Motivating conclusions
Ever had an awkward goodbye? You know, the ones where you said something so cringe-worthy that it haunts you with embarrassment when you try to fall asleep? (I know, because I’ve done it far too many times…)
Boring conclusions to your content are worse, honestly.
Why?
Because they are entirely forgettable. And you don’t want your message to be forgotten.
What is a motivating conclusion?
A motivating conclusion compels you to act on what you’ve just read – whether simply signing up for a newsletter, contributing to a project, or taking the personal initiative to do further research. A motiviating conclusion, quite literally, motivates you to do something.
What to include in a motivating conclusion.
- A brief summary of your message
- Something easily actionable – really easy, like clicking a button
- A reason for why your readers should be motivated – what’s in it for them?
How do I figure out how to motivate a reader?
Know your audience! This is the most important rule of writing – understand who you are writing for and you’ll understand how to motivate them into action.
Here are two keys elements to build your motivating conclusion:
- Briefly summarise your content – but don’t dive into detail. You’ve already done all the hard work in the main body of your content, so think of this as the ribbon around an already well-wrapped gift.
- Give a clear call to action – but temper it with your audience knowledge. Developers can sniff out sales pitches from a mile away, so don’t use your conclusion to “sell” your products and services.
- And a bonus element: Offer your reader a genuine, thoughtful insight that you have learned. Even if you’re writing as part of a project team, can you share how you found a tool that really helped you? Or perhaps you forked a project that provided you with a solid foundation?
What does a motivating conclusion look like?
Here’s an example from Bernd Rücker, Co-founder of Camunda and all-round developer legend. (If you want practical and fun examples of how process automation paradigms fit into modern architectures around distributed systems, microservices, domain-driven design, event-driven architecture and reactive systems, then I highly recommend following him on Medium.)
Bernd wrote this conclusion to his post: How we ran a successful virtual conference for >6500 attendees. While it’s not a technical deep-dive, remember that you shouldn’t be going into technical detail in your conclusion:
CamundaCon live was a lot of fun and a huge success. I can just motivate everybody to run a virtual conference. Aim for live talks and a good engagement channel on the side. On24 and Slack served us well.
Don’t underestimate the amount of effort that goes into the organization. We had a lot of people working enthusiastically behind the scenes to make it happen. Thank you all folks — you are truly awesome!
Want to see what we did? One great thing about a virtual conference is that you can watch it all again on-demand. The CamundaCon recordings and slides are live for your viewing pleasure!
This conclusion very clearly summarises the post and gives actionable recommendations for readers. Bernd also provides a very clear CTA – this content is available online, watch it through this link.
Let’s break it down to see how Bernd covers the two key elements of a motivating conclusion, and works in the bonus element:
CamundaCon live was a lot of fun and a huge success. I can just motivate everybody to run a virtual conference. Aim for live talks and a good engagement channel on the side. On24 and Slack served us well.
Don’t underestimate the amount of effort that goes into the organization. We had a lot of people working enthusiastically behind the scenes to make it happen. Thank you all folks — you are truly awesome!
Want to see what we did? One great thing about a virtual conference is that you can watch it all again on-demand. The CamundaCon recordings and slides are live for your viewing pleasure!
- Briefly summarise your content
- Give a clear call to action
- Bonus element – a genuine, thoughtful insight
A motiating conclusion should neatly summarise your content and offer a clear call to action for the reader. And if you can, remember to weave in something you’ve personally learned – share your insights so the community can continue to grow and learn from collective experience.