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Most blog posts share four major elements (a title, introduction, body, and conclusion), and each is as equally important as the next. In other words, the introduction of a blog post matters just as much as the conclusion (which makes it crucial to know how to end a blog post correctly).
The conclusion of your content is an optimal space to keep readers engaged and interested in your brand. After all, a powerful ending has the potential to elevate the value of the entire blog post by keeping readers on your website and coming back for more content.
The more compelling the ending of a blog post is, the more likely readers are to take action and purchase products you sell or promote as an affiliate.
The following 8 steps will help you learn the best ways to end a blog post — ensuring leads and a return on investment with the effort you put into each piece of content you produce.
The final few lines are a great opportunity to emphasize the key message of a blog post.
A conclusion should list the article’s key takeaways. Careful though – don’t simply rehash what’s already been said. Draw actionable conclusions that provide value to the audience.
Readers who tend to skim articles will thank you for summarizing the key message of a post in its conclusion because they spend most of their time only reading the beginning and the end. If you summarize the key message at the end, readers will be sure to see it.
Avoid introducing a new idea in the conclusion as this will only confuse your readers. The body of your post should introduce any new information to the reader, not the conclusion.
All of your blog post’s valuable insight will be for nothing if the reader doesn’t take action. Ending blog posts with a call-to-action is another great way to capitalize on your reader’s engagement.
A call-to-action (CTA) is designed to prompt an immediate response from your audience. CTAs can be executed in the form of a content offer, the promotion of a product or service, or encouraging users to subscribe to an email newsletter.
Your goal should be to write practical content so that readers are persuaded to take action on something when you direct them to. Reader’s appreciate practical advice they can put into practice.
Content that provides practical, valuable, and actionable solutions to a problem helps to build your credibility and authority. Readers are more likely to return to your website and convert into leads (and therefore spend their money) if they trust you.
Shares can occur naturally, but if you want more retweets or Facebook shares, don’t hesitate to ask for them. Readers won’t always think to share a post, so asking them to at the end of your posts is one way to help your message (and monetization opportunities) spread.
Don’t underestimate how many subscribers receive your blog posts via email, either. Encourage people to forward a post to friends or family members who may find the content valuable.
The following are sample prompts to include at the end of your blog posts to encourage readers or subscribers to share:
When readers finish one post, they’re often ready to read another on a similar topic. If you’ve written an inspiring blog post, for instance, it’s a good idea to link to other useful articles that help readers turn that inspiration into action.
You don’t have to link to only blog posts, either. Guiding readers towards up-to-date newspaper articles or ebooks in your field isn’t just useful — it also helps to show that you’re on top of what’s happening in your niche.
In general, it’s good practice to link high-authority articles throughout your content. This helps your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which in turn helps bump posts up the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) rankings.
Internal linking (or linking to pages within your website) is another factor that affects SEO rankings.
To learn how SEO can drive traffic to YOUR site, click here.
A blog post should feel conversational — like having a face-to-face conversation with the readers. They’re meant to be informative and educational, but at the same time, they should display empathy towards the reader.
Asking questions is a great way to demonstrate empathy.
Questions are a good way to end a blog post. Asking a question for readers to respond to (e.g. “Is there anything I missed?”) will likely increase the number of comments a post receives.
The question you ask depends on what specific topic the post is about. Not all blog posts will call for a discussion question, but if it does, it’s a great opportunity to encourage readers to engage in conversation with you and other readers.
If you want people to subscribe or continue visiting the site for updates, give them a preview of the great content that’s coming up next! This helps build suspense and keeps readers in the loop.
At the end of each blog entry, drop hints to let readers know what new posts are coming up in the following weeks (or months). It can be as simple as announcing that you have “big news” to share next week or to stay tuned for a more detailed post on the topic they’ve just read about.
Here’s an example of what one of these previews could look like:
“If you’ve been wanting to start your own blog for quite some time now, but can’t because you don’t own a laptop, I’m publishing an article reviewing the best laptops for bloggers soon!”
If you’re a blogger who monetizes through affiliate offers or your own services, then the final line of your post is a great place to let readers know about the product(s) you offer.
Even though information about your product (such as a book/ebook, digital course, etc.) can be found in a sidebar, it’s best practice to include CTAs about products at the end of blog posts as well.
This works especially well if your post is related to the product. If the post in question discusses “how to start a blog,” and you promote an ebook about starting an online business, then it would be a good idea to write a CTA compelling readers to purchase the ebook at the end of that blog post.
There’s nothing wrong with ending a blog post by combining a little bit of everything discussed in this article. Each of your posts will warrant different endings depending on the context of the topic, so it’s good practice to change things up regularly.
For instance, at the end of certain blog posts, you might challenge readers to take action on a specific task, then ask in what other ways people might be able to act on that specific task. This question should prompt discussion amongst readers in the comments section of your blog posts. For good measure, you can also ask people to share the post with friends for further feedback.
Depending on how you’ve developed your post, you could use a combination of these options, or every single one.
With all that said, don’t forget what the main goal of the conclusion is — to reiterate the most important evidence supporting the key message of your blog post.
To review, here are the different ways to end a blog post like a pro:
And remember – the ending of a blog post should never include new ideas, a repetitive summary, and a string of questions.
Writing a conclusion isn’t easy. Just like any other skill, mastering it requires practice. Once you’ve been writing conclusions to your blog posts for a while, though, you’ll notice that it gets easier — especially when you’ve gotten a “feel” for your audience.
Did I miss anything? Do you think there’s another point that should have been included? Let me know in the comments section!
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