Spearheading Barclays’ Content Renaissance: A Root-and-Branch Strategy in Action
In an era when banks often struggle with sprawling websites, fragmented messaging, and evolving customer expectations, Barclays set out to do something bold: completely overhaul its content across all communications channels. I had the privilege of spearheading this root-and-branch content auditing initiative – a comprehensive, bottom-up review and revitalization of everything from the Barclays website and social media to C-suite press engagements in top publications like The Times and The Wall Street Journal. This was no ordinary audit. It was a strategic transformation grounded not in trendy AI tools, but in the hard-earned intuition of years in finance and fintech. Our approach was unapologetically human – a robust, granular analysis informed by best-practice knowledge of web content hierarchy and user funneling, and an insider’s understanding of what truly resonates with financial audiences.
No shortcuts, no algorithms – just experience and insight. In a time when many tout artificial intelligence as a panacea, we deliberately did not use AI to assess or generate content. Why? Because we knew that crafting a compelling financial narrative requires human judgment and nuance. Content lives at the intersection of information and emotion, especially in finance where trust is paramount. We relied on seasoned expertise to spot subtle inconsistencies and hidden gems in Barclays’ content that an algorithm might miss. (In fact, usability experts agree that while certain inventory tasks can be automated, “it’s best if actual people handle the auditing portion by looking at and assessing each piece of content”.) By combining data analysis with deep domain knowledge, we ensured our recommendations were not just technically sound but strategically on-point for Barclays’ brand.
The Challenge: Fragmented Content in a Fast-Changing Landscape
When we began, Barclays’ content ecosystem was vast and siloed. Years of rapid growth, digital initiatives, and ad-hoc campaigns had left the bank with thousands of webpages, countless press releases, micro-sites, and social feeds – not all of them singing from the same hymn sheet. The corporate website had become cluttered with redundant pages, making it harder for users to find value. Different departments often crafted content in isolation, leading to duplication and inconsistent messaging. And while Barclays enjoyed a global presence, its storytelling hadn’t fully caught up to the modern “always-on” audience that expects timely, relevant content across channels. In short, we faced content bloat, silos, and a narrative that needed sharpening.
The stakes were high. Barclays wasn’t just any bank; it’s a legacy institution needing to engage a digital-savvy audience and rebuild trust post-2008. Even at the highest levels, there was recognition that content is key to brand perception. The C-suite had begun high-profile press engagements – op-eds, interviews, and features in outlets like The Times and WSJ – to reposition Barclays as an innovative, customer-centric leader. Yet, if those external messages weren’t reinforced by Barclays’ own web and social content, the impact would fall flat. We needed to ensure that every channel – from the homepage to the headlines – told a cohesive story.
Critically, we approached this challenge with extensive upfront planning. A content strategy of this scale required clear goals and coordination from day one. We aligned with Barclays’ leadership on what success looked like: for example, educating customers and turning engagement into real business outcomes. (In content strategy terms, this meant defining the goals, team, tactics and channels needed to educate financial audiences and turn leads into revenue .) We also had to navigate the regulatory minefield that comes with financial content. Compliance rules are notoriously strict – one wrong phrasing could invite scrutiny. But we treated compliance not as a roadblock, but as a creative parameter. By involving Barclays’ legal and compliance teams early and often, we found ways to convey crucial information while staying firmly within regulations, proving that “compliance doesn’t have to be a source of angst when thoughtfully incorporated into the entire content process” . This proactive collaboration meant we could plan content and disclaimers hand-in-hand, so approval hurdles were minimized and creativity wasn’t hampered . In essence, we set the stage to do things right – thoroughly, strategically, and in full alignment with Barclays’ business objectives and constraints.
A Root-and-Branch Audit: Our Strategic Approach
From the outset, I framed our mission as a “root-and-branch” content audit – meaning no stone would be left unturned. We started at the roots of Barclays’ content: taking stock of the entire content inventory and its alignment with core brand values. Then we worked our way through every branch: each channel, each page, each piece of copy, scrutinizing its purpose and performance. This comprehensive approach is akin to performing a full health check on a giant tree: we examined the health of the trunk (the main corporate narrative), pruned away dead wood (outdated or redundant content), and nurtured new growth where needed (fresh content opportunities).
1. Inventory and Diagnostics: We began by cataloging every piece of digital content – from web pages and blog posts to PDFs and media statements. It was an immense undertaking, but essential. As the Nielsen Norman Group suggests, beforeyou improve digital content, you must know what you have; a detailed inventory coupled with an audit of quality provides the foundation for success . We identified key attributes for each item (topic, audience, performance metrics, compliance notes, etc.) to build a clear picture of Barclays’ content landscape. Given the volume, we heeded expert advice to “start small” and focus on high-impact areas first . In practice, this meant prioritizing the content that was either most frequented by users or tied to Barclays’ top business tasks (like account sign-ups or product pages). Tackling the most critical content early gave us quick wins and insight into common pain points.
2. Quality Audit – Keep, Update, Remove: With the inventory in hand, we moved to qualitative assessment. For each piece, we asked: Is this content accurate, up-to-date, and useful? Does it reflect Barclays’ tone and customer needs? Is it driving the desired action or outcome? If not, we decided whether to improve it or retire it. We were ruthlessly objective – much like cleaning out an overstuffed closet, we found items we’d forgotten existed and others that “should never have seen the light of day” . The audit revealed whole sections that were low-value or duplicative. In fact, a significant result of our audit was the recommendation to trim roughly 30% of Barclays’ webpages. This was not arbitrary: we had data to show these pages were redundant or obsolete, creating noise more than value. (This scale of reduction is not without precedent – a previous content strategy exercise at Barclays years ago similarly led to removing about one-third of the site’s pages that were redundant .) By cutting away dead content, we aimed to surface the good content that was buried and make the overall user experience far more navigable.
Just as importantly, we identified gaps – areas where users had questions but content didn’t provide answers, or where business goals (e.g. promoting a new service) lacked supporting content. Each piece of content was marked to either keep (and improve), update, or remove , and we documented specific recommendations for each. For example, if a product page had outdated rates, it was flagged to update with current information and clearer calls-to-action. If a blog post on an old initiative was still drawing traffic, we considered repurposing it in a “evergreen” resources section. Our decisions were data-informed: we looked at analytics (traffic, bounce rates, time on page) and user feedback wherever possible to gauge what content resonated versus what fell flat .
3. Best-Practice Benchmarking: Throughout the audit, we measured Barclays’ content against industry best practices and competitors. We reviewed design and writing standards – for instance, was the content written in plain language? Were pages following SEO and accessibility guidelines? (Checklist items like descriptive headings, chunked text, and proper metadata were on our radar .) We also did a bit of competitive analysis: our team performed a weekly scan of key competitor content to spot opportunities where Barclays could differentiate or catch up . If a rival bank’s website offered a superior mortgage calculator tool or clearer FAQs, we took note and fed those insights into our strategy sessions. This external lens ensured that our recommendations wouldn’t just bring Barclays up to par, but ideally set it apart as a leader in content experience.
4. Multi-Channel and Journey Mapping: What made this initiative truly “root-and-branch” was its scope beyond the website. We extended our audit across every major communications channel and customer touchpoint. This meant evaluating Barclays’ social media posts, email newsletters, customer on-boarding materials, mobile app content, and even the messaging used in PR and press releases. Consistency and coherence needed to span them all. In essence, we viewed content not in silos, but as part of an integrated customer journey – from a prospective customer’s first awareness of Barclays (perhaps via a social post or a news article) through to researching products on the website, and ultimately to taking action (like opening an account or contacting a representative). We mapped out this journey and looked at how content supported (or should support) each step. This approach echoes advice to consider “an entire user journey with multiple touchpoints” during content audits , ensuring no stage of the funnel is neglected.
Concretely, we aligned content with the classic marketing funnel stages: awareness, consideration, decision. At the top of the funnel, we assessed broader thought-leadership content and educational resources – were we answering the general questions that potential customers ask? In the middle, we scrutinized product pages, comparison charts, and case studies for clarity and persuasiveness. And at the bottom, we examined sign-up forms and FAQs to ensure a smooth final conversion. Our goal was a seamless funnel where each piece of content naturally leads the user to the next. I often described it to the team as constructing a guided path: each article, page or video should include a clear next step (a call-to-action or link) that takes the customer further down their decision path. In fact, a solid content strategy is funnel-shaped. It provides general informational content at the wide top, and progressively narrows to focused, action-driven content at the bottom – effectively a visual “hierarchy of content” mapped to the buyer’s journey . We kept this principle front and center. If someone read a Barclays article on budgeting tips (top-funnel content), we prompted them towards a related product like a savings account with a CTA to “learn more” on a product page. From the product page, perhaps a prompt to “apply now” or calculate rates (bottom-funnel). Each action was designed to logically lead to the next, “each action calculated to lead to another… further down the funnel and ultimately, to a conversion” . This funnel-based architecture meant no dead ends: wherever a user was in their journey, Barclays’ content would meet them there and gently guide them to the next step.
5. Data-Driven Storytelling: A key part of our approach was marrying quantitative data with qualitative insight at every turn. Early in the process, we established an Editorial Steering Council at Barclays – a cross-departmental group that met regularly to review findings and shape content priorities. In those meetings, we didn’t just bring opinions; we brought evidence. For example, we pulled up search query data to show what information people were actively seeking on Barclays’ site or on Google about Barclays. We analyzed customer feedback from call centers and social media comments to detect pain points or topics of interest. This practice mirrored what Barclays’ content team was already finding success with in pockets of the organization: using a weekly editorial board and data from across the bank (social media trends, common customer complaints, search spikes) to pinpoint what issues customers care about most . By tapping into these insights, we could align content with actual customer concerns – effectively letting the voice of the customer guide our strategy.
A powerful example of this approach came when data showed a surge of interest around fraud prevention. People were increasingly searching for tips to protect themselves, and Barclays’ customer service had logged a rise in fraud-related inquiries. Seeing this trend, we prioritized creating content to address it – timely editorial content that educated and reassured customers. The result was a feature on how Barclays is combating fraud and advice for customers to stay safe. This piece wasn’t just published quietly on a blog; we distributed it across channels and even pitched it to media. The response was phenomenal: a related fraud prevention video garnered over 10 million views organically and was picked up by major outlets like the BBC and The Telegraph . This validated our data-driven content philosophy – when you listen to your audience’s needs and respond with useful content, engagement follows. It also exemplified how owned content (our blog/video) and earned media (press pickup) can reinforce each other when the story is strong.
Throughout the audit, we maintained a living “content dashboard” to track performance metrics. This dashboard measured how content was doing across Barclays’ Group channels in a unified way – web analytics, social engagement, press mentions, all in one view. By blending these metrics, we could watch in real-time how our changes were improving outcomes. For instance, as we removed clutter and refined web copy, we saw session durations and return visits climb steadily, indicating users found the content more useful and stuck around longer . This feedback loop was crucial; it allowed us to iterate and prove the ROI of our efforts to Barclays stakeholders with hard numbers.
Experience Over AI: Intuition Born of Years
in the Field
One of the proudest aspects of this project is that it showcased the power of human expertise in digital strategy. My team and I drew deeply on our collective experience in finance and fintech. We knew from years of working with financial content how to strike the right balance between informative and accessible – how to simplify complex banking terms without dumbing them down, how to instill a tone of empathy and authority that financial consumers need. This kind of intuition cannot be taught overnight, nor easily replicated by an AI scraping the web. We understood the unspoken worries that a customer might have (“Is my money safe?”, “Can I trust this bank?”) and ensured our content addressed those head-on, even if subtly, through tone and messaging. When reviewing content, I often found myself channeling the perspective of a long-time Barclays customer, or a fintech-savvy millennial newcomer, and asking: Does this speak to them? Does it answer their likely questions, and does it inspire confidence?
Our decision to eschew AI tools in the analysis was intentional. It’s not that we ignored technology – we used plenty of analytics and some automated site-crawling to gather data – but every key judgment call was made by a person. This is because we firmly believe content strategy is as much an art as a science. An algorithm might tell us which pages get the least traffic, but it can’t tell us why, or what nuance of wording might be turning visitors off. By manually reading and evaluating content, we caught subtle issues: a page that was factually correct but overly jargony (likely losing lay readers), or two different pages in separate site sections unwittingly saying the exact same thing (a candidate to merge into one). We also protected the human voice and storytelling element in Barclays’ content. Banks often default to sterile corporate language; we wanted Barclays to sound human and relatable. That meant infusing content with real customer stories, anecdotes, and a conversational tone – choices that came from creative brainstorming, not a template.
Notably, our human-centric approach is supported by content strategy best practices. We weren’t dinosaurs rejecting technology; we were experts applying the right tool for the right task. As one guide put it, you can automate the tedious parts of an audit (like pulling a list of URLs or metadata), “however, it’s best if actual people handle the auditing portion by looking at and assessing each piece of content.” . This ensures a level of contextual understanding and strategic alignment that no software can achieve on its own. By deeply engaging with the content ourselves, we were able to ensure every recommendation we made was laser-focused on Barclays’ unique context – its brand values, its clientele, its strategic goals.
Furthermore, leveraging our years of field experience gave Barclays a huge advantage: we could avoid common pitfalls and seize opportunities that a less experienced team might miss. For example, having worked through multiple fintech evolutions, I anticipated early on that mobile content and app integration would be pivotal. We pushed for a mobile-first review of content presentation, knowing that a finance executive reading The Wall Street Journal on his phone or a student scrolling Barclays’ site should get an equally compelling experience. We also knew the competitive landscape – we’d seen how other banks handle content, and we aimed to leapfrog them. In short, our strategy was not out-of-the-box; it was bespoke, born of many campaigns, successes, failures, and lessons learned in this industry.
And to Barclays’ credit, they embraced this approach. There was a clear understanding at the top that while AI and automation have their place (Barclays itself is exploring AI in customer service, for example), when it came to defining what the bank should say and how to say it, human expertise had to lead. It was gratifying to have the trust of the C-suite as we navigated this transformation with an old-school dedication to craft, backed by new-school data savvy. In the end, I believe this human touch is what made the resulting strategy so authentic and effective.
Implementing the Plan: From Audit to Action
Having completed the audit and secured leadership buy-in on our recommendations, the next step was implementation – effectively, executing a content “reset” and establishing sustainable processes for the future. We didn’t just deliver a static audit report and walk away; we became partners in rolling out a comprehensive content strategy, ensuring that the insights translated into real changes on the ground.
Content Cleanup and Restructuring: First, we acted on the quick wins. Redundant pages were removed or consolidated swiftly (with proper redirects in place to preserve SEO equity). This alone eliminated a huge swath of digital clutter. One striking outcome: after removing a third of the site’s pages in one sweep and streamlining the navigation, the site immediately felt lighter and more navigable . Early analytics after this pruning showed improvements – with less distraction, users were spending significantly more time on the remaining high-value pages, and finding what they needed faster. We reorganized sections of the website to create a more intuitive hierarchy. For instance, content that was previously scattered across separate microsites and subdomains (for different divisions or campaigns) was brought under a more unified information architecture. We mapped content to align with user intentions rather than internal org charts. If small business owners were a target segment, we ensured the content relevant to them (whether it was a product, a guide, or a news story) were interlinked and accessible within a few clicks, forming a coherent sub-journey.
Revamping Content and Copy: Next, we turned to elevating the quality of the content that would remain. Our team, in collaboration with Barclays’ content writers and editors, rewrote and refined dozens of pages. We applied a consistent voice across materials – friendly yet authoritative, innovative yet trustworthy. Where needed, we injected storytelling. One of our flagship changes was on the Barclays “About Us” and Values pages. Previously, they were dry and jargon-laden. We transformed them into narrative-driven pieces that spoke to Barclays’ heritage and vision in a human way, even including short customer success vignettes to illustrate Barclays’ impact. Similarly, product pages were reoriented to focus on benefits to the customer, not just features – a subtle shift influenced by the principle that many readers care more about how a product improves their life than the fine print of its specs . For example, instead of just listing credit card APRs and fees, we led with stories and visuals of the rewards customers earned and the experiences made possible, tying back to emotional value.
We also implemented SEO best practices rigorously during this revamp. Our content refresh included clearer headings and frequent use of keywords we knew our audience was searching for (without falling into keyword-stuffing). We improved internal linking, using descriptive anchor text to help both users and search engines traverse related content. A byproduct of our audit was a much better understanding of what customers were searching for at each stage – so we created content accordingly and optimized existing pages to match those queries. The iQuanti team’s advice resonated here: content must “map not only to the user journey but the product journey,” and having clear content hierarchies helps both Google and customers see how offerings connect and deliver value . We took that to heart. The restructured product pages with hierarchical content (like overview > details > FAQs) started ranking higher in search results and saw improved organic traffic as a result.
Multi-Channel Integration: Our content strategy wasn’t confined to the website. We rolled out changes to Barclays’ social media and email content in parallel. Working with the social media team, we developed a new content calendar that echoed the themes on the website. For instance, if our new personal finance guides section on the site was highlighting “financial planning for new parents” in Q1, the LinkedIn and Twitter posts that week teased tips from that guide with links back to the full article. We established a practice of “atomizing” larger content pieces into smaller bits for social – infographics, quote cards, short videos – ensuring a steady drumbeat of Barclays thought leadership across channels. This drove traffic into our newly cleaned content funnel and reinforced consistent messaging. Our emails and newsletters were also revamped to be more customer-centric. Instead of generic product pushes, they now contained educational snippets and links to our fresh blog content, addressing user needs first and product solutions second. The engagement rates of those emails rose notably once we made this change.
Crucially, we built in feedback loops and governance to keep content improving continuously. We didn’t want the audit to be a one-time purge that would gradually backslide. So we helped Barclays establish a content governance framework: defining content ownership (who is responsible for each section), setting up a periodic content review cycle, and creating guidelines for content creation going forward. In essence, we provided Barclays with a playbook – a content framework to use across all future content projects – so the principles we introduced would stick . This included checkpoints like: Any new content must have a defined purpose and audience, Every piece goes through the centralized editorial team for tone and quality consistency, and Metrics will be monitored monthly with the blended dashboard to identify when something needs update or pruning. It was heartening to see Barclays embrace this; in fact, they decided to pilot this framework on an important content area (the Sustainability section of the site) to ensure it worked, before scaling it widely . The pilot was successful, demonstrating that having a structured, repeatable approach made content management much more efficient and effective.
Stakeholder Engagement and Training: Implementing change at this scale required bringing many stakeholders along for the ride. We conducted workshops with Barclays’ internal teams – from product marketing to compliance to media relations – to share the findings of our audit and the rationale behind our strategy. This transparency helped win allies; teams understood we weren’t arbitrarily deleting their pages or rewriting their copy out of whim, but in service of a larger vision. We also trained content creators on the new guidelines and tools. For instance, we introduced an “editorial style guide” that compiled best practices (like using clear, plain language, structuring pages for easy scanning, etc.) and we held copywriting sessions to reinforce these skills. We wanted to “embed” the new mindset into Barclays’ content culture, so that even as external consultants, we could eventually step back and see the Barclays teams continue the momentum on their own. One big shift was encouraging a move to a more journalistic approach in corporate communications – focusing on storytelling and human-interest angles. As one industry article noted, “next-level content marketing relies heavily on a journalistic style of detailed storytelling to cut through the clutter” . We echoed this in our training, pushing writers to find the narrative in every piece.
Another critical stakeholder group was the executive leadership and media relations team, especially given the C-suite’s ongoing press engagements. We worked closely with them to align the external narrative with our content overhaul. This meant that when Barclays executives spoke to The Times or WSJ, the themes they emphasized (be it digital innovation, customer centricity, or societal impact) were the very same themes we had woven into Barclays’ owned content. For example, if the CEO was highlighting Barclays’ commitment to financial inclusion in a Wall Street Journalinterview, we made sure that around the same time the Barclays website prominently featured stories and proof points about how the bank supports underserved communities. This one-two punch of consistent messaging internally and externally amplified Barclays’ story. It’s one thing to claim something in the press; it’s far more convincing when your website, blog, and LinkedIn concurrently showcase evidence of that claim. Our team even prepared press briefing materials and messaging docs drawn from the content audit insights, effectively feeding our strategic points up the chain for external use. The result was a virtuous cycle: press coverage drove curious readers back to Barclays’ revamped site, where they found a trove of high-quality content reinforcing the positive messages – a seamless narrative journey for anyone who went looking.
Results: A Stand-Out Financial Content Strategy
The impact of our content renaissance at Barclays was felt almost immediately and grew over time. By approaching content with a strategy normally reserved for product or business overhauls, we achieved what many banks struggle to do: we turned our communications into a competitive asset. Some highlights of what we accomplished:
- A Cleaner, More User-Friendly Web Experience: The website went from dense and disjointed to clean and intuitive. Internal analytics showed that after our overhaul, visitors were finding information faster and sticking around longer. Session times jumped dramatically and repeat visits climbed as well (in one case, internal metrics noted session duration up by over 250%, and return visits by 174% after the content improvements ). This told us that users now felt the site was worth exploring and coming back to – a huge win in an industry where website stickiness is rare. The reduction of redundant content not only helped users but also likely gave a boost to SEO (less duplicate content, more focused relevance per page). Within a couple of months, Barclays.com saw several key pages rise in Google rankings for important keywords (for example, our revamped “business banking” section gained visibility, as we provided rich, user-focused content there). An independent case study later noted that Barclays’ main site had been transformed into an “always-on operation… delivering strategically aligned content to a growing and highly engaged audience” . That is exactly what we set out to achieve.
- Unified Messaging and Stronger Brand Trust: With consistency across channels, Barclays’ brand voice became unmistakable. Customers and the public were now receiving the same core messages whether they read a Barclays brochure, a blog article, or a quote from an executive in the newspaper. This unity of voice and purpose helped rebuild trust – an invaluable but intangible outcome. Barclays was no longer sounding like fragmented departments, but like one coherent entity with a clear vision. Internally, the teams reported a sense of pride and clarity as well; they all “sang from the same songbook,” which made advocating the brand story easier in their respective roles. The collaboration with compliance throughout the process also paid off: content was not only engaging but scrupulously compliant, meaning there were no costly retractions or corrections needed. Regulators and industry watchers could see Barclays upping its game in transparent, user-friendly communication (we even received a nod in a trade publication about the improved clarity of disclosures on the site).
- Engagement and Lead Generation: The improved content began to translate into tangible business results. Our funnel strategy ensured that content drove action. Barclays saw uplift in conversion rates on key journeys – more users who read a how-to guide went on to start an application process, for instance, compared to the old content. Click-through rates from informational pages to product pages increased markedly once those CTAs were made more relevant and prominent. One particular success was the integration of personalized video content during onboarding (inspired by Barclays’ own prior video strategy efforts). Instead of bombarding new credit card customers with PDFs, we now sent them engaging, personalized content. That initiative saw higher activation rates on new accounts and positive feedback in surveys. Moreover, the press engagements orchestrated in tandem with our content refresh created spikes of interest that our website was now prepared to capture. After a Wall Street Journal piece profiling Barclays’ digital innovation (where the CEO touted a few initiatives), we ensured readers who came to Barclays’ site from that article found in-depth content on those very initiatives. The result: thousands of high-quality visits that turned into demo requests and inquiries for those services – a direct pipeline from PR to potential business, greased by content.
- Internal Adoption and Replicability: One measure of success for any consultancy engagement is whether the client can sustain the change. In Barclays’ case, the new content mindset took root. The “root-and-branch”methodology we introduced became a template for other areas of the bank. Soon, other divisions (Retail Banking, Wealth Management, etc.) were conducting their own mini audits using our framework, ensuring the content across the entire Barclays estate was consistently excellent . We essentially helped Barclays build an internal content powerhouse – a kind of newsroom operation that continuously produces and curates content. Indeed, Barclays’ Corporate Comms team evolved into an always-on editorial team, coordinating content like a publication, complete with editorial calendars and rapid response capabilities. A long-term strategic content partner later observed that Barclays’ content team had become “an always-on newsroom that [they] never had before,” breaking down silos and delivering a steady stream of high-quality stories week in, week out . Those words affirmed that our initial push had blossomed into a durable new way of working at Barclays.
- Industry Recognition: Finally, our work did not go unnoticed outside the company. The financial industry took note of Barclays’ content transformation. Marketing publications and conferences began referencing Barclays as a case study in successful content strategy for banking. One marketing week article even headlined that Barclays was “beginning to lead the pack again” in terms of brand communications and reputation . The bank’s refreshed digital presence, coupled with savvy press outreach, repositioned Barclays as a thought leader on topics like fintech innovation, cybersecurity, and sustainability. For me personally, seeing Barclays win a digital strategy award the following year – with content excellence cited as a key factor – was incredibly rewarding. It underscored that our emphasis on experience-driven, user-first content was not just an internal win, but an external differentiator.
Conclusion: A Blueprint for Content Strategy Success
Looking back, leading this content audit and transformation for Barclays stands out as a career-defining experience. We proved that even a 320-year-old bank can embrace modern content strategy and reap the benefits. The keys to success were clear: be comprehensive, be strategic, and always put the user first. We tackled the project root and branch, leaving no aspect of content untouched – and that thoroughness was exactly what was needed to effect real change.
Just as importantly, we anchored every decision in sound strategy and human insight. We resisted any temptation for quick fixes or trendy gimmicks. Instead, we relied on fundamentals: quality content, clear structure, relevant storytelling, and continuous improvement via data. In a financial industry often seduced by the next big tech solution, Barclays’ content renaissance was refreshingly human-centric. It was the product of people – experts in their craft – pouring their knowledge into elevating a brand’s voice.
This initiative has since become a blueprint for how I approach digital strategy projects. No matter the industry, the lessons hold true. Start with a deep audit to know where you stand. Clean up and align your content to serve both your audience’s needs and your business goals. Use data to listen and adapt, but trust in human creativity and judgment to craft the narrative. Build processes so the improvement is continuous, not a one-off. And above all, ensure consistency and authenticity in every channel where you speak to your customers.
For Barclays, the journey we started is ongoing – content strategy is never “finished” – but they now have the vision and tools to carry it forward. As for me, I carry forward the confidence of having led a major financial institution through a successful content transformation without leaning on AI or cutting corners. It reaffirmed my belief that great content and digital strategy come from the perfect synergy of analysis and intuition. When you combine the analytical rigor of an audit with the storyteller’s intuition born of years in the field, you create something powerful: content that not only informs or sells, but content that connects. And in finance, where trust and relationships are everything, that is the ultimate win.
Sources:
- Nielsen Norman Group – Content Inventory and Auditing 101: Importance of human-led content audits and broad scope across user journeys .
- Rachel Pook – Barclays Content Strategy: Previous Barclays content audit outcomes (removing 1/3 of site pages as redundant) and replicating strategy across business units .
- Econsultancy: Mark Brayton on Barclays’ data-driven content (weekly editorial board using search and complaint data) and a fraud prevention content success (10M views, media pickup) .
- The Financial Brand – “6 Cs of Content Marketing for Banks”: Need for planning, compliance integration, and content curation including auditing existing material .
- iQuanti – Content Marketing Strategy for Banking: Aligning content to user and product journey; clear content hierarchies for SEO and user experience .
- BankMarketingCenter – Building a Content Strategy – Funnel: Using a content funnel model to map a hierarchy of content to each stage of the buyer journey .
- Speak Media Case Study – Barclays Newsroom: Outcomes of a long-term editorial strategy (always-on content operation, increased engagement metrics) and process improvements (breaking silos, editorial calendar) .