AFCPE®: Real Money, Real Experts
TL;DR: The launch of the AFCPE® podcast created a platform to showcase the work of the organization’s diverse professionals, share best practices, and ultimately serve a broader audience during a time of unprecedented hardship.
the concept
Operating out of Westerville, Ohio, the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education® (AFCPE®) is a nationally recognized organization for financial professionals. Its mission is to ensure the highest level of knowledge, skill, and integrity of the personal-finance profession by certifying, connecting, and supporting diverse and capable professionals who serve communities worldwide.
In order to continue to engage current and prospective AFCPE® members, the organization sought the guidance of Geben Communication for innovative ways to stay connected with its members, something that became even more important during COVID-19 — the answer was a podcast that has been downloaded over 6k times in just under nine months.
the execution
The idea of a podcast for AFCPE needed to be more than just another tool, but one that would move the needle for the organization by engaging with the organization's members and prospective members on current issues that affected the financial industry.
Prior to launching the podcast, Geben interviewed a range of stakeholders that gauged interest and listenership data. Once the information was gathered to support content, Geben dove into best practices for building a podcast. Armed with this data and recommendations, Geben met with the AFCPE leadership team and set the following goal and objectives.
Goal: Execute the podcast strategy aimed at supporting AFCPE members and the mission.
Objectives: Secure a host and engineer for the podcast + Launch the podcast with a consistent schedule for Season 1 + Average of 100 podcast downloads per episode
Geben knew a key differentiator for AFCPE is the organization’s commitment to all people — regardless of income or background — It’s this backbone of the organization that drove many of the key decisions in creating the podcast. The first step in creating this atmosphere of inclusivity and sharing was finding the perfect co-hosts.
Lastly, Geben built and continues to provide, strategic content recommendations for guests, topics, and innovative episode ideas.
the result
Overall, the first season of AFCPE®’s Real Money, Real Experts podcast exceeded every measurable:
24 episodes with an average iTunes rating of 4.9 stars
6,860 total downloads
181st in the nonprofit space
250 downloads within 30 days of release
Top 50% of ALL podcasts episodes released
Equally important as the quantitative data is the qualitative data and response from the AFCPE® community. A diverse array of guests have provided AFCPE® with increased visibility, so much so that 2020 was AFCPE®’s highest enrollment year to date. There is also a waitlist for future guests and a new interest from the consumer market.