Financial writing is tricky. It’s not only about content writing for the web; it’s also about college papers (if you’re a finance student) and reports on a company’s financial status (if you’re a business person).
One way or another, it would help to improve financial writing skills for more efficient work and audience engagement.
This article reveals the nature of financial writing and shares actionable tips to assist bloggers, students, and aspiring writers with such content.
What is Financial Writing?
Financial writing is the process of creating content related to the finance industry — accounting, budgeting, personal money, the stock market, etc. — for web or print publications. This content is informative and engaging. It explains complex concepts in a concise and easy-to-understand manner.
Financial writing is also present in academia. Students of Finance learn how to craft financial reports quickly and deal with numerous essays on corresponding topics. A team of academic experts from FastEssay, an essay writer service, admit that a financial need essay is among the top requests they get from students.
Struggling with academic overload, future financiers, economists, and accountants seek assistance: They ask experts for writing tips to make their finance papers look comprehensive and worth reading.
Given the specifics of the niche and the difficulty of writing such papers, professional writing services are popular among students and aspiring finance writers. They share techniques, teach proper structuring and formatting for financial essays, and provide assistance with choosing financial topics.
If you’re a financial writer, you may work at such companies or be a freelance specialist creating articles for financial blogs. Your path may also lie to a content agency or a company where you’ll craft documents like income, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and other money-related reports.
9 Strategies for Financial Writers to Craft Stellar Content
And now, to practice:
Below are nine financial writing tips for your essays or blog posts. While they are more like financial writing 101 strategies, savvy authors will find something new here, too.
1. Know Your Target Audience
Whatever article you read on financial writing, you’ll see this tip. That’s because it’s critical to understand your readers: It will help you choose proper topics and words for your content.
Before writing, ensure you know who your target audience is. Do you write for investors or business owners? Do you craft a blog post about personal finance for a beginner? Or, are you a college student writing a finance essay assigned by a professor?
Once you know the audience, tailor your content to their expertise and interests. It stands to reason that you’ll choose different topics and terms to talk about when writing about budgeting tips for marketers and when — for fashion bloggers, for example.
2. Know Your Topic
As a writer, you should stay informed about the latest financial trends, news, and developments. The niche updates fast, and you will only craft relevant content if you keep writing about outdated statements, techniques, tricks, etc.
Subscribe to reputable financial resources; follow influencers and opinion leaders in the niche; read authoritative blogs and industry reports. They’ll help you keep an eye on the market.
3. Keep It Concise, Simple, and Accurate
Finance is a complex niche, and it’s critical to learn how to simplify it for average users who’ll read your articles. Master the art of explaining complex financial concepts: Be concise, avoid jargon (explain terms when necessary) and sophisticated words, and deliver the information without unnecessary fluff.
Accuracy is a must: Stick to the main points and double-check the facts and figures you share with the audience. Always proofread and edit your writings before you publish or submit them for review. And remember to provide references from reputable resources to support your points.
4. Know How to Structure Your Financial Writing
If you’re a college student writing financial essays, you’ll have strict structure and formatting rules for assigned papers. Whether it’s a report or a standard essay, it requires a clear structure with an intro, main points, and a conclusion.
If you’re a finance writer for online publications, remember the rules of web writing when organizing your content. Users scan, not read lengthy texts online, so do your best to format them for better readability:
- Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points.
- Write short sentences and paragraphs.
- Add visual content: images, graphs, charts, short videos, etc.
- Place attention-grabbers and calls to action throughout the text to keep readers interested. Use storytelling if applicable.
- Remember to check content for grammatical errors, typos, and formatting issues.
5. Stay Objective
Finance is not about personal stories or opinion writing (unless you aim at doing so). That is why it’s critical to be objective, especially when discussing investments, financial products, or the implications of financial transactions for business.
When writing, present and describe different perspectives; let your readers make informed decisions.
6. Engage With Visuals and Real-Life Examples
Readers will understand your stories better if you illustrate financial concepts with real-world examples. It makes your content more engaging and easy to read. Be bold and use thought-provoking questions, anecdotes, or compelling writing hooks to grab the reader’s interest.
When writing for online publications, remember about visual content. Include custom images, relevant charts, graphs, or infographics in your text. First, they will help you explain complex data visually; second, they’ll make your lengthy texts and explanations easier for the audience to scan.
7. Learn SEO Basics
Why do content writers need to understand SEO (search engine optimization)?
You won’t need it if you write finance essays and other academic papers in college. But if you write texts for online publications, you’ll need to incorporate keywords in your content to influence its visibility in Google and make more people find it.
Understanding the rules behind writing meta titles and meta descriptions will come in handy, too.
8. Write Different Content Types
Unless you’re a finance student, experiment with different content types. Write blog posts and reviews; create videos or podcasts; craft slides, presentations, and infographics.
Adapt your writing style to the platform you’re using. Examine the target audience and the content format the platform loves most, and craft your finance writing asset accordingly.
9. Encourage Interaction
Invite the readers to discuss your content, share it online, or tell personal stories in the comments. For that, include calls to action throughout the text: ask questions, ask for comments, and encourage the audience to share their experience.
Also, respond to their comments to boost further discussion and promote your content asset.
What About Financial Report Writing?
Financial report writing is more formal than a blog post or a podcast about money. It’s a document about your business’s operations and overall financial health.
When writing a finance report, follow these tips:
- Begin with your company’s overview.
- Provide details on your sales forecast and core financial aspects.
- Add a section about the company’s values.
- Share summaries of your financial statements.
- Finish with summarizing the entire report.
Over to You
Whether you’re a web writer or a student learning a corresponding subject in college, financial writing skills will come in handy.
As a business owner, you’ll need them to craft reports; as a blogger, you’ll know how to write engaging articles on financial topics; if you’re an aspiring economist or accountant, you’ll master the art of creating stellar financial documents.
The tips in this article will help you take the first steps on your writing path. Go ahead! Choose a topic and impress readers with concise and clear yet engaging finance content.
