Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
Its hype often transcends the reality, but digital marketing should be part of every advisor’s marketing strategy. My company offers a free Digital Presence Setup Guide, which explains how to put the basics in place.
You should exercise caution when retaining digital marketing experts, including those specializing in Google Analytics, paid social media advertisements and SEO. My informal survey of advisors has yielded very few who report a positive return on their investment.
Advisors who have had success are usually focused on a niche market.
While we continue to assist our clients with digital marketing, we recently explored another strategy, which has fallen out of favor and been eclipsed by social media initiatives: Traditional public relations.
I want to share our experience. It’s been encouraging.
Reinvented PR
When we decided to look at traditional public relations, I immediately saw barriers that made it inaccessible to smaller advisory firms.
Most public relations firms charge a monthly retainer, ranging from $2,500 to as high as $10,000. Many have minimum contracts that obligate you to six months or more.
Few public relations firms understand your business, which makes drafting effective press releases and pitches for stories difficult and time-consuming.
PR firms are unable to promise any coverage or that coverage will result in business, both of which are understandable. However, the client is placed in the uncomfortable position of making a significant financial commitment with no guarantee of success.
After studying these issues and the PR industry, I came with a new approach, which I call “reinvented PR.”
The first observation I made was that the databases used by PR firms are basically the same. The ones that came up most often in my research were Prowly, Cision, Meltwater and Muck Rack.
If all the contacts you need to reach are on similar databases, the initial “reach out” of public relations firms is the same. Since the average cost of these databases is only about $5,000 a year, if you have the bandwidth and the resources, consider an in-house PR effort.
Since a sole PR practitioner has access to the same contacts as a huge (far more expensive) firm, I sought smaller firms out and made this offer:
We would be a repeat client. Since we understood the advisory business, we would draft the press releases and story pitches, saving the PR firm significant time.
The role of the PR firm would be limited to using their database and aggressively following up with those contacts, which is critically important.
In exchange, the PR firm would discount their rate to us, and would permit us to offer our clients a one-month “MediaBlitz.” We currently charge $5,000, which includes both our time drafting customized content and the time of the PR person. At the end of the month, the client could terminate the relationship or continue with the service at a negotiated rate, based on the results of the MediaBlitz.
Our results
It’s my practice not to offer a marketing initiative we haven’t tried. The timing was perfect because I recently published a new book, Ask: How to Relate to Anyone. I drafted the content and assigned the PR person the task of generating publicity for the book, which is challenging.
So far, the Penn Law Journal has agreed to run an article I drafted. Several Florida-based publications, where I live, have either run articles or will be doing so. A major Florida magazine interviewed me and ran a story on Ask.
A local TV station has agreed to do an interview (albeit for a fee, which is a common practice).
Ask is being considered by several lifestyle publications.
Training Magazine agreed to run a 1,000-word exclusive article.
Various podcasts have either booked me as a guest or are considering doing so.
A magazine that publishes in regions across the U.S. will be featuring an article I’ve previously written in all its editions.
Encouraged by this success, I offered this opportunity to one of our clients who serves a niche market.
In the first month, we landed articles in two major publications aimed at his demographic. These articles generated the possibility of a regular column. He elected to continue for another month.
Marketing Services For Evidence-Based Advisors...and a New Book!
We offer consulting services on how to convert more prospects into clients through Solin Consulting, a division of Solin Strategic, LLC.
We offer a full range of digital marketing services exclusively to evidence-based advisors through Evidence Based Advisor Marketing, LLC. You can see examples of our work here.
My new book:
Ask
How to Relate to Anyone
Is now available in all formats. For more information, click here.
Schedule a call with Dan here
My takeaways
Our most successful pitches to publications have been achieved when we offered ideas for stories that appealed to their readers.
Publicity raises your name recognition, but it doesn’t guarantee new business. It’s also difficult to associate inquiries to articles written about you.
Traditional PR should be considered as another arrow in your marketing quiver. As with digital marketing, you’re likely to be more successful if you can target your pitch to a narrow demographic. You can measure the results in one month. You will then have enough data to determine whether to continue.
Dan trains executives and employees in the lessons based on the research of his latest book, Ask: How to Relate to Anyone. His online video course, Ask: Increase Your Sales. Deepen Your Relationships, is in production.
Read more articles by Dan Solin
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
