Stepping stones to your services

I’m delighted to announce this NEW (consumer-facing) licensed content service for Financial Advisers, Planners and Coaches.

This service could be perfect for you if:

• You want to attract, engage or retain more clients.
• You don’t have the time, desire or skills to create all the educational content you need.
• You want content that passes the ABC tests. (It’s Accurate, Balanced and Compelling)
• You want to start building a program of Insights or add proven content to the program you have.
• You’d like to have lifetime licences to use this content, with free updates along the way.
• You love the idea of getting this content for 90% less than the cost of creating your own.

Stepping stones to YOUR services

All experienced financial planners and advisers know what clients value most.

It’s all about gaining sound Insights into money questions from a trusted and unbiased expert.

So, all my NEW licensable insights are designed to help you educate and empower others – on vital money issues while you get on with your day job.

And those audiences include your clients, their friends and family, and other potential clients – and your professional connections, of course.

These works are not financial promotions; they’re generic Educational Insights – or stepping stones to guidance or advice.

So, in each Insight, the reader is encouraged to seek personal guidance or advice on money matters from you.

How much content do you need to seriously impress your audiences?

If you follow Daniel Priestley (and I recommend you do), you’ll know his (4-7-11) marketing rules of thumb.

This broad-brush guidance suggests that to become a ‘go-to’ place for answers – in most service businesses – you’ll probably need to:

1. Be seen regularly in 4 different places online.
2. Have 11 interactions with your ideal clients.
3. Offer 7+ hours’ worth of high-quality Insights to your audiences.

You need a lot of content to educate and entertain people for seven hours.

That’s the same as a reasonably sized non-fiction book.

And, yes, if you have a year or more to spare, you could start this project by writing your own book.

Indeed, there’s no better way to establish yourself as a thought leader, as Daniel Priestley would confirm.

And I’m happy to talk about the work involved with writing and publishing books – I’ve published a couple of those!

In the meantime, if you were to add a solid, say, 30-Insight library to your website, you’ll also have enough short ideas to post on social media every day of the year.

Do you spend a lot of money on Social Media marketing today?

Well, with a good library of content, you could eliminate those costs by posting ready-made ideas from each section of your longer-form Insights.

Here are the numbers.

(Reading speeds vary a lot. I’ve assumed 150 words per minute as an average for people learning new ideas)

How much do good educational programs cost?

Even if you’re skilled at content creation, you’ll need to make an enormous investment (in time or money) to develop (and maintain) a high-quality library of educational content.

A learning hub of around 30 (long-form*) Insights could cost your firm between £100,000 and £140,000 over time to create in-house.

This assumes you’re accounting for the advice/coaching fees lost while you (or one of your team) dedicate their time to content creation)

* Yes, long-form (complete) explainers are the best for engaging your audiences – see here.

Here’s the cost range to create a great Insights program.

I’ve assumed a typical pace of writing to create good quality (ABC) content – which is thoroughly researched and contains engaging images.

I’ve also assumed you account for lost advice fees at the market average rate of  £200 per hour (Source: VouchedFor) during the intense work time spent creating content.

You can’t advise and create content simultaneously!

If you charge less (or more) than £200 per hour for your time, adjust the costs in the red and orange boxes in the table accordingly.

The time taken for content creation is based on my experience writing c. 400,000 words and talking to other leading content creators.

And I’m happy to discuss any or all of these numbers if you like.

Just bear in mind that it’s these cost realities that cause so many of the advice firms that start creating content – to give up after producing a handful of works.

What about ongoing costs?

Yes, as with many services, your ongoing costs could add up, too.

The precise amounts will depend on the quality of your first content cuts – and the extent to which you post ‘evergreen’ content – on the core concepts about money.

Evergreen insights won’t need many, if any, updates in the future.

You’ll want a good foundational base of evergreen content because it saves you money on future content, too.

With the foundational insights in place, you can refer back to them in your future Insights on more advanced topics – if indeed you need those at all.

You don’t want to be trying to squeeze multiple ideas into every Insight you write. Cover the basic concepts on their own – and upfront.

Anyway, for simplicity, let’s assume £10,000 each year (could be more) to do all the work (in-house) to keep your content library up-to-date and relevant.

So, in round numbers, you’re looking at c. £200,000 over ten years to build and maintain a great educational program.

And that’s not a figure most people expect – until they work it out!

Of course, this is just £20,000 each year. And that’s less than one-quarter of what one (average) IFA earns.

So, it’s excellent value *if* your investment gives you a seriously good (brand-boosting) educational program on your website.

It’s a money sink if not!

Can you save costs *and* have great-quality content?

Yes, and the numbers are in the table above.

Writing ABC content is a lot harder than most people think.

If you’re not skilled at content creation or you don’t want to spend time developing these skills, you could work with a professional writer – and save 25% to 40% of what you might (effectively) spend in-house.

What’s more, the content you’ll obtain from a good professional writer should be a great deal more compelling than most of what’s out there in financial services land.

Just sayin!

Want to save more?

OK, well, you could save, say, 80% vs your in-house content creation costs *if* your writer has a good library of content, which they’re happy to re-write and repurpose for your business.

This 80% saving should be more than enough for most medium and larger firms.

And if this is of interest, let’s talk.

I only have space for two firms for this service, and these projects tend to last for a year or two.

And yes, I have a vast library of proven content (much of it hidden from my website) from which to create these derivative works.

Want to save even more?

I get it.

£20,000 to £30,000 spread over a couple of years for a whole library of high-quality, unique content is great value.

However, it’s still a chunk of cash for many small advice firms to bear.

That’s why I’ve started a new licensed content business – which aims to save small advice, planning and coaching firms around 90% on their content creation costs.

And, with my special pricing at launch, those savings are around 95%.

Just be aware that:

1. My launch offer of an extra 33% discount will end in the Autumn.
2. My Insight license prices (shown in the content shop) apply to small firms employing seven or fewer client-facing advisers, planners or coaches.

If you run a medium or larger-sized advice firm, ask me for price quotes at hello@paulclaireaux.com

The license prices are only slightly higher for larger firms – and the price per adviser is still a lot lower than that of smaller firms.

Also, if you run a large advice firm (or other business in Fund Management, Employee Benefits, Education or Training services, etc.), you may prefer to have custom-made content. And if that’s of interest, let’s explore working together on that.

The pricing options are great – but what about the content?

What can I say?

My clients have told me that my educational insights are ‘Superb’ and ‘Absolutely’ brilliant. See here.

They also told me that my educational insights helped them win a lot of new clients for their services.

These are their words – not mine!

More importantly, all my NEW licensed content is being checked for technical accuracy by one of the most qualified financial planners in the UK. A guy who used to mark the exams for the Institute of Financial Planning.

And I’m about to start re-writing and enhancing a whole series of proven ‘Money Mindset’ Insights – which will be checked by a Doctor of Psychology – with 20 years of clinical experience!

So, I guess you could say that content ‘Quality’ is my number one priority. And, as mentioned earlier – I have an ABC rule about quality, too.

But you must decide for yourself.

You can explore my content store here to see what licensable Insights are currently available.

I’ll regularly add NEW Insights to the store, and if you sign up for my Educators Newsletter, you’ll be sure to hear about NEW content as it arrives.

E-mail me at hello@paulclaireaux.com if you have any questions about this NEW licensed content or my proven custom-made service.

Or just book directly into my diary here to talk about those benefits and my terms of service which are perfectly straightforward.

And thanks for dropping in.

Paul

PS – E-mail me also if you’d like to see my list of 25 business and client benefits of education-first marketing.

(It’s a popular document with financial planners, advisers and coaches)