For Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Small Publications Can Have Great Publicity Impact

Just because a publication is small doesn't mean that getting your name in it won't have great impact.

Trade on the reputation of the trades

Some of the trade publications have very loyal audiences who are much more likely to trust someone they see there than someone on the local news or in The Wall Street Journal. Now I'm not talking about the trade publication for your profession - the only people you'll reach are your competitors. Get yourself in the publications your prospects and clients read!

Don't forget the Sewer Cleaner Association's newsletter

It's a great to get yourself in the newsletters of the associations your prospects in that niche belong to. Whatever your market is, you can bet it has a professional or trade association. Sure, their newsletters are "smaller." But there's nothing better or more tightly focused on reaching your targets - and no one else!

Offer yourself as a guest columnist

It's a great to get yourself in the newsletters of the associations your prospects in that niche belong to.

Unlike the major publications, which receive 100 times more material then they could ever print, smaller publications usually scramble to get enough content. Ask one of those industry publications, or your local paper, if they'd like a guest columnist to write advice articles on your topic. Or offer to answer "reader's mailbag" questions.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

Free Radio Publicity for Marketing-Minded Financial Planners

Radio is a powerful publicity tool. Most stations offer news and talk programming. Those shows are put together not necessarily by the voice you hear on air, but by people called producers.

Getting to know producers, and giving them reasons to showcase you on air, is a very doable for most people in most towns. How? The same way you'd contact a print reporter, which I discuss in my other articles for financial planners.

Getting on the radio is possible in huge markets like New York and L.A. too, but it's not for the weak or the timid.

Radio stations love to team with community resources - like you - on promotional activities. Call your station's promotion department and tell them you'd like to explore ideas. Need an idea or two? Don't worry - tell the promotion folks what you do, and they'll probably think of the rest. (Hint: yes, as a successful professional, you can do this with appropriate dignity. You might offer free screenings or consultations; you probably don't want to sponsor a beer float at the big parade)

Always remember that radio's two best words are "drive time - the morning and evening commutes. Try your best to get on radio during these peak listening times.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

Financial Planners Get Free Publicity With Email 

In previous articles for marketing-minded financial planners, I've discussed what to say to a reporter over the telephone.

However, if you are phone-shy or time-challenged, it's better to send an email than to do nothing.

Many reporters favor e-mail anyway, so use it. Call the media outlet or check its staff listing to get the reporter's email address. Sometimes reporters email addresses are at the bottom of their article in the newspaper--or linked to in the online version of the outlet. It's rarely a secret.

Again, offer practical story ideas - one or two max per e-mail. Summarize your best story idea in the 'subject' line of the email.

Be specific. In fact, spend as much time composing that subject line as you do the entire body of your message. It's that important.

Reporters get dozens of emails per day, and struggle with spam just like the rest of us, so make sure that your email doesn't look like spam. Avoid any words (you know what they are) that would be likely to set off a spam blocker.

And never, ever send a reporter an attachment of any kind. Many news organizations, fearful that their technically unsavvy staff will introduce a virus, prevent staff from receiving attachments. Usually they accomplish this by deleting the whole email.

If you want your email to be read, include a compelling subject line, and no attachment.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

What Marketing-Minded Financial Planners Say to Get Free Publicity 

You can have dozens of marvelous ideas to get free publicity, but nothing will happen unless you pick up the phone and call a reporter.

Here's where the publicity game gets interesting for marketing-minded financial planners. You've been tracking reporters - you know who covers your topics. You've been tracking Topic A's and trends affecting your market. You're ready!

When you call a reporter, you're going to say something like:

"Hi, Bob. I'm Stephanie Smart, and I am a financial planning consultant in town. I see you cover mutual funds, and I thought you might be interested in this.

Did you know that about two-thirds of my clients lately have been asking me for help with picking the right index fund? It's a fascinating switch from what I've been seeing in the past."

And it has broad implications for our community, given the number of young professionals in the area, just beginning to think about retirement planning."

Or… "Bob, I saw your story last week on retirement planning by young professionals. Did you know that these folks are already leaning more towards index funds than traditional mutual funds? Would you like to know more?"

Trust me, every mutual fund reporter worth his or her weight in stock certificates is going to listen very closely to you.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

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