#24

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES IN YOUR NICHE STILL POSSIBLE

Advisors often dream of a client list full of like-minded people,

Wooden-boat enthusiasts, Ford Mustang collectors, fellow triathlon competitors. Or they covet a regular column in a publication for a vertical market, all the dry cleaners in the U.S., the New Jersey construction company owners, or all the civil engineering firms in the country.  Every group mentioned above has a publication.  You can access that publication.  It takes effort and time, but not money.

Just Ask!

You might be amazed at the results.

Here are four case studies of unlikely successes where advisors were able to get invitations to write for target market audiences in athletic and trade publications.  One caveat:  most opportunities in an economic downturn will be in a web-based publication.  Don't let that dissuade you.  You are still being presented to an audience of readers as an expert and you can easily send your clients a URL to access your clip.  It's your job and it's easy to make sure your clients, prospects and centers of influence know you were a trusted expert and served as a source. 

We’ll call him John Jones, the advisor I met at an industry meeting.  He wanted to be the financial advisor of choice of all the constructions companies in New Jersey.  He wrote the editor of the largest trade newspaper for contractors and suggested a column.  They said yes, and the rest was history.  His practice was made up almost entirely of owners of construction companies, large and small and his column did generate referrals.

How Can You Find More Clients Who Fit Your Profile?

Replicate your best ones.

Anne Barry, a client of Ink&Air, who consulted to small and medium 401(k) plans, wanted to replicate her best client, a civil engineering firm.  “They have a lot of chiefs and some Indians, and their 401(k) plans are relatively rich.  I called the editor of Civil Engineering, and he said he would never run a story about sorting through competitive 401(k) proposals in his magazine, which focused solely on the technical aspects of civil engineering.  As I was politely thanking him, he said, “But, our sister publication Management Engineering, would be very interested.  Here’s the editor’s number.  My client was able to get a full-page story and picture about what to look for when comparing 401(k) plan proposals. 

Don't Believe the Experts.

Nothing is Impossible!

An advisor heard me speak at the FPA national conference last fall corrected me during my talk.  He said it was not “nearly impossible” to get small newspapers to run financial advice stories, and that he had done this successfully with 10 or 12 weekly newspapers in a New England state.  I had indicated during my talk that such publications did not have the space for personal finance and rarely covered it.  The advisor made it entirely up to the publication as to when and whether he got his fully attributed columns into the newspapers and frequently there was space and his information ran.  He did get referrals from this effort. Don’t believe me, try it and see.

Follow Your Passion to Clients You Know, Like and Understand

But you have to ask for the opportunity...

Following your passion makes sense.  Ben Perry is a financial advisor and triathlete who told me that his dream clientele would be other athletes who participate in triathlons.  I Googled "Triathlete Publications" and got a mish-mash of state-specific running publications.  I called one and was referred to the publisher of seven state running publications.  He was delighted that my client could offer a financial column for runners, written in terms that an athlete could understand.  I never expected a "yes" and should know by now that the most amazing things happen when you simply ask for an opportunity.

#23

ARE YOUR READY FOR THE COMPETITION?

It’s all over the news.  Bank-based wealth managers are starting their own wealth management firms amidst the financial turmoil that makes it difficult for banks to exude the confidence necessary to attract high net worth clients.  Charles Schwab recently announced that it had added $13 billion in assets from former full service brokers who had set up or joined RIA firms.  That’s up 41% from the previous year.

There is no doubt that your competition is going to get even tougher than it has ever been. Are you prepared?  Here are a series of questions to ask yourself about how you might handle the toughest market you are ever likely to experience in your career. 

Keeping Existing Clients

• How do you intend to deal with your clients’ and prospects’ uncertainties?  Have you worked out a plan  -- monthly phone calls or letters, webinars – to offer your wisdom about the current economic climate? Remember that hearing your encouragement can speak volumes.  Equally important is to listen to your clients’ worries and issues.  Worried people need to be heard and reassured.  They particularly do not need you ducking for cover, operating on the theory if it isn’t broken (as in the relationship) don’t fix it. Communication is a stress reliever.

• If your investment strategy needs a tune up, what have you learned?  How will you approach your clients about strategy changes you would like to implement for them?  Remember, you are selling trust more than anything else.

• What are you doing to let your clients know how smart you really are?  Have you put a marketing or PR program in place?  The goal of such a program is to get yourself used as a source for a print or online publication and then directing clients to the URL where they can find the article online.   You can also get reprint permission to post it on your website or to mail it with an invitation to come into the office to visit you at any time. 

Finding New Clients

• Waiting for the phone to ring has never been a good strategy.  Finding new clients depends on your ability to create message points that resonate with both the kind of business you want to do that fulfills your prospect’s needs.

• Ramping up your speaking opportunities is an essential and low cost marketing effort.  If your office has space, invite clients, by reservation to come for talks and to bring friends. Make certain that your topics are timely and pertinent
• -  Withdrawal rates in a down market – how do you figure it out?
• -  Staying at work to replace lost assets.  Is it an option?
• -  Taking advantage of a depressed real estate market in estate planning
• -  Your second home:  Giving it to the kids and saving taxes

• Consider working the media.  There are layoffs in the news media just like many other major corporations.  It is an excellent time to contact editors and offer story ideas and also, if they use them, byline stories.  As reporter ranks constrict, editors are more open to hearing from smart people with story ideas that are targeted to their readers. 

Knowing Your Competition

This is not the time to skip your professional meetings or conferences.  You really need to hear what others are experiencing and feeling.  In particular, you need to ask your colleagues where their most worrisome competition is coming from.

• Go to a competitor’s web site.  Examine what they say they provide as benefits to an investor.  Compare your offer.  Who comes out on top?

•  Use your professional membership associations or custody firms PR materials as you have never used them before.  Both groups make a huge effort to give their members and their clients a PR boost.  When you get more clients, they get more membership fees or assets to custody.

•  HNW client prospects want different things from advisors.  Are you as prepared as your competition to offer family office services that solve long term as well as daily financial issues for your clients?

It is not an easy time, but it is an important time to ramp up your marketing effortsfor you and your firm.  Become a voice of confidence in a sea of worry.  That’s what will differentiate you from your competiti

#22

Is it Smart to Spend on Public Relations

During a Market Downturn?

Five Reasons to Ramp Up Public Relations

During a Market Downturn

1. PR during tough economic times allows you to show leadership by making your opinions and financial viewpoints known at a time when consumers are frightened.

2.  Opportunities during a downturn are more substantive because the media is more selective in sources they will use.

3.  With no visibility, you have no chance of finding new clients, unhappy about what just happened to their portfolios.

4.  When the phone gets quiet (after the shock wears off)

you have the opportunity to develop a new public relations and marketing strategy.  Do something productive rather than just sit there!

5.  Silence in the marketplace is not an option when you intend to build your business.  Several good clients acquired by greater visibility and positioning as a trusted expert can pay for a year's worth of PR.

Market Downturn Requires Tight Budgeting.

Should you still spend money on PR?

As the reality of poor revenue for 2008 sinks in, financial advisors and money managers are cutting expenses in every conceivable way and that often means cutting back or eliminating public relations projects. Clearly, I hold a biased view in this matter, but let me make my case.

Everything gets thin when the market goes down.  Your wallets get thin, the media's coverage gets thin, and new clients are few and far between.

The fastest way to build business is to be known as an expert and that is exactly what a PR consultant should promise to do for you and be able to deliver.

When the media gets thin, it means that the advertisers go away (they suffer in this kind of a market too) and the publications actually publish fewer pages.  In addition, they lay off reporters.

Why am I telling you this?  Because when there are smaller publications and fewer reporters, you have a chance to shine as a trusted expert if you develop a communications program to get in front of the editors.

TIP-

Talk up a free lance reporter about a topic of interest to you.  That gives  them conversation points to present to a staff-starved editor with free lance dollars to spend.  It's a win/win.

#21

Writing to Your Clients?  Make Each Word Count.

Advisors often shy away from writing to their clients for a variety of reasons encompassing everything from “I can’t write,” to “I don’t want to put information in writing because of lawsuits.”  Neither excuse holds up under scrutiny.  You can write, you should write, and writing to your clients is an excellent way to stay in touch.  In this column, we will show you how to make every word you write hold up its end of the bargain.

Why Writing to Your Clients is at the Bottom of To Do List

For those reluctant writers among you, let’s evaluate why you feel insecure in your written words.

• You didn’t do well in English in high school or college.
• You are uncomfortable with using grammar and don’t want to make an obvious mistake.
• You are, and have always been, bad at spelling
• Transitions from one part of your writing to another have always been a mystery
• It takes too much time away from more important aspects of your business, such as managing money.
• The phone is much, much easier

You Can Write – Six easy tips to getting words from your head to your computer keyboard

Forget your old issues with writing, this is a new day and this is business.

1.  Ever hear of an outline?  Outlines can take away some of your uncertainty when you do realize you ahve something to say.

2.  No one really likes grammar, so write short sentences and avoid all internal punctuation that you can.

3.  Have someone else read your document after you have gone through spell check.  Often a word can be spelled correctly, but be the wrong word for the sentence.  Familiarity breeds written errors.  That second set of eyes is extremely useful.

4.  Write in bullet points instead of sentences and paragraphs, where transitions are not needed.  This engages the reader’s eyes better than run on sentences

5.  Writing can be done if tackle it when you are the freshest and work for only 10 minutes a day for several days.  Outline and get the ideas down and then polish.

6.   Phone conversations are fleeting and cannot be handed as a referral to a friend in the same way that a piece of written material can be handed.

Need Help?  Ask for It!

Because writing is so very important as a way to communicate with your clients,

consider looking for either a coach or a good editor.  Or find a ghost writer.  Any and all alternatives are good alternatives.

For help, first look at your staff and see who likes to write and whose written material has impressed you in the past. Consider making them a partner in this enterprise.

Or, google "writing coach" or "free lance editor" (your location) and see if there is someone who makes a living helping reluctant writers look good.  Ghost writers exist in every community.  They are quite used to listening, intepreting, writing and then editing to get it right.  It is a time-honored tradition.  If you want a ghost writer, google using the term.  Or contact the local college English Department to find out if anyone does this part time.

In the end the effort is worth the time because your authentic words, however they get to the letterhead or e-mail and into the hands of your target audience, are what counts.  This is a compelling way to build your reputation with your existing clients, prospects, and centers of influence.   

#20

Top Ten Strategies to Market a New Practice

When a financial advisor leaves a wirehouse or a very large firm and steps out as an independent practitioner, there are ten marketing strategies to put in place immediately.  These strategies will allow you to alert all the constituences that count about your new practice.

Identify Yourself Well

All of these strategies presume that you have paid very careful attention to the specifics of your departure and that you are free and clear to go after new clients.

The status of your "old" clients can very, depending on your former employer.  Stick to the rules.  You don't need a lawsuit filed by your former employer to start off your first year in business.

1.  Name your new firm carefully.  Can the name and tagline reflect what you do, for whom and with what expected results?

2.  Immediately launch a web site even it it is only ten pages.  As an independent, your worries about compliance for the web site are minimal.  Keep hard copies of all changes in a permanent file.

3.  Your web address and your e-mail address should be as short as possible and reflect the new name of your firm.  DO NOT use an ending such as Verizon or Comcast for your e-mail.  You lose the benefit of repetition of your new firm's name.  White Financial Advisors, Inc., may become www.whitefinancial.com and your e-mail can be your name@whitefinancial.com.  The shorter, the better, for the convenience of your clients. 

Do the Little Things That Keep on Counting

4.  Have your letterhead and business cards made up as soon as your address and phone are determined.  Never, not even for one day, think you can do without new cards for the new business.

5.  Contact the local phone company yellow pages and buy a one-inch ad in the next phone book yellow pages.  Do it right away regardless of when the reprint cycle begins.  it is an inexpensive way to differentiate yourself and be sure to include your new web address.

6.  Contact your local business publications as well as the Movers & Shakers Coluum of the local metro daily newspaper.  Be prepared with a new picture that you can send in digital format to the editor of the "Whose doing what to whom" coluumn.  Pictures get used.  People read picture captions.

7.  Look for opportunities to buy a very small ad in the programs of your community's prestigious symphony program, art museum annual charity ball, or local prep school's theater program.  Pose one provocative question in a 1/8th page or business card size ad, and below the question, give your new web address. (Make sure the answer to the question is on your home page.)

Assure Your Referral Sources That YOu still Have Access to Resources You Need

8.  Set up a schedule of lunches with referral sources.  Meet and greet these sources with at least two new cards as you make  a request for referrals -- one for the referral source to keep and one to give away.  Make certain to impress these professionals that you still have access to the resources you need to get the job done for your clients. 

9.  Develop a list of story ideas that resonate with what is worrying investors this week.  Send these ideas in the form of a Q&A to the business editors of your local papers and business trade publications.  Keep it up and send the Q&A every week or month as a matter of practice.  Let them get to know your thinking.  Write case studies for your web site so your prospects can immediately understand the complex issues you address for clients in your practice. 

10.  Consider hiring a knowledgeable PR professional who has deep experience in your business.  A good practitioner should be able to place you as a source in business and financial publications quite quickly.  These articles become excellent handouts for new prospects.

The most important thing about starting a new practice is to focus on your reputation.  You want to be known as a trusted expert by both the media and your prospective clients.  It's important to have a marketing plan designed before you announce to your current employer that you are leaving.  You really do need to hit the ground running.  These ten strategies are the homework that should be done before you start generating your own paycheck. 

#19

How to Make the Media Sit Up and Take Notice  April 2008

There is one reason why colleagues you know are quoted again and again in the Wall Street Journal and t he New York Times.  They are available and the media knows they can get a quick quote when they need one. 

Preparation: Know Your Expertise --
Figure out what topics you really want to speak about

To be fair, as smart as you are, as well read as you are, and even given the resources that you can go to for answers you need, it is probably correct to say that you don't know everything. That given, it is also true that you do not want to hold yourself out as s source on everything. No, your best interests are served if the media calls you for topics of your choice.

To figure out the topics of choice that you wish the media would call you about, answer the following questions.

1. What part of your client work do you know best?
2. What part of your client work creates the greatest revenue?
3. What part of your client work has the greatest chance to impact the retirement lives of your clients?

Your answers to the above questions are a rough outline of what you want to be discussing when the media calls.

How do you make that happen?

Creating Opportunity With the Media --
Get in the head of the editor, solve problems for their readers, be timely

Editors and reporters appreciate sources who understand their publications. They are derisive about pitches for story ideas that their format would never allow them to run. First hint: read a publication before pitching. If they do not cover financial topics, it does not stand to reason that they will change their editorial policy and run a story about your topic.

Rather, go online and look up their editorial calendar (usually located in the advertising section.) Editorial calendars will tell you when special sections or special focus issues will be published. Match your expertise with what they have publicly said they need. Find a story idea that is relevant to the needs of their readers. Send the idea by e-mail and follow up once by phone. A reporter who likes your idea will call you when they are ready. There is no advantage to calling often.

Develop Long Term Relationships with the Media That Your Target Prospects Read --
What stories and issues have they covered in the past year?

Nothing happens outside a relationship. It is your job to work to create a relationship that open up opportunity for you with reporters and editors who speak to your market. This requires spending time assessing publications and what they have previously covered.

Next, you develop a list of story ideas that you believe the editors will see as valuable to their readers. Send them by e-mail to your select group of reporters. Be sure to include your web site address. Understand that they may not use your ideas instantly, so be prepared to send one or two ideas a month. Eventually you will wear down their resistance to a new source (it take them time to make sure you are not a crank). They need to know who you are and what you are about. Make certain the following items are in place on your website:
· An accurate, short, professional biography, including your cell phone number.
· An current photo, no older than two years.
· A list of services offered by your firm
· An easy to find list of issues about which you wish to be a source
· A running list of story ideas that you have submitted to editors under a title like "Story ideas for the Media."

Your job is to help the media figure out that you are a solid financial advisor with appropriate credentials who is willing and able to field calls from the media. Make that information available both by e-mailing and by creating a vibrant web site section specifically dedicated to helping the media get to know you.

Media visibility helps create a reputation for you as a trusted expert. Trust is the particular attribute that your clients most seek.

#18

How to Prospect Using Your Professional Designations

Advisors joke about the "strings of alphabet letters" behind an advisor's name indicating the effort and energy committed to achieving professional education. Those advisors who have earned the designations do not joke, but neither do they make an effort to educate their clients about what the designations mean.

This column addresses three simple ways to show your clients what it takes to earn your designations in the first place and the continuing energy and effort it takes to keep them.

Lisbeth Wiley Chapman

It can be as easy as looking in your files or looking online to find the language that your granting body uses to describe the designation you have earned. Here are three examples of where to find information about designations -- information that could be incorporated into your print material, but particularly into your web site material.

· As a Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) designee, you can say: A Certified Financial Planner® is trained to develop and implement financial plans for individuals, businesses, and organizations, utilizing knowledge of income and estate tax, investments, risk-management analysis and retirement planning. For more, go to

http:// www.cfp.net/become/certification.asp

• The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation is recognized as a hallmark of excellence in securities analysis throughout the U.S. and the world. For more, go to http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/courseofstudy/

· Certified Public Accountant
A Certified PUblic Accountant can serve as a consultant in many areas, including tax, accounting, and financial planning and is a well-respected strategic business advisor and decision maker. For more, go to http://www.aicpa.org/Becoming+a+CPA/

The information is out there and you should be using it.

Make Available to Your Clients Information About Your Designation's Continuing Education Requirements

Most advisors pay little or no attention to alerting their prospects and their clients about the continuing education required to keep designations current. Granting bodies all have the desire that anyone using their designations continue to represent the best and the brightest.  Continuing education also gives advisors the opportunity to tell clients what you are learning, why you choose to attend the continuing education programs they target and how that information can be of use to you in serving the needs of your clients.

It is one more point of contact you can have with clients. Specifically, making a point to share your continuing education assures clients that you are staying current and arecapable of serving their needs over a period of time, even when the law and tax regulations may change.

Post an Explanation of Your Designations to Your Web Site.

Most advisors pay too little attention to their web sites in general. In specific, your professional biographies are generally awful. See MediaStar Column #7 "Telling and Selling What You Do With Your Professional Biography -- Impressing those who have not yet met you with the power of words" for suggestions for improvement. Often, your professional biographies pay no attention to your earned designations except to give the abbreviations, and seldom are the abbreviations spelled out. Your mentions should go like this:  Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) .

Link from your web site biography's mention of your earned designations to a special page you create on your website. On this page, describe your designations and the continuing education required to keep the designations current. Create further links back to the granting body where all of the educational requirements for the designation are listed.

You worked hard to earn your designations. Don't give yourself short shrift. Let your clients know how hard you really do work to stay up and prepared to offer the best of financial planning and investment services possible.

#17

Column #16

How to Hire a PR Consultant --
Pay attention to promises, costs

Most financial advisors have thought, at one time or another, that they should take advantage of the services of a PR professional, but they usually take no action step for numbers of reasons:

· They lack a plan for evaluating a PR practitioner
· They don't see themselves as an expert the media needs
· They are sure they cannot or do not want to afford the cost

Read on as we debunk favorite myths about PR consultants and what they can do for you.

How to Evaluate a PR Practitioner
PR practitioners have different skills to offer

Finding help with PR and marketing for your firm requires first knowing what you want this consultant to achieve for you and your business. It is essential to determine if you want them to help you develop a strategy that you will implement or if you want them to develop a strategy they will implement. Some PR practitioners focus on strategy and sub-out the media calls to younger members of their staff or to a solo practitioners. Let's face it, the media calls are where you get the most traction, so it's important to know exactly who is going to be representing your skills and abilities to the media.

You will need to sort between large firms where your work will almost always be done by junior associates, or small firms where you will get the lion's share of the owner's time and attention.

Find a PR firm that has experience with a service professional. You may think you are selling investment management, but in fact, you are selling trust, and it is far different PR than for cars or Godiva chocolate.

Most important, hire a firm that has financial services experience so they are not doing their research of appropriate trade and business publications on your retainer dollars.

What You Know That Reporters Need
Keep track of what your clients ask you.

Every client question is a story idea for the media. Really. Even though what your clients ask may seem ordinary and not very exciting to you, the questions indicate a lack of information among the public. This makes perfect story ideas for the media.

Keep track of whether the client questions are administrative or complex. Are you receiving many questions about how to handle 401(k) distributions, protecting assets from estate taxes, or how to protect a daughter's inheritance from a terrible spouse. Each idea, and your answer to your client can be the kernel of a short e-mail to a member of the media.

It is particularly useful to remember that if you must do research to solve a client problem, that your research has multiple purposes, both as an e-mail of an idea to a member of the media, or as a story that you offer to a financial advisory trade publication.

Can You Afford to Hire a PR Consultant?
Answer: "Are you tired of working in obscurity?"

Retainer relationships range from $3000 a month to name the number, depending on the size of the firm and the scope of the engagement. Many sole practitioners have programs that cost less but are not as comprehensive as a retainer program.

You simply do not know what you can afford until you make inquiries. A good rule of thumb is to avoid retainer fees until your firm has more than $75 million under management.

If you are a small firm, look for books or CDs that are pertinent to helping you learn to do your own PR. Too busy? Here's a thought. If you are putting 20% of your time into marketing your practice, as many experts recommend, shouldn't some of that time go to working on your own PR strategies?

Understand that it takes time for your firm to make it onto the wave length of the media, regardless of the amount of money you spend monthly on PR. Persistently send story ideas at least once a month to publications you know write the type of story you are offering. Also understand that working with your PR practitioner will take time. Your PR practitioner should be able to pull good story ideas from you during a monthly interview of what you are working on with your clients.

Look for experience. It always pays off in good media exposure.

Column #15

Client Dinners "Out" / Festive Events "In"
Focus on interests, hobbies, charitable intentions

Your high net worth clients can buy their own dinner. Your invitation to dinner may not have the luster for clients that it once had. Instead, plan an interesting event for your clients and their friends who may be interested in the same event.

Focusing on your own hobbies. interests, or passions and offering your clients a glimpse of what fuels your interests is more interesting to your clients that the quality of the dinner menu you can provide. This column talks about three special events, a fund raiser for a museum, an art and antique appraisal fair, proceeds to a charity, or tickets to a charitable event, such as a performance of Cirque du Soleil when it performs in your area are ideas you can adopt or adapt. Or, create your own. Your creativity will be appreciated.

"Classic" Muscle Car Collectors At A Museum
Offer your clients fun, food and festivities

I met a man recently on a plane to Denver who consults on "classic" cars. His version of classic -- the 1960s muscle cars and dragsters. He flies all over the country, consulting with clients on purchases and then provides restoration services in his home state. He says that the muscle cars and dragsters are the cars of choice for Boomers, that it is their parents and older siblings who collect cars more than 50 years old. He opened my eyes to the interests of Boomers and where they are spending their disposable income. One recent sale saw an early 1960s drag racer sell for almost $1.5 million because of condition and an impressive racing history.

His affluent clients spend a great deal of time at car shows simply showing off what they own. It is a lifestyle.

Idea #1: Talk to your clients who collect cars. Ask them to consider creating a car show on the grounds of an organization you want to support. All admission proceeds benefit the organization. How great if you can do this on the grounds of a transportation museum, such as exists in Brookline and in Brewster, Mass.

Idea #2: But If you have a museum in your area for antique farm implements, for instance, talk to the collectors who keep those machines working and love to demonstrate how they work. Ask them to have a demonstration day at the museum or the farm where their machines are kept.

The goal is to meld collector's interest with the public's interest in fun activities and create a fund raiser for a worthy third party. It creates photo opportunities for the media, raises awareness of your firm as the organizer, and offers a way for the museum to build attendance and even its fund- raising kitty.

An Art and Antiques Appraisal Fair
A sure fire way to get your clients to bring friends

Recently, a local organization hosted an experienced auctioneer to sit at a table and give a sense of what an item would sell for at his auction house. The cost was $5.00 an item. Proceeds supported the organization. I was in back of a man whose Grandmother had been given an original Albrecht Durer rabbit etching in 1898. I was stunned when the appraisal was nearly $50,000. When it was my turn, I was thrilled that some knicknacks that had been unattended in the attic for years actually had some value. Whimsey sells, he said looking at my small paperweight of a mouse eating a cracker valuing it at around $125.

The point is that everyone has curiosity about what their belongings are worth. The popularity of Antiques Roadshow and Cash In the Attic certainly prove there are millions of Americans who want to know the value of "things."

Capture this interest by organizing an appraisal fair to support an organization in your community whose board members and supporters are likely to be excellent prospects. Invite your clients, their friends, and the membership list of the organization. This is not time for a "hard sell", but time for establishing you and your firm as supporters of a worthwhile organization. You might be surprised at the referrals this will generate.

Buy a Matinee Performance and Give It Away
Make a major statement of support and entertain clients at the same time

Is there a summer stock theater in your area that is always looking for contributions to stay afloat? Is there a High School drama or music program with a great reputation about to put on the annual program?

Whatever the event is, can you connect to it in a meaningful way. One way is to buy out a matinee performance and offer the tickets to your clients, their children and their friends. As a client appreciation event, it is unusual and fun. Your staff can run the concession stands. All proceeds go to support the theater or theater programs. As an opportunity to meet the friends of clients, it is low key and appropriate for you to stand in the foyer of the theater or venue and shake hands and welcome "your" guests. A small brochure on each theater seat would not be inappropriate.
You will be seen as a benefactor to the theater world in either case, and have the reputation for knowing how to create unusual client appreciation events.

Buying clients dinner is just not necessary. Instead choose to create a fun, interactive experience they will remember for a long time.

Column #14

Articles You Have Had Published in Your Financial Trade Publications Will Impress Prospects

You can post them on web sites and include them in prospecting kits

Contacting trade publications with good story ideas can be a straight path to great clips that enhance your reputation and increase good referrals.  Yes, trade publications speak to your competitors.  Understood.  This column asks you to stay open to the idea that the result of contributing an article to a trade publication gives you a better opportunity to impress clients, prospects and your centers of influence than a one paragraph quote in a national publication, as ego-boosting as that can be.

Contribute an Article and Bask in the Glow

There are numbers of trade publications that want your input

You will find many articles in your trade publications that have been written by a peer or colleague.  The publications themselves are always looking for the thoughts of those people in the field who are dealing with the issues of financial planning every day.

Editors are particularly interested if you are doing something differently and it is working. Some topics that have appeared recently in the trade pubs that were authored by advisors, have included the following:

·  How to manage ethics training for the entire firm.

·  The financial issues faced by senior couples who choose to marry

·  The hidden fees in group annuity/401(k) plans.

In each case, the advisor, after receiving proper reprint permission, was able to use this information by posting it on their web site, sending it via an e-mail campaign, printing it and including it in prospecting kits, and using it as a handout at a seminar.

The challenge, of course, is to find a topic that the publications have identified as important to their readers.  Your persuasive cover e-mail to the editor will specifically state why this issue is of interest to their readers and why you are an expert on this issue.

In addition to the financial advisory trades, don't forget that all of your best clients have earned their wealth in an industry or profession.  If you have a wealthy contractor, search for publications that speak to other contractors.  If you have a large percentage of doctors, look for those publications that are read by the doctor's in multiple physician practices who need help with employee benefits, 401(k) plans, and insurance.

Articles in Prospecting Packages Create Trust

Articles that you have written get attention from prospects

Think about handing a prospect a marketing package that has numerous articles that you have written.  Prospects are not likely to notice that the article has appeared in a financial trade such as Investment Advisor.  What they notice is that not only were you smart enough to write it, but you also were perceived as expert by the publication, or they would not have published it.

You are aware that most clients will now stealthily cruise through your web site before talking with you.  A web site that has your authored articles posted or linked back to the publication adds an extra amount of shine to your reputation.  You are using the third-party credibility that comes when a publication deems you to be an expert.

Your clients want to trust you.  They want to be able to turn to your for advice, but first they have to be convinced.  There is no better way than offering your prospects articles you have written.  They go a long way in convincing a prospect to trust you.

Use Your Articles as Requests for Referral

Send your clients, your prospects and those professionals who are positioned to send you referrals copies of the articles you have had published.

A cover letter can go something like the following:

Dear Client:  Recently, I was quoted in (name of publication), a publication that goes to XXX,XXX financial professionals, on the topic of (give the title of the article and explain its premise.)

     You have already made the decision that working with a financial advisor is important to you by becoming a client of this firm..  Please pass the attached copy of the article to your friends who may be struggling with the difficult decision of whom to trust with their financial affairs.    If you need additional copies, please call our the office (phone number.) We would be happy to speak with your friends and colleagues about any financial issues, whether a single pressing question, or a need for comprehensive financial planning.

     Thank you for your business and enjoy the article.

Requesting referrals and at the same time offering important information that educates your clients as well as their friends who may become clients, is an important strategy for your firm.

Column #13

How to Give the Media What They Want

"He wins who owns ink by the barrel"

William Randolph Hearst             

In every regard, it is important to give the media what they want.  What they want are sources. The media has specific needs for sources that must be filled every day.  Think about it; all newspapers, magazines, broadcast outlets, and web sites need advertising to support the costs of producing the respective media.  Advertisers only buy ads when they think the audience they want to reach is attracted to a media outlet.  The audience is attracted and read or listens regularly when the information is relevant to their needs.

To make information relevant to the media's needs requires reporters to find sources - many of them.  You can be that source, but only if you read and understand what publications will use your expertise and those that will not.

Why pitching WoodenBoat magazine does not make sense

Even though wooden boat enthusiasts must be well heeled.

It makes no sense to pitch a wealth management story to WoodenBoat magazine. WoodenBoat is written for 90,000 enthusiasts and owners of wooden water craft, boats and sailboats and covers building, design, restoration and maintenance of these unique craft. You know that a certain percentage of the folks with assets that support owning, sailing, maintaining and repairing a treasured wooden boat must also have significant assets to invest.  This does not mean, however, that the publication is going to stray from its editorial policy. It never has, and likely never will run investing/wealth management stories.

This is why you must read publications before you add them to your media list.

A client once answered my question about which types of firms she would like many more of in her practice and she answered, "consulting engineering firms".  She consulted to 401(k) plans and in some cases managed the 401(k) assets.  Consulting engineering firms generally had larger 401(k) plan assets than the same number of employees might have at a company that made custom dining room tables.  The difference, of course, is that the engineers made up a firm with lots of well-paid engineers, while the table company had a number of lower paid employees.

We made a pitch to Civil Engineer, a magazine I thought would access the audience my client sought. The description in Bacon's Media Directory (where I found the editor's phone number and a short write up about editorial direction) was not exactly a fit, but I forged ahead.  The editor said their publication was highly technical and he would never run a story on how to evaluate between competing 401(k) plan proposals.  As I was about to hang up, he added, "However, the editor of Management Engineering would use such a story, here's his name and number."  Just as its name implies, Management Engineering spoke to the firm management about a wide variety of issues, including pensions.  My client's article was run as a full page, plus picture and it turned out to be a great clip to send to prospects.  This also proves the point that there is a publication, newsletter or web site for almost every group that exists -- you just have to find it.

Why pitching The Journal of Accountancy works

These primary referral sources are important to advisors

The Journal of Accountancy is the print magazine for 370,000 of the nation's CPAs and is published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  It has a strong history of running stories on personal financial planning and 401(k)s.  Recently, the Journal published a full-page checklist under the by line of my client who is passionate about hidden fees in 401(k) plans.  He had developed a list for plan sponsors (and their CPAs) about how to avoid the hidden fees in 401(k) plans and where to look for such fees.  The story fulfilled the publications stated goals:  "Articles must have a broad appeal and focus on practical situations and applications, offering insights and advice useful to readers."

You can find a Bacon's Media Directory in any public library.  I recommend it to you as a starting place in developing a media list for your practice so that you can send story ideas to publications that might want and need them.  Nothing is as frustrating as developing a great story, but not paying attention to whether the publication you have identified for the story will even cover your topic.

Bacon's Media Directory will also give you the e-mail addresses of the reporters who may be interested in what you have to say.  You can look up reporters who cover a specific beat, such as personal finance, pensions, 401(k), or mutual fund investing.  Your subject line should never be more than seven words.  The goal of harnessing the power of the media to help you build your business will only happen if your e-mails don't get purged or seen as Spam.  As you prepare your story ideas, spend time on how to get across the key points in seven words.  You want to tease, not bore the reporter and editor reading your information.

Follow Up Etiquette is Important

It doesn't pay to pester reporters and editors

It is highly likely that reporters and editors will ignore you the first time you send an e-mail, so plan to send a new story idea every three or four weeks.

Each story should be different, and focus on your areas of expertise.  Your pitch e-mail, should, of course start with why the reporter or editor's readers, listeners, or watchers need this information.  What the media does not need is more than one follow up phone call.  If they are interested right away, they will respond right away.  They may, however, file your idea, for when they get to it.  It does not pay to call repeatedly until you get them on the line.  You will only irritate them.  Assuming you get their voice mail, the etiquette is to repeat the date and time you sent the e-mail (to help them find it) and the subject line, and your name.  Then you can use 25 words or less to explain why it is important for their audience to get this information.

Sometimes you follow up call will result in a call back by the reporter, an intern or an assistant.  Didn't get the e-mail, they may say, but please send it again.  This translates to, "I purged my e-mails, but your call made me curious.  Now I want to read it."

Persistence is the key in a good PR program with the media.  Create strong story ideas, relevant to the audience you are seeking, regularly contact target media and look forward to becoming the trusted expert with the media that you are with your own clients.

Column # 12

Advisors Ignore Small PR Details

Excellent business cards & yellow page ads are crucial

For many advisors, a business card and a yellow page ad are simply contact information.  For others, they are part of a larger strategy.  Let's find out why you can no longer categorize business cards and yellow page ads as "ho hum, just spell my name right."

Business Cards Are More Than Contact Information

Pay attention:  Many advisors’ cards are inadequate

You all have a large collection of business cards, but do you ever really look at them?  We create business cards because it is expected. If most of us were honest, though, as long as the name, address, and phone number are correct, and our company's logo is included, we are done.

    I recently made a presentation at TD Ameritrade's annual conference and acquired more than 100 business cards.  I had not ever looked at a large number of business cards at the same time.  In this quantity, it was hard to avoid some significant observations about business cards.

1.   Most of us use cell phones and e-mail first and foremost, and for many of us, our first contact with someone we actually want to talk with is by e-mail to set up a convenient time.

     Because we communicate first by e-mail it is important that someone trying to reach you actually be able to read your e-mail address on your business card. It was clear on some of the business cards I was reviewing that the e-mail address was an afterthought, added in very small type, squished in, or worse, relegated to the back side of the card.

2.  How many of you fax regularly anymore?  I know there are business requirements that keep faxes in most of our offices, but if any line on your business card can be small, it would be the fax number.

3.  Old format business cards don't work any longer.  Prioritize your name, your office and cell phone numbers, and your e-mail address on the front of the card.  Your mailing address and fax number can take a back seat on the back side of your card.

What Should a Business Card Look Like?

Don't hesitate to order new business cards today.

Business cards come in all colors and with many embellishments.  Here's a review of business card decisions that once made will be done and not need to be revisited.

1.  A picture.   It is a nice touch, but not necessary

2.  Color of card stock and texture.  Most of us use a card stock that is compatible with our letterhead.  It works, but a contrasting stock is also acceptable and many of the cards in the recent group that I reviewed used color very effectively.

3.  E-mail address.  When designing your next card, but your e-mail address under your name.  Give it the same weight in terms of typeface.  Make it easy for people to read.

4.  Use both sides.  I'm always surprised that more advisors don't put a short list of services on the back side of their card.  A blank back side is like an unused canvas.  Some advisors include their mission statement on the reverse side of the card -- a nice touch.

     Many of you are dealing with the need to add an e-mail address and Web address by putting it on the back side of your card.  That is a mistake.  Keep it on the front, and put your street address on the back.  I know this is not traditional, but it makes it easy for people trying to reach you.

5.  Of the 126 cards I received, only one was outsized.  About 50% larger than standard size.  I've thought a lot about that card.  It was selected in a drawing during my presentation, because my fingers found it first, sticking up above the others.  The card's owner was on his way the podium to pick up his prize before I had even called his name.  It was that distinctive in size.  But it also was large enough to add a personal note when attached to material you want to transmit to a client, or it allowed someone who had received it to take clear notes about what was discussed at the time the card was received.  Very clever.

Investors Use Yellow Pages -

Does Your Ad Have Your Web Address?

Always buy a one-inch ad and place your Web address under your name

What is true about consumers is that they just do not know how to find an advisor to trust.  Ask your colleagues.  Each of you has acquired at least one very excellent client from a yellow page ad.  Now why is that?  Some people are very pragmatic, choosing to let their fingers do the walking to find an answer to the financial challenge they face.  They do not know that the FPA or NAPFA exist and make lists of advisors available for every state. They do not know that many CPAs and estate planning attorneys often give referrals to financial advisors when such services are needed.

     They need information and they need it now.  They turn to the yellow pages. Consider buying a one-inch yellow page ad to help you stand out from the crowd.  Your name and your firm's name, and most essentially, your Web address, in as large a type face as you can fit, need to be included.  Of course the ad will include your office phone number. Directing the searchers to your Web address effectively puts a good brochure (I hope) into the consumer's hands. Make certain that your Web site is updated before purchasing such an ad.

     Don't make the mistake of ignoring the little things when it comes to image and impact.  A good yellow page ad may surprise you.

Column # 11

Case Studies Attract "Stealth" Visitors.
The challenge is converting Web site visitors to prospects, then clients.

Make yourself stand out and differentiate your practice by posting interesting case studies in an easy to find and easy to read format on your home page. Case studies show the financial challenges you help your clients solve. The case studies help you stand out among your peers by showcasing the solutions you have offered that meet the pressing, real life issues faced by families and businesses.

Ever wonder why you don't get more calls from folks who have been visiting your Web site? Even though your conversion data may be grim, (visitors to prospects) this column is not about driving traffic, but about your bad, outdated, and probably boring Web site. High net worth prospects are not going to call first, they are going to check out your Web site first. I call them your "stealth visitors." The sad reality is that your Web site probably looks just like all of your competitors with slight variations in typeface and photos. 

Here's an exercise. Take a pile of ten business cards that you have collected. Look at every Web site listed. In ten Web sites there will be a wide divergence in design, use of color, navigation (ease in finding what you are looking for, quickness in page loading, meta tags) and most important -- content that is relevant to the reader. Regardless of their business, look for case studies, how hard they are to find on the Web site, and whether you find them interesting to read. Then compare with your Web site. Your content is probably not unique because most advisors all provide services within a predictable and similar range. You can change this with thoughtful case studies.

Use Case Studies to Showcase Your Successful Advice.
Attract prospects with stories that show how you handle financial issues.

High net worth families have complex financial and estate planning issues that lend themselves to very powerful case studies. Here are a few:
· How to keep the beachfront home in the family when there are three grown children and multiple grandchildren?
· How do you protect the inheritance of a grown child with a problem marriage? · How to sell a commercial business at the time of retirement paying particularly careful attention to tax avoidance or tax abatement?
· Can conservation restrictions or conservation eastments be effective tools in cutting taxes and increasing the value of property protected in an envelope within the protected land?

Case studies work because they can discuss (names changed of course) the important and intimate family financial details. Nothing is quite as intimate as money and everyone loves to peek inside other's money stories. The large brokerage firms know this. All of their client magazines provide detailed client case studies and how the broker/financial consultant has solved a client's financial and estate planning challenges. Given the cost of those client magazines, case studies must have proven to be a good marketing device for the brokers. 

Independent financial advisors can do no less and MUST develop their own case study stories for their client materials and Web site.

Attract Single Women of Means to Your Practice.
Welcome single, divorced, and widowed women to your practice with stories relevant to the issues they face in their lives.

Most financial services industry collateral material would have you believe that all investable assets are owned by handome early 60s couples who like to take bike rides on beautiful fall days. The fact is, however, that more than 50% of all invested assets are solely owned by women.

Whether they have earned the assets themselves, acquired them via divorce, or now are solely responsible for a family's assets after the death of a husband, women must be considered a significant market for your practice. Women learn differently than men and many do significant research before they trust their assets to an expert. Case studies that are relevant to single, divorced or widowed women of means are important for your Web site and the growth of your practice.

Busy women look to the Web for information. How does your Web site fare when a woman googles financial planning for women in your town or city? Can a woman find her issues reflected on your Web site?

Make your Web site a key ingredient in your marketing strategy by adding case studies that resonate with the needs of prospective women clients and all stealth visitors, provoking them to call you and move from prospect status to new client. 

Column #10

The Media Needs Your Expertise
What Your Clients Value, The Media Will Value

There are two assumptions that seem to fuel the attitudes investment advisors have toward the media: 1. There is nothing I can say that would be of interest to the media. 2. The media should find me because my value proposition is so great. I hope you are not surprised when I say that both statements are completely false. Instead, financial advisors should put the following two statements on their desk where they are visible every day:

1. Every issue I discuss with my clients is a story idea for the media.

2. The media will not pay attention to me unless I give them a reason.

The media is always hungry for good story ideas. Recently, an advisor who had been trying to get the attention of the personal finance reporter for his metropolitan newspaper, finally got a vestige of interest with the fifth story idea submission. He realized that several very large local companies had announced layoffs that would impact his community. He developed a story idea as follows:

“When layoffs loom, it is essential that you understand your retirement plan options.”

This is topical, timely, and gave the reporter several significant bullet points to use as the central part of his story.

There is additional information you need, however, when you have begun to generate the interest of the media and are starting to handle incoming calls. Expectations are funny things, and particularly with the media, so managing your expectations about what is likely to happen when the media calls is important. Here are some do’s and don’ts of working the media and suggestions for overcoming likely pitfalls.

Putting Your Best Foot Forward
The Media is Always on Deadlilne

Always prep your staff about how to handle the media. Work with the primary people on your phones to understand the importance of phone etiquette with the media. They are always on deadline. Let’s repeat that, the media is ALWAYS on deadline. Therefore, it becomes urgent that they reach you as soon as possible.

Why the urgency? The media keeps dialing for sources as long as it takes to find someone to answer their questions. They do not wait for call backs. The early bird -- well, you know the rest of that saying.

Do: Call or e-mail the reporter making the query immediately. Tomorrow will not work. When you call, if you do not reach them, give them all of your contact information, including office phone, cell phone and e-mail address. They may e-mail their question while on the phone with someone else. Time is of the essence.

Do Give a thoughtful response. You are competing for “top of mind” awareness

awareness with the reporter. When you find out the question, ask the time frame and whether you could have a few minutes to e-mail your thoughts. If they prefer a verbal interview, try to write notes of the points you make. Don’t let the reporter hang up without giving you their phone and e-mail. As soon as you finish the call, send them an e- mail synopsis of what it is you thought you said. Stay on point.

Do: Offer the reporter additional professional sources. Never hesitate to give a reporter someone who is specifically able to answer the question. You get points for not wasting their time.

Do: Offer additional materials If appropriate, ask a reporter if they would like to receive additional material that supports your point, tax codes, bulletins from professional organizations, or overviews found in trade journals. This may require a special fax number they will give you.

Don’t Guess! One of the worse things you can do is take a stab at the answer. It is also not smart to become an “instant” expert by doing a quick review of the subject with reference material you have on your desk. If the question is not spot on in your area of expertise, don’t go there.

Don’t share the topic of a media query with other media. It may be tempting to discuss with a second reporter what the first one just asked. It is considered bad form in the journalism world. A reporter will not trust you going forward if another reporter uses you for the same story at the same time. Wait until the first reporter’s story is published.

There are Serious Pitfalls to Avoid
Expect That You May be Mis-Quoted

Expect that you may be misquoted. The e-mail outline of what you thought you said may help avoid this, but never entirely. Keep in mind that on day two after the article appears, most people will only remember that you were smart enough to be quoted, not what you said.

It is not at all uncommon to be interviewed and not quoted. This happens all the time. Most common is that you can see your thoughts in the substance of the story, but there is no attribution. There is really nothing to do, except if the same reporter calls again, make it clear that you hope to be quoted, because you were not the last time. It is also not uncommon not to be quoted if you are new to the reporter as a source. Sometimes you have to :”earn” your quotes through several interviews. No reporter deserves more than two interviews without a quote.

The attribution may be incomplete. If the attribution is garbled, last name only, no company name, or no town, that is correctable and the reporter will likely accede to your request that your proper attribution be printed in the newspaper or magazine’s next issue.

Despite all the do’s, don’ts, and pitfalls, working well with the media is an important tactic to build the reputation, referrals and revenues of your firm.

Column #9

The Right Way to Contact the Media

Be very specific in how your story idea will benefit the readers or viewers of that print or broadcast outlet when you contact the appropriate media.   It is also absolutely essential that you have read the publication you think is an appropriate target for your material. Look for reporters who cover topics similar to the one you will be proposing.  Look at special sections that may be most appropriate for your information.  Look to see if they have done “your” story recently. Check their Editorial Calendar (most publications now make this easily available on the Web under their Advertising information.)  Don’t simply assume that the affluent readers of a sophisticated publication will want your information.  Be certain that the publication actually covers financial issues.* If they do not, your story idea suggestions will be thrown out.

Before you begin the process of actually contacting the media, make sure you have the following information gleaned from the most up-to-date versions of media directories you can find at your local Library reference room.

For Print:

•  Name of Editor or reporter who covers your beat (investing, personal finance, insurance, mutual funds).

•  Correct contact information:  Please note that in the media directories, the reporters and editors give specific information on how they would like to be contacted.  It varies with each.  There is no “one” best way.

For Broadcast:

•  Name of Futures Editor or Assignment Editor (weekday and evening can be different)

•  Correct contact information, paying attention to their preferred way of receiving your information.

The cover letter you send by way of introducing yourself should have the following ingredients:

• 1st paragraph – introduce yourself and what you do, how long you have been in business  and your 25-words or less about what you do, for whom and with what expected results.
• 2nd paragraph – explain your story idea.  This paragraph should discuss trends you have observed among your clients and why it is important to others.
• 3rd paragraph – explain why the publication’s readers or broadcast outlet’s listeners need this information.  What happens if they don’t pay attention to this information.
• 4th paragraph – mention the story idea list you have attached.  It is unlikely that reporters will need your story idea immediately.  But the truth is, you don’t know their current assignments.  An attached list of additional story ideas gives them the option of using you for something they currently have been assigned. 
• 5th paragraph – be specific about when you will follow up by phone.

Don’t expect immediate success.  Reporters are often working ahead on stories they have already been assigned.  Your task is to position yourself as a credible expert, available to be a source when needed. 

It is also imperative that you only call twice to follow up.  There is no benefit in harassing a reporter who is not prepared to do the story at all.  Each time you call, be very brief.  Mention the time and date of your e-mail (or fax, or letter, depending on the reporter’s stated preference), mention why the story idea is relevant and repeat your direct dial phone number twice.  Any more than two follow up calls can be considered bothersome.  Trust me, if the media wants your information and you as a source, they will call. 

Meanwhile, consider contacting the media once a month.  Simply replace your last story idea with a fresh idea from the list of ten ideas you sent the first time.  Make your case, do your follow up, and understand that becoming a valued source is a process that takes place over time.

If there is a hot national story that has local implications, you can localize that story with the same sort of pitch letter we are discussing above.  The key to successful relationships with the media is to always add value, and do it in a way that is repetitive, but respectful. 

*  If a publication with exactly the right reader demographics for your services, so highly targeted as to be essential for your business plan, consider advertising the address of your web site with one provocative financial question, in a small, repetitive ad that builds brand recognition for your web address.

Column #8

Should You Write a Book?

Sorting the pros and cons of publishing a book

For many advisors the idea of writing a book is, appropriately, a bit overwhelming at the thought of the time commitment it might entail.  But, equally important, advisors should spend time sorting through the implications of such an undertaking and expectations of what the book could achieve.   Here are several issues to evaluate before you begin your book publishing efforts:

What kind of a book would you write?

What do your clients need to know?

This seems like a logical question, but many advisors assume they will write about their take on the investment and financial planning process as they know it.  So, then the question becomes, “Can you tell your audience something that is substantially different from the information they can find in their bookstores already?”

If the answer is “I don’t know,” a trip to your local bookstore is in order.   There are literally hundreds of books available that purport to tell do-it-yourselfers how to manage their money.  In fact, do you want to talk to do-it-yourselfers?  Probably not.  You are interested in delegators who will rely on you for their investment advice.

Does this mean that there is no book that you should consider writing?  Absolutely not.  The best strategy is to listen carefully to your clients’ responses to your advice.  Often, there is a specific area of your expertise that is of particular value to your clients.  Often, it is that expertise that drives them to refer other high-net-worth prospects to your door.  Focusing on your unique information and skill set may be a starting point.  Basic, how-to books are everywhere.  You need to specialize in a way that drives business to your door.

Can you find a publisher?

Traditional, Self-Published, Compilations, Rewards

Traditional:

Most publishing firms are aggressive about finding authors for subjects they wish to add to their publications’ list.  The publishers make it their business to find out who the specialists are for the topics they seek manuscripts for, and to approach them directly.  This does not mean that you should not query appropriate publishers.  It simply means be realistic about your chances.  Your topic must be hot.  Your proposal must be on target and complete.

Self publishing:

This route to a book requires that you manage each part of a complex process.  You need to write and edit the manuscript, find a graphic designer to design the pages and the cover, as well as find a competent printer who will print your book.  These days there are a number of printing companies that will print on demand, and numbers of companies who will help you put your book into a downloadable format that can be made available online to prospects or sold from your web site.  Go to Dan Poynter’s web site, www.parapub.com, or call 800-PARAPUB for good information on self-publishing.

Groups of authors in a book

In addition to traditional publishers, there are a number of companies that offer you a chapter in a compilation book with ten to twelve other advisor/authors.   The fees for participating in these books vary widely, as does the finished product.  The marketing promises tend to be on the unrealistic side.  Nothing is quite as hard as getting a book reviewed.  Most publications in which you would like a review do very little of it, and usually save book reviews for highly well known and regarded authors.

Be particularly careful about evaluating the firm’s claims as to their experience and contacts in marketing your book.  It could be that your dollars (up to $10,000 for a chapter, 500 books, and a promised marketing program) would be better spent on doing your own media effort for the book after you self publish.  Ask yourself why you want to be one of ten in a book on financial advice?  How does that benefit your practice?

Will you see a financial reward?

The statistics are against you if you expect the energy and effort you put into a book will reward you financially.  Most advisors do not have the time or inclination, expertise or disposable income to properly market a “business” book on their own.  Even with a publisher, very few books are afforded the “star” treatment with publicity backing and book tours for the author.  A successful business book is considered to be one that has sold 8 to 10,000 copies.  A self-published book that has sold 5,000 copies can sometimes be successfully marketed to a publisher. 

Will you need help?

Defnitely hire an editor to help you put your thoughts in the best possible light

Yes, definitely, you will need someone to help you organize and edit your book.  A journalism professor once said that familiarity breeds mistakes.  The more used to your own prose you are, the more likely you will have built in errors in spelling, punctuation, and transitions that you do not even see any longer.  You also should have your manuscript read by professional colleagues to catch any content errors that may creep into the material.  Contact the English department of a local community college or university and ask if there are any authors there who edit or “ghost” write books for professionals.  Their expertise will help you create a better product.

Does a book benefit your practice?

Probably, yes, but think about the commitment.

Before you think there is absolutely no reason to do a book, with a traditional publisher or self-published, let me say there are a number of reasons and circumstances where a book can definitely benefit your practice, as follows:

•  Your book becomes a truly differentiating prospecting tool with your selected high-net worth potential clients.  It definitely positions you as a thinker.  Your ideas are laid out for everyone to see, review and critique – and to pass on to others.

•  Your book, depending on the topic, of course, will be a catalyst for invitations to speak.  You may expect that as an “author” you will rise to the top of the list of advisors considered for speaking engagements to whatever audiences you decide to target.  Speaking is an exceptional way to show a large number of people your skill at articulating your ideas and vision.

•  Your book can also serve as a direct conduit to invitations to write shorter articles (perhaps synopses of one or several chapters) as an article for selected publications.  The best part is that these articles are generally easier to write, because you are adapting copy you have written previously.

•  Your book may also be used, chapter by chapter, as a column in an appropriate publication.

On balance, writing a book is both a good discipline for codifying your thoughts, and a very good mechanism for sharing them.  But look at all the angles before launching yourself into this world.  Then, take the risk and become an author.  It is both an exhausting and exciting experience.

var 

Column #7

Telling and Selling What You Do With Your Professional Biography

Impressing those who have not yet met you with the power of words.

I can’t stand bad professional biographies.  Preparing your professional biography doesn’t seem like a front burner issue to most financial advisors – a huge oversight.  An excellent professional biography can serve many purposes.  Most professional biographies are humdrum lists of your education and work experience.  Your one page professional biography should go far beyond such a list.  A good professional biography needs to sell you and your services to someone who has not met you (prospects, reporters, and referral sources).  For that purpose it must contain a strong first paragraph that both tells and sells what you do. 

Your audiences of prospects, reporters and referral sources assume you are smart and well educated.  Likewise, parties interested in your expertise have no real interest in your previous work experience.  Don’t lose the education and work experience paragraphs, just be careful where you put them.

What You Do, For Whom, With What Expected Results.

A curriculum vitae (what I call a laundry list of education, former employers, honors, community activities) is definitely not a sales tool. . What the reader needs to know is what you do, for whom and with what expected results.

Your professional biography should include the following in the first paragraph: 

• What do you actually do?
• What kind of clients do you actually do it for?
• What results should your clients expect to receive?

   

This exercise of “what do you do, for whom, and with what expected results” will take some time and thought.  The answer should be limited to 25 words or less and needs to be carefully designed to represent the image you want to leave in prospective clients’ minds.  

For instance, Lisbeth Wiley Chapman delivers clients and assets (expected results) to investment advisory firms (to whom) using media marketing and web communications strategies (what I do).  A financial advisor could write the following:  John Smith supports the retirement lifestyle plans (expected results) of pre-retirees (for whom) with financial planning strategies (what he does) that focus on growth with preservation of capital (expected results).

You Get 25 Words or Less for the Important Information

In a time crunched world, make sure the first paragraph tells and sells

Why should you worry about the quality of your bio or what is in the first paragraph?  Doesn’t your history stand on its own merit?  The answer is NO.  Your bio is a written handshake or introduction to someone who does not know you and as such, it needs to sell you quickly.

Besides, most of us don’t read everything we pick up.  We read what we need to know or we trash other things because we know they will take too much time, and, they are not “attention grabbers”.  Twenty-five words or less in the first paragraphs is just about right for getting and keeping a prospect’s attention.  So, for the moment, assume the prospect is not going to read all the way through your professional bio.  Using the “first twenty-five words” strategy, you have transferred the most important information to your prospect, regardless of whether he finishes reading it or not. Hold the paragraphs about your previous experience, your education and honors, or even laudatory charitable works until the end.

Use Your Bio as a Sales Tool

Once written, the sales bio has myriad uses.  You can use your first paragraph as a brief introduction when you are speaking.  Let’s face it, most speakers’ full biographies are printed somewhere in a conference binder, so why bore your audience with information they already have available.  A short introduction gives your audience an enthusiastic heads up.<p>

Some conference flyers expect you to write a short-form bio for inclusion with your photo.  The “what you do, for whom, with what expected results” is exactly the sales tool you want to use to attract people to your speech or presentation. <p>

Often, financial advisors can place articles in the trade publications of industries whose high-net-worth senior management they are trying to attract as clients.  The only “pay” you want from this opportunity is the promise that your descriptive blurb will appear at the bottom of the article along with your phone or e-mail address. <p>

This consistency between how you describe yourself in your professional bio and how you describe yourself at the end of an article you have authored is essential.  In both cases you have sold yourself, your services and what the prospective clients can expect in return.

Don’t waste your marketing efforts.  Create your twenty-five word description and begin using it in the first paragraph of your biography, as a speech introduction, as a short-form brochure biography, and as the blurb at the bottom of your articles.   Now you are using your biography as a selling tool. 

Column #6

Using Client Newsletters to Turn On the Powers of Influence
Staying in touch with selected opinion makers

Many advisors spend a great deal of time and attention publishing newsletters for their clients. Whether it is printed and mailed, or you send an e-mail with a link to your web site, a client newsletter is a time-tested and useful mechanism for staying in touch with clients. Newsletters can be used in a variety of ways:

* Calm down the market volatility jitters

* Announce "Client appreciation" events,

* Give a heads up to changes in technology that may impact the client, and

* Allows you to feature your firm's charitable efforts in the community.

Yet, a newsletter has a valuable additional function. It can be used to stay in touch with a select group of opinion makers by adding nothing except customized transmittal slips attached to the front of newsletters that are mailed, or to the e-mail message you send. An e-newsletter can include a question and answer column from its readers. When a subject comes up that requires a different expertise from your own, you have an excellent opportunity to contact your influential colleagues to ask them to participate in answering the question for your column.

There is an old saying that "nothing happens outside a relationship." Get Media Smart! Take advantage of each and every opportunity to use your newsletter efforts to drive your name and expertise in front of those centers of influence who can steer business to you.

Strategic use of a good newsletter will help you build your practice through reputation, referrals and revenues.

Targeting Distribution of Your Customized Newsletter
Reaching Appropriate Media

Consider sending your customized newsletter regularly to the referral sources for your practice - estate planning attorneys, insurance professionals, and CPAs. Invite those colleagues to "guest" a column in your newsletter. Volunteer to "guest" a column in their newsletters or for their web site.

When appropriate, mail or e-mail a copy of your client newsletter to the editors and reporters of appropriate publications. Don't think narrowly here, think of all the national publications whose audiences should know that you are expert in specific areas. Attach a letter to the reporter, focusing on one story idea or point you make in your newsletter. Be sure to tell the reporter why the story is important to his or her audience and why you are an expert on the topic.

Be prepared when your client newsletter generates an in- coming call from a reporter. Always offer any resources you think would more fully answer a reporter's question. If you can point the reporter to a professional colleague who can also speak to the story idea, by all means do that as well after checking with that colleague. Such media referrals to your colleagues who are in the right position to send business to your practice can help to establish you as a serious expert in your field.

Newsletter Articles Double as Story Ideas for the Media
Use the web to collect e-mail addresses for specific reporters
The hard work you put into a client newsletter has multiple uses, particularly as story ideas for the media. Almost every publication these days has a web site where you can get the names and e-mail addresses for the appropriate editors who handle personal finance stories. These names can become information you can use to develop a targeted media list.

Most publications also have a web publication that accepts material, particularly articles you may write yourself or have "ghosted" for you. The articles must not be self-serving in any way, but must meet the requirements of service journalism. Make certain your articles provide information not readily available anywhere else, and they must cover a topic thoroughly, with referrals to further resources on the same topic.

The client newsletter discussion would not be complete without examining the idea of an e-newsletter that is sent only via the Internet.

• It can go to existing clients or prospects as well as to your centers of influence.

• An e-newsletter is simpler for your practice, much less expensive, and just as easy for your clients to forward or send to their friends.

• An e-newsletter can be updated on your website, and archived there as well for any "stealth" visitors who might want more of your in- depth thinking.

Transform your marketing approach with a newsletter stratgegy that helps you stay in touch with your clients, reaches opinion makers important to your referral stream, and can be turned into story ideas for the media. This is multi-tasking at its best.

Column #5

Creating a Target Media List

You can beg, borrow or buy media lists, but the very best results come when you are willing to put in the effort to build one for yourself. 

What is a media list?  It is the collection of names, addresses and phone numbers of reporters and editors who work at target publications that reach your prospects.

The do-it-yourself strategy works best for two reasons.  Presumably, when collecting names, you will know that as of a certain date, these reporters and editors worked for specific publications.  When you buy a list of names, you have no way of knowing how really updated that list may be.  The same is true of borrowed lists.  Someone else developed a list to meet a specific purpose that may be different than your goals.  Note:  every publication worth contacting probably has numerous reporters.  A borrowed list may contain the right publications, but the wrong reporters. 

To develop a custom list for your practice start by following these seven steps.

1. Know your expertise.  It is critical that your positive news coverage supports your business objectives.  This seems obvious, yet do you know exactly how you would describe yourself and your firm if the media called you in ten minutes?  There s nothing worse than an article with inaccurate statements about your customers and service.  You don’t want to say to yourself, “I wish I had said…” What a waste.  To create a target media list, first focus on your business objectives.  Focus on becoming an expert, not a commodity.  What do you want your target market to know about you. 
2. Save the “I could have said that” stories.  These are the articles you read that quote someone whose expertise is either the same or less than yours.  Save the articles because  the reporters have covered an issue about which you hope to become a source and you can contact the same reporter with different story angles that match already expressed interest a.  But -- if you see something in an article that is incorrect or misleading, consider writing a very polite letter to the reporter detailing what was incorrect and offering to send follow up material that is correct.  Thoughtful overtures to a reporter like this can advance you in their rolodex next time they have a query. 
3. Lunch with your best clients.  You probably would like more clients like your best clients, right?  Ask them the names of the business and financial publications they most often read.  What web sites and TV programs do they click on every day.  Ask them if they have favorite trade publications that are relevant to their industry or profession.  Ask if they would send you copies of these publications.
4. Organize your client’s responses.  You now know what media your best clients turn to for information.  It is logical that you will find other prospects there.  You now need to organize your clients’ media response.  There are five critical variable sto help organize your information:
1. Reach – how widely the media is read, seen or listened to and by whom,
2. Frequency – daily, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, semi-annually, annually,
3. Local – media outlets in your town, city, county, region
4. National – media outlets throughout the country.             
5. International – media outlets outside the country.
5. Analyze your client’s data. 
1. What media categories do your best clients turn to the most: print, broadcast, or Web
2. What media outlets were mentioned most frequently: Newspapers, magazines, newsletters, TV, radio or online magazines?
3. Are the media outlets local or national?
4. What are the avocational interests of your clients?

Keep in mind that it is easier to become a source for a national publication than a metropolitan newspaper.  Metropolitan newspapers’ business sections often focus on regional and local business of a certain size, not on concepts, such as invetment management or personal finance. 

1. Select media appropriate to your business objectives.  Design your target media list so it gives you both reach and frequency.  Do not ignore a publication with a small circulation.  It could have a reach that is highly targeted to your market.  Its reader could be more advantageous to your business than a larger publication’s reach and frequency.  Decide which media you want to cover your company
2. Add different types of media.  The research you conduct with your clients will give you an excellent foundation for a targeted media list.  A complete list needs to include media that may be unfamiliar to your clients, yet read by your colleagues and influential professionals. 

Many professionals do not take the time to do this strategic planning before approaching the media.  Don’t be one of them.  Know how the media can help you achieve your goals.  It will make a huge difference in your media results and your bottom line.  Targeting media outlets important to your practice will enhance your credibility and visibility, and expand the value of your media campaign. 

Column #4

Leveraging Your Success

Media celebrity begins with the publication of an article that mentions you positively, quotes on your expertise that are posted on an appropriate web site, or your appearance on a financial television program.  But the real success of a media marketing campaign does not begin until an advisor figures out how to leverage good publicity. Most advisors labor under the mistaken idea that the important centers of influence will see what has been said about you or hone in on the expertise you have expressed in an article under your signature or by line.  Many of the people you are hoping to reach will not see your initial success.  They are out of town, didn’t read that particular issue, didn’t watch that particular TV show. As a result, you leave your best efforts on the table.

It is your job to learn how to leverage your success. You can never be sure that your target client has read the article that outlined your successful strategies for solving specific financial problems.  You can only be certain your target prospect receives your media clips when you send copies of your print or electronic marketing successes (with reprint permission, of course) directly to them.

When a newspaper prints your name, company name and opinion in such a way that you appear to be an expert, you receive an implied endorsement from that publication and reporter.   It is far more important and impressive to your clients and prospects than any amount of advertising.  When you advertise, you say nice things about yourself.  When you receive a third party endorsement as a trusted expert in a newspaper or magazine, someone else – a third party – is saying nice things about you.  Very impressive!

A Third-Party Endorsement Campaign

It is your job to repackage and distribute your media coverage to your target market, prospects, clients, and colleagues.  It helps keep you fresh in the minds of your target audience.  You may even suggest that your material be passed onto a colleague.  This leads to more referrals with little expenditure of your time, money and energy.

Prospecting

Add to a prospecting letter, a copy of a good print article.  In fact, you can use the article as a reason for reaching out to the prospect.  It is often stated that you must reach your prospect at least eight times to get their attention. 

Client Relations

Clients love you more when you look good in the media.  Experience shows that they will pass on good information about you to friends without being asked.  However, an aggressive effort to get copies of good media hits to your clients, with a short buck slip attached, is very important.  The buck slip can say, “Thought you might be interested in this article featuring my comments on long term care planning.  If you have any friends who might be interested in my counsel on LTC planning, please forward this information.  Thank You.”

Colleagues

A good media marketing campaign may be most successful with your centers of influence and heavy referral sources to your practice, such as estate planning attorneys and accountants.  These professionals can become even better referral sources if you give them more information.  Again, don’t assume that they will see this information unless you forward it to them.  Always add new names of ancillary professionals to your centers of influence list.  Good media and a sense of “having heard your name before” may be just the ticket for their first referral to your practice.

Remember too, that when you establish good relationships with the media, you also have the opportunity of referring your attorney and accountant colleagues to the reporters when a question is not in your area of expertise.  Never wing an answer.  Ask the reporter if you can provide him or her with a more specialized source.  Then phone your colleague and get permission to pass on your name, sharing the name of the reporter and phone number.  The colleagues are happy and the reporter is happy. 

Successfully Showing Off

A successful media marketing campaign must appear in three additional places – your web site, your office walls as framed news clips, and a scrap book on your coffee table in the waiting area.

Web Site

We all agree that most clients will do some stealth perusing of your Web site.  You must post all successful media on the web site in a spot that is easy to click to.  Links are fine, or, with permission, the posting of the article on the web site. 

Office Walls

Framing some particularly good articles is even better than your diplomas from college or your certificates for your designations.  Have them professionally done and posted in a very visible place in your waiting room.

Media Scrap Book

Put the best articles in a media scrap book that is strategically placed on the coffee table in your waiting area.  Far better to have prospects and clients reading about your expertise, with its implied third-party endorsement, rather than encourage them to read some other expert from some business publication you make available. 

Don’t leave your reputation, referrals or revenues to chance.  Determine today to begin a media marketing campaign as a practice building effort.

Column #3

Jumping on the Bandwagon to Support Your Media Marketing Strategy

All of a sudden, it’s national news.  The issue you have spent hours interpreting for your clients has made the front page of the Wall Street Journal.  This is a beneficial moment for you and your practice, because you have just become a local source for a national story.  You might be thinking “Big Deal!” the local media don’t know me and wouldn’t cover this story if they did.

     Think again.  Localizing a national story makes sense.  Here you are, fully expert in this story and able to interpret it for your local media.  Example:  several years ago the president of a major utility company in Boston was hiking in the White Mountains, fell, and died.  The utility did not have a succession plan in place because the president was a relatively young, in his mid-forties.  The news section of the Boston Globe was filled with stories on the ensuing problems at the utility.  In the same situation, a smart financial advisor would do the following:

• Fax a note to the business editor of the Globe including
• Data about how common the lack of succession planning is at most businesses, large and small
• Credentials that support the advisor’s expertise on this subject.
• A one-page list of common issues that must be resolved in succession planning, using bullet point style, “The Top Five Issues That Stop Succession Planning.”
• Call the editor to alert him or her to the fax you have sent, why the readers need this information, and why you can speak to the topic.  One or two phone calls to the editor, offering to be a source on this topic of “importance” to the readers of the publication will suffice
• Faxed the same note to local television station assignment editors and radio station news directors.

      Likewise, you can nationalize a local story.  Write a case study that explains the success of a financial project.  For instance, a community group in Rhode Island was able to develop a clever way to fund job training in their state and pay for it without government contributions.   Repeat the steps above to get local coverage of this interesting story.  Once you have a local “clip” or story from the local publication(s) you are now ready to go “National.”

• Write a letter to a national publication that covers job training issues. 
• Include the case study that accurately describes the “who, what, when, where and why” of the successful job training funding.
• Attach copies of the local publicity.
• Offer yourself as a source for this story in the national publication. 

     There are hundreds of stories daily in national business publications that impact people at the local levels.  Often they are not covered because the local newspapers either do not know how to localize the story, or do not know to whom to turn for the expertise they need to report the story.  This may not work the first time, but in this regard persistence in developing and sending localized story suggestions can eventually get you a reputation as the “go to” expert on financial issues.  Likewise, it is possible to garner national attention for local successes if you choose the publications most closely associated with the topic you are pitching.

    You local research librarian can be extremely helpful in locating the names, addresses, and editorial calendars for target publications.  There are directories in every public library that divide the world of media by topic.  Check out the entire line of Bacon’s Media Directories for the publications that are most likely to want their readers to know your take on national and local news. 

Column #2

Develop Compelling Story Ideas to Reach the Media Who Most Inform Your Target Audience

The media searches for new story ideas and expert sources every day.  Reporters are evaluated by their editors for the balanced sources they can find to interview for stories that are specifically targeted to their audiences. Learning how to develop story ideas that compel reporters and editors to call you is essential for a successful media campaign. 

1.  Know very specifically the publications that are read by your target market. 

2.  Read those publications.  Note what kinds of stories they use regularly, features, news, regulatory, practice management.

• Write to the publication, or visit their Web site, and retrieve what they call their “editorial calendar”. These calendars from your targeted publications describe special sections and up-coming features that may match your expertise.  They provide dates and often, the special distribution for certain issues to trade shows or conventions.  Such calendars are written to attract prospective advertisers who would like to be in the publication when certain subjects are covered. 
• Check the calendar for topics about which you are informed
• Brainstorm story ideas and headlines with your staff.  Focus on:
• Solving a compelling problem for the audience
• Offering solutions to common challenges
• Case studies that show your expertise
• Uncomplicating something complicated
• Send a ”pitch” or sales letter telling the editor the following:
• Why this story idea is important to the audience
• Why this story idea fits the published topics in the editorial calendar.
• Why you have developed expertise in order to speak to this topic (current clients with the same issues, your previous experience, your professional designations or affiliations)
• How you will follow up this mail or e-mail pitch. “I will call to discuss your interest in this idea.”
• Send pitch letter one publication at a time.  This protects your ability to offer your story ideas as an “exclusive” to the publication, once they have become interested. 

Consider writing an article on the topic you select even before an interview or successful contact with the publication.  Post this article on your web site and include the URL in your pitch letter so editors can see how you treat the subject.  Always write these articles in third person.  Rarely will a publication allow you to speak in first person, using “I” or “We”.  They are looking for more distance from the writer which comes in the third person. 

Be sure to match your story ideas to your business objectives.  Then develop story ideas that meet the readers and viewers needs.

-  If you want to advise clients on building portfolios of no-load mutual funds, spend time developing stories on how to do that for publications who provide those kinds of stories to their readers.  Develop a model portfolio and defend it based on your investment philosophy and send it to a reporter who has written similar stories before.

 - Or, identify a trend in your profession, develop a position paper on what that means for you and your peers and submit it to a professional publication.   Clips from professional publications are often better as a way to impress clients because they will focus on you rather than simply using you for a simple quote as sometimes happens in national consumer-oriented publications.

Story ideas are what distinguishes you from everyone else who wants to harness the power of the media to build their practices.  The energy and focus you put into your story idea development will determine your success. 

Column #1

Quick Start Steps to Your "Get Media Smart!"
Marketing Program

Financial service professionals understand that positive news coverage is good for business. Positive news coverage can move you from a hard working local professional to a nationally recognized expert. Consider media marketing if you wish to be :

• seen as an industry leader
• known as trustworthy and credible
• understood as the professional to turn to for expert advice
• profitable through increased referrals and qualified leads.

The reputation you have in this industry is yours to manage. Media marketing -- that is, working with the media in a deliberate way to be perceived as an expert -- requires focus and energy. It is neither difficult nor complex. The media need sources, -- you are an excellent prospect as a media source. Preparation is the key to success in connecting with the media. You need to know which media to approach and how to get their attention. You want to develop the perception of the media that you are savvy about how sources interact with influential reporters. Equally important is that the media you approach be useful in building your business. Here are some guidelines that assure your approach to target media outlets will benefit your business:

1. Read with a purpose and clip the “I could have said that” quotes.
Save copies of stories particularly when you feel you could have been the source for the story. This collection of clips gives you the names of reporters who have covered topics about which you would like to be quoted. They become primary targets of your media campaign.

2. Identify national and business publications, TV or cable shows.
What do your clients and prospective clients like to read? Do a survey. What publications do your best clients read? Do they tune into business news channels when they are in their office? Your clients’ assistants can help you with this. National news organizations use local professionals as sources all the time if they know about you.

3. Identify the trade publications important to your best clients.
Publications that speak to prospects similar to your existing clients may be genuinely interested in how you have resolved typical problems faced by this constituency. A trade publication is a magazine, newspaper, or newsletter that speaks to a specific industry or group of professionals. You can get trade reporters attention through case studies that specifically reflect the issues you handle every day for your clients and customers.

4. Choose a niche.
Concentrate on serving a niche clientele that will support your specific business objectives, i.e., trades, professions, industries, gender, income levels, or geography. Many businesses get into difficulty trying to be all things to all people. Choose your target market carefully.

5. Create a targeted media list
Combine what you know about your clients’ habits regarding media and your niche focus and use that information to develop a data base of publications. You need to ask for the “masthead” of the publications important to your clients. This is the list of names, addresses and phone numbers of the editorial staff of the publications you may wish to send story ideas to in the future. For web sites, go to the “Contact Us” section and collect e-mail addresses. This information allows you to develop a custom media list that includes the reporters most likely to write about topics of importance to your target clients.