Custom-made Content • Paul Claireaux

Want to help more achieve this. Paul Claireaux

We all know what people value most. Paul Claireaux

You know how people value financial planning. Paul Claireaux

You always aim to offer ABC content. Paul Claireaux

25 ways to boost your business. Paul Claireaux

How hard is it to create your own content. Paul Claireaux

You want custom-made content. Paul Claireaux

Education-first marketing offers 25 business benefits, as listed below.

So, most financial service firms offer some educational content, but very few become trusted (go-to) places for answers to essential money questions.

So, you need Accurate, Balanced, and Compelling (ABC) content, which I can offer as low-cost licensed Insights. Or, where available, work with you to create unique content for your firm.

Let’s talk to explore which approach would be best for you.

Does educational content work?

Yes, my first client told me that the educational content I created with them was the ‘clincher’ for landing TESCO and other FTSE Companies as clients for their services.

Two of my clients were finalists for the prestigious Workplace Savings and Benefits ‘Financial Education Provider’ award – and two others tell me that the content I created for them is described as ‘superb’ by their chartered financial planner clients.

Great educational content boosts your reputation, attracts new clients, and retains those you have; the testimonials here, from consumers and business clients, prove it.

But these are only a few of the 25 benefits of an education-first approach to your marketing.

Click below, on the 25 benefits tab, to learn more.

What’s on this page?

Click on the tabs below to learn:

The 25 business benefits of educational marketing.
Why it could cost £100,000+ to create your own content.
How I could help you create a great educational program.
How I charge for my time, and why that’s the best way for you.
The next steps to explore getting help with your content.

You can also:

E-mail me with any questions.
Book a meeting to explore your content library design options and learn how to avoid the costly mistakes many make!
Visit the shop to see what (licensable) Insights I offer.

Paul is a unique personal finance communications expert. Technically solid, highly creative, flexible in his approach and not afraid to challenge ideas. Jason Butler, FPFS, Head of Financial Education at Salary Finance – and author of the FT’s Guide to Wealth

"The one sheet money mapping exercise is awesome"Georgina, workshop attendee

Paul's enthusiasm for helping our business deliver financial education has been everything we could have hoped for. He goes beyond what's expected with fantastic input and feedback.Ian Dickinson, MD Lifetime Financial Management

Paul’s research, technical and writing skills were valuable to Money Alive. He shares our passion for simplifying the complex. And he offers Insights beyond the brief - drawing on his industry experience. Ian Beestin. Co-Founder, Money Alive

Paul helped us develop our successful IHT masterclass in 2022. He loves to explore ideas and the art of the possible, and is one of the most passionate and knowledgeable people I know in personal finance.. Guy Tolhurst. Author and Small Business Champion

"A boring subject - brought to life, with stories and cartoons"Phillipa, workshop attendee

Paul is exceptionally skilled at interpreting research and pays real attention to detail. He tuns ideas into excellent quality content, and is passionate about the need for plain English. We're delighted with the consumer-facing insights he's worked with us to produce. Carolyn Weir. Manager. Fidelity Adviser Solutions

"The author's easy style will guide even experienced investors through ideas overlooked in most investment books"Magneto, Amazon book review

"One of the best written and most engaging books of it's kind . . ."Moira O’Neill, PFP editor at the FT

Hugely engaging & informative seminar. Debunking pension savings & industry myths. Great value & essential insights. Thanx!Rhys Taylor, Barrister, London

1. What are the 25 benefits of educational marketing?

You’ll find more reasons why Accurate, Balanced, and Compelling (ABC) educational content is becoming vital to thrive in the Financial Services sector – in tabs 1-6 on my content-to-go page.

Also, if you’d like a colourful slide deck on the 25 ways educational marketing will boost your business, please e-mail me at hello@paulclaireaux.com with the subject line ‘Send me the 25 ways’, and I’ll send you that pack.

You can then tailor that slide deck and use it to promote a project initiative (within your business) to make your firm a ‘go-to’ provider of financial education – regardless of who you work with on the content.

The colourful pack is worth having, but in the meantime, in plain text, here are the:

25 benefits of putting education at the heart of your business.

You show your clients, prospects, and team that you care about their well-being. And this is vital because ‘no one cares what we know until they know we care! ‘
You obtain a stream of engaging ‘outreach’ marketing messages derived from your new content for FREE!
By explaining your proposition clearly in writing or in a video, you learn to focus more of your messages on the elements that add the most value to your clients.
This exercise creates a feedback loop for your proposition set. It helps you decide where to discontinue a service if it adds little or no value.
That allows you to focus on building and refining the services that add the most value. Regular reviews of your proposition set are vital to your success.
When your clients (and their family and friends) consume your Insights between review meetings, they make better money decisions and avoid scams and other big mistakes.
You engage the next generation before it’s too late. (Did you know that c. 65% of inheritors don’t plan to stay with their parents’ advisers? Source: Schroders and Adviser Home.
Helping clients grasp a key (financial or behavioural) concept before you meet gives them more value from their time with you. You then focus more on your client’s personal questions and on co-developing their plan, building on the ideas they’ve already explored.
Client meetings are shorter (or less rushed and stressful) when you don’t have to explain basic concepts your clients learned on your website.
Your clients will feel more comfortable with advice if it is consistent with (reinforces) what they’ve read (or watched in a video) on your website before your meetings.
Equipping everyone with the same solid consumer-facing Insights reduces a significant risk to your business. Research (from Oxford Risk) has revealed a serious problem of inconsistent advice from different team members of one large firm.
You demonstrate to the FCA that you’re addressing their requirements around ‘Consumer understanding.’
You’ll attract and convert more clients to your services. If your content is relevant and good enough, your existing clients will share it with their family and friends.
Your clients will see more value in your ongoing services. So, fewer clients will move to other advisers or give up on advice and become DIY investors.
You’ll waste less time on unsuitable enquiries if your content clearly states who you can help and provides signposts to other reliable services for those you cannot.
You’ll reduce your firm’s lead time – for prospects to become clients – because your content will help you build trust before and after client meetings.
You’ll save on preparation time for training your team by using your client-facing content as training material.
When your training incorporates client-facing content, it’s more fun, and the ideas are more relatable and memorable.
You’ll retain more of your best staff and find it easier to recruit new quality staff – because bright candidates like working for purposeful businesses – that focus on education.
You’ll gain more client referrals from professional connections. These people are hard to please, but they will share good quality Insights with their clients for you.
Your business can expand into (or win more) employee well-being work. There’s a lot of demand for this, and only a few competent players.
You’ll enhance your reputation as a firm that helps others. You might win a prestigious ‘Financial Educator’ award or become known as a firm committed to improving financial literacy.
You could also become known as a consumer champion if you warn people of the SCAMS and lies of the bad actors outside the financial services industry.
You’ll help clients (and their families) build their capabilities and confidence around money. Research on ‘Self-Efficacy’ (by psychologist Albert Bandura) showed that our sense of our own abilities is critical for us to want to engage in our life challenges.
You make the whole subject of money and investing less scary. Let’s face it: These topics are monsters for many people, so excellent education is essential.

So, there’s really no question about the enormous benefits of putting educational content at the heart of your business.

The only question for you is whether you’re keen to do it.

Do you want to help more people make the transformation in the image below – because that’s what’s on offer if we do this well.

As in other creative industries (books, films, music), the challenge with this work is that very few firms become loved and trusted (go-to) places for answers to key money questions.

To achieve that status, you must offer Accurate, Balanced and Compelling (ABC) content – and work with the best content creators.

2. How hard is it - and what does it cost to create your own content?

It’s essential to plan these developments carefully.

You could waste tens of thousands of pounds if you get this wrong.

In future insights, I’ll explore the ‘How to’ questions for planning a new (or redesigning an existing) educational hub.

For now, you could head over to this post on the cost of creating a go-to education programme

There, you’ll find explanations of the following:

Why your content library needs to work like a shop.
How your content creates stepping stones to your services.
How to choose (and name) your content categories.
Why Money Mindsets is a must-have category for engaging clients because it’s more interesting than the same old boring facts!
How to decide on the breadth and depth of your content programme.
What does good content look like?
Why creating your own programme could cost £100,000 – or possibly more.
How to take control of your video production costs – which can get horribly expensive.
How to cut your total content costs by up to 90%.

Once you know you can save c. 90% compared to creating your own content, most of your cost worries disappear, provided that you deliver great content.

Fail to do that, and you’ll damage your brand.

In my experience, offering great content to the right people yields a fantastic return on your investment.

My clients who completed their educational programmes are extremely pleased with the results—as shown above.

3. Fourteen ways I help my clients create the best educational programs?

I will add a marketing and sales skills workshop to my core services at some point in the future.

So, if that’s of interest, let me know at hello@paulclaireaux.com

Currently, to help firms design and build a unique content program, I undertake a variety of tasks, as shown below:

So, if we worked together, I could help you to:

Review and refine your target audiences for content.
Develop or refine your business proposition – and value proposition statement.
Develop a briefing document for an educational program – that any content creator could use.
Develop an educational proposition name and strapline. Some firms position their learning hub with its own name – as separate from their main business of financial planning or other services.
Develop content ideas (and a logical sequence) for their educational programme.
Draft and refine specific Insight/lesson outlines. (I have c. 60 of these, which we could re-work)
Develop high-impact Insight titles and imagery. Pictures are vital for engaging people in your content.
Write full, long-form Insights (2,000 to 3,000 words a piece) to be used as text or video of live-presented lessons. Under a custom-made contract, we can also create derivative works from my new licensed content.
Assess the options for video formats. Video can be extremely expensive, but it does not need to be.
Source a capable (and good value) animator if required.
Storyboard creative ideas and scripts for animated videos.
Oversee the production and editing of videos.
Develop ‘outreach’ (Social Media / Newsletter) message/image sets.
Review, restructure and sharpen the messages on existing content.

4. How do I charge for content creation and consultancy work?

Five points might interest you here.

You may not need any writing help!

If you enjoy writing, have a lot of spare time to create your own content (it takes a ton of time), and can produce accurate and engaging works for less, at your usual charge-out rates, than you’d pay me, then you do not need my (Insight writing) help.

You may need content consultancy help.

You may find it useful to have some content consultancy support on any of the other 14 tasks listed in the previous tab.

For example, do you need help to develop and record your content ideas, with synopses and links to source materials, so you (or another writer) can develop the ideas into full posts or guides – when you have time?

Or would you find it useful to have a second (external) opinion on your current or planned works?

As you may be aware, if you’re a manager in your business, those who report to you might not feel comfortable (or capable) of giving you the feedback you need on your draft content.

On the other hand, an experienced content creator will give you constructive improvement ideas.

There’s no point asking for feedback if none comes back!

Pay for less content, not more.

Whoever you use for help with the writing, be sure to pay for less content, not more!

You need ideas distilled, not pages filled.

If your writing is not compelling and concise, a good writer could help. So, pay them to reduce the word count, not add to it!

Pay for time – not padding.

Building on the previous point, here’s how I charge for my time.

Valuable writing takes a ‘less is more’ approach.

So, I aim to cut out the words that confuse your messages.

At times, you’ll want your insights to:

Fascinate
Move
Excite
Reassure
Inspire
Amuse
Challenge
Inform
and Surprise your audiences.

Creating content to achieve those things takes time.

So, I charge for the time spent, not the word count, and this approach is common to all good writers.

We don’t charge by the word because that encourages content padding, and that’s not what you want.

My approach to fees gives you a lot of my time for FREE!

I charge by the minute, not by the day. So, I stop the clock when I stop doing intense desk-based work.

I also include detailed timesheets of the tasks I work on – showing the time spent on each task (to the minute) with each monthly invoice.

And my clients love this – because they can see exactly what’s been done for the fees they’ve paid.

How many professional services are this transparent?

This also means you’re not charged for the (c.25%) additional time I spend developing ideas during breaks – to get a coffee, go to the ‘rest room’ (as they say in the US!) or on other breaks, like my daily walk.

Nor do you get charged when I wake up with my mind whirring with answers to your content or marketing challenges.

Seriously?

Yes, it’s now well known that a lot of our creative thinking occurs while our brains are apparently resting.

And it’s during these non-chargeable hours that I often get my best ideas. So, that’s great value for you.

My hourly charge depends on the scale of the contract and the number of hours (of paid work!) we anticipate per month.

We can discuss and agree on terms based on the help you need.

One thing is for sure: according to VouchedFor data, my typical current hourly fees are less than those charged by an ‘average’ IFA.

And I’ve yet to meet an average IFA who can create consumer facing content to my ABC standards.

That said, if you are (or you have access to) a financial planner who can create content of similar quality to mine at a similar pace, then you really don’t need my help!

5. Next steps - to explore getting some content creation help

If building a new (or enhancing an existing) educational library interests you – and you feel you might need some help, let’s have a chat.

You can E-mail me here with any questions.

Don’t worry that I might have answered them here.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to fire away, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Alternatively, you can book a meeting directly into my diary here, and we’ll chat to explore your options for building (or enhancing) your educational library.

It doesn’t matter if we don’t end up working together.

I’m keen to help you establish your educational project and avoid the costly mistakes I see many people make!

The world needs more people helping others to make better financial decisions.

So, let’s make your business a ‘go-to’ place for those answers.

All the best for now.

Paul Claireaux