Tembo Money is a digital mortgage broker specializing in affordability solutions for homebuyers across the UK. Through their innovative tech platform, they help people understand all the different options available to boost their borrowing capacity—from first-time buyers to existing homeowners struggling to remortgage in a challenging market.
What sets Tembo apart is their focus on simplifying complex mortgage products, particularly in specialist areas like guarantor mortgages. Their approach combines sophisticated technology with clear, accessible communication to demystify the mortgage process for their customers.
Tembo Money's marketing team had built an impressive brand presence entirely in-house—developing a distinctive visual identity with strong colour schemes and engaging website design. However, this success created a new challenge: the team was spending enormous amounts of time in Canva producing day-to-day marketing materials rather than focusing on strategic marketing activities.
The Head of Marketing and Content & SEO Manager were essentially running a part-time design operation alongside their primary responsibilities. While Canva proved useful for basic tasks, it became a significant time drain that prevented the team from optimizing the website, exploring new growth opportunities, and focusing on content strategy.
The team faced several specific challenges:
The team also had a product designer in-house, but securing time from him was impossible—product design was his focus, and marketing materials simply weren't his area of expertise or priority.
Most importantly, Tembo recognized they were competing in a market where clear visual communication could be a significant differentiator. Competitors like Nuts About Money were using extensive infographics across their content, making complex mortgage information easily digestible—exactly the type of visual communication Tembo needed but couldn't produce at scale.
Tembo Money partners with Design Cloud on the Essential plan, giving them access to a dedicated UK-based designer who handles their social content, email graphics, blog visuals, and increasingly, the infographics that bring their mortgage expertise to life.
The dedicated designer model addresses their time drain immediately. Instead of the marketing team spending hours in Canva, they can now submit briefs through Design Cloud's platform and receive professional work back within one business day for simple requests. This frees the Content & SEO Manager to focus on what she does best—optimizing the site and creating strategic content—rather than fiddling with templates.
Design Cloud's approach to infographics is particularly valuable for Tembo's needs. The team can provide examples of styles they admire—like the illustrative infographics used by Nuts About Money—and their designer works to develop a similar library of assets and visual approaches that fit Tembo's brand. As this asset library grows over time, producing new infographics becomes progressively faster and easier.
The transparent pricing model solved Tembo's cost concerns entirely. At a predictable monthly rate, they gain professional design capacity without the £50,000+ commitment of hiring a full-time designer—crucial for a company focused on maintaining lean operations while scaling toward profitability.
For more complex projects like white papers or detailed infographics, Tembo receives progressive updates over several business days, allowing them to review early versions and ensure the designer is on the right track before completion. This collaborative approach means they're building visual assets that truly serve their goal of making mortgages simple and accessible.
The flexibility to scale proves valuable for Tembo's growing operations. As their marketing demands increase—whether through seasonal campaigns or expansion into new mortgage products—they can temporarily add additional designers for busy periods without long-term commitments, then return to their baseline capacity afterward.
Perhaps most importantly, working with UK-based designers during UK business hours means Tembo has responsive, reliable design support that understands the British mortgage market context and can deliver professional materials that match the sophisticated brand they've worked so hard to build.
