How to Add B2B Fintech Ghostwriting to Your Content Marketing Mix

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• True ghostwriting goes beyond putting your expert’s name on another writer’s content.
• Strive for excellence — but accept perfectionism is the enemy of content production.
• Be real. People dislike big words and jargon. They value you being helpful and insightful.

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.

1. Understand this Common Ghostwriting Mistake

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 internal expert’s byline on it. This is OK sometimes. 

This approach comes with problems. 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’. 

2. Pair Fintech Writers with Your Experts

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

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.

3. 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 publication across your channels.

B2B fintech content production needs to move quickly to remain relevant in this kind os 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 business.

4. Leave The Sales Talk Out

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.

Read more: The Great B2B Fintech Thought Leadership Deficit

5. Avoid the Echo Chamber

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 have to say.

6. 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 along with 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 in nature. But keeping revision rounds to a reasonably low number is important for keeping things moving and promoting editorial decisiveness.

How To Revise Your B2B Fintech Writer’s Draft

When revising, you can 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
  It may help to reread the draft article while looking at the original content marketing brief, just to make sure the key messages come across.  
  
• Cut out needless words
  Look out for redundant sentences or paragraphs littered with your expert’s jargon. You 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 need to use some complex ideas, explain them simply.

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

Building Trust With Fintech Ghostwriting

So the next time you want to create some bylined content for your subject matter experts, remember the steps above. Because thought-provoking ghostwritten content can really help you shine, through a combination of journalistic flair, storytelling, and expertise.