Essential Content
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Financial services copywriting and communications

Ambitious, compliant copy delivered by subject matter experts.

Delivering effective, ambitious content and copy for the financial services sector demands a specialised approach, combining subject matter expertise and regulatory compliance with powerful ideas and decades of sector experience.

That’s why some of the world’s best-known financial services brands trust Essential Content. We help them set elite standards for content quality, removing friction from the content supply chain and ultimately improving how they communicate with customers, employees, shareholders and other important people.

“Significant increase in output, no sacrifice in quality.”

“Essential Content has significantly increased the brand’s content output without sacrificing quality. They do their due diligence to stick to the company’s voice and always complete the work on time.”

Samuel Clennett, Wise Payments (formerly TransferWise)
“They make outsourcing stress free.”

“We found their sector expertise and commitment to user experience best practices very valuable. We particularly valued their understanding and application of regulatory and risk considerations. We value them highly, which is why we’ve asked them back multiple times to support our digital team.”

Becky Franks
Head of UX & Optimisation
Co-operative Bank

What we do

  • Tone of voice audits
  • Tone of voice design
  • Training
  • Content supply chain optimisation
  • Consumer Duty content audits
  • User journey copywriting
  • Regulatory copy
  • Content strategy and process design
  • Microcopy
  • Operational content
  • SEO content
  • Marketing content
  • Content design
  • Full content audits
  • App copy
  • Conversation design

Who we do it for

  • High street banks
  • Challenger banks
  • Fintech startups
  • Insurance companies
  • Investment banks
  • Currency platforms
  • Payment platforms
  • Lenders
  • Credit providers and underwriters
  • Brokers and intermediaries

Our expertise

  • FCA compliance
  • Consumer Duty
  • Fraud prevention
  • Behaviour change
  • Anti-money-laundering
  • Regulatory and risk
  • Treating customers fairly
  • Content and language accessibility
  • Plain English

Why financial services brands trust us with their content

Why should you trust us with your hard-earned reputation as a financial services brand? We have a hard-earned track record for creating effective, behaviour-changing content. That is necessary, but insufficient. Here are five specific reasons.

01

Experience that goes broad and deep

Every member of your delivery team has direct and specific experience of working within the financial services sector. Our team has collectively delivered work for the following financial services brands: Aviva, Moneycorp, OFX, Citigroup, Scottish Widows, Legal & General, Aegon, PayPal, Allianz, Standard Life, Nationwide, Infinity Financial Solutions (Asia), gosimply.com, Moneysupermarket.com, WeKnowMoney.com, Money.co.uk, AJ Bell, WPA, Delio, FXCompared, Wise.com, Co-operative Bank, esure and Direct Line. In these contexts, we have delivered everything from full website rewrites and tone of voice overhauls to conversation design and app copy.

02

Compliance culture and processes baked in

With Essential Content as your partner, you effectively unlock the power of having an external compliance expert. As well as a demonstrable commitment to understanding and implementing the latest guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), members of our team have actually worked for and consulted to the FCA’s predecessor, the FSA. We understand the importance of not only delivering work that is compliant, but of supporting your compliance processes and regulatory obligations, fostering processes that serve the goal of treating customers fairly and meeting Consumer Duty obligations.

03

Seniority and client-side experience

Members of our team have held senior roles within regulated financial services organisations like banks, lenders and insurers, and bring that client-side experience to their work for Essential Content. Our team intuitively understands the dynamics and challenges faced by financial services providers, especially as they relate to creating new content, changing or updating content and marketing more generally. We don’t just deliver content: we advocate internally, influence stakeholders and provide guidance on systems and processes for getting the best out of your content operations and your content teams.

04

User-centred approach

To best serve our clients, we are fully committed to becoming strong advocates for their customers and users. This inevitably creates a level of tolerable friction as we push against established processes and ‘best practice’ (or what we call ‘best practice, so far’). The best outcome for our client is one where their customers have an improved experience, even if internal processes and culture mean we are swimming against the tide. Our clients trust us and expect us to challenge their thinking. We have the confidence and experience to make recommendations that have a genuine business impact, while centring the user in all of our thinking and work.

05

Exposure to elite processes and approaches

We are fortunate enough to have worked with some of the world’s leading financial services providers, from legacy investment platforms to world-changing financial technology providers. This gives us an insight into how organisations at the very top of their game operate. While we take confidentiality very seriously, working with the world’s best financial services organisations enables us to adopt and share best practices. For example, clients in the go-to-market phase often find compliance processes challenging. We have been able to advise on new ways of working learned from clients that have already been there and done it.

Excited about the possibilities?

Tell us about your goals and we’ll arrange a discovery session with one of our senior content consultants.

Get in touch →contact@essentialcontent.co.uk