Most financial service firms now offer some educational content, but very few become trusted (go-to) places for consumers to find answers to essential money questions.
For that, you need Accurate, Balanced, and Compelling (ABC) Money Insights – which I can offer as low-cost licensable works or (when available to work with you) as unique content created for your firm.
This page explores this second ‘Custom Made Content’ service.
Yes, my first client said the educational program I created with them was the ‘clincher’ for landing TESCO and other FTSE Companies as clients for their services.
So, an estimated 5 million employees now have access to those lessons, through my clients’ platforms.
Two of my clients were finalists for the prestigious Workplace Savings and Benefits ‘Financial Education Provider’ award.
Two other service providers told me that the content I created for them is described as ‘superb’ by their financial planner clients.
The truth is that great educational content boosts your reputation, attracts new clients, and retains those you have; the testimonials below from consumers and business clients, prove it.
But these are only some of the 25 benefits of an education-first approach to your marketing.
Click on the tabs below to learn more.
We know sound financial planning is a high-value service — but most people know little or nothing about it.
As the blue line shows here — almost no one ever searches for it!
(The search numbers for financial ‘advice’ and ‘coaching’ are on the floor, too.)
So, there’s a massive ‘awareness’ gap here.
A great many people are also skeptical about the value of financial planning.
And it doesn’t help that we use so many different terms (financial advisers, planners, life planners, estate planners, wealth managers, financial coaches, Mortgage Advisers, Protection Advisers and more) to describe this work.
So, to help you address this, I offer a licensable consumer-facing insight called ‘Should you pay for advice?’ which shows where it makes a lot of sense to pay for advice.
Most financial service firms offer some educational content — but very few become the trusted, “go-to” place their clients and prospects turn to for answers.
The firms that get this right offer Accurate, Balanced and Compelling (ABC) content.
I help them do that — and, if you’re happy with licensed content I can now offer my core content to you for around 90% less than it would cost to create in-house.
Does it work?
Yes:
My first client told me the educational content we created together was the “clincher” for landing TESCO and other FTSE companies as clients for their services.
Two of my clients have been finalists for the Workplace Savings and Benefits “Financial Education Provider” award.
Two others tell me the content I’ve written for them is described as “superb” by their own chartered financial planner clients.
And Charles Green — co-author of The Trusted Advisor — has told me he likes the simplified trust equation I use to shape this content.
It’s vital to prove your warmth (helpfulness) and competence with content to encourage clients to reach out to you.
You cannot wait for the first meeting when other firms are building bonds of trust before that meeting with content.
Let’s talk, if you’d like to learn more.
To learn about education-first marketing, read this guide.
It covers all 25 benefits, so could help you make a business case for this form of marketing, if you need one.
For now just consider these two consumer benefits of educational content.
First it makes money (and advice) less scary.
Second it helps clients (and their adult children/inheritors) to become more capable and confident with their finances.
And, let’s face it, long-term saving, investing and personal insurance are monster topics for many people.
Most would rather not talk about this stuff – so you must offer consumer-friendly (and human) Insights – to get people to open up.
How do you choose a great content creator?
It’s vitally important when you build a new educational content program (or enhance the one you have) to choose the right people – both to help you PLAN and build out that content.
So, please check this table and ask yourself if you have (or plan to have) the right people in your project team – to ensure your new content passes all six of these tests.
If you’d like to dig deeper into these 6 tests, read my three-part guide on ‘How to rate a content creator?’ linked here.
I do, of course, answer all six questions as they relate to my services, along the way.
That guide may simply confirm you’re on the right track with your content marketing – and getting great value for money from your team or current suppliers.
For most firms, however, it provides NEW ideas for boosting your client engagement and saving tens of thousands of pounds on your marketing over time.
If you’d rather talk than read these long guides – let’s do that.
I’m keen to help you find a great content creator – regardless of who it turns out to be.
It’s essential to plan these developments carefully.
The DIY route is typically the most expensive — and can waste £100,000 or more if it’s not carefully planned.
Building a great educational library naturally splits into two phases: planning it, and creating each Insight within it.
Here’s a checklist covering both — how many of these could you honestly tick “Yes” to today?
The three planning steps above (A–C) is shorthand for a comprehensive 20 point plan to define *why* you’re building this library and *how* you’ll approach it, before a single Insight gets written.
The PLAN is there, if you need it, to put the content production phase on rails.
The twelve creation steps above are the main ACT – and you can access this service in one of two ways:
My Custom-Made service is where I build works uniquely for your firm — either from scratch, or drawing on my existing library of around 60 Insight outlines, which will save us both time and save you a ton of money.
My Content-to-Go service is where I supply ready-made licensed Insights you can brand in your own colours and put to work immediately – find out more about that service here.
If you want minimal cost and minimal effort, Content-to-Go covers virtually all the work for you.
If you want more control — or something wholly original — Custom-Made is the route. And even here you can hand off most of the work to me – if you like, while keeping full control of the messages:
If you’d like to offer some of your consumer-facing Insights as videos, that’s easy because my conversational style of writing means the same content can be used almost without change for both formats.
And I can help with format choices, storyboarding, sourcing an animator, and overseeing production if you need that help too.
Creating a library of 24 deep-dive Insights entirely yourself will cost c. £90,000 in time costs for an experienced financial planner up front.
Ongoing content maintenance could add 50% to 100% to that figure over ten years – depending on how ‘Evergreen’ the content is.
At the other extreme you could access my entire current and growing library of ready-to-use Insights, with my new All Insights Pass for just £960 a year (£80 a month) or £96 p.m. if you pay monthly
If you’d like to learn why it’s so expensive to create your own content, and how can you cut most of that cost – read my three-part guide on that here.
It surprises many advice business owners when they learn just how much they could save on content marketing – while improving the content quality – by working with an outside professional writer.
Broadly, your options fall into five cost tiers, from most to least expensive:
Of course, once you know you can save c. 90% or more on the cost to acquire the highest quality of content – compared to creating it in-house – your cost worries disappear.
So, my core work is about helping firms to PLAN and ACT on that plan – to build a ‘Go-To’ educational library.
However, I now offer two extra services for those firms that need this help – which many do.
Think of them as valuable groundwork before you plan or create new content.
SCAN: Transform the value of what you already have.
So, if you already offer consumer-facing money Insights (guides, articles, webinar decks or videos) my SCAN service will give you a clear, independent assessment of one (or more) of those works.
You receive a written report with specific ideas for making your content clearer, more compelling and more shareable.
The SCAN covers: audience targeting, writing style, readability, emotional engagement, calls to action, visual support, accuracy, originality and evergreen value.
And you receive in-person (online) feedback to walk through the report and debate its implications.
This one-off diagnostic is designed to help you sharpen what you’ve already created, rather than going back to square one with brand new content.
It’s a very low cost yet high value service – ask me for details at hello@paulclaireaux.com
PROMISE: Get the right words to explain your value.
As this image shows – your promise informs everything else you do in your business.
And yet, very few advice firms can articulate exactly what they do, for who and how.
Does everyone in your team describe your firm’s promise in the same way – and does it do justice to the value you deliver?
If not – this service is perfect for you.
I will help you develop a few powerful and memorable lines that say exactly why your advice is worth the price.
You receive up to three sets of proposition statements (unique to your business) that I develop from your ideas – gathered from a proven set of questions and conversations we have online – with you and your marketing manager if you have one.
Also – if you like, I can supply sample straplines to sit under your firm’s logo, and single-sentence explainers to use across your marketing.
Again, my fees for this work are, currently, low compared to the value it adds – and the price will only be going up in the future.
So, if you want to develop a new and clear promise for your firm, ask me for details now – at hello@paulclaireaux.com
For details and pricing on my four connected services: SCAN, PROMISE, PLAN and ACT, e-mail hello@paulclaireaux.com with the subject line ‘Send me the four services outline’.
The notes I’ll send you will include current estimated fees for the SCAN and PROMISE services.
Prefer to talk?
Me too, so book directly into my diary here – and we’ll explore which, if any, would add most value to your business at this time.
I don’t suggest services to firms that don’t genuinely need my help.
Five points will 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.
Even where you undertake all the content creation in-house – or use another supplier, I can offer:
A PLAN service to help you plan your new programme. And, I can help you develop and record your content ideas, with synopses and links to source materials, so you (or another writer) can develop those posts/guides when you have time.
A SCAN service to give you specific ideas on how to boost the engagement value of your existing works.
You can access my PLAN and SCAN services as ‘one-offs’ for a fixed fee. So, just ask me for current pricing at hello@paulclaireaux.com
For content creation I charge by the minute – because that works out best for you – and here’s how.
Pay for less content, not more.
Whoever helps you with the writing, make sure you’re paying for less content, not more.
You need ideas distilled, not pages filled.
So, I charge for time spent, not word count — because paying by the word only encourages padding.
Your content must do many things.
So, valuable writing takes a ‘less is more’ approach – and I will cut out words that confuse your messages.
This way we can focus on crafting sentences that:
Creating content to achieve those things takes time. So, I charge for time spent – and this approach is common to all good writers.
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 or go for my daily walk.
This is when the best ideas come to me – as they do for most people. It’s called allowing your ‘default mode network’ of your brain to engage.
Nor do you get charged when I wake up with my mind whirring with answers to your content or marketing challenges.
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 about half or less than most leading IFAs.
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!
If building a new (or enhancing your existing) educational library interests you – and you feel you might need some help, let’s have a chat.
You can e-mail me any questions you have to hello@paulclaireaux.com
And don’t worry if I might have answered them here. Just fire away, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Alternatively, book a meeting directly into my diary here, and we’ll chat to explore your options for attracting, engaging and retaining more clients with compelling content.
It doesn’t matter that we may not 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 like YOU to help others make better money decisions. And that includes helping people to avoid all the scammers (and scam-like games) that are out there – right?
So, this is about what guides you can provide – to existing and prospective clients to help them understand there’s a sound way to approach their financial planning – that will protect them from these catastrophic mistakes – and achieve more of what really matters to them in life.
This image (and many more) appear in my guide to financial planning – which you can license today through my Content-to-Go service.
Alternatively, as many advice firms find, it may be better to tailor that guide to closely reflect your own planning process – while retaining the valuable messages and images that work.
And I can help you do that under a Custom-Made contract.
Either way, I’m happy to help you explore the best way to become more of a ‘go-to’ place for the vital Money Insights that your clients – and their adult children – need.
For details and cost estimates on my four connected services, just e-mail me with the subject line ‘Send me the four services outline’ to hello@paulclaireaux.com
And all the best for now.
Paul Claireaux