25th August, 2021 - Webinar replay

Helping financial advisers & planners get more press coverage with special guest, Dominic Hiatt

Phil Bray 0:01
Good morning everybody. And thank you for attending our latest free webinar. Always with the aim of helping financial advisors and planners market their business more successfully, more effectively. And today, I’m delighted that we’re joined by Dominic Hiatt, a PR expert. He doesn’t like the word guru as, if anybody who’s watched one of his LinkedIn videos, will find out. So we’ll go with expert rather than guru. And Dom’s gonna help us today, talk about the world of journalism, press, PR, and how we can help financial advisers and planners get more, get more press coverage. Now, I’ve known Dom for over 10 years. He’s helped me and the businesses that I’ve worked for and run, get some great publicity in the personal finance pages of the national press and elsewhere. So there was, there was no one better to get on today’s webinar when we want to talk about this topic. We’re going to do it as a Q&A, we’re not going to do a presentation, we’re going to do it as a Q&A. And so… I’m gonna get Dan just to explain a bit more about how it’ll work.

Dan Campbell 1:09
Sure thing. So, a few key housekeeping points. So, I’m Dan. And my job is to make sure everything’s running smoothly. So, if it’s not running smoothly, it means I’ve done something wrong. So, please let me know in the comments if the sound goes off, or if Phil catches fire or something. We’re accepting questions from the audience. So, either ask them in the chat function, or there’s a little Q&A box at the bottom there. I’ll be monitoring both, so they’ll get swept up. So, I’ll be reading them out at regular intervals but we will have a period at the end where we’ll sweep any final ones up, so don’t worry, we will get to them. A recording will be sent out afterwards, so you can rewatch it at your leisure. And, finally… so, a question we often get asked on these webinars is whether we can see or hear you. Most people are working from home, we’ve got kids, pets, noisy things in the background. Don’t worry, we absolutely can’t. Which brings up a good point, actually. So, PR and journalists are always a bit of an emotive topic. So please accept our apologies in advance if the language gets a little bit spicy. I predict it might, may well do! But yeah, so these sessions work well with plenty of questions. So, don’t be afraid to get stuck in. Right over to you, Phil and Dom.

Phil Bray 2:27
Thanks, Dan. I’m gonna take the screenshare off. We don’t want to look at that slide all the time. So, hopefully everybody can see each other now.

Dominic Hiatt 2:35
I’ve got my my sausage dog has got masking tape around its nose at the moment. So yeah.

Phil Bray 2:41
Well, my daughter’s in the other room so she might end up having that too! Right, so, Dom, let’s start with just bit of background about you if that’s okay. Just tell us your history and what you’re doing right now and how you led up to that.

Dominic Hiatt 2:55
I don’t think you’d actually know this, Phil, but I started life after leaving university with an arts degree not knowing what the hell to do. I ended up getting a job as an IFA working for the dodgiest firm ever in the late 90s in London. I won’t name them but it was like Blazing Saddles meets financial advice. I mean, I’ve never known as many cowboys and we were even encouraged to sort of check our clients coats for chequebooks. This is the day when chequebooks… I mean, it was proper… it was like 1980s America, I mean, it was like Wall Street, it was just crazy. But I left after about two months, but I… because it was just… they were trying to get you to flog your mum a MIP, you know, just sell, sell, sell your family first, you know, sell your sister anything she doesn’t need and blah, blah, blah. So I left. It was an awful experience. But I did, out of that, get FBC 1 and 2, because they… it was commission only and they, actually, they gave you… they paid for your FTC 1 and 2 and I don’t know what… it’s probably all changed now. But, so, at least I left there and I thought “what the hell am I good at?”. You know, I mean, you know, I’m no good at that, sort of, that thing at all. But I thought I’m good at drinking and I’m good at writing and sort of that for me… journalism just became, like, an obvious place to start and roughly at the same time a job came up, I don’t know where but I saw a job form, I mean, in Money Management as a sort of trainee journalist at… now, Money Management used to be the sort of Bible apparently for for financial advisers back in the 90s and early noughties, it’s obviously been, sort of, you know, subsumed into FT Adviser now and whatever. So that’s where I started off under Janet Walford who was a bit of a legendary editor. And she taught me a lot. I worked there for about three years and, you know, actually dealt a hell of a lot with IFAs. I mean, we were, you know, writing gigantic features on with-profit endowments and, you know, all kinds of stuff. So, you know, oversaw the transition from PEPs to ISA’s, you know, about… I think that happened in about 98 or 99. So it was an interesting time. But anyway, so I, sort of, started as an IFA, failed miserably, started as a journalist, worked at Money Management for a few years, worked at the Investors Chronicle, then I started freelancing for nationals, you know, national newspapers, and then I, essentially, you know, started to, yeah, started to have kids and thought, “Jesus, I need to earn some proper money” as you do. So, I went to the dark side and sold my soul and sort of ended up running a PR agency. And here we are. So… And, by the way, I’ve never considered myself a PR, I can’t stand the PR world, it’s a vile place, you know, I mean, it’s just, you know, just don’t consider myself a PR, all of our company, are, sort of, ex-journalists, we pride ourselves on that. So yeah, so yeah. Is that enough?

Phil Bray 5:49
Absolutely, that’s fine. I’ll try and remember not to refer to this as PR for the next hour!

Dominic Hiatt 5:54
Exactly that! Journalists tend to make the best PRs because they understand what constitutes a story. Whereas a lot of PRs have never worked in PR, therefore, you know, I think unless you’ve been a journalist, and you know, what journalists want and how they operate, it’s actually hard to, you know, to sort of, you know, be what they want.

Phil Bray 6:13
Okay. So, with all that as context, for you, if you were talking to an adviser or planner, what’s the key benefits of being featured in the press?

Dominic Hiatt 6:25
Well, financial services, clearly, the main benefit of being quoted in a newspaper or online is the credibility that that creates, I mean, it’s instant credibility, if people are Googling you, you know, people are, if, you know, they’re looking for an IFA, they’re gonna be, they’re gonna type your name into, you know, into Google, and they’re gonna see what comes up. And if you come up on the BBC, talking about, you know, ISIS, or whatever it is, you know, just giving your views, that you’re instantly seen as credible. So I think credibility is the main reason why you do PR. Credibility and trust, basically. People immediately trust you if they see you being quoted, you know, regularly. If you’re, you know, in the Telegraph, The Mail, you know, The Guardian, The Independent, you know. If you’re… and your local newspapers. If you’re quoted regularly, and you’ve got a great online web presence in decent media outlets, you’ve got a real, you know, that’s a real huge selling point. So, I think credibility and trust. Obviously, awareness, because if you’re on the BBC, I mean, your company’s name gets in front of potentially millions of people. You can get traffic, you can get leads, you know. I mean, PR… I always say “don’t expect to get results… don’t expect to get new clients phoning you up, if you appear in the FT” or the, you know, that… there’s a big sort of misconception that, you know, PR suddenly results in clients immediately. It doesn’t really work like that. It can, I mean, I had a mortgage broker, who two weeks ago was in The Telegraph. And, on the back of that he, he got a 2 million pound loan, you know, a mortgage. So, you know, it does happen. But, really, it’s credibility and trust, that’s, you know, that’s the main thing. And then you can put these logos as featured in on your on your – which we’ll come on to later – on your website, which again, reinforces that trust with your clients and potential clients. So…

Phil Bray 8:14
I guess, a sense that that credibility and trust takes time to build up. You clearly don’t get it just one article, job done. This is a long term, long term strategy for building credibility.

Dominic Hiatt 8:26
Exactly that and… which is why you get a lot of established… some of the bigger names, they, you know, they plough a lot of money into PR, because they know the value and the trust. And, also, you know, it’s when… people you know, it also creates a phenomenal SEO value. You know, if you’re, if your company is getting quoted regularly, you know, you’re gonna pick up backlinks, which means that you become suddenly very findable online. So, yeah, I mean, it’s an ongoing thing. And the more, you know, the more you’re featured in the big media, especially, the more people trust you and the more potential clients you’ll get, so.

Phil Bray 8:58
So, if that’s true, and I don’t doubt it is, because I’ve seen the benefits of it myself. One of the key publications that as an adviser or planner… if you’re an adviser or planner, what are the key publications you’d want to be in?

Dominic Hiatt 9:13
Generally speaking, I think everyone looks at Sunday Times Money, it’s like the… that’s where they want to be. The FT Money, you know, the money supplement, the personal finance supplement. You know, the weekend papers, they’re, kind of, seen as, sort of, you know, that’s the holy grail for a lot of IFAs. Personally, I think, you know, going for those, it’s very high risk, because you’ve got such intense competition, it can actually be better to go off piste which we can come on to later and go for go for news journalist, so, you know, breaking news stories and get into the news sections of the newspapers, where there’s less, sort of, competition. But yeah, I think for most IFAs, if they’re appearing in The Sunday Times or The Times and, you know, these kinds of weekend papers, broadsheets, that’s where they want to be.

Phil Bray 9:59
So, if credibility and trust are the output, and we want to be in the personal finance and the broadsheets, but potentially the news sections as well, how do you go about approaching journalists? How do you… how do you stand out? What are the best ways to approach them?

Dominic Hiatt 10:13
I think the one thing journalists want, their, sort of, their main weakness is getting case studies. Case studies are so important. They can drive, you know… journalists have a nightmare finding case studies, because what will happen is, they’ll be writing a story and their editor will say, “look, this is great but can we just find a human example of someone who’s done this?”. I don’t know, who’s maybe transferred from equities to bonds because they’re worried about risk or whatever. And if you can provide journalists with case studies, that gets you into journalists’ good books instantly. It’s like a massive… journalists are desperate for case studies all the time. So I know it’s a real ballache because a lot of people, you know, you’ve got to reach out to your client base. But, when you’re speaking to your clients, you should say “look, are you prepared… you know, would you be prepared to, sort of, be featured in a national?”. And, now, they’re not going to expect you to talk about sensitive numbers, but it’s just, you know, somebody… you know, a picture of a couple, you know, with their dog… I mean, that’s… Sunday Times love that kind of thing. So, if you can get into the sort of routine of getting case studies out of your client base, people who will happily talk to journalists about, you know, their planning, and also about you and the role that you play. That is, that is a brilliant, you know, way to get on, you know, into a journalist’s good books.

Phil Bray 11:26
That’s fascinating, because we’ve got… we’ve worked with, probably, 25 clients, now, financial advisers/planners. And we’ve recorded their… we’ve recorded their clients on video. So, if those clients are prepared to be on video on their financial adviser or planner’s website, they’re probably prepared to talk to them.

Dominic Hiatt 11:46
100%. And that is gold dust. And people don’t do it enough. And what you’ll find is the big, the really big, you know, the Hargreaves Lansdown… they are machines, they’re like sausage… you know, sausage factories, they just create case studies, and they will actively go to journalists and say, “look, we have case studies of whatever you want, you know, we will find you a case study”. And, for journalists, that’s just, you know, it’s a huge bonus. So, I really think, you know, talking to your clients, if they’re happy to do a video, if they’re happy to give you a testimonial on your website, you know, they’re, they’re probably going to be happy to be featured, you know, in the, in the, you know, The Daily Telegraph for you. So, you know, give them a bottle of champagne to make, you know, to say thanks. And then a lot of people do that. And it’s, you know… if you have a client saying good things about you in a national newspaper, that’s about the best coverage you can get. There’s nothing beats it.

Phil Bray 12:36
Yeah, absolutely. I had one journalist tell me on Twitter a few weeks ago, ex-journalist, who will remain nameless. That journalists aren’t interested in good news case studies only interested in bad news case studies.

Dominic Hiatt 12:47
Well, that’s yeah. I mean, journalists, you know, I mean, there’s a saying, “if it bleeds, it leads”, you know, anything bad is, you know… bad news is, you know, that’s what journalists thrive on. But, you know, there is an element of that, but, you know, a lot of the stories and, you know, constructive stories about planning for the future, you know, in the weekend papers, it’s all… So, they do want people you know, who are planning and being responsible and, and, sort of, you know, they want to drill into how these people are investing, you know, for, you know, for a decent retirement. So, you know, that’s not entirely true, you know, case studies, good positive case studies, and, you know, certain papers will say, well, we want them, you know, whatever it could be, you know, a married couple, they want certain types of case studies, and, but yeah, so no, that’s not true. It’s, you know, journalists do like, you know, I would 100%, go to journalists and say, “if you want case studies, come to me”, and then don’t let them down when they do. Get them case studies and you will, you’ll reap the benefits.

Phil Bray 13:44
So just talk about… a bit more about that for us. If you’ve got a financial adviser or planner, who is attuned to the press, wants more press coverage, we’ve got journalists who want case studies, how do we get the two together? How does the adviser or planner actually… do they get case studies written first of all, and then supply them? Or, how…

Dominic Hiatt 14:01
Yeah, I mean, it’s good to have that but, I mean, what you don’t do is throw, you know… email journalists case studies willy nilly. Just, I would just email them. I mean, it’s not hard to get people’s email addresses, you know, you can whatever… phone up, half the time, it’s online, and, you know, you can tweet them or whatever, and just just tweet them, you know, DM them, whatever. Just message them and just say, “look, by the way, I see, you know, you’re regularly writing investment stories, you know, I’m an IFA in wherever, and, you know, I’ve got lots of case studies if ever you’re looking for one” and that can be a way to just get them, you know, get you onto their radar. So there are very… lots of very soft touch points. You don’t have to be very formal and phone them up. Because to be honest, in this day and age, I think journalists have a bloody panic attack if you phoned them up, people can’t seem to, sort of, do phone calls anymore. It’s like an instant no-no. I mean, it’s like, ooh, it’s intrusive, you know, in the woke world in which we live, the phone call is a bit, sort of, almost latent aggressive. So yeah.

Phil Bray 14:55
And we’ve talked a lot so far about, and focused on, the personal finance press. Are there benefits to advisers and planners about being featured in the trade press, you know, New Model Adviser, Money Marketing, FT Adviser?

Dominic Hiatt 15:07
Yeah, I mean, some IFAs couldn’t care less, you know, they don’t want, you know, they’re not fussed about being in, you know, in FT Adviser in, you know, whatever the, you know, Professional Adviser, I mean others value it, it’s, kind of, you know, I think the majority of IFAs want to get into the consumer media where they’re potentially going to get, you know, pick up clients, pick up new business, because that’s far more important to them, you know, speaking, you know, to their peers, you know, is less relevant for them. I think it all depends, you know, some, some IFAs love getting into the IFA media and being a thought leader within their space, and others couldn’t care less, you know, about being in FT Adviser, because it’s not really going to generate any potential clients for them. So it’s, therefore not relevant, you know, they want to be in the consumer media. So, I think, you know, generally speaking, most people want to get into the consumer media

Phil Bray 15:55
And, do you know the consumer media has… the consumer media clearly has more trust and credibility attached to it when it comes to consumers than the trade?

Dominic Hiatt 16:06
But actually, I mean, one thing I must say is that actually, you know, and this is… the value of getting into the trade media is that all the personal finance media on the national newspapers, all these journalists, will read the likes of FT Adviser, and you know, all of these, sort of, trade titles, they will be monitoring them for stories, because, obviously, these titles are 100% focused on, you know, things that are related to the IFA, so actually, they’ll look at these stories. So, the one benefit of being in the trade paper, you know, in sorry, in in the likes of FT Adviser is that you will get seen by national newspaper journalists too. So, that can be a good way to get you onto their radar. So, I think that’s a… you know, that’s often people think, well, there’s no point in me being in FT Adviser, because I couldn’t care less, couldn’t care, you know, much about it at all. But there’s real value in that, because the personal finance journalists are reading it.

Phil Bray 16:56
Dan, I see a comment coming in from Scott.

Dan Campbell 16:59
Yeah, so, Scott raises a good point. “Worth mentioning that trade journalists often move on to mainstream media…”

Dominic Hiatt 17:06
And there’s exactly that as well. 100%. And, you know, this is a… often go for the, you know, for the young journalists who start off on these trades will often, I mean, so many end up, you know, at The Telegraph, and if you’ve dealt with them when they’re, sort of, you know, and you’ve been really helpful to them, when they move to The Times of The Telegraph, which many of them do, you can be quids in, because they’ll see you as a, you know, an old contact that’s helped them as they were, you know, in the earliest stages of their career. And before long, I mean, Simon Lambert is a good mate of mine at The Mail Online, This is Money. He’s the editor of that, which is obviously a pretty big sort of personal finance section. I mean, he started, you know, he was a junior there. I mean, I’ve worked with him for so long. And now he’s the editor, you know, it makes it makes life a lot easier. So lots of journalists, yeah, 100%, it’s a long term strategy. And it can be a really lucrative ones, because you’ll see that once these journalists get on to The Telegraph, they will keep going back to the same contacts to help them when they were on FT Adviser.

Dan Campbell 18:07
Brilliant. What I would say as well is, people, don’t be afraid to ask any questions. You know, it’s like a buffet at a wedding, somebody’s got to be the first one. So just drop those in the the Q&A section or the chat function and I’ll just field them as we, as we go along.

Phil Bray 18:25
So we talked, again, about case studies. I’ve always sensed that you get the best out of journalists, if you’re incredibly helpful to them. One of the ways that an adviser or planner can be helpful to a journalist? And, therefore, get onto that journalist’s little black book, or their Rolodex, or whatever they…

Dominic Hiatt 18:47
I think case studies are one definite way. Another way is just… sometimes, you know, stories are breaking… I mean, IFAs need to be, you know, they need to be thinking about things that are happening in their business that could constitute a story. And, you know, it could be… I don’t know, let’s… you could have had a shift of a lot of your clients are shifting away from equities into bonds over the past year, I don’t know, I mean, whatever… You know, there’s a bit of a trend that you’re noticing – that can be a value to a journalist, if you say, “well, look, this is quite interesting, I’ve seen this trend”. So sending journalists, sort of, little, sort of, feature ideas and story ideas – that can get you, you know, get you into the good books again. But, again, also the case studies we’ve touched upon, they’re invaluable. And, also, any data that you’ve got, or any research that you’ve done, just showing that you’re there and that you’re proactive and that you’re trying to offer them stories. That can, you know, open doors and even if they don’t necessarily come back to you the first time, if you keep doing it, you know, sooner or later they will probably, you know… the ideas that you’re coming up with and stories you’re suggesting are good. You know… it could be that you’ve just got an interesting client who’s done something quite peculiar. I don’t know, I mean, it can be so many things. But just suggest it to journalists, you know, email them, message them and say this, you know, and, and things can happen. So yeah, I think you just need to be on the front foot.

Phil Bray 20:12
Yeah, I can think of an example of that about 10 years ago, I was sitting in IFA’s office where I was marketing manager there. An annuity quote came in from a provider, and it was sat under nine with-profit annuity quotes. So there’s nine of these with-profit quotes, it’s like that thick, the pack. Bottom was the actual… the annuity quote that the client wanted. And it was clear that the annuity provider were trying to hide this away. Passed that to the FT with the clients permission. And it was featured in the FT personal finance section.

Dominic Hiatt 20:42
100%. And being alive to things like that. I had an example again, with a mortgage broker, a couple of weeks ago, Halifax launched the lowest ever two year fixed rate at 0.83%, or whatever it was, then he emailed me that and said, “look, the Halifax have just… it’s going live on Monday”. On Friday afternoon, he emailed me and saying that the Halifax is just about to launch the lowest two year fixed rate ever. Now, this is mortgages, not financial planning, but it’s, you know, more or less the same thing. So, boom, he was in the FT, he was in The Times, Telegraph, The Mail, everywhere, because we basically broke the story, because he spotted that before the national journalists knew about it. So, little things like that, just, you know, you’ll be getting, sort of, information all the time. And if you can spot things that are interesting, and flag them up to journalists, you can just suddenly get a phenomenal amount of media coverage. So it’s being on, you know… really thinking about all of this data I’m receiving, you know, is there anything newsy there? Is anyone doing something slightly untoward that needs sort of revealing, you know?

Phil Bray 21:40
And I’m assuming you would, in that circumstance, go to a specific journalist, rather than pushing out a press release?

Dominic Hiatt 21:45
Yeah, I mean, with… we actually just logged a quote out, too. I mean, we’ve got a tool. So I just logged the thing out saying that, you know, just quotes out to the entire personal finance sector, basically. And, you know, all IFA media and everyone, but yeah, you can just go to one specific media outlet. I mean, I take… with with that one, you know, journalists are crazy about mortgage rates. So, you know, you can go to a decent title and expect them to write it up. So…

Phil Bray 22:09
Dan, couple of questions.

Dan Campbell 22:11
Yes, we’ve got two really good ones in. The first one’s from Mark, who asks, “is there an example structure of what a case study should look like?”.

Dominic Hiatt 22:20
Yeah, you don’t need to… in case studies, I don’t want people to think they’ve got to be some lengthy two page document, you know, a case study just needs to be, really, just two or three paragraphs, just revealing the basics of what’s happened here. And that’s it really, you don’t need to write some lengthy, you know, sort of, two page essay about everything. The journalist just wants an overview of what’s happened here and why is it interesting? And that’s kind of it and then they will ask you for more questions. So don’t worry about writing… spending two hours writing up, you know, this gigantic case study, because they’re only going to use probably three or four sentences of that anyway. So really, it’s just encapsulating, crystallising as succinctly as possible, what’s happened with this case study and why it’s interesting. And that’s it. So yeah. And also, if you can, you know, if you’ve created videos, send the, you know, the case study, send those to the journalists too, because they often will embed them. You know, increasingly journalists love video content and the likes of the Mail Online, lots of, you know, The Independent, they may well embed that which can be brilliant. So…

Phil Bray 23:23
Dan, I think another one’s coming from Philip.

Dan Campbell 23:25
Brilliant. Yes. So this next question will have extra meaning to anybody active on Twitter over the last few weeks. So, “Can you explain to us why it seems that some journalists seem to have an agenda against IFAs and certain large firms? And I’m looking at The Sunday Times in particular?”.

Dominic Hiatt 23:44
Well, yeah, I mean, I think journalists, you know, this is like an age… I think there are certain, sadly, a lot of IFAs, who were very transparent in their charging and fee structures have been tarnished by others that, you know… I think journalists look at the sort of practices of some financial advisory firms out there, and then, sort of, essentially, bracket everyone as being the same, you know. That sadly, you know, and it is, I mean, I’m, you know, I know there are certain journalists out there who are always knocking IFAs. And, you know, I think that’s, it’s almost part and parcel of… I think journalists feel obliged to sort of knock IFAs for whatever reason. I mean, you know, I have no idea why, but I think it’s, sort of, you know, for whatever reason, it does happen. I think you just need to counteract that with constructive, you know, examples. I’ve seen Phil saying this a lot, you know, you need to defeat them with examples of you doing good stuff for your clients, and, you know, and actually where they are being out of line, you know, just confronting them but in a constructive way and saying “I disagree” and, you know. So, I think it’s going to carry on, it’s not going to stop. Journalists, by default, kind of, they’re almost, you know, looking for a bit of, you know, that’s what they thrive on. So…

Phil Bray 24:57
Yeah, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t disagree. And they do seem to… some of them seem to pick targets and then go at them for a while and then move on. The constant factor is a cynicism about the sector and perhaps even a misunderstanding.

Dominic Hiatt 25:11
Yeah, exactly. 100%, a misunderstanding. And I think a lot of the time, you know, these… when I was a junior, you know, I had done my FPC 1 and FPC 2, you know, and I, sort of, a lot of these journalists don’t really know the sector inside out. They’re not, you know, they’re sort of, jacks of all trades, master of none, you know. I mean, they’re not, you know, they they are… they do not have the knowledge that you guys do about planning, you know, so for them, I think, you know, they just don’t have that depth of knowledge. So, I think, you know, to an extent, they see themselves as being credible, you know, providing advice saying “oh, stick your money in this fund or that fund”, and, you know, ultimately, what are they basing it on? What’s their, you know, what is their expertise?

Phil Bray 25:55
And if you… again, we’re trying to connect good quality financial planners with journalists. So just talk, Dom, if you would, a bit about Newspage and how you’re trying to do that through Newspage.

Dominic Hiatt 26:08
Yeah, well, Newspage, we just created this platform whereby… I mean, the idea for it came from, you know, lockdown one where, you know, we had a bit of time on our hands, and I just thought, I’m going to create this platform that basically helps small businesses tell their stories, and it doesn’t charge them a penny. You know, this is what’s happening to my business in… you know, I’ve lost everything or, you know, whatever. But it was just because it was time of, you know, fascinating stories and all sorts… the shit hit the fan in a big way. And, and so we kind of just did it as a, yeah, a storytelling platform, really. But then what we noticed is that it was incredibly viral. Because when you get companies who, you know, you haven’t paid your penny into, like the BBC, or The Times or The Telegraph, they share it a lot. And there was a real buzz, it created a real buzz. So we thought this is quite interesting. And that’s where the idea of for Newspage came from, but we really need… I’ve always had a gripe that the media, you know, the media are dominated by big brands, you know, who can afford to pay PR agencies, you know, 10s of 1000s of pounds per month. And, you know, if you read Sunday Times Home, it’s… you know, the same old estate agents being quoted. Sunday Times Money, you’re gonna have the same old, you know, IFA firms bit and it gets right on my tits, to be honest. I mean, that’s, you know, it really does annoy me. And I know that it annoys other people, why don’t they go and quote, an IFA in Luton or a bloody IFA in, you know, in Manchester? And it’s like, it’s almost like, oh, well, it’s not done because… so that’s what Newspage I’ve set out to do is just to create a platform that enables everyone to have a voice and to actually engage with journalists. I mean, so it’s, you know, the arty, farty phrase I’ve got for it is like democratising the media, or, you know, it’s all nonsense. But really, it’s kind of like, everyone should have the chance to give their views. It’s not fair that, you know, if you can afford to spend five grand a month on a PR agency that you get more coverage than a guy who’s doing a great job or a woman who, you know, but who hasn’t got that money and who hasn’t got that time to do it in their spare time. So Newspage really has been created to level the playing field and give everyone the chance to, sort of, be the news, to be in the stories and, you know, so that’s kind of that’s what it’s about, really, it’s kind of democratising the medium. I’ve got an established PR agency on the side, so I’m kind of bankrupting myself, and I just hope that the one takes off before the other one collapses, or I’m screwed. So yeah, so really, I think giving everyone a chance to be in the story, you know, to be in the, you know, the papers to be in, you know, be on the BBC, but without having to pay a penny. It just feels sort of right without, you know…

Phil Bray 28:46
Give us, give us a couple of wins on there. Talk us through a couple of times when you’ve got… Newspage has helped clients, mortgage advisers, financial advisers, financial planners…

Dominic Hiatt 28:55
I mean, we’ve had, we’ve had, you know, I mean, we’ve had companies from what… I mean, Newspage is about, it covers every sector. So we’ve got hairdressers, we’ve got beauticians, we’ve got, you know, financial advisers, we’ve got mortgage brokers, we’ve got stockbrokers, we’ve got dentists, we’ve got doctors, we’ve got, kind of, you know, psychotherapists and we’ve got everyone. So, so the beauty of it is, is that whenever… there are stories breaking all the time, and whenever a story breaks, we’ve usually got someone who can, you know, who’s relevant and expert in that area and can you know, can comment so. You know, so we have, you know, we’ve had newspapers on Sky News Live, you know, on the BBC, you know, one o’clock news. I mean, we’ve had Newspages and every national newspaper, we’ve had Newspages, you know – I call them Newspages – in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, you know, Forbes, Reuters, Bloomberg, everywhere, and it hasn’t cost them a penny. So it’s kind of, you know, it’s a great feeling and, what the good thing for us is, that these people they share the arse off it when they get into… you know, if you’ve not paid a penny and suddenly you’re on the BBC, it’s like, Oh, my God, and you know, in turn you shout about Newspage which is good for us. So, that’s the kind of value for us is the sort of the buzz that it creates. But it’s… I mean, we’ve had Newspages, you know, you can create a news page on, you know, today and you could be in the FT tomorrow. You know, that’s the beauty of it.

Phil Bray 30:14
And, honestly, thanks, because at the end of this webinar, we’ll be sending the recording around, we will put a link out to Newspage. And in fact, it’s on one of the slides. At the end of the webinar, there’s a link, and there is a discount code. So, I think it’s the first three months free, isn’t it, Dom?

Dominic Hiatt 30:33
So, we… Newspage will always be free, because that’s the whole point of it, you know, you can… it’s like, you know, it can be like LinkedIn, you know, 95% of people on LinkedIn just have the free version, you know, some people pay for the premium. We have a premium version, which is 9.99 a month. And, for that, essentially, when you add… let’s say, there’s a story breaking about inflation, you know, the latest inflation data has come out. That’s relevant, because actually inflation impacts savers, you know, investments. You know, let’s say you add a comment which goes to the media, a journalist will edit that comment. You know, a professional journalist will edit that comment to make it as robust as as possible before it goes. So, that’s the value of being a premium user, that you get a journalist editing any comment you upload. And, also, when you add stories… if you add a story to Newspage, if you’re a premium user, we will effectively score it for you and say, “ok, this is, you know, an 8 out of 10, or a 7 out of 10, or a 6 out of 10, or actually, you could make this better by doing X”. So you get a free review, if you’re a premium user, of your stories, which can then… you can go away and write a story that’s stronger. So, that’s the kind of benefit of the premium service.

Phil Bray 31:43
That sounds like a huge amount of value for a tiny amount of money.

Dominic Hiatt 31:46
Yeah, well, it’s a volume play, you know, ultimately, Newspages kind of, you know, we’re not, you know, that’s… it’s about volume. You know, if we can get the numbers, then, you know, Newspage works.

Phil Bray 31:58
And we’ll give the, we’ll give the link out at the end of this webinar and a discount code as well. And if anybody misses it, we’ll put it in the email with the recording of Dom and this interview, which should go out later on today. Dan, I can see some questions in so do you… gonna work through some of those?

Dan Campbell 32:15
Absolutely. So, we’ve got a few stacking up, which is always good to see. First one is from Paul, who asks, “Is the press the optimum channel to start with is radio or TV, both local and national, useful?”.

Dominic Hiatt 32:29
100%. I mean, I think everyone thinks, you know, journalism is the papers, you know, or online. But you know, broadcast journalists are often desperate, you know. If you can, you know, radio stations, we’ve had so many newspapers, on radio, talking, you know, local radio stations. It’s surprisingly easy to get onto your local radio station. You know, let’s say interest rates go up, highly unlikely, we all know that, it’s probably not gonna go up for like, ever because our economy would tank. But, you know, if they did go up, that’s a chance to get onto your local radio station. Well, what’s the impact of this for savers? For investors? You know, and what does it mean? If you’re, so… all of these things. And what does it mean for mortgage, you know, if you’ve got a mortgage? So, going to your local radio, again, I mean, it’s, they’re going to have the contact details on their websites, and, you know, emailing them and saying “look, this story is breaking tomorrow, you know, rates have just gone up, would you like me to come on and talk about what that means for different categories of people?”, and suddenly, boom, you can be on your local radio station, which actually… going to be more valuable for you in terms of leads than if you’re on, you know, in The bloody Sunday Times Money. So, you know, I… 100%, broadcast is brilliant, especially if you’re on… Look, if you’re on BBC one o’clock news. I mean, it’s phenomenal. You know, everyone’s seen you.

Dan Campbell 33:43
Brilliant. Right. So, next question is in from Heather, who says, “We have a niche audience. So, we’re not interested in national press. Do you approach niche publications in the same way?”.

Dominic Hiatt 33:56
Ah-ha, it’s a cunning strategy, sort of Blackadder. So… there are certain, you know, certain companies… you might be that… you know, maybe that you specialise in providing planning to dentists, or vets, or… and this can actually be a really quick win. You can go to the, you know, the veterinary media, and there are two or three titles, you can go to the dental media and say, “Look, would you like a sort of, you know, a, sort of, an article, a feature on, you know, how dentists should plan for the future, whether that’s, you know, helping to buy their own practice or retirement”, and, you know, and it’s… the bar can be a lot lower. And what you’ll find is a lot of other IFAs aren’t competing for that. So you can actually get into… so if you do… you know, if you have lots of vets on your database, you know, on your client base, and then you could go to them and say “look, would you be happy to be a case study?”, and if you go to a veterinary title and say, “Look, I have a case study of a vet that I’ve helped, sort of, you know, raise some money for their, you know, for their business and, you know, plan for their future”. You’d be surprised how easy it is, you know. These veterinary titles… because for them, it’s a little bit off piste, so it’s a lot easier to get into. So, you know, it could be that you have lots of IT contractors as clients, you know, you can go to certain IT media. So 100%. And what you’ll find is there’s far less competition there. You’re not getting the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown, all the big IFA firms and whatever just going… they’re not targeting these sectors. So it could be that lawyers, you know, one of your specialities, you know, you have lots of go to Law Society Gazette, suggest features to them. And they may go “Christ, well, we haven’t written about, you know, financial planning for lawyers for two years, because you know, and then boom, yeah, we’ll take the feature” and wallop you’re in… you know, you’re in a title that’s perfectly suited to your client base. So yeah, good question.

Dan Campbell 35:41
Brilliant. Right. So, Philip, again, who asks, “Are there PR agencies that could deal with a small one man band IFA, or is it completely outside our budget?”

Dominic Hiatt 35:53
I mean, there are PR a… you know, there are PR agencies… if you go to London, you know, you can spend, you know, easily a grand a day on a PR agency. There are local PR agencies that, you know, will charge significantly less than that. They’re often… you get a lot of like, you know, sole traders, a one man band, PR agencies. So, you know, there are agencies out there that are relatively affordable, it’s whether or not they can get you into the media that you want to be in. And also, more importantly, whether or not they understand what the hell you do. Because, you know, that’s the challenge with financial services. If you’ve got a PR, who doesn’t know what a, you know, an ISA is, or it doesn’t understand, you know, the difference between investment… you know, the discount on, you know, discount on the investment trust, and your, you know, your that’s one of your key areas, then it’s no good. So you need to find people who, sort of, understand what you do, and can actually relay what you do and… The contact’s key. You know, it all depends on where you want to be. If you’re happy to be in your local paper, and the local agency’s got good contacts with them – 100% – and they’re a good, you know, good value, PR agency, try them out. But, I would always say just don’t tie into contracts, you know, when you start out with somebody, because, you know, just say, look, you know, a good PR agency will say, “look, just work with us and, you know, it’ll be very informal for a few months, and you know, we won’t… we wouldn’t tie you into a contract”. So, if they’re rubbish, you can get rid.

Dan Campbell 37:14
That’s really useful. And, Phil, I know you’ve generally got a view on PR, what have you got to share?

Phil Bray 37:18
I think it might… Yeah, on this specific case, Philip, I think for me, as a small individual, you’ve got a bit of… sometimes, got a bit of an advantage, I hope Dom agrees. But if you can get into journalists’ inbox direct with a good story, and become that go-to, that go-to person, actually, it can be quite useful. I found, back a few years ago, having that direct contact with journalists and cutting the PR out of the middle.

Dominic Hiatt 37:47
Yeah.

Phil Bray 37:48
When you sign an office, there’s opportunities for stories throughout the day. Really useful stories, some of the stuff you mentioned earlier, Dom, some of the stuff I mentioned, as well. And just… it’s so easy to get the details of journalists now. Seek inspiration from your day to day. Mail it across to the journalist and see what they say. Some of them will bite.

Dominic Hiatt 38:10
Exactly, some of them, 100%, some of them will bite and I think, you know, the soft touch points, like you know, messaging them, or you can just tweet it, if you just @ them, you know, not everyone’s gonna see it anyway. So, you can just @ them on Twitter or whatever. And it can be a very sort of non, you know, unintrusive way of approaching them with story ideas and showing that you’re engaged. And so yeah, 100%. And also, the key point is, if you’re a small one… you know, you’re a one man band or whatever, you can be more outspoken. You’re gonna have a lot of these big corporate agencies, you know, they’re gonna be come up with, you know, vanilla, vanilla comments, because they’re worried about alienating, and it’s all about the brand, you know, whereas, you know, if you work for yourself, you can just say it as it is, and journalists love that. Just, you know, outspoken comment, you know, go for the jugular, you know, boom. You’re gonna get into the papers more regularly, if you say it as it is, you don’t, you know, you don’t sit on fences. You don’t have to, you know, tick certain boxes. And, you know, you know, I think 100%. If you can, you know, roll up your sleeves and say it as it is. That’s a great way… journalists love outspoken content.

Phil Bray 39:14
That takes me on to another question actually, Dom. How much does language matter when you’re talking to journalists?

Dominic Hiatt 39:22
Oh, yeah. I mean, I did a video on this, I think which he… yeah, on LinkedIn. I mean, I said, you know, if you want to get into The Times… I mean, I came up with a hypothetical scenario. You might be saying something like, you know, what you… the comment that you send to The Times would be, you know, “the Bank of England has formed, has formed a Faustian pact with a QE devil, all that nonsense, because Times readers think that they’re clever. So, you know, literally, so that that kind of language can work. Whereas, obviously, it’s not going to run in The Sun or The Mail because, you know, I mean, Faustian won’t mean much at all to a lot of people who, you know, read The Sun. So, equally, you know, if you’re talking like, sort of Ian Beale, you’re not going to get into The Sunday Times. I mean, if your quotes are littered with slang… so it’s, kind of, you know, use, use the language. I mean, I often I often change… you know, adapt the language. If a client wants to get into The Daily Express or The Sun, I will use different language to what I would use if they wanted to get into the FT. I would use, you know, more sort of, sort of, highbrow language. So it’s, you know, language is important, and it does determine… when you write a comment, if it’s very cerebral, there’s a big chance that we’ll be picked up by a broadsheet or, you know, a, you know, a website that, you know, believes it’s got a higher sort of a more intellectual readership. So, you know, it does, language does sort of translate into where you end up.

Phil Bray 40:42
If language is important, what are the other things that mean you get into a journalist’s good books? What are the other three top tips you could give for getting int a journalist’s good books?

Dominic Hiatt 40:52
Well, case studies, 100%. That is the best way. Story ideas, love it, you know, sending them… and this is, like you say, Phil is just looking at all these things that are happening is… you’ve got to think “is this news?”, you know, actually, this little thing that’s happened today? Or, you know, “is this a story?”, tip… you know, just ping a journalist and say, “Look, this, I thought this was quite interesting today, this happened”. You know, so, ideas, case studies, and then data and trends. You know, journalists love data, if they’re… if you’ve spotted any new data that’s emerged, that’s, you know, that’s interesting, I don’t know, inflows into ISIS, or whatever. I mean, it’s data is, you know, it’s news. Journalists like data-led stories. So I think case studies data, and just general ideas, showing them that you’re, you know, you’re full of ideas, and that you’re, you know, you really want to help them, you know, write decent, relevant, topical stories. So they’re, I think, the three main ones.

Phil Bray 41:45
The flip side of that, what really hacks journalists off? What really annoys them, and is gonna get you on a naughty step?

Dominic Hiatt 41:54
Sending them a press release and phoning them about 10 minutes later, going “have you seen my press release?”. That gets right on their nerves. I mean, it’s… and PR agencies do that, unbelievably. So, give them a day or two, just, you know, if you’re gonna send them something… if you send them an email, give them a day or two. I tend to… if they don’t reply, I’ll forward it on. Then, after that, you know, you could call them but you know, but just don’t phone them up just moments after you’ve sent them an email or, you know, because they’re just going to be “well, I haven’t bloody read it yet, have I?”. The other thing you should never do is, if they do run a… if you phone them up and say, “Can you give me a link?”. I mean, that is the quickest way to, literally… they’re almost going to remove you from the story. It annoys journalists. And a lot of in-house policy these days is not to link or, you know, so they can’t link anyway. But you know. And you often get some SEO people, they’ll say, “oh, well, you know, I’ll phone them up and see if they’ll link to us”. And it really pisses them off. So avoid at all costs.

Phil Bray 42:49
What about asking for copy approval? That’s got to be up there.

Dominic Hiatt 42:52
Right, right up there. You know, I think if it’s a very sensitive case study, you’ve got every… you know, if there’s a case study, and it’s quite a detailed case study, and it’s one of your clients, I think you’ve got a right to say, “look, you know, would you mind if I had a look at this before it, you know, because it’s my client, they’re quite a big client of mine, you know, I need to make sure that this is…” You know, you’re helping them out. I think a lot of, you know, a lot of journalists will say, that’s absolutely fine in that case, you know. But, you know, other times it’s, you know… yeah, 100%, don’t. It’s like a red rag to a bull, basically.

Phil Bray 43:23
Is there a difference there, when you asking the journalists about a case study, is there a difference between asking for a fact check and copy approval?

Dominic Hiatt 43:28
Yeah, I mean, really, you just say, “Look, I just want to make sure that it’s all factually correct. I’m not… it’s not about the, sort of, how you’re writing it. It’s really… I just need to make sure that it’s correct for my own client relationship”. I think that’s perfectly understandable. And journalists will often understand that if it’s more detailed. Whereas if it’s just a comment that you know, you’ve had a chat with them on the phone, and you say, “Look, can I read your article before it goes live?”, they’re gonna tell you to bugger off, you know. If they phoned you up, and you’re talking about ISAs, and whatever trends and blah, blah, blah, you say, “I’d like to see the quote before it goes live”. Yeah, they’re gonna say get lost. Nine times out of 10.

Phil Bray 44:01
So, in that case, there’s gonna be a lot of people on this call, who have… who will be thinking about compliance right now. They’re either network members and directly authorised, but compliance will loom large in their lives on a day to day basis. How do you manage the competing needs of the adviser, the planner, the journalist and compliance?

Dominic Hiatt 44:18
Well, I mean, if in doubt, take it out. I mean, the key thing is never say something that you’d be even slightly uncomfortable with. I mean, that’s, that’s kind of it really, you know, I mean, different IFAs have got different degrees of freedom, you know, I’m sure, in terms of what they can say and whether they’ve got to have it checked. I mean, compliance can be a nightmare, but ultimately, it’s just common sense. You know, you shouldn’t say… if you don’t genuinely believe something, you know, don’t say it. You know, you’ve got to be comfortable with what you’re saying. Because anything you say, could end up in print. So you’ve just got to be very comfortable with what you’re saying. Have it all spelled out, you know, you know, next to you when you’re on the phone to them. So you, you know, you know exactly what you say and don’t say something if you know it’s a bit risky, you’re a bit, it’s a bit out of your comfort zone, do not say it. That’s kind of… that’s all we sort of advise really. Just don’t say something if you’re not comfortable.

Phil Bray 45:14
We talked about, we talked about type of articles, we talked about how to get in touch with journalists. Being featured in the FT at the weekend, or The Mail, or The Wall Street Journal, or whatever it is. How do advisers and planners capitalise on that inclusion?

Dominic Hiatt 45:30
Yeah, and one thing you can do, as discussed earlier, is, you know, stick those, even though technically, it’s a bit naughty, stick the logos on your, you know, your homepage “as featured in The Telegraph, The Times”. You know, I mean, technically, you should, it’s kind of probably a breach of copyright but realistically nobody cares. Probably edit that bit out, Dan, just to protect my…

Dan Campbell 45:50
I don’t know, I don’t know, you just said anything you do say so…

Dominic Hiatt 45:55
A lot of people, you know, loads of websites, as featured in you know, even if you just have “as featured in The Telegraph, the BBC, the FT”. I mean, it looks great. I think that’s the one thing you have to do, don’t get into… the PR, you know, getting a bit of coverage is really the start of the journey, rather than the end of it. You should be sharing it with your clients, let’s say you do… I mean, I’m sure loads of IFAs do weekly or monthly emails to their clients. Mention it, say, “look, oh, yes, you know, and in this article in The Times, you know, we were… our, whoever was feature”. I mean, it looks great, you know, it creates credibility again. It’s, you know, and if it’s being read by people who aren’t yet clients, again, it’s credibility. So I think, you know, add it to your marketing material, you know, tweet it. And this is another thing, you should be engaging with journalists on Twitter, right, you know, on Twitter regularly, and sort of doing all of this stuff. So, 100% use it in all your marketing. I’m sure you recommend this, Phil, I mean, you know, if you’re in the FT, tell your client base about it, you know. What you can’t do is just send them a PDF of the whole article, because that’s a bit naughty, but you can, sort of, you know, send them a link to that article, which they can then click on and read themselves. So yeah, drive really.

Phil Bray 47:02
Absolutely. Email clients, prospects and professional connections.

Dominic Hiatt 47:07
Yeah.

Phil Bray 47:08
The prospects and the professional connections are probably more important than the client. Email prospects, clients, professional connections. Try and do it the day that you’ve been included, as well.

Dominic Hiatt 47:16
100%.

Phil Bray 47:17
Push it out on your social channels, not… and multiple times, because… moves fast. And have a press page on your website if you’ve got enough, if you’ve got enough coverage.

Dominic Hiatt 47:27
I think, yeah, yeah. 100%. That the logos, you know, if you can have it, you know, I mean, lots of our clients have like tickers across their website, you know, with, as you know, so you can just click on the link and, you know, quickly go. So it’s brilliant for, for a new client who’s coming to your site for the first time, they can click on a link to the BBC, and boom, they’re seeing you on the BBC, that’s, you know, invaluable.

Phil Bray 47:51
100%, 100%. And I think what we’ll do now is, Dan, I see some questions coming through. So what I’m going to do is just put a few, a couple of parish notices up, if that’s okay for everybody. And then we’ll dive in to attend these questions. Hopefully, that works for everybody. I’m just gonna share my screen now. And again, hopefully, that will work a treat. Everyone, Dan, can you see the slide?

Dan Campbell 48:20
Yeah, you’re in Presenter View. So maybe switch that around?

Phil Bray 48:23
No worries.

Dan Campbell 48:28
Yeah, there we go.

Phil Bray 48:30
So, a reminder of the Newspage special offer. It’s three months, three months free. Sounds as though there’s a whole load of value there to be had if you’re getting people editing your comments, and grading your stories. The link is there. The code, the code is there. Scott said actually, the code is… he’s had a problem with the code. So if other people want to try it and just report back if there’s a problem, that would be, that would be great. And if there is, we’ll we’ll get that fixed, obviously. But as I say, looks like a whole load of value with, excuse me, with what Newspage are offering there. If you want to stay in touch with Newspage, there’s the website. There’s their, there’s their Twitter handle. Couple of other things that I’d say before we get to everyone’s questions. We talked a lot about client stories and client videos. If anybody is interested on the call about how we create those, we do packages of three or six. And we interview clients, we’ll edit the video down. And it’s a great way of starting that case study journey. Get in touch with us after this webinar, and we’d be very happy to have that conversation with you. And there’s our, there’s our contact details. But, as I say, those clients stories, great way of showing the value of financial planning and starting off on that case study journey. We’ll send an email with the recording and the links etc. later on today. And just want to remind you before we get to questions seems with Dom. Our next free webinar is on the 8th of September, 10am. Another special guest, we’ve got Dave Seagar, former MD of SIFA Professional, who’s going to talk about how advisors and planners can generate more profitable, longer lasting relationships with solicitors. Professional connections are really the holy grail of generating new enquiries along with referrals from existing clients and so few firms do it well. So 8th of, 8th of September, 10am. Dave Seagar, Q&A, talking about that for an hour. And, Dan, if you’re going to put a link in the chat, so people can sign up for that, aren’t you?

Dan Campbell 50:38
Yeah, that’s just been done. So, people can click that and get signed up.

Phil Bray 50:43
Excellent. So, parish notices done. Let’s get back to Dom, and more questions, Dan, you go for it.

Dan Campbell 50:49
Yeah, so we’ve got two questions in at the moment. And first one is from Kay, who asks “Does sharing media coverage require an NLA licence?”.

Dominic Hiatt 50:59
If you’re just link… if you’re just sharing the link, no, you can just, you can share the link and the NLA can’t do a… unless they’ve changed their rules recently. No, it’s absolutely fine. You can, what you can’t do is copy and paste the article and use that in, you know, in an email to your clients, you can say “look, as featured in The Times”, hyperlink that or, you know, and then the, you know, your clients can go and read it, that’s absolutely fine. You don’t need any permission for that, so…

Dan Campbell 51:29
Brilliant. Thank you for that. Final question is from Faisal, who says, “Are letters pages useful in terms of brand building?” And by letters pages, they mean, letters in the FT, Economist, Times, generally, rather than just the personal finance sections.

Dominic Hiatt 51:47
I don’t know. I mean, do people read letters pages? You know, I mean, for me, it’s kind of like, you know, there are, you know, look, you can get into them. I mean, the Evening Standard, we’ve had clients in the Evening Standard, you know, I mean, whether or not… how many people read the letters pages, you know, I mean, I think there are far better places to be, you know, you want to be in the, you know, the news stories, rather than the letter pages. So, for me, it’s kind of, yeah, look, if you’ve got really strong views… if someone’s written something, and you’ve, you know, you really disagree with it, yeah, write a letter and send it across. And actually, you know, it can be, you know, often, you know, they can run it, so it’s worth doing it, but, you know, but I wouldn’t, you know, I think there, you’d rather be on page 2 of The Times rather than page 32. So, that’s my personal feeling. And, you know, a lot of papers in particular receive a lot of people, you know, outrage from, you know, Tunbridge Wells, and, you know, cutting through all the noise can be quite difficult, and you can spend a lot of energy and get nowhere.

Dan Campbell 52:44
Brilliant.

Phil Bray 52:45
Dom, just on that point, comments sections of an article. Is there any value in advisers and planners posting comments on there, or even reacting to people who have reacted to their comment in the article? Would you just steer clear?

Dominic Hiatt 53:00
Again, journalists… I know, you know, I know lots of personal finance journalists and they’re, they tend, they’re almost like, they never read the comments, especially on the Mail Online. They’re absolutely terrified of them. I mean, they literally… because, you know, the first comment… doesn’t matter what the story is, the first comment is always just someone torpedoing everything about the story. I mean, someone you know, I don’t know, where these people, you know, what they’re doing in the day. But, but yeah, I mean, I, you know, do people… I think, you know, for me, personally, I quite enjoy reading some of the comments sections, because it’s all kicking off, it’s a more interesting story. But, you know, you need to be constructive because you are, at the end of the day, you’re, you know, you’re a professional financial services company. So you can’t be sniping and… but, you know, if you genuinely feel that you have a, you know, a view and put it in there, and sometimes a journalist can actually respond to that, you know, in the comments section. But what you don’t want to do is getting all grubby and, you know, and just posting all kinds of, you know, stuff that’s a bit sort of, yeah.

Phil Bray 53:59
And then on the on the same topic, Saturday morning comes around, again. Certain journalists take to Twitter, and talk maybe slightly negatively about financial advisers. How should advisers and planners interact with the journalist?

Dominic Hiatt 54:14
I would, 100%, you know, just engage with them, but be constructive. You know, what you don’t do is you know, start effing and blinding and you know, all of this. You… that’s exactly what they want you to do. You just need to, you know, if you genuinely believe they’re wrong, say why, you know, and just put it out there. So 100%. Why, you know, and like I said, you know, you’re the experts, you’re the financial planners, you’re the people who are doing what you do. You know, journalists, you know, they they haven’t done the exams, you know, they that half of them, have got a cursory understanding of the markets and, and financial planning and yet, you know, they can have this great audience that they can just speak to. So yeah, I mean, if you feel that they’ve said something that’s just not right. You know, confront them about it, but just do it constructively.

Phil Bray 55:00
Okay, thank you. That’s, that’s useful. I’m interested to see what happens this Saturday morning!

Dominic Hiatt 55:06
I’ll get involved on, yeah, I’ll be following… and see what happens on Saturday morning.

Phil Bray 55:10
I’ve noticed you on Twitter less recently.

Dominic Hiatt 55:12
Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, it’s just yeah. I used to spend too much time drunk on Twitter and you know, all kinds of, you know, waking up the next morning wondering what the hell you’ve tweeted. Awful. So yeah, I’ve cut it out now.

Phil Bray 55:26
Dan, we’ve got something else in from Scott?

Dan Campbell 55:28
Yes, Scott asks, “Can we copyright our quotes before use so that we can use them without the licencing issues?”.

Dominic Hiatt 55:35
Well, do you know, I’m no lawyer, but you know, if, if your quote, I mean, yeah, good question. I mean, if if, if you send a quote to the FT, and they use that, I mean, I, you know, if you’re using it in your marketing, I can’t see there are gonna be any issues whatsoever. You know, it’s just you’ve created that quote, it’s only if you quote the article around it, that you’re in trouble. So you know, you can use the quote that you’ve… you know, if you’ve said something, that’s your copyright. It’s just… what you can’t do is just feature the article that surrounds it. So you know, 100%. Do what you like, but, you know, I’m no lawyer, but yeah, I can’t see there’ll be any issue with that whatsoever.

Phil Bray 56:12
Fantastic. So Dom, I just want to thank you for the hour you spent with us. It’s been, it’s been enlightening and hopefully very useful to a lot of people. We will send through a recording of this later on today. We’ll put the Newspage link in there. We’ll make sure the code works. And as I say, thanks, Dom. We’ll see everybody else on the 8th of September but for Dave Seager. Thanks, everybody.

Dan Campbell 56:38
Take care everyone, bye.

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