Last November, I wrote a column titled "Tapping into today's #1 client concern."

The article discussed the skills and knowledge necessary to become a "go-to expert" on retirement planning  - and then about how advisors could get the story out.

Shortly after the column appeared, I received an email with some questions from Andy Fass, a veteran advisor in Sacramento with RW Baird, a leading U.S. independent brokerage firm.

In March of this year, he sent me another email - pointing me to a five part series titled "Plugging the Retirement Gap"  that had appeared on the local NBC television affiliate in Sacramento, in which he'd been prominently featured.

Here's the first of those segments:

http://www.kcra.com/video/22632785/detail.html

The benefits of being front and center

Not every compliance department allows advisors to appear on television or to be quoted in the paper.

But if you're in a firm that permits this, there are some big advantages to this kind of profile;

1.     When you email the links to articles or news segments, it reinforces your credibility with existing clients and referral sources

2.     It differentiates you when talking to prospective clients.

3.     It makes your website more substantive and professional.

4.     It can lead to an ongoing opportunity to provide commentary on market events.

Just don't expect it to lead to calls from prospective clients. Here's what Andy Fass says:

"While this was a great experience, and I've received good feedback from many folks, it really didn't translate into any short term business. 

 I do think that long term, it will be worth it, as I am able to use the tag line "As seen on KCRA Channel 3" on my marketing and correspondence and think this adds a degree of credibility.

 I have also done a couple of other spots for them, and they call me every so often for a comment or a brief interview.  The other good thing is that I have an open invitation to provide them with any ideas I have on timely issues and if they like them, they'll put them on the air.  I'm working with one of their main reporters on a couple of things."

Approaching local media outlets

Here's the approach that Andy Fass used to make this new series happen:

1.     Prepare a written outline of what you propose to cover - Andy Fass developed his based on some retirement planning workshops he runs.

2.     Approach the news director of the local station - in Andy's case, he happened to have a nephew working at the station who was able to give the proposal to the news director.

3.     Follow up - for Andy, it took two phone conversations and two face to face meetings.

4.     Set aside the time - it took about 45 minutes to shoot each segment. In addition, Fass got some of his clients to appear in the segment.

Note that this doesn't have to be limited to television - it could also work with local radio stations or newspapers.

To learn more

If you're interested in seeing more, here's the link to the website on which these news segments appear; many thanks to Andy Fass for generously sharing his experience:  www.andyfass.com

And here's my article that appeared last November:

Tapping into today's #1 client concern