You can invest hours in writing the best content, but you are leaving money on the table if you do not end your blog posts efficiently. Knowing how to write a blog conclusion can boost your lead count and search engine rankings.
Blog posts are a top-of-funnel asset with the role of channeling the readers into the buyer’s journey, at the end of which they buy something from you. It’s imperative that you either have them spend more time on your domain, read more content, or take their contact information to retarget them in the future. And a solid conclusion to the blog post can help you with that.
Ready to convert more readers into leads?
Here are 11 ways to write a blog conclusion that will drive more leads:
1. Write for those who jumped to the conclusion.
Most blog visitors do not read every word of the blog post. They scroll through the text, read sub-headers, and stop at segments that grab their attention.
Some readers scroll down to the conclusion without stopping anywhere in between. This means they found no value, but all is not lost, you still have one last opportunity to provide them with value in the blog conclusion.
One way to do that is adding a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) section. Here, you can add a one-liner or a short paragraph on the key takeaways.
In the below TL;DR example from Orbit Media, they gave a short paragraph answer and later expanded it into a summary.
Consider phrasing your TL;DR as – If there’s only one thing you take away, let it be this: *Selling point of the blog post*. In this blog post, we covered in great detail how to do that.
This will incentivize your readers to scroll back up and take a deeper look at your content. Even if they hit the End button on their keyword to read the conclusion first, a TL;DR segment will propel them to key the Home button and skim through the blog.
2. Write the Summary
Often, a huge chunk of blog traffic is organic. People visit your blog post after it sells some value right on the search engine results page. However, with attention span shortening every year, people want to know WIIIFM – What is in it for me? And they want that information before they read the complete post.
They scroll right down to the conclusion to find a condensed version of the content. TL;DR does a great job at giving that, but it is too compressed. You can add more details to it, and convert it into a comprehensive summary.
Split the summary into bullet points to make it easier for your readers to consume. But make sure you pack it with a value proposition, the reader should know that they will miss out on something if they skip reading the whole post.
For example, MailChimp summarized its blog post into a concise numbered list. See below.
3. Add a Related Call to Action Button
When people read your content all the way to the end, you can be sure that they find your content helpful. You already built a reputation, it’s time to solidify that trust and nudge your readers to take action.
This way, you can generate more leads – and all you have to do is ask! Create a beautiful CTA section with a copy that addresses your readers’ primary pain point and serves a CTA button. The copy sells value and the button tells them what type of asset they are about to access.
BambooHR does a good job at this. As seen in the example below, they designed a CTA slab at the end of the blog post. It invites readers looking for ways to streamline their hiring process to check out their demo.
Ensure that the CTA is relevant to the topic of your blog post. As the readers are more attuned to the topic, they will be more inclined to click on the CTA button.
4. Link to Related Content
An important metric that measures audience engagement is the number of pages they visit once they enter your domain. You don’t want them to leave until they have read many posts or visited your sales pages.
One good way to do that is linking content that is related to the blog posts your readers just read, the relevancy may motivate them to read another facet of the topic.
For example, in the below image, CMI links to a related article in their conclusion. You can also include more links to give people more choices.
5. Start a Conversation
Have you enabled comments on your blog posts? If not, set up an anti-spam plugin like Akismet and invite responses. As soon as you respond to reader queries, you transform from a website to a human being who interacts with them.
This increases the count of your returning users. People visit and subscribe to websites that not just have great content but also respond to their queries. Plus, their questions will give you topic ideas – you can write fresh content based on that high-quality feedback.
In the example below, Orbitmedia is not just asking a question, they are inviting input. This not only encourages people to drop a comment but also to share an experience. No prizes for guessing that their content gets many comments.
6. Use a Lead Magnet
When your readers stick with you all the way to the blog conclusion, they are sold on your content. Now, what if you offer a more comprehensive piece on the same topic – in return for their email address? You get a list of interested contacts who you can nurture through newsletters.
A lead magnet is that comprehensive piece. It is more effective than a subscription box because it provides more value to the readers. You can use eBooks, whitepapers webinars, case studies, or other asset types as lead magnets.
In the below example, contently uses quiz as a lead magnet. The quiz leads the participants to a whitepaper available for download in exchange for their contact details.
7. Motivate your readers
Addressing the search intent of your readers is the most important step of blog writing. If the intent inclines towards a feeling of defeat, giving them some motivation towards the end will build your brand loyalty and subscription list.
A good example, shown below, is the article by the muse on dealing with job rejections. This is how they end their blog post.
You can add internal links contextually in the conclusive motivation text to share more valuable resources with readers that address their pain points.
8. Use Keywords in Blog Conclusions
Including keywords in your blog posts is important for SEO. It tells the search engine bots what your content is all about. Though there’s no fixed number of keywords you must use, you need to mention them where relevant.
Blog conclusion is a good place to add keywords. In the below example, Wordstream uses their primary keyword Instagram Features in the header tag of their conclusion and also in the subsequent text. In addition, they add internal links to related content with an accurate anchor text. They stand a good chance of boosting the number of pages visited per user.
9. Stress on the Pain Points
Your readers started with a search intent before finding your blog post. They are looking for a solution to their pain points and your blog hopefully provided that. When you tie it all up in the blog conclusion to state how you added value, you motivate the audience to click on your CTAs.
In the below example, Moz addresses the pain points of its readers. This way it builds trust and readers are more motivated to check out related assets or subscribe to Moz as a solution to their problems.
10. End with an Infographic
Infographics are a snackable form of content – they condense data and present it in a visual format. You can convert your blog posts into infographics by using free tools like Canva.
Putting these images at the conclusion, and making them easy to share will generate a lot of traction from social media, and also generate tons of natural backlinks.
The below example from the Marketing Insider Group shows how they converted their content into a cool infographic and used it in their blog conclusion.
11. Tell them how you can help
Your readers visited your blog post with the hope to find a solution to their problems. The content showed them how to do something, but your readers need to implement those changes which might take time, effort, and failures before they succeed. But what if you offer to take away all the uncertainty by doing the job for them?
For your bottom-of-funnel blog posts, you can sell services after your content. In the below example, Outbound Engine uses a hard CTA to guide their readers to a Demo page.
Conclusion
We walked you through 11 ways of writing a blog conclusion. Feel free to mix them up to get better results. But make sure your conclusions drive traffic to more posts or your money pages.
You can check that by setting up heat map reports on your blog posts. The click map and scroll map reports will show you how many people scroll down to your conclusion, and how many clicks on the CTAs there.