Agents are looking for ways to make their marketing dollars more effective. Time-starved, distracted prospects are also looking for something: a quick way to decide who should be their financial advisor. Agents who raise their visibility by being quoted and interviewed can quickly become the advisor of choice in their area. Nothing does more to quickly enhance your credibility than being quoted in an article, being interviewed on the radio or television, or having an article of your own published.
At its heart, selling insurance can be a game of good timing as inheritances are passed down, business are bought, and people retire on their own timetable, not yours. By being consistently quoted and published, you can become the one that they call when they are ready to buy.
Use hits to market to referral sources
If you rely on professional referral sources for leads, imagine the power of sending the referrers copies of the articles in which you are quoted. The articles reinforce their decision to recommend you and make it more palatable to refer you in the future. Send them stacks of reprints they can hand to prospects as they recommend you.
Identify where it is most profitable to be seen and heard
You want to be seen or heard where your prospects and referral sources will see you. Alternately, although they may not regularly read the New York Times Sunday newspaper, being quoted in a publication such as this is tremendously valuable, and you can use this fact in your bio and marketing to boost credibility. It costs you no more time and money to shoot for the top media than it does to go after local coverage.
Compile a list of the publications that your prospects and referral sources read. Be sure to include what I call "stealth media." These are often-overlooked sources such as company newsletters, community outreach newsletters, and even local cable TV. Then add your top media dreams, such as the New York Times or Money magazine.
How will you appear?
There are a number of ways to position yourself in the media spotlight. These include being quoted as an expert source in an article or writing an article that is published.
I suggest that you choose one as your initial goal and add others as you like. Identify who writes on your topic at the publications you have targeted and email them regular, newsworthy ideas that they can use. Media directories have this information and are free at every public library.
How will they contact you?
Once you have been quoted, will readers know how to find you? Take steps to make sure that when they call directory assistance or put your name into an Internet search engine, your site pops up. Test that now. A paid local search campaign can make it much easier for prospects to find your Web site.
Avoid rookie mistakes
"The reporter quoted me once, but I never heard from him again." This is a problem I'm often asked about at my programs and private consulting. Advisors who are pursuing newspaper and magazine quotes are perplexed when they are quoted once by a reporter and then never again. They assume that media coverage is "the luck of the draw" and that reporters are fickle beings who arbitrarily cut off advisors just when they've had their first taste of media success.
Nothing can be further from the truth. There are three main reasons that a writer or reporter who has quoted you in the past doesn't quote you again.
1. The reporter has decided that you are too difficult to work with. Perhaps they always get voicemail when they call, perhaps you are not sensitive to the reporter's needs, etc. The media have expectations and etiquette that must be learned. They are ignored at your peril.
2. The reporter no longer covers your topic, or they cover it infrequently and will call you when it next comes up.
3. The reporter doesn't remember you because you haven't kept in touch with them. Keeping in touch doesn't necessarily mean lunches or phone calls, but it does mean periodically emailing reporters press releases that are newsworthy and position you as an expert.
With the number of media sources continually expanding, the demand for expert sources is at an all-time high. Ride this wave and let the media introduce you to clients in the most favorable light possible: as the credible expert.
Marilee Driscoll's "Invisible to Incredible" programs show how to use marketing and do-it-yourself PR to raise visibility, credibility, and profitability. For more information, email Driscoll at md@marileedriscoll.com.
