Establishing and maintaining an effective media relations program can be a valuable addition to your practice. Besides helping promote your business, creating brand and product awareness, it can raise visibility in a crowded market, making your services stand out. It helps position you as a credible spokesperson, which can help attract new clients while reinforcing relationships with existing ones.
Even though a media relations program is a large opportunity for advisors, few advisors rely heavily on one to acquire or keep clients. According to the latest AdvisorBenchmarking survey, only about 2% list media coverage as a business-building method (See chart 1).
Moreover, only about 8% of advisors surveyed said they keep in touch with clients via press releases (see Chart 2), so in general, using the media to support their business is not widespread. Advisors who develop a media relations strategy, therefore, may have an edge over the competition.
To be of value to a reporter, you have to contribute to the newsworthiness of the story. Often, that's a question of timeliness—commenting on recent market events, for instance, but also knowing how to make a larger topic more accessible—for example, how to position retirement accounts when markets are in turmoil. Advisors who know the audience and demographics of a particular news outlet, or can explain how national or global stories affect local news consumers, are ideal sources since they can help reporters obtain unique and compelling information quickly. And remember, reporters often use people's experiences and words to frame a story, so be sure you're able to discuss the impact of products or services on people and the way they live.
