Portfolio

Service Journalism 📰

A source I was interviewing about tariffs shocked me when he explained that the cars we drive today took ten years to go from initial designs to sales lots. I realized that slow timeline meant our short-term projections for the auto industry were missing a huge part of the story, a story that no one else was telling.

This Bankrate article seized the top spot in Google News SERP shortly after publication. While many journalists were predicting consumer lending would revert back to the looser regulations of 2008, I took an unorthodox route and interviewed an expert in compliance. His insights helped me tell a more nuanced story about how regulations protect lenders as well as borrowers.

SEO Content✍️

When the marketing team at Pentagon Federal Credit Union decided to pursue younger members, they asked the Creative Team to come up with a strategy that would appeal to a young adult demographic. I drew on my time as a college professor to develop a series of articles for 20-somethings making their first financial decisions. The series covered budgeting with a partner or roommate, starting retirement savings, the basics of investing, and even budgeting for a pet.

This flagship article remained at the top of the SERPs for its first year of publication and maintained a Google Snippet for most of that time. It also won the 2024 dotCom Award for "Best Single Blog Post."

This article came about when the SEO team asked me to write something on the trending topic of envelope budgeting. I knew I'd need a unique take on it if my article was going to rank. Adapting the mindset of envelop budgeting to emerging digital finance tools gave me a way to tap into the trend while also plugging PenFed's brand-new banking app.

This is one of my favorite articles I wrote for Pentagon Federal Credit Union. I pitched, researched, and wrote it to publish around March 8 (International Women's Day) as part of our seasonal content.

I learned about the wealth gap between men and women while reading some articles for professional development. Over and over, I read that women had lower levels of financial literacy than men even though they are more likely to be responsible for children, aging parents, and dependent adults.

Meanwhile, a huge transfer of wealth is starting to take place from Boomers to Gen X and older Millennial women. Many investment companies are starting to offer services tailored to women who will inherit this money, and this article would help PenFed reach that same audience.

The article became popular within PenFed, and it received around 6% more shares on social channels than an average Learning Center article.

Social Media & Ad Copy 📢

Advertising in the financial services industry is highly regulated. In addition to being meaningful and memorable, it must be accurate and it cannot suggestavoid making unverifiable claims (e.g., "This account is the best").

While writing under these constraints was challenging, it pushed me to put myself in the shoes of PenFed's members. What emotions did they feel about money? What were their goals and fears around big financial decisions, and how could PenFed's products help them meet those goals or alleviate those fears?

Of all the ads I wrote for PenFed, the microcopy on digital ads was my favorite. Packing so much emotion and energy into so few words stretched my creativity more than any other tasks.