Originally a buzzword for copy writers and editors who claimed “content was king” on websites and social media, great content marketing has quickly become a way for savvy marketers to differentiate their products and services in the crowded, noisy online space.
According to the Content Marketing Institute:
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
Financial content marketing applies this same approach to writing about personal finance, investing, and retirement topics. Like all good content, it needs to be relevant, and valuable to its intended audience. But it must also de-mystify complex financial concepts, investment principles, and retirement plans and products using plain language and straight-forward explanations to help readers make informed decisions.
That’s the financial content I work to create for clients through crisp, clear, no-fuss language that
- cuts through the clutter,
- respects the reader’s intelligence, and
- avoids highly technical language, industry jargon, and business-speak.
As plain language advocate Joseph Kimball once told me: Your objective as a writer is not to show people how smart you are, but to make them feel smarter.
And isn’t making your readers feel smarter what your content strategy is all about?
Exactly!
As the Content Marketing Institute concludes:
Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. …The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”