5 more hot tips from Monzo🔥

A couple of weeks ago we shared 5 of Monzo's secret sauce marketing techniques – taken straight from our talk with Richard Cook, Monzo's Social Lead.

This week we're sharing 5 more tips that you can apply to your own marketing game.🔥

Starting with our fifth tip...

5. Your tone of voice is a moat

Monzo spent hours perfecting the voice of a CTA. They understood that tone of voice isn’t a style guide, but a brand in its rawest form.

“We’d debate whether ‘whoops’ or ‘ah, damn’ felt more Monzo.”

– Richard Cook, Social Lead at Monzo

That obsession built trust. It made the brand feel alive. And in a category as dry and formal as banking, that STOOD OUT.

If your TOV sounds like a copy-paste from your competitors with a few emojis sprinkled in, it’s not a tone.. it’s a costume.

Burn it.

Start again.

Sound like someone real.

6. Activate community

Startup marketers love to talk about community. But Monzo activated it.

“We had a forum where people would literally help us name features or debate how overdrafts should work.”

– Richard Cook, Social Lead at Monzo

They didn’t just harvest UGC.

They co-created with their users.

That made people feel seen. Heard. Invested (emotionally AND literally… because remember when customers literally owned shares?)

If your community strategy starts and ends with a forum link in your footer, you’re leaving more powerful things on the table.

Ask them for input.

Credit their ideas.

Let them steer the ship.

7. Perfection is the enemy of momentum

In the early days, Monzo didn’t wait for glossy decks or polished brand guidelines.

They made things fast. They shipped MVPs of campaigns. They learned in public.

That scrappiness was the brand. It created intimacy and agility.

Not everything needs a Notion doc and 6 rounds of feedback.

So pick up your phone and shoot the TikTok video.

Publish the blog.

Test the tagline.

Speed is underrated.

8. Marketing is everyone’s job

At Monzo, everyone was a marketer.

Not in a “everyone’s a brand ambassador” way, but in a measurable, impact-on-growth way.

“Everyone at Monzo, from ops to engineers, cared about growth.”

– Richard Cook, Social Lead at Monzo

When engineers understand why CTAs matter, or customer service teams know what to say on X, you become unstoppable.

Your goal as a marketer isn’t just to execute. It’s to evangelise.

Spread the gospel internally.

Host a “marketing 101” session for non-marketers.

Share metrics.

Celebrate wins.

Invite people in.

9. Find what people DESIRE

People didn’t switch to Monzo for a prettier app.

They switched because they were fed up with legacy banks.

The product met a real, emotional need.

“It wasn’t just that Monzo had a better app – it was that people wanted to believe in a better bank.”

– Richard Cook, Social Lead at Monzo

Great marketing doesn’t invent desire. It meets it at the boiling point.

So ask yourself, what’s the VISCERAL moment of frustration your customer has before they find you?

Then reverse-engineer everything – onboarding, messaging, ad creative – from that spark.

10. Brand is a feeling

This one’s hard to pin down, but crucial.

Monzo’s early growth wasn’t just from product-market fit or clever referrals. It was from vibes (sorry if you hate that word...).

“There was a spirit to it – this scrappy underdog energy.”

– Richard Cook, Social Lead at Monzo

People didn’t just use Monzo. They rooted for it.

And to be clear, vibes doesn’t mean your font or palette.

It’s how people describe you when you’re not in the room.

If you don’t know what that is, go find out.

Ask customers. Ask friends.

And if it doesn’t match what you want it to be? You’ve got work to do.