B2B fintechs need inspiring stories to connect with audiences on an emotional level and break down complex, technical topics into something people can understand. 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.
Pair Fintech Writers with Your Experts
Ghostwriters can’t produce standout content without a partnership with the business they’re writing for — especially in technical areas like fintech, cryptocurrency, or decentralized finance.
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 expert’s byline.
This approach has problems. 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, by partnering writers with a subject matter expert to advise them on customer realities, their own unique insights, and their own ‘voice’. This approach yields better content outcomes regardless of whether you’re a digital payment platform, digital-only bank, or fintech-as-a-service business.
Set Deadlines To Stay On Track
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough. Set a deadline for completing a first draft, completing revisions, pitching to any outside publications, and publishing across your channels.
B2B fintech content production needs to move quickly to remain 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 writers and marketing managers to press internal experts for information, input, and feedback, especially if the expert is more senior in business.
Give a Different View
People only read content because they think it might be interesting. That’s it. Focus on creating content that will help readers out. Ghostwriting is tied to thought leadership and the most helpful form of thought leadership is the kind that creates a change, however small, in the reader. Changes like:
- Becoming informed of an industry problem or solution
- Changing their perspective on an industry ‘sacred cow’
- Discovering evidence about strategies that work or fail.
Thought leadership is quickly discredited if it has a plug for your product or service. Remember, the goal of your ghostwritten content is trust, not a transaction. When readers encounter ghostwritten content that clearly shows your experts know what they’re talking about, they will mark you as a credible authority they’ll want to hear from again.
Interesting ghostwritten content has something unique to say. It’s not reportage. Fact and figures have their place, but content marketers should not hide behind them for fear of taking a stance on industry topics. It’s better not to write anything at all, if your ghostwritten piece will rehash others’ ideas. There is a loud din from the voices on our screens and pages. If you want to cut through, avoid just echoing what others say.
Limit the Revisions
Of all of the B2B fintech content creation disciplines, ghostwriting is most prone to bottlenecks around revisions. This is why so many companies choose the ghostwriting ‘lite’ approach mentioned at the top — true ghostwriting can become a tussle, come revisions time. It doesn’t have to be, when you set out that clear deadline and a repeatable process for managing expert revisions. Because pretty much all content will need revisions, especially if a piece is highly technical.
This can be difficult if a piece is technical. But keeping revision rounds to a reasonably low number is important for keeping things moving and promoting editorial decisiveness.
When revising, you can save ghostwriters and internal reviewers time by deciding what to prioritize when editing copy. Thomas Publishing Company offers these tips:
- Check for key messages. It may help to reread the draft article while looking at the original content marketing brief to ensure that the key messages are clear.
- Cut needless words. Look out for redundant sentences or paragraphs littered with your expert’s jargon. Your writer should have caught most of these, but double-check.
- Put clarity first. 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 need to use some complex ideas, explain them simply.
One final tip before you go. Too many chefs spoil the broth. Many promising pieces of ghostwritten content become stale and boring, owing to creation-by-committee. Let the writer and subject matter expert own the research and the writing process. In an ideal world, your writer will work directly with the person who will ‘own’ the byline to understand their views, voice, and opinion. That’s true ghostwriting.
