When I started freelancing 14 years ago, I fell into a niche – financial writing – that’s had staying power despite the twists and turns of the global economy and financial markets.
I’ve found that the knowledge and skills I’ve developed in translating complex investing, financial and investing topics into language that consumers and professionals can understand have helped me maneuver through the changes that have transformed journalism and corporate writing during the past decade. Five years ago, my business focused on trade and consumer journalism; today, my writing business is almost exclusively concentrated on corporate writing with nearly half of that consisting of ghost writing.
Here’s are some of the ingredients I’ve found that differentiate successful financial writers from the wanna-be:
- Focus on a very specific, narrow niche: Financial writing is a very broad field. To succeed and find the clients who will pay a premium for your knowledge, you need to hone in on what areas you know in and out and what clients will are most interested in that knowledge. For me, my understanding of complex economic and investing topics endears me to wealth managers, corporate communications departments and marketing agencies that want their mutual fund managers, wealth managers and executives to appear as authoritative thought leaders.
- Tell a compelling story: My clients all have expert knowledge that they want to share with their clients and potential clients in an effort to differentiate themselves from competing firms. By utilizing my journalistic skills as an expert interviewer and storyteller, I can help them figure out what information they possess that is of the most interest to their audience and the best ways to tell that story.
- Collaborate with experts, communications departments and graphic artists: Anyone who has experience in corporate writing knows that collaboration is the name of the game; this is especially true in financial writing, where extremely complicated concepts must be clearly explained and illustrated. I’ve found my affinity for collaboration has led to some project management assignments for the white papers, e-mail marketing campaigns and other writing assignments I already have.
While you don’t have to be a subject matter expert in financial writing to work successfully in this area, it helps to have knowledge and clips. If you’re completely new to it, gaining some consumer clips can help. You could also turn the fact that you aren’t educated in a particular area into an advantage by telling hiring managers that your lack of knowledge can help them connect with readers who might not understand complicated financial and investing products. Be prepared to be a quick study, though, if you take that route.
When it comes to marketing any knowledge and skills that you do have, I’ve found social networking helps, especially LinkedIn and Twitter. I’ve also been blogging regularly to showcase my knowledge. Sending out letters of introduction to content marketing firms, marketing departments of financial services companies and professional services firms in these areas also can work.
In the end, cultivating a successful financial writing business is like any other type of small business: it’s about marketing and persistence.