"The best way to win favorable press is to provide reporters with ideas for hot stories. If you make yourself valuable to reporters, they are likely to repay the favor."

Public Relations, The Write Way

By John Bowen

Over the years, we've experienced both success and failure with our public relations programs. Our biggest challenge was duplicating our successes and establishing consistency. That was because we were treating P.R. as a part-time job. Once we started giving it full-time effort, our success increased overnight and the benefits surpassed the costs tenfold.

When it comes to the media, many financial advisors do not discern the difference between public relations and publicity. Some are under the misconception that if they get their name in the press or if they are quoted in an article or two, that it is enough to double their business instantly. This just isn't the case. In fact, that form of publicity has very little value unless it is part of a well-conceived and consistent marketing effort.

Getting your name published is publicity. Getting your byline published is public relations. Understanding the difference is essential to successful marketing.

Understanding Public Relations

The first step in improving your P.R. results is to consider what public relations really is and how to implement it effectively in your marketing plan. Public relations is the method and activity employed to promote a favorable image and relationship with the public. Publicity, on the other hand, is the act or process of disseminating information to gain public attention. Publicity is just one facet of public relations.

In order to work with journalists, it's important to understand how they think. Most reporters have no particular interest in quoting or promoting one advisor over another. They are interested in writing stories that will capture the attention of their readers.

The best way to win favorable press is to provide reporters with ideas for hot stories. If you make yourself valuable to reporters, they are likely to repay the favor. Once established, you can enhance the relationship by offering disinterested advice. Sometimes this means referring a reporter to another advisor or source with expertise in an area where your knowledge is limited. The more journalists learn to trust you, the more likely they will call you and quote you.

After we gained a clearer understanding of the relationship between publicity and public relations, we started to design an overall P.R. program. We visualized what we wanted to happen to our business as a result of our efforts. One of our goals was to shorten the sales process. To do that, we would have to be perceived as experts in the field. That became our primary goal, which we accomplished by publishing articles in industry and trade association journals.

We began to write magazine articles explaining how asset-class investing, our primary business activity, works. This enhanced our visibility, not only in our local community, but also in the financial services industry. Our professional status grew. We weren't afraid of giving away our marketing and investment secrets. In fact, by sharing them we established trust with the public and with other professional advisors.

Perhaps you want to double your business, gain more credibility in your community and be able to distribute reprints from professional journals as promotional pieces. Factor these goals into your marketing plan. Your public relations program should be designed to enhance and complement an already existing market plan. As with other aspects of you business, you need to think strategically and make a long-term commitment to building your financial business.

Writing Articles

Local press is great for providing immediate recognition and feedback, and articles that appear in national publications and trade journals add even more value.

While getting into the press is effective, it can be time-consuming. You can either do it yourself by writing articles (try to do a minimum of two per year) or by hiring a public relations firm to do it for you. Check your firm's policy toward a financial advisor hiring his or her own public relations or advertising firm. Many national firms have strict guidelines that must be followed and require all information released be approved by the corporate office. Take this into account, because the approval process may cause delays.

Understand what your P.R. fees will buy. There's a wide range of prices within the industry and the fees charged by a typical P.R. firm may shock you. You may also find that most firms have very little background in writing financial articles. Make sure the firm you hire understands what your business is about.

If you do it yourself, write about what you know. Pick some aspect of financial planning you enjoy, or explain how to solve a problem. Use a personal experience to show how you overcame a particular obstacle by implementing a certain process.

Some broker-dealers or money managers will provide you with a finished article you can use as a boilerplate. Copy the format and add your own words.

Getting Published

Following are five steps that will help you get in print, even if you are inexperienced in public relations.

Step 1: Identify your target market.

Your strategy should revolve around how to deliver your message to your target audience. Write down P.R. objectives, market segments and how you intend to reach them. Your written P.R. plan can be as detailed as the statement of investment objectives you write for a client.

Start by examining your existing client base. Most investment professionals have a large number of clients in a relatively small number of industries. Surprisingly, most ignore their own inherent knowledge of existing clients' industries. Instead, put this information to use. Trade journals and newsletters have credibility and prestige among influential members of various industries.

If you are a financial advisor writing for a trade magazine targeting your own industry, you have missed your market (unless your market is other financial planners). More than likely, your clients and prospects will never see it. You should be writing for your local newspaper, regional business magazine or, better yet, the trade association magazine for your target market.

Step 2: Identify the publications your market reads.

Determine your publishing prospects by asking your top clients what they read. They may be devotees of obscure trade journals such as Associations Management, American Fire Journal, Public Accountant or Cemetery Management. In addition, most trade associations have their own publications, and these are relatively easy to break into.

The Writer's Market (Writer's Digest), a compendium of periodicals with information useful to the freelance writer, gives editors' names, addresses and brief editorial guidelines for trade and business magazines. The library will have the Encyclopedia of Associations—a guide to more than 30,000 national and international organizations, including trade, business, commercial, legal and government organizations—as well as the Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media.

Step 3: Pitch your article.

You can take your changes and write a story and send it to a magazine with a cover letter explaining what your article is about. Or do what most professional writers do: Write a query letter to the editor first, or pitch him or her over the phone.

Bear in mind that editors are interested in providing informative, entertaining articles to their readers, not improving your business. No editor is going to simply hand over editorial space so you can promote your company.

Before attempting to contact an editor, make sure you read several recent issues of the publication. Study the subjects, style and tone of the articles to see if you can write in a similar fashion. When you write your query or make your pitch, tell the editor why you think your article is appropriate for his or her publication, why you think the magazine's readers would find your article interesting and why you are qualified to write it.

Step 4: Write the article.

If you're lucky, an editor will agree to consider your article (it's highly unlikely he or she will accept it solely on the basis of a query). At this point, you've sold the idea, but you still have to sell the story. Keep that in mind when you are writing. If your tone is too promotional or self-congratulatory, expect to have the article returned with a brief note: "Thanks, but no thanks."

Write to inform the magazine's readers about a particular product or trend, or offer a solution to a common problem. Don't simply describe yourself or your services. Any magazine that would publish such an article will probably publish a similar article from your competitor next month, and then where will you be?

When submitting the article for consideration, offer to provide additional information if needed, as well as references and data to back up your claims. Most publications will insist on independently verifying information furnished by freelancers, regardless of how established they may be in their careers. Magazines do this to protect themselves (their credibility is at stake, too), and writers who are reluctant to cooperate are all but admitting that they've played fast and loose with the facts.

Step 5: Send out reprints.

Once your article has been published, leverage it. Call the magazine and ask for reprints, then distribute them heavily. You have much more credibility if you are in a position to show a prospect or client some of your ideas that are published in his or her own trade journal or local business magazine.

After a sales presentation, leave behind copies of your reprinted articles. This gives the prospect additional evidence and a visual to refer to long after the marketing presentation has been made. Beyond reprints, the real benefit of a published article is that it can communicate your message to a greater number of people than you could reach by yourself. The communication process becomes geometric if the articles are published in media vehicles that influence high concentrations of specific readers, such as doctors, attorneys, CPAs and business executives.

If you take these steps to make publishing an important part of your public relations plan, you will see your business take on a life of its own.

Reprinted from: FINANCIAL PLANNING