A gentle closing section such as “What you should do next…” can work well. Its strength is in being calm.
A lot of website calls to action fail for a very simple reason. An article makes a careful case, explains something useful, earns a little trust, then suddenly ends with a brightly coloured box shouting for a demo, a call, a download, a subscription or all four at once. The tone changes. The pace changes. The relationship changes. Instead of feeling guided, the reader feels shoved.
That is why a gentle closing section such as “What you should do next…” can work so well. Its strength is in being calm.
Done properly, it feels like the article is still talking. It does not interrupt the reading experience at the last second. It simply answers the obvious question that often sits in the reader’s mind anyway: fine, so where do I go from here?
That means matching the voice of the piece around it. If the article is thoughtful, the ending should be thoughtful. If the article is practical, the ending should be practical. The design should follow the same rule. Similar spacing and typography. Less like an advert and more like a helping hand.