The Best Financial Copywriting Guide: 15 Examples and Tips
The Glorious Company Team
Financial copywriting creates content for a niche that appeals to a highly specialized target audience. These are people who are searching for answers and advice to their finance pain points. They’re not experts, so they’re searching for content that clearly informs them with simple, everyday language instead of financial jargon.
Websites need a strong writer who can explain financial or legal topics in an accessible way to non-experts who need to understand financial concepts and the benefits your product or service offers.
Operating in the finance niche means your website offers products and services that only appeal to a select number of potential customers. Your website copy has to be on point to accommodate them. The financial sector is increasingly hyper-competitive, with brands having to be creative and clear to cut through the noise and reach their customers.
What Is Financial Copywriting?
Financial copywriting is writing persuasive and informational content for businesses like SaaS, fintechs, accounting firms, and financial advice companies. The goal is to educate and move website visitors down your sales funnel, whether it’s to sign up for an email newsletter, get advice from your company, or buy your financial product or service.
Finance copywriting is complicated since concepts involve regulations and accounting. That’s why financial copywriters need to understand:
Investing
Accounting
Money
Corporate finance
Finance copywriters also need to:
Understand target audience pain points
Build persuasive content
Convey messaging in content of various lengths
Powerful Financial Copywriting Examples
To help you understand what makes financial copy helpful and persuasive to readers, let’s look at examples of finance websites with great copywriting. We’ll analyze what makes their copy so effective.
Bankrate
Bankrate is a personal finance website, which provides financial information as well as credit card offers, financial advisor vetting, and mortgage rate comparisons. It’s your one-stop shop for number crunching for all of life’s big financial moments.
Image Credit: Bankrate
Its headline and subhead copy on its homepage makes this unique value proposition clear right off the bat. In just a few words, the headline explains what benefit you’ll get when you interact with Bankrate’s content while the subhead explains in more detail what you can do on the website.
There’s beauty in brevity, and this example of financial copywriting uses just a few words to make itself crystal clear to readers.
The Motley Fool
The Motley Fool is an investing and financial advice company. Its entire business model is built on getting people to trust it enough for financial planning. That’s why it’s vital the company displays some form of social proof on its website, which it does.
Image Credit: The Motley Fool
It reveals that more than half a million people are premium subscribers, which confirms that a large number of people trust its services and advice for financial help. Then, that social proof seamlessly segues into the benefits that these premium subscribers receive, such as new monthly stock picks, company analyses, model portfolios and advanced tools, and live streaming during market hours.
When you’re copywriting about people’s finances, you need to establish trust immediately, which The Motley Fool accomplishes.
TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade is an electronic trading platform that handles more than $1 trillion in investor assets. When you’re handling that much money for millions of customers, you have to ensure that you’re providing strong value to your customers, and you have to ensure you’re clear about it.
Image Credit: TD Ameritrade
Luckily, the financial copywriting on its homepage clarifies just what perks its high-asset customers are getting from parking their money with TD Ameritrade. Customers get a wide product range, transparent pricing, innovative tools, and dedicated support. Note how each benefit is listed almost like a bullet point, with more detailed information under each benefit.
This website excels in using brevity and clarity to make its most valuable perks stand out to customers scrolling down its homepage.
Credit Karma
Credit Karma is a personal finance website that’s well-known for its free financial and credit management platform. In fact, all of its services are free to its customers. With a business model that shows empathy to its customers, the company has to take great care to continue this favorable treatment of its customers in the financial copy it displays.
Image Credit: Credit Karma
On its Checking Account page, Credit Karma’s financial copywriting puts the focus on the customer, using “you” several times to underscore how the company is in the corner of its customer. The headline and description both home in on how Credit Karma’s Money Spend helps customers get a checking account that has features that help their lives, like earning cashback dollars and building low credit.
Kiplinger
Kiplinger is a publisher of personal financial advice and business forecasts. The company specializes in the business of making its readers rich and wealthy. That is their unique value proposition—give readers insight that they can’t get anywhere else, which will contribute beneficially to their long-term financial health.
Image Credit: Kiplinger
As a result, the financial copywriting on its website needs to constantly speak to this value proposition, or else its readers will question what they’re doing there in the first place.
On the Kiplinger newsletter signup form on the website’s homepage, their copywriting keeps their narrative of wealth building for its readers consistent. Note the use of the specific words “profit” and “prosper” as the reasons why you should subscribe to their free newsletter. This demonstrates the publication’s consistency in its messaging.
NerdWallet
NerdWallet is a personal finance company known for educating its site visitors about financial matters. There’s something to be said about showing some personality in financial copywriting. After all, the subject matter is very matter-of-fact, which doesn’t allow for a lot of humor or quirk to shine through.
Image Credit: NerdWallet
On NerdWallet’s homepage, however, they’ve broken the rules. In the CTA headline for the NerdWallet Chrome extension, the company demonstrates its irreverent character and voice by doubling down on its branding. By announcing that “shopping online just got nerdier,” the website acknowledges its eccentric approach to financial education and uses humor to prompt site visitors to add the extension.
Writing about finance need not always be a dry affair.
Investopedia
Investopedia is a financial media website founded in 1999. It’s been around a long time and has had decades to build up its authority in the finance niche. Still, it’s important for this website to continue to burnish its trust and authority in the financial niche.
Image Credit: Investopedia
It does so effectively in the copy for a stock market simulator, which it offers on its homepage. A good example of using social proof, Investopedia cites the 3 million educated investors who already use the simulator as a persuasive reason for new users to sign up for free. They’re not only using the “3 million” number as social proof but also the descriptor “educated,” which is a word that conveys further authority to anyone not yet fully convinced that they should try the simulator.
Betterment
Betterment is a financial advice business that offers various financial services like digital investment, cash management, and retirement. It currently has a quarter of a million customer accounts and manages about $32 billion in assets. The company’s business model is based on convincing people that it can make their money grow.
Image Credit: Betterment
Its website copywriting has to reflect this aspirational quality. Otherwise, the company would have trouble persuading people to allow it to manage their assets.
One of the user flows on its homepage demonstrates what aspirational copywriting is all about. The headline alone fires up the imagination of its customers, letting them dream about what their money could grow into. And then the description underneath continues this aspirational direction with more palpable use cases of saving, investing, and living.
Xero
Xero is a cloud-based accounting app that caters to small and midsized businesses. A SaaS company, Xero’s purpose is to take the hassle out of accounting for SMBs, which already have a lot on their plates without having to deal with accounting headaches.
Image Credit: Xero
As soon as site visitors land on the homepage, they see a huge headline that stresses this theme. The “Get back to what you love…” phrase indicates precisely in just a few words that business owners won’t be bogged down with accounting woes. The headline also uses powerful, positive emotional wording with “love,” creating a captivating impression straightaway in customers’ minds.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks, by Intuit, is accounting software that’s marketed to small and midsized businesses. The company wants SMB owners to be able to use its software easily and look after their own finances. However, the company also provides expert bookkeepers on call, if SMB owners need it. As such, clearly communicating this unique value prop is paramount.
Image Credit: QuickBooks
Through clever copy, QuickBooks does just that. In the section on its homepage advertising QuickBooks Online plans, its finance copywriter has shown to customers that the company is reliable when it comes to providing expert guidance. To the left of the headline promising real experts, real-life bookkeepers are shown, complete with the length of time they’ve been working as experts. This really puts peace of mind into customers’ heads and demonstrates how simple, thoughtful copy goes a long way to building authority and trust.
Actionable Financial Copywriting Tips to Implement Now
Now that you’ve seen professional examples of financial copywriting that are memorable, it’s time to learn how to write financial text on your own and become a strong financial copywriter. Apply these following, actionable pieces of advice to your next financial writing project to educate your readers about complex financial concepts more effectively and creatively than ever.
Make Your Content Engaging
This tip should be obvious, but it comes with a problem. What is considered engaging content? To avoid subjectivity, let’s define “engaging” in our context. Engaging content is:
Gripping
Educational
Creative
Memorable
The key is to strike a balance between informational and punchy writing. Never make your copy dull just because you’re writing about finance. Your readers aren’t financial experts, but they don’t want to be bored by overly jargony terminology and explanations. Tell your readers how what you’re writing relates to them. Make it more about answering their questions, solving their problems, and addressing their pain points. Use statistics and numbers, too, where appropriate.
Additionally, you may want to incorporate social proof and examples to demonstrate your expertise and establish credibility. This could include showcasing success stories or testimonials from satisfied clients or industry experts.
Find Your Right Niche
You can only become a strong financial copywriter if you settle onto a niche and master it. Pick your niche by gravitating to where your experience lies and then write what you know. This should make it easier to also have passion about the financial topics you’re writing.
Some financial niches include:
Investing
Budgeting
Retirement
Taxes
Personal finance
Insurance
Managing debt
Credit cards
Day trading
The beauty about financial copywriting is that you’re genuinely helping people advance their lives, whether it’s getting out of debt, making smart investments to build up their future, or understanding taxes and how to avoid paying so much.
Appeal to Your Target Audience
Remember that, as a financial copywriter, you are appealing to a specific audience for the website for which you’re writing. First, there’s the specific niche (taxes, credit cards, investing, etc.) that you’re sharing actionable information about, which guides your entire approach to copy.
For example, if you’re writing about taxes, you would want to include basic information like tax filing deadlines, the different types of taxes for individuals versus businesses, and so on. This would be a different piece of copy than, say, writing about investing, where you may want to cover concepts like dollar cost averaging, mutual funds, and ETFs.
Then, there’s also your tone of voice. Remember your target audience is likely going to be non-professionals, so convey information in an accessible way—so anyone without a financial degree can easily understand and implement your explanations. When it comes to financial writing, the easier and the clearer is always more effective.
Make It SEO-Friendly
Though you’re writing for people looking for financial help first, you’re also writing for search engines to properly index and rank your financial website. That’s why it's essential to make sure your content is SEO-friendly. By incorporating relevant keywords and phrases, you can optimize your content for search engines and increase its chances of being found by your target audience.
Start by conducting keyword research to identify the most commonly searched terms and related terms for your financial niche. Tools like Semrush, SE Ranking, and Mangools are a good place for this, as is Google’s Keyword Planner. This will help you understand what your audience is looking for, how popular topics and subtopics are, and how you can provide valuable information through your content.
For example, let’s say you’re writing about new and creative investment opportunities to consider. Within Semrush, we see that the term “atm investments” offers us a prime opportunity to create content that can rank in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). It has a search volume of about 1000 per month, a keyword difficulty of 18% (meaning it’s very easy to rank for), and the average search potential for the top three SERP results is almost 400 visitors per month. You’d now write content around this keyword and publish it because it has a lot of SEO potential.
Also, stay up-to-date with content trends and industry news to provide timely and helpful content. The financial services industry is ever-changing. By keeping your content relevant and informative, you can position yourself as a go-to resource for your audience. Follow these tips to make your financial copywriting more SEO-friendly and capture the attention of your desired audience.
Watch Out for Jargon in Your Copy
Ensure that your copy is written in a conversational tone and uses informal language. Simple and digestible content is more likely to resonate with the average person, your target audience, and keep them engaged. Avoid using excessive financial jargon and complex terms, unless your target audience consists exclusively of financial professionals.
Of course, when writing financial copy, the bulk of your audience is likely going to be someone confused over financial terms and concepts. Tailor your content to this reader by always simplifying highfaluting financial and legal lingo. The more you write in a conversational and casual manner, the more your financial copywriting will be effective, as it will resonate with those looking for answers and guidance.
And that in turn will help your financial website’s organic traffic, bounce rate, lead generation, and conversions.
Break Down Tough Financial Topics for the Average Person
The main point is that finance copywriting needs to be reduced to its simplest explanations for the average person who doesn’t have a fancy economics degree. This is your target audience, and, the more you successfully apply this rule, the more your website will resonate with a larger audience.
The above examples by top financial brands bring this point home, as there’s no jargon on their websites. In fact, there’s only creativity, brevity, and even some humor to go along with the clear-cut, simplified approach to writing about financial topics.
If you’re interested in partnering with a copywriting agency to grow your financial website’s traffic, readership, and revenue, then reach out to us now. Contact The Glorious Company today for a no-obligation consultation and estimate.
Have any questions? Keep the conversation going by leaving a comment below.
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