Quality content is critical to increasing brand awareness, building credibility, and boosting your search engine ranking.

How do businesses in the financial services marketing space get quality content? It starts with well-written financial services content marketing briefs!

Of course, your agency should be able to recommend topics and create outlines for your content. However, they can only work with what you give them. If you want something specific, you must provide additional information to ensure they understand your goals.

Your brief should provide the writer with everything they need to know to create content that aligns with your brand and caters to your target audience’s needs. Below, you’ll learn the essential elements every content marketing financial services brief should include.

Content Topic

Start by including the topic you want the writer to cover in this particular piece of content. Remember that the more specific you are when sharing the topic, the easier it is for the writer to produce the content you’re looking for on their first attempt.

General Outline

In addition to providing the content topic, it’s also helpful to include a general outline. This outline might consist of specific H2 and H3 headings that you want to be featured in the article or specific points you want to make sure the writer covers.

Word Count

How long do you want the content to be? Mention a word count or word count range.

Not sure how long the article should be? Do some preliminary research and look at the highest-ranking articles for your target keyword or a specific topic.

Consider how long these articles are, then base your word count on those numbers. This strategy will help you avoid asking for too much or too little.

SEO Keywords

Are you trying to rank for a particular keyword? If so, mention that word — as well as any other secondary keywords you want to be used — in the brief.

Do you want any of the keywords used a certain number of times? If so, let the writer know before you send the brief to them.

Article Purpose

Make sure the writer understands the purpose of the piece of content they’re creating. Is the goal to inform your audience? To get them interested in a specific financial service you offer?

If the writer knows what you want to accomplish instead of just the general topic you want to be covered, they’ll be able to produce content that helps you achieve your goals.

Target Audience

Similarly, the writer should also know whom they’re addressing when they create content for you.

Does your financial services business cater to small business owners? Wealthy individuals planning their retirement?

If the writer knows your target audience, they can adjust their tone, vocabulary, and writing style to suit that audience’s preferences better.

Call to Action

When thinking about the purpose of an article, consider the action you want the reader to take when they get to the end.

For example, do you want them to look at another blog post? Visit your services page? Call you to schedule an appointment?

Whatever your desired call to action is, share it with the writer so they can add it at the end of the article.

Internal and External Links

Internal and external links help your content rank higher on search engine results pages.

Internal links can also inform readers about specific services you offer, and external links can add credibility to your brand and show where you get your information.

If you have specific URLs you want the writer to link to, add those details to the brief.

Boundaries

Do you want writers to use articles from certain websites or avoid specific types of sources? For example, some agencies don’t want external links to competitor brands, but they do want links to reputable news outlets.

If you have any additional boundaries you want the writer to abide by, let them know before sending the brief.

Examples

You may also want to share links to example articles to inspire the writer and help them understand what format you like or the type of tone you want your content to have.

Write Better Financial Services Content Marketing Briefs Today

A solid financial services content marketing strategy will help you expand your audience and grow your business.

If you haven’t seen great success with your current strategy, the problem might be that you’re not providing sufficient instructions.

Follow the guidelines discussed above so you can write better financial services content marketing briefs and start publishing higher-quality content.