BACKGROUND
This project was for an early-stage FinTech startup in the personal finance space targeting people in their 20s and 30s. The goal was to build the brand's entire content function from scratch, including competitive analysis, editorial identity, channel infrastructure, and a first-quarter editorial calendar, before a single piece of content was published.
I started with a content audit of five competitors assessed across six dimensions, which revealed three consistent gaps across the competitive landscape: honest, non-judgmental content about financial struggle and anxiety, deep practical guides framed around specific life stages rather than generic topics, and community and peer stories that build trust without product focus. Those gaps shaped the brand's editorial positioning directly: to become the most honest voice in personal finance for people in their 20s and 30s, writing peer-to-peer rather than top-down and refusing to make readers feel behind.
Before the first piece was published, I built the full content infrastructure including a TOV guide, content brief template, style guide, editorial calendar, blog category structure, newsletter template, and contributor onboarding pack. The first-quarter calendar was planned to prioritize depth over volume, with cornerstone content in each pillar forming the SEO architecture before community and product-in-context content was introduced in Month 3.
