Thought Leadership and Ghostwriting for Financial Brands and Fintechs
I help executives at banks, fintechs, wealth, insurance, and retirement companies turn ideas into thought leadership worth reading.
Your experts have plenty to say. Getting it published takes some help.
Financial brands have three small problems that merge into one big one. Tell me if this sounds familiar.
Problem #1: Your experts won’t (or can’t) write.
You have amazing subject matter experts. They’re great on client calls and can talk your ear off about their favorite topic during lunch. But they’ve been ‘working on’ a byline for six months. They have so much expertise to share, but asking them to block out three hours and write out a draft is where things stall. They don’t have the time or the know-how, and their great idea or insight gets pushed to the back burner.
Problem #2: So marketing writes without them.
A basic brief gets sent off to a writer, with the post assigned based on keyword volume. They don’t have the SME insights because they’ve never spoken to someone on your team, and it gets approved because something has to be published. The content is fine. There’s nothing really ‘wrong’ with it, but it doesn’t get the traction your brand hoped to see.
Problem #3: Your best insights are trapped in internal silos.
The good stuff never makes it into your marketing. A specific technical insight that can win customers is buried in product docs, or the 17th slide in last quarter’s deck that had proprietary data gets lost in the shuffle or in the brains of your SMEs. If potential customers weren’t tapped into your last webinar, they probably missed the expert insights that can actually help them. And it never gets shared again.
All that adds up to one serious problem.
Your content is fine; it hits the right tone, it’s optimized for all the right keywords, and it sounds just like everyone else out there.
In 2022, that strategy worked. Now? It’s a big problem. Because ChatGPT can churn out good enough content all the time. So if everyone is doing that, where do you stand out? What sets your brand apart?
Your experts are the thing AI doesn't have.
What I do
Executive Thought Leadership
I hop on a call with your executive or SME for 30 minutes and ask the questions that get them talking about what they actually know. Then I take that conversation and write the byline, the article, or the LinkedIn newsletter in their voice and send it back for a quick review. They spend half an hour, and you get thought leadership under their name that sounds like them and says something your competitors can't.
POV Narrative Development
You send me the research report, webinar, or deck that's been sitting around since last quarter, and I get on a call with your executive to hear what they think. Then I write it all down, including their point of view on the industry, the three or four topics they should own, a list of 10-15 angles ready to write, and a plan for the next 90 days of publishing. You get a clear direction for everything that goes out under their name for the next quarter.
Reported Thought Leadership
Some topics need more than one voice from inside your company. I find outside experts who know the topic, then interview them, pull in the right data, and write a reported piece that has a more journalistic flair. You get an article with real sources and real numbers in it, published under your brand, that reads like industry coverage instead of a company blog post. It’s the kind of article that can help build trust with potential clients.
Who I work with
Fintech companies
You sell to banks, credit unions, or wealth firms, and those buyers do their homework long before they get in a meeting or on a sales call. These buyers read what your executives have published and decide whether you understand their business. I write the articles, bylines, and reports that get you on the short list.
Financial brands
You’re a bank, credit union, wealth firm, retirement provider, or insurer and everything you publish has to get through compliance and still be worth reading. That’s a hard combination and why so much content ends up sounding generic. I write the articles, executive bylines, and educational content that survives review and gives your advisors, agents, and customers the information they need.
You don’t need to explain your industry to me.
For more than a decade, I have written about banking, fintech, retirement, wealth management, insurance, lending, investments, estate planning, long-term care, and personal finance.
That means you don’t have to spend extra time onboarding me about the industry or filling in gaps around the specifics of financial services. I’ve spent a long time working and writing in this industry, so I’ll get up and running right away, no ramp-up time required.
My experience includes work for financial brands, B2B technology companies, and industry publications, including Protective Life, Thrivent, Western & Southern, First Citizens, Eastern Bank, The Financial Brand, and American Express Business Insights.
The usefulness gap
Most financial content is accurate, compliant, and (unfortunately) useless. It clears legal, hits the keywords, and never answers the question the reader actually showed up with, so they go ask ChatGPT or TikTok instead. I write a newsletter called The Usefulness Gap about why that keeps happening and what financial brands can do about it.