Updated: Sep 11, 2021
Writing for finance is not like writing for anything else. There are a myriad of rules you have to follow, or firms can be slapped across the face with spectacular fines. Earlier this year, for example, Moneybarn was fined £2.77 million for failing to communicate correctly with clients. Back in 2014, Santander was fined an eye-watering £12.4 million for misleading content about investing. Understandably, investment houses err on the side of caution. Compliance teams have become giant enterprises. One recent survey found that 30,000 of one large bank’s 210,000 employees worked solely in compliance functions.
Identifying the problem
The result is that content that can be heavily diluted with risk warnings, while the fears and frustrations of the employees seep across in the material. Added to this, investing is a complex topic, which can sometimes feel so abstract. It’s also full of jargon and hard to follow. To explain it in a simple way, you’d need to have dedicated serious time and effort into studying it. After all, how can you sell something you don’t understand? And for those who truly do understand it, how many of them have an advanced knowledge of today’s best marketing practices? Is that why content about investing seems lag behind? Could this be part of the reason why a quarter of UK millennials now believe tech companies would do a better job of delivering financial services than banks?[1].
Finding the solution
What’s needed are forward-looking marketers, who love investing. People who can explain the benefits in a memorable way, without crossing the compliance line. But they’re few and far between. Think about it, how many people could tell you the tax rules of a self-invested personal pension AND why it’s important to add alt text to images? How long would it take a business to find someone who could understand endowment investing, and then transform that idea into a 90-second video using iMovie? These people are so incredibly hard to come by, but so many firms need them right now. It’s not fair on the managers to take on agencies who don’t know what they’re writing about, or how they’re allowed to write about it. It’s especially not fair on customers, who are looking for advice to make good life choices with their money. Seeing this first-hand sparked my business idea.
I’m on a mission to deliver excellent investment content, quickly.
Building my skills to become the solution
How am I solving the problem? I’m using my years of theoretical and practical experience to create exciting content, quickly. I’ve dedicated the past four years to studying my field, honing my craft, so that I can become that missing bridge between investment and marketing which is so badly needed today.
Alongside investment management qualifications, I’ve attended as many SEO courses as I can and even completed a Master of Science degree in Marketing. As you can imagine, this meant dedicating huge swathes of time, and (for me) eye-popping amounts of money (around £15,000 over the past four years). More so, I’ve interviewed experts and written published articles around investing and fintech. I’ve spent years building a career as a creative content producer, with a passion for investment management.
With the simple mission of providing excellent investment content quickly, I’m narrowing a very wide market gap. Since opening in August 2019, my agency, Hannah Duncan Investment Content, has surpassed all expectations. I have 15+ clients who ask for repeat work and trust me to deliver excellent quality quickly. From editors to ISA providers, I’m proud to offer a unique business skillset to the market.
My goals for the future are to continue expanding my skills and learning. While I write for many different clients including art galleries, sixth form colleges and hotels, wealth management and fintech is my home. I plan to continue pushing and innovating so that more people can see the true benefit of making the right financial choices.
If you need excellent content quickly, please contact me for more information.
