B2B Fintech Copywriting Tips: The Ghostwriting Edition

True ghostwriting goes beyond putting your expert’s name on another writer’s content.

Fintech just keeps growing. 

Overall venture capital investment into fintech doubled in the latter half of 2020 alone and looks likely to remain strong for the rest of 2021, according to KPMG. The COVID-19 crisis has been a catalyst for many fintechs, with demand for digital financial services rising as lockdowns and restrictions persist.

With few opportunities for us all to meet in person, content has become an imperfect stand-in for fintechs looking to forge relationships with customers, partners, and investors.

Many are turning to in-house or freelance ghostwriters to write long-form articles or whitepapers to feed an increasingly hungry content program.

Here’s how B2B fintechs can work well with ghostwriters to create impactful content.

1. Know The Risks of This Common Ghostwriting Approach

Ghostwriters can’t produce standout content without a partnership with the business they’re writing for — especially in a field as technical as fintech. 

Some companies approach ghostwriting as follows. They engage a writer. They work through the draft and finalize the revisions. And then they publish the article with an internal expert’s byline on it. This is OK sometimes. 

But it also has a risk. Namely, your expert must be knowledgeable about the content with their name on it. It won’t be a good look for the company if they are stumped by a potential customer’s question about an article they apparently wrote. 

True ghostwritten content prevents this scenario. That’s because it involves partnering writers with subject-matter experts who can share customer realities, their own unique insights, and their own ‘voice’. It doesn’t matter whether you’re producing content for a digital payment platform, digital-only bank, or a fintech-as-a-service business — it’s this approach that yields better content outcomes.  

2. Set A Publishing Deadline To Stay On Track

Fintech is a fast-paced industry — blink and you could miss out on the latest regulation change, merger, or bank-fintech partnership.

B2B fintech content production needs to move quickly to stay relevant in this kind of landscape. So be sure to set deadlines for first drafts, completing revisions, pitching to any outside publications, and eventually distributing it to your audience. Setting clear deadlines is a useful way to empower both writers and marketing managers to press internal experts for information, input, and feedback, especially if the expert is more senior in the business.

3. Leave The Sales Talk to Sales

People only read content because they think it might be interesting. That’s it. So focus on creating content that will interest readers. Ghostwriting is thought leadership. And the most interesting form of thought leadership is the kind that creates a shift, however small, in the reader. Changes like:

• Knowing more about an industry problem or solution
• Changing perceptions of an industry sacred cow
• Finding out about strategies that work or fail.

When readers encounter ghostwritten content from experts who know what they’re talking about, they will mark you as a credible authority they’ll want to hear from again.

4. Limit Your Experts’ Revisions

B2B fintech ghostwriting is prone to production bottlenecks, especially around revisions. This is why many companies choose the ghostwriting ‘lite’ approach mentioned at the top — true ghostwriting can become a tussle, come revisions time.

Strive for excellence — but accept perfectionism is the enemy of content production.

Avoid bottlenecks by setting out that clear deadline along with a repeatable process for managing expert revisions. Because pretty much all content will need revisions, especially if a piece is highly technical. By putting a cap on revision rounds, content marketers, ghostwriters, and experts can get the content done and dusted.

How To Revise Your B2B Fintech Writer’s Draft

Save ghostwriters and internal reviewers time by deciding early on what to prioritize when editing copy. Thomas Publishing Company offers these tips:

• Check if writers and experts cover key points: Reread the draft article while looking at the original content marketing brief to make sure the key messages come across. 
• Cut out needless words: Look out for redundant sentences or paragraphs littered with expert jargon. Your writer should have caught most of these – but double-check. 
• Put clarity, above being clever: Yes, fintech has lots of technical terms and concepts. But simplicity still goes a long way — even if you’re writing to an audience of developers. If you must use complex ideas, explain them simply.

Above all, re-read the drafts from the audience’s perspective and ask yourself whether they will understand it. 

Be real. People dislike big words and jargon. They value you being helpful and insightful.

5. Formatting Matters So Make Content Easy to Read

You don't want people to feel dazed and confused after reading your article. That’s why formatting is another useful way to make content more engaging. 

• Use visuals. Break up chunks of text with bullet points, subheadings, or visuals like infographics. For example, a paytech company could add a simple chart to show ecommerce merchants which payment methods shoppers in different countries prefer.  
• Include calls-to-action. Don’t leave readers hanging once they’ve finished reading — have a short sentence or paragraph at the end telling readers what it is they can do. And give them the right tools to do so whenever possible.

Is It Time to Review How You Approach Ghostwriting?

So why not ask your writer to team up with your subject matter experts — the people who will own the byline. Give them time to understand each others’ style, voice, and opinions.

Thought-provoking ghostwritten content draws on journalistic reportage, interviewing, and storytelling. It’s a place where you can go beyond cold statistics to connect with readers’ emotions, by taking a stance on industry topics.  This is often where the magic happens.

Read more articles like this over on Genuine's blog.