In today's Quick Win segment I want to talk about media and PR. And when we think about this, there's really three different types of media or PR out there. There's owned media: this is the type of content or media that you're creating on your own. So that might be creating your own video blogs, it might be writing blogs or articles, that sort of thing. And you're curating that, creating it, and distributing it, pushing it out there to the audience that you control - whether that's your prospects, your clients, as well as maybe your social networks. The second type of media is going to be paid media. This could be anything from paying for a radio show, paying for TV ads, getting a paid placement inside of a media outlet or a media network - whether it's a newspaper or a magazine or a radio/TV interview. And then there's the third kind, which is earned media. And earned media is really where media or journalists are seeking you out based upon your merits, your credentials. And, you know, if you've ever seen people being interviewed in news broadcasts - whether it's going to be interviewed and featured in magazines or newspapers or online publications - that's all considered earned media if it's not paid for. And you might be wondering, well, how do we get that? Because honestly, the best media that you can get is something that's free that you've earned. And, ultimately, the trust and credibility is going to come with that. There is some third party validation that essentially gets bestowed upon you when you get that type of media. Well, it's a lot easier than you might think.
And this story kind of takes me back. I'm going to take you back, it was the summer of 2013, and I was having a conversation with an advisor and he was thinking about paying a publication to run a paid-for advertorial, if you will. It was going to cost him a bunch of money. He wasn't real sure on what he would get from it, but really the big motivation for him in doing so was he wanted to get that publicity. He wanted to get some of that recognition and get some of the trust and credibility that came with his name and his content being in that particular publication. And I said to him, you know, you don't have to do that. It's actually a lot easier than that. You can go out and get earned media without paying a cent. And he said, well, how do you do that? And so I pointed him in a direction that I'm going to share with you in just a moment. But as a part of this challenge to him, because he wasn't entirely believing me, I said, "Well, here, I'll make a deal with you. I will go ahead and I'm going to work this angle for myself for a few months and you'll see the results of it. And at that point, maybe that will prove to you that this is a worthwhile endeavor." So I worked this angle for a few months. It took very little of my time to get it off the ground. And in a few short months, I was published in the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, InvestmentNews, Investopedia, Barron's, and a number of different well-known publications that anybody in our industry and even the clients that you all serve would recognize. None of that media cost me a penny.
The way that I did it, and this is not some elaborate secret, it's a really simple process. It boils down to the fact that the media needs you as much as you need them. They are always looking for trusted experts in different fields that can provide commentary. In some cases, they just want a quote or two. In other cases, they would be willing to host your content, your articles, anything that you want to write or contribute, especially once they find out that you are a credible, worthwhile source.
There's a number of different paths that you can go. The one that I used at the time was an outfit called HARO, which stood for Help a Reporter Out. Since then, it has been bought by an entity by the name of Connectively. There's a few others that are very similar: SourceBottle and Qwoted. These entities are essentially in the matchmaker business. And they match journalists who are working on various stories, in a bunch of different fields, with experts in their respective field. So when you go to these different sites, you can sign up as an expert in financial services. When you do that, you will start to get pitches come to your email inbox on a regular basis. Each of them has their own different cadence. I know that Connectively basically sends out three emails a day: morning, noon, and night. And there are 15 to 20 different pitches from different journalists. Now, some of the pitches are from entities and in publications that you'll have zero interest in, some of them are gonna be looking for expertise on topics that you'll also have zero interest in, but if you comb through them and just take a moment to read through the different pitches and what they're looking for contributors on, you will ultimately begin to find that every now and again, there's going to be some that bubble up to the top. In my case, when I started, the Wall Street Journal bubbled up to the top. Everybody in our industry knows about the Wall Street Journal, and they were looking for financial advisors that had a voice and had a story to share. Ultimately, they wanted to provide a benefit for their readership. And it was certainly a benefit for me to get published inside of the Wall Street Journal. So, I submitted my pitch to them about content for an article, and really quickly they got back to me and said that's a great topic. And we ran with it from there. A few short weeks later, there was an article published, with my name as the byline, and it was in the Wall Street Journal. It also got picked up by Barron's, and it led to a little bit of a media snowball, if you will, because there was a couple of other publications that then reached out and wanted to talk to me and get some feedback and some quotes from me on the particular article that was published initially in the Wall Street Journal.
The challenge to you today is, if you want to get this PR and you don't want to pay a PR firm - not that there's anything wrong with that. I think PR firms serve a wonderful purpose and can do great things for advisors. But, oftentimes, advisors don't want to pay that. It's not cheap to hire a PR firm. You can do it without spending a nickel. So check out Connectively, Source Bottle, as well as Qwoted, and take a look. Most of them have a free option. So there isn't a cost. They'll basically ask you to kind of complete a little profile, specify your area of expertise. And from there, you'll start to see certain pitches. The added side benefit for you with doing this, in addition to the credibility and some of the exposure you'll get from those publications, is many of them will also then link your website inside of their articles. And when you get your website linked from sites like the Wall Street Journal or Fox Business or InvestmentNews, any of these reputable websites, that is only going to help you in the search engine optimization game that we're all playing right now in our digital world. So hope that helps. Hope that's a Quick Win.
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The Financial Advisor Marketing Playbook is a podcast/video series for high-performing financial planning professionals that are committed to improving their craft, helping their clients, and growing their business. Hosted by Mark Mersman, Chief Marketing Officer at USA Financial, this series contains a wide variety of content – from quick win ideas to long-form interviews, each episode provides actionable marketing ideas and insights that can be implemented easily into your practice. From digital marketing to traditional direct-response marketing, each episode delivers straight-forward and engaging content that any financial professional can use to improve their bottom line and grow their practice.
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