The client wanted to run banners to inform golfers that they could register their most memorable shot ever in the Hole In One Golf Registry.

View animated banner.

I’m versatile and prolific. As a financial copywriter, I write dozens of projects a year, so I can handle a large volume of work —- from video-based banners, emails, print ads and radio to direct response letters, mini-sites, Website and even your annual report.

I’m a Direct Marketing expert. For most of writing career, I’ve focused on direct response financial copywriting. My highest response rates are 57% for a direct marketing package and an open rate of 80% for an email with a 97% click-through.

I turn MarCom into English. The body of work I’ve crafted enables me to be well-versed in financial copywriter terminology. This has always let me turn technical copy into layman’s copy to appeal to a broad audience of consumers and bankers.

My specific financial copywriting experience includes:
Bank of America
– As Associate Creative Director at Grey Advertising, SF, I was the financial copywriter for :60 and :30 TV scripts that won the $6 million corporate banking division for the agency.
– I wrote an extremely successful financial copywriting newspaper ad campaign for BofA’s Home Loan Center’s division. It was so successful making the phones ring for ARMs, it had to be pulled after two weeks instead the proposed six.
- Download Ad #1 PDF
- Download Ad #2 PDF
- Download Ad #3 PDF

– I wrote, directed and produced a very funny :60 radio commercial that showcased how fast the BofA Home Loan process had become. Hear “Fast Home Loans” Radio MP3.

– Through Carat Interactive, I composed NationsBank online banners for their Platinum Card. View the banners — scroll down to bottom of the linked page.
– Through Cohn & Wells Direct Marketing, I drafted a DMP with 17 cells and six million pieces of mail to introduce the Sunoco MasterCard to current and future BankAmericard customers (budget was approximately $1 million).

Wells Fargo
– In 2010, as a freelance financial copywriter for a Southern California advertising agency, I wrote a direct response project to introduce Wells Fargo’s Card Design Studio service, which was a “Fast, easy and free” way to design your own business or personal check card. You could choose from dozens of images in its library or use your own photo.  The whole online design process literally takes a few minutes, whether you’re an expert in design or not. Read more.

– For 360 Group, San Rafael, I wrote a project that launched an in-branch promotion for the Business Gateway. It included easel-backed counter cards, take-one brochures, in-branch posters and follow-up direct response letters for a referral program for its “Refer a Colleague” on-line checking services.
– I wrote a series of direct response letters to Equity Line Platinum Card owners with a promotional overlay from Home Depot with another agency, Damore Johan.
– As a freelance financial copywriter, I’ve written multiple direct mail projects for one of Wells Fargo’s contracted ad agencies in San Francisco for Home Equity Lines of Credit.

– I also worked for Wells Fargo during my college years at S.F.State University.
Download WF Seasonal Check Letter.pdf
Download-WF Tax Letter_p1.pdf
Download-Front-of-WF_FebIinsert.pdf
Download-Back-of-WF_FebInsert.pdf

Intuit
– Wrote the QuickBooks introductory Direct Marketing Package aimed at upgrading Quicken customers. Rather than cannibalizing the Quicken brand, this package showed potential users when they should use QuickBooks, and when they shouldn’t.
– Created the 32-page QuickBooks 32-page Catalog for Checks, Envelopes, Supplies and More with Landis Designs. Download Pages 1, 2-15 and 32 of the Catalog (.PDF). Download Pages 16-31 of the Catalog (.PDF).
– Edited a 77-page Web site to buy Intuit products at IntuitMarket.com/quickbooks. This site has been upgraded since.

– Wrote the QuickBooks New User Kit and six other projects during 2006, including a 32-page QuickBooks Catalog for Checks, Envelopes, Supplies and More. If you want to see these examples of freelance financial copywriting, I have hard copies or PDFs.

– Am a contributing writer with over 125 articles combined for the Intuit Small Business Blog and the Intuit GoPayment Blog.

– Wrote the definitions for over 250 words, terms and phrases for the Intuit Small Business Dictionary.

Charles Schwab
– As a freelance financial copywriter, I created six versions of letter and two versions of brochure for Schwab Stock Screener DMP through Landis Designs, San Francisco.
– Created a solicitation direct mail and all supporting materials (brochures, sign-up forms, letters) for Schwab’s OneSource International Portfolio — a fund of mutual funds.
– Wrote consumer materials to introduce Schwab’s program of Variable Annuities.
– Scripted a B2B email and Web landing page for the Schwab Mortgage Center through E-Loan.

Accenture.com Financial Services
– Was hired by Accenture.com to create content for each of the four key sections’ home pages (Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance and Health Services), plus articles for each section’s seven vertical industries. A colleague did the rest —- animation, graphics, and XML.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Security & Privacy Solutions
– For five years, I did freelance financial copywriting, editing, Webmaster work and project management for PwC’s Security & Privacy site. I wrote hundreds of pages of site content, White Paper overviews, dozens of case studies, and delivered 32 issues of a monthly online newsletter (“The Tech Spotlight”) from 2002 through 2004.
– Download The Tech Spotlight Newsletter August 2004 PDF
– Download The Tech Spotlight Newsletter Nov/Dec 2004 PDF
– Download The Secure Solution October 2003 PDF (This was “The Tech Spotlight” original title.)

– I also was the webmaster, copywriter, and project manager for PwC’s Internal Audit, Data Management, IT Business Risk Management, Sustainability Solutions, Project Advisory Services, and Governance Risk & Compliance practices with quarterly newsletters for three of them.

Visa
– Wrote the B2B Turnkey Marketing Program Kit introducing Debit Cards to member banks for their customers. This Promotional/Direct Mail program included solicitation and activation materials: in-branch posters, counter cards, multi-purpose brochures, statement inserts, employee information sheets, prospect and customer letters to customers, overview letter from Visa to banks and the promotion kit.
– Created Blockbuster/Visa tie-in DMP with tiered consumer Gift Card program for using Visa Debit Cards.

Barclays Global Investors
– Through the 360 Group in San Rafael, I created a three-dimensional direct response lead generation piece aimed at HR Directors and in-house money managers. Using the headline “401(k) spoken here” and offering a two-way radio, this piece gained BGI millions of dollars in deposits and a 20% response rate.

Irwin Financial Corporation/Premier Equity — For this major East Bay-based company, I was hired for freelance financial copywriting to create a series of four Home Equity Loan direct mail packages. They included a “Credit Card Challenge”.

San Francisco Federal Credit Union — For an SF ad agency, I wrote an 8-page in-branch brochure, a new customer rack brochure, and multi-piece welcome kit for this large credit union.

Household Credit Services — Created direct mail packages for MasterCard credit card offerings, credit line increases, Balance Transfer offerings, Convenience Check offerings.

Sanwa Bank California — I wrote in-branch counter cards, take-one brochures, teller buttons, Duratrans posters, newspaper ads and direct mail targeted to Sanwa savings customers to promote the purchase of IRAs and CDs.

First Hawaiian Bank – Was a freelance copywriter for Miller-Kadanoff SF for one DMP for home equity loans and another for personal equity loans for this Honolulu-based bank.

FICO/Fair Isaac — Wrote a White Paper entitled “A Five-Step Approach To Stress Testing Your Portfolio —- How to Prepare Your Portfolio For Dynamic Times” — Wrote an August 2008 Viewpoints Newsletter article called “New TRIAD tool reduces strategy size, complexity by 25% or more.”

– Was contracted to write Website copy, brochure copy and video copy for a number of FICO industry retail and auto finance solutions.  Read more
Other financial clients with whom I’ve completed financial copywriting projects include: — American Savings (in-branch promotions); — Bayview Bank (radio commercials); — Barbary Coast National Bank (ads, newsletters, DMP, outdoor); — Barron Mortgage Company (radio spots and newspaper ads) — download the radio commercial; — Farm Credit Bank Association (B2C magazine ad campaign, sales video); — First Texas Savings ( TV, radio, newspaper ads); — Freedom Debt Relief (View .mov TV commercial);

– Yodlee (edited various Data Sheets and a White Paper) Download Yodlee Advisor Data Sheet. Download Yodlee BillPay Data Sheet. Download Yodlee Account Opening Data Sheet. Download Yodlee Funds Transfer Data Sheet.

To see other examples of freelance copywriting, or to receive an estimate for your financial copywriter project, please contact me today.

Here are my favorite ads, ad banners, and radio commercial that I created as a San Francisco copywriter and direct marketing copywriter for Bank of America.

1) Bank of America — As an Associate Creative Director at Grey Advertising, San Francisco copywriter, I wrote this campaign of three newspaper ads for BofA’s Home Loan division. The ads were to have run for six weeks. But after only two, the client asked the agency to stop running them because the phone lines were swamped with a surplus of calls. Offering BofA’s lowest rates and the first ever refinancing adjustable rate home loans were also contributing factors to their success.
Download Ad #1 PDF
Download Ad #2 PDF
Download Ad #3 PDF

2) Bank of America/Nation’s Bank Animated Banners – For Carat Interactive Ad Agency, I wrote a bunch of banners for BofA after it became Nation’s Bank. (Of course, it’s now called Bank of America once again.) See the banners — scroll down to bottom of page.

3) Bank of America Priority Plus Home Loan :60 Radio Commercial and Newspaper Ad — This commercial needed to demonstrate that the bank was committed to approving applicants for adjustable rate home loans in only three business days, rather than weeks. So I found the world’s fastest talker in New York City, flew her to SF for a recording session, and hired a male voice actor as her “translator” for this script. You really can hear every word she says if you listen carefully. “PLAY NOW” to hear the “Priority Plus Fast Home Loans” MP3.
Download Priority Plus Home Loan Ad PDF.

My colleague, Ivan Lee, and I created a series of five animated banners in various sizes for a now-defunct VoIP telecom solution called TomatoVine.com. The sizes were 728×90, 468×60, 160 x 60, 120 x 600 and 300 x 250.

View the animated Web banners here:

Listen to one of the :60 radio spots here: