Three ways to get the best press for your firm: As a financial advisor executive, with your own business, you often have to find ways to get the word out. How do you let potential clients know about you and the services you offer?
Although there are a number of ways you could do this, one way is to utilize the press. The press can get information about your financial advisor business out to potential clients.
Obtaining guidance through business coaching can help you learn to utilize the press and make the most of media opportunities.
The effectiveness of press coverage for financial advisors
When the press talks about your financial advisor business in a positive way, it can be more effective than some other types of marketing for a number of reasons.
First, when potential clients hear about you from a trusted third party, they can find value in what they hear. What they hear doesn’t feel like an advertisement, it feels like information.
Second, when the press mentions your financial advisor business, you can reach more potential clients than you might have with other methods.
Third, having the press mention your financial advisor business can be free in a direct sense. It will take some of your time, and in some cases you might have to travel to talk to a journalist, but you won’t be paying a fee like you would with some other types of marketing.
Having the press mention your financial advisor business in a positive way is something worth looking into. Here are three ways that you can get the best media attention and press for your financial advisor firm. If you are interested in learning more, you can look into marketing coaching.
1. HARO – a media tool you can use as a financial advisor
HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out. You can find them at https://www.helpareporter.com/.
The idea of HARO is simple: they connect journalists with potential sources.
To use HARO, the first step is registering with the site. It only takes a few minutes. After that, you should read the rules for sources to be sure you are following them.
Once you are signed up, you will get information about relevant source requests sent to you three times per weekday that you can check for opportunities you can fulfill.
Six things for financial advisors to keep in mind when pitching to journalists
When you find an opportunity to be a source, the next step is to send a pitch. Here are six things to keep in mind when you do:
- Directly answering the questions the journalist asks is important.
- Following any requirements the journalist has is important too.
- Pitches should include a prepared and thought-through mini elevator speech to show writers that you have the direct experience to answer the request.
- Pitches should include your contact information. You want the journalist to be able to reach you, right?
- Pitches should provide all of the information the journalist might need to use you as a source.
- Pitches should tie directly into the journalists’ topics for which they are seeking a source through HARO.
Leveraging being a source
If you are selected to be a source, once the story is published or broadcast, you can take an opportunity to mention it in your other marketing. For example, you could send a marketing newsletter, mention it on your social media accounts, and link to it from your website.
Once you are selected to be a source a few times, you can leverage this to get more opportunities for press coverage. If you can show a journalist that you’ve been a good source a number of times for other journalists, they might be more likely to select you to be their source.
You can also create a Media Room to house all your media mentions. This adds credibility to your practice.
2. Financial advisors: use and leverage online press releases
Another way to get the best media coverage for your firm is to use press releases. A press release is like a way of saying, “Hey media, we’ve done something you should know about!” or “Hey journalist, this is a developing news story.”
If used effectively, press releases can be a good way to get information out, and potentially have that information covered by journalists.
Here’s an article from Forbes that can give you the basics of writing a press release. You can also find free templates online that you can use.
Tips to write better press releases and leveraging them
Here are some tips to help you write better press releases and leverage them.
- Following a template is always a good idea. There are many online that you can use.
- Things should be easy for a journalist. You can make things easy by providing them with all the information they need to cover your story, and by providing it in a style they can use.
- The target audience is important. You of course want something the journalist will like, but also important is the ultimate audience for the story – your potential clients.
- Press releases should be sent at the right time. This might be right when something happens, as a prelude to something, or at a certain time of year. Also, you want to think about the specific time you send a press release. It should be sent at a time a journalist will read it. Also, press releases shouldn’t be sent too often.
- You can form connections with journalists who then use you as a source on a continuing basis. Your press release might be your first point of contact with a journalist, but it doesn’t have to be your last. If you can form a connection with a journalist it can make future stories easier to get through, and at some point they might be contacting you for a story.
- SEO is important when writing press releases. Relevant search terms should be included. Not only do these provide information for your potential clients, but if your press release is posted online, it can help you rank better in search engines.
Distributing press releases
When you have a press release, there are a number of ways you can distribute it.
First, you can put it on your website. You might even have a section just for press releases or you can make a blog post out of your release.
Second, you can put it on your social media accounts.
Third, you can have people with whom you have a connection spread the word about your press release. For example, they can mention it on their social media accounts.
Fourth, you can send it to a specific journalist. You can look for publications that are relevant to your location, the story, or are financially related and send your press release directly to a journalist there mentioning that your idea is being sent only to them. Journalists like to be the first to publish an idea.
Fifth, there are various services you can find that will distribute your press release. One example is PR Newswire.
3. Financial advisors: get noticed by the media and what to write press releases about
Now that you’ve learned about press releases, what do you write a press release about? Below is a list of ten things you can write about.
The only rule: Make sure your press release is newsworthy!
- Pitching a specific idea – do you see a trend developing in the financial advisory business? Are more women being widowed without knowledge of what to do about their finances? Did you hear about someone winning the lottery and spending the proceeds quickly? The idea should be interesting and make the journalist say “I want to be the first to highlight this new trend.”
- Opening a new office – if you open a new office or a new location this can be a newsworthy event especially if you are in a new, visible, or interesting location.
- Having a business anniversary – your 5, 10, 15 and so forth anniversaries are all newsworthy events. This can especially be the case if there is a story tied to the anniversary or if you can tie the anniversary to something else.
- Doing something with a charity or a group in need – although this is good all by itself, it is also something you should let people know about. If, for example, your staff will be collecting food for a food drive, you should let people know.
- Major retirements – is someone in the C-suite retiring from your financial advisor firm? If so, this is a newsworthy event. It can give you an opportunity to talk about the firm, the person, and the future.
- Major hires – if you hire someone for a key position this can be something you can let potential clients know about.
- Awards or certification – if you or anyone at your financial advisor firm wins an award for something related to business, you can spread the word about it. If you earn a certification like the CFP® or the RICP®, this can be a newsworthy event.
- Events – are you having a client appreciation event, company retreat, or hosting a conference? If so, a press release can be used to let clients, potential clients, and people in the financial industry know.
- Special months and days – There are all sorts of special months and days that you can do something for that can be material for a press release. Did you know, for example, that April is Financial Literacy Month? That might be a good month to have free financial literacy classes or to make a donation to a financial literacy cause. If you do, you can mention it in a press release.
- Partnering – If you are doing something with another company or organization, whether it’s business related or not, if you think it’s important, you can use a press release to let potential clients know.
Conclusion
Getting the press to take notice of your financial advisor firm doesn’t have to be hard. By using a service such as HARO to connect you to journalists, writing press releases, and doing newsworthy things, you can get the media to take notice and spread the word about your financial advisor firm.
