Lay the groundwork for free advertising for financial planners
That’s the sound your phone could be making in 15 minutes from the time you implement the tips and strategies in this article. Let’s face it, all of our practices would be better if we could get more publicity and press. It would be even more ideal if it was free! Well keep reading buddy.
When was the last time a local reporter contacted you and asked your opinion on a financial issue? Well, chances are it won’t happen that often. But there are things you can implement to get the attention of reporters and programmers from the local press (newspaper, television, radio, etc).
Why advertising?
Let’s take the newspaper as an example. If you think about the way the newspaper works, you basically have two different sections in any newspaper.
- Those sections of the newspaper that host paid advertising (ads, classifieds, etc.)
- Those sections written by reporters and editors.
When you read a newspaper, you are very likely to believe what is written in the stories and pay more attention to them than to the advertisements. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with ads. I use these with great success and would suggest that a portion of your marketing budget be allocated to appropriate advertising, but that is neither the point nor the purpose of this article. My point in this article is to begin an explanation of how you can implement strategies and tactics in your practice to exploit your advertising, and do it all for pennies. You want to have publicity. It can be used in almost any industry and being seen as an expert by your customers and potential customers can only lead to higher profits and income. This is a good thing.
I’m going to focus on the basic work of generating publicity in this article. That is through the use of submitting a press release. I can only devote a small part of what it takes to explain good press releases here, since an entire book could be (and has been) written on the subject. But most financial planners don’t understand how to implement this in their practice. In future articles I’ll talk about what makes a good press release, but here I’ll lay out the basics so you’re ready to start your own news outlet.
One thing to keep in mind when it comes to press releases. Even if you produce an amazing and perfect press release, there is no guarantee that you will get publicity. I’ve sent out thousands of press releases ranging from debt to college financing to retirement planning and more. Some have generated press, others have not. Just keep in mind that this is a tactic that you have to commit to doing regularly. Don’t worry, with the process I’m going to walk you through, it will be easy to do and won’t take more than a few minutes after you learn the basics.
Laying the foundation: who do you send it to?
Before you start writing a press release, it’s important to know who you’re sending it to. The first thing you need to do is start compiling a list of the publications and media outlets you want to send it to. How you collect these names and contact information is entirely up to you, but this is how I would approach it.
If you go to Google.com and simply type in your city or state followed by the type of media you want, you’ll have a list of options to help you get started. For example, when I type “Colorado Radio Stations” into Google there are numerous results that lead to finding local radio stations and their contact information.
Then all you have to do is search the results and you will surely find the top radio stations and their contact information, or at the very least, a link to their website where you can find the fax number.
The same result can occur when I typed “Colorado Newspapers”:
Again, just browse the results until you find what you need.
SIDE NOTE: Remember that this process will take time, but if you store the information, you only need to do it once.
You have the contact information… Now what?
The best way to send the press release is by fax, but I have found that email can also work well. The only problem with email is that it’s easy to get lost in the inbox of reporters and editors. They rarely get to all the emails they have and chances are if they don’t recognize your name, you don’t stand a chance. It’s best to start with a fax, and as you develop relationships with journalists, they may give you the option of emailing.
Now here’s a key that will dramatically speed up your presentation.
Let’s say you’ve collected between 30 and 50 fax numbers that you think will be good for sending out your press release. You don’t want to be at your fax machine for an hour dialing individual numbers one at a time. That would be stupid and a waste of time.
What you want to do is send them all with the press of a button. I personally use a company called Send2Fax. They have plans as low as $11.95 per month, which is a great deal. There are also companies that allow you to have a free trial, and that may be the way to go. If you’re more comfortable getting a one-month free trial and trying this tactic to see if it’s worth pursuing, that’s fine with me. Just know that if you send a lot of faxes, it will be worth the monthly money (plus you can get a local or toll-free number).
For the press release to go out on an online fas service, all you have to do is type the release in Microsoft Word (or any word processor) and upload it to your service. If you can send an email, you can. It’s very, very easy.
The second option is to join a website that will submit your press release for you. For a list of websites that offer this service, search on Google. I’ve never used this option because the release tends to go out to a national audience, which isn’t really what I want. Maybe that’s more your style and if so, check it out and let me know what you think. But for the purposes of most financial planners, there are more effective ways to communicate with the local media.
The last option is to submit your press release on each website by looking for a story submission page. Most newspapers have a section where you can submit your own stories, but to be honest with you, I’ve had only minimal success with this method.
Homework time
Well, now it’s time to get to work. Go and research the different media outlets and start compiling a list of names and fax numbers. You don’t need all the other contact information, such as addresses or phone numbers, just the fax numbers.
I hope this helps you prepare to send press releases. I’ll continue this discussion by talking about how to write an effective press release in the days to come.