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The Basics of Writing Articles on Finance

For non-specialists, finance articles may be complex and not very easy to comprehend. And simplifying how you write it may actually lead to further confusion and omission of necessary details. In this case, finding a good writer that knows how to work their way around technical details while writing with an engaging tone is crucial for an effective marketing communication strategy.

So how do you write finance articles? It’s good to always put yourself in the position of non-specialists, know their need for content, and communicate through their language. Some market segments that you’re targeting may find it difficult to understand technical terms, but you don’t have to omit them for the sake of the easy digestibility of your article. Ultimately, writers should strike a balance between being technically accurate and engaging.

How to Write Finance Articles

The first thing that you must know when writing articles is that the primary goal of content writing is to build trust. This means that as you write, always be mindful of the language usage and structuration of your article. Ensure that you’re always able to exude professionalism and credibility as you establish your relationship with them.

1) Understand How to Write for Nonspecialists

Before you fully write content, conceptualize and determine how you’re going to simplify words that are too complicated without sounding unprofessional. Since most articles that you’ll be writing for are made for people who don't have extensive knowledge on finance, you’ll have to do without clunky statements or completely unfamiliar jargon. 

But how exactly should you write for nonspecialists? Read consumer magazines such as The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, and Foreign Policy, and remember to take note of the tone of the magazines: serious, but not as serious as an academic journal. It should still flow nicely without sounding too casual either.

Even if you’re adjusting your content and simplifying it according to what your readers can understand, you’re still perceived as an expert. Learn to work your way around technical terms without being too impersonal and far from your readers.

2) Identify Your Market Segment and Their Need for Finance Content

Writing for finance is a good way to reach your audience to share your perspective or lead a novel idea that can boost financial knowledge. It’s important to identify the target market segment of your content to determine their need and accurately respond to them.

From an overall perspective, don’t rely on a single niche when planning all of your content. It’s best to identify a specific category of content that will speak to a specific market segment. Proper segmentation helps narrow down the purpose of the article and make it clearer, more concise, and more engaging. 

Apart from that, proper segmentation also saves you the time and effort of writing content that feels too “one-size-fits-all”. While it may sound very useful in targeting many segments at once, the content that can be produced has a tendency to be too generic, stiff, and without any depth to it. If you have identified your audiences, you can create your article using a language that resonates with them.

In contrast to an article that targets many segments at once, being specific actually boosts your reach. By being specific in your target audiences, you’d have an idea about their habits, daily routine, and SEO behavior. So for instance, if you’re targeting younger audiences who may be more inclined to use voice search, you may gain a competitive edge as you’re able to penetrate a platform better than your competitors.

Additionally, segmenting also provides accurate market insights that can direct you to more accurate marketing solutions — because even if you use the most expensive SEO applications to optimize content,  you still won’t get any good results if you don’t know the right group of people that would be profitable enough to target.

3) Determine the Article’s Purpose

Once you have identified a segment, it would be easier to create a perfect fit between what your audience needs and what you want to communicate with them. This is where the purpose of the article enters the picture.

If you know what your article is for and who it is for, you can avoid broad statements. Being concise is important to keep your customers engaged and tuned in for more of your content. This helps you avoid throwing irrelevant details that may be confusing to your target audiences.

You can help clarify the purpose by providing an introduction that gives insight into what to expect all throughout your content. End with a solid call to action directing your audiences towards your purpose in the article.

4) Create Lively Opening Statements

Start with a lively opening to generate interest among your readers — make them perceive your article as fresh and significant content in finance. As people tend to have different attention spans and habits when viewing your article, find the middle ground for all your possible audience types.

Note that most individuals are looking for information that’s readily available at a quick glance, so your opening statements and introduction matter greatly. But be careful in generating too much engagement — you wouldn’t want to sound too unprofessional.

You can start the first sentence by giving an insight into the primary question that your article seeks to answer. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a question; it can merely be a straightforward statement. The succeeding sentences in your concise introduction can delve into the answer to the question and the primary purpose of the article.

The bottom line is to avoid expounding too much on the main topic in your introduction. You can choose to not give everything away and leave something for your readers to keep scrolling for more instead.

5) Create a Balance of Lengthy Analysis and Engaging Discussions

Aside from being too technical, finance articles can overuse charts. This can be both confusing and not engaging to your readers. While some people are visual learners, using too many charts may not be what most nonspecialists need — this may be too complex for them.

However, a lack of thorough explanation and illustration can subject you to the risk of going against existing regulations on disclosing matters in finance. Aside from that, content should be educational but to have an impact on readers, engagement is necessary.

Make sure to use charts wisely and purposively. This would be difficult to avoid in finance especially since an illustration is needed to convince readers of an idea. You can compensate for this through your proper use of language and structuration of the article. 

Discuss concrete examples instead of generic ones to avoid the pitfalls of writing cliches. Don’t just describe or provide simple explanations, discuss analyses that lead to sound conclusions and recommendations.

Finally, hiring writers who are knowledgeable in finance and experienced in content writing is essential so that they know how to extensively discuss a topic while working around technical details.

6) Ensure the Accuracy of the Data Presented

While thorough discussions on financial topics are important, make sure that all of these are accurate. Segmentation lets you know what your market needs so you can write about it in your article, but not at the expense of the accuracy of the written content. 

For example, you’re writing about emergency funds and banks that they can put their funds in — if you’re targeting a younger audience, it means that they’re new to the workplace so it’s likely that they’re looking for a bank that offers the most convenient and highest interest rates for a savings account.

Some banks, especially online banks, usually offer high-interest rates for a savings account, which may be higher than how much your client is offering it to their customers. So instead of writing inaccurate information about how much interest rate you’re offering versus other banks, you can simply discuss the basics of an emergency fund, its importance, and how the bank can help.

In trying to engage your consumers and build a relationship with them, never trade accuracy for anything else because it would also not only affect your competence as a writer but also the credibility of the institution you’re writing for. The finance sector involves big decisions and well-calculated risks that the audience will most likely take, so an institution’s credibility and integrity depend on what finance writers research and put in their articles.

7) Provide Relevant and Research-based Conclusions

Being a thought leader in content writing for finance means being well-versed in research on finance, and coming up with strong conclusions grounded on verified data and reliable sources. This also allows you to provide relevant conclusions that are novel, much clearer, and more complete than other written content on the web.

Additionally, you can align your content with your desired end result. This means that your conclusion ends with the purpose being clarified among your readers, the problem is resolved, and the call to action is the primary driver of what you have established all throughout the written content.

Generic tips on writing always say “keep your audiences wanting for more”, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to end with a cliffhanger. Conclude your article with enough closure — establish yourself as a consistently trusted and understandable source of knowledge for your target audience.

Relevance of Content Marketing in Finance

Due to recent trends, a vast majority of financial transactions are now self-service online, which has accelerated the public's openness to decentralization in finance. 

Consequently, decentralization has enhanced the role that the financial sector plays in providing accurate and relevant content. It’s expected that many people will be doing their financial transactions online in the future, which increases the demand for reliable finance content.

As mentioned, establishing and maintaining customer relationships with content marketing is crucial to building your brand's credibility. For that reason, knowing how to communicate effectively in the financial sector is very important to provide better knowledge about financial products and services. 

Lastly, content marketing in finance can place pressure and challenges on businesses in the industry because of the gap in financial literacy and the increasing number of financial products and service offerings to lure consumers into saving, investing, or borrowing credit. The good news is there are a number of best practices in content marketing you can start and evolve from in order to better engage and reach your potential and existing customers.

Make Finance More Interesting with Engaging Content Writing

Using content to reach consumers isn’t new in finance, but more industries and institutions are competing for engagement, traction, and ultimately, sales. Consumers are bombarded with so much content each day — and this calls for more competitive content writing strategies to gain an edge and win your target audience over.

Content marketing can be a powerful tool in finance, but you have to do it properly so it can translate value and achieve your desired end result. Make your content more interesting by identifying a specific audience, and optimizing it according to their preferences. You can do so through effective content writing techniques, studying your target audience, and using SEO tools to improve your market reach and relevance.

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