And tons of bloggers began offering their budgeting hacks. Personal finance guides popped up on lifestyle sites. Companies with retail banking divisions invested in educational resources centers. Then, seemingly before the ink dried on the deal, everyone started copying Mint. According to Mint founder Aaron Patzer, by the time the app launched, “MintLife was driving more traffic than their competitors were to their entire websites.” Mint became one of content marketing’s first rags-to-riches story when Intuit acquired the company for $170 million in 2009, in large part because of how the blog had helped them establish a strong brand, acquire users, and earn their brand loyalty.

While most finserv content at the time took the form of dry PDFs, Mint’s blog sounded like it was written by your friend’s cool older sibling who worked on Wall Street but went to Vassar, and had somehow saved up $100K by age 27. They started the MintLife blog before the app even launched, offering straightforward advice to young professionals who wanted guidance on everything from taxes to credit scores. Mint was building a budgeting app that could track spending and help with financial planning. In 2006, a small company called Mint came on the scene with a plan to make personal finance easier for everyone.

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