an action. The second thing it should do is to spark a little interaction. Ask your readers to share this post with their friends on Facebook or to +1 it on Google+. Or, ask a question that relates to the information you provided to get the comments section rolling.
5. Cut it In Half
If you have followed the first four steps, your conclusion is probably too long now. Go back and cut it in half. A conclusion should not be another two-paragraph section of your post. Instead, cut it down so that it is no more than four or five lines of easily-digestible text. If it is still looking too long and you don't want to cut anything else out, set your final question or request for interaction on a new line at the very bottom of the post.
Go Forth and Conclude!
Conclusions should be a short synopsis of your main body along with a couple sentences that motivate your readers to do something because of what they read. They should help the reader feel like they have finished with the content and point them in the right direction moving forward. By following these five steps, you will be able to write hard-hitting conclusions that convert more readers and inspire more interaction with your custom content.
What are your favorite ways to create killer conclusions?
