Marketing

Easier to use,
not better connected.

The typical approach sends an announcement to a general address and hopes. It fails because it asks a journalist to find the story inside your news.

Why journalists ignore most advisors

The typical approach is to send a firm announcement to a general email address and hope. It fails because it asks a journalist to do work — to find the story inside your news — and they have forty of these before lunch.

The advisors who get quoted regularly are not better connected. They are easier to use.

What a reporter actually needs

A view, stated plainly, that someone could disagree with. "It depends on the client" is true and unusable. "Most firms are documenting rollovers in a form that never gets reconciled against the proposal" is a quote.

Speed. Trade press works to short deadlines. An advisor who replies within the hour will be quoted over a better one who replies tomorrow, every time.

Specifics you can actually say. A number, a pattern you see, a concrete example with the client details removed. Generalities get cut.

Being quotable is a discipline, not a personality. It means having a position and being reachable.

How to become one of the people they call

Pick two or three subjects you will be the source on, and be narrow. Not "financial planning" — rollover documentation, or advisory operations, or equity compensation for engineers.

Then publish on those subjects where journalists can find you, and say something specific enough to quote. Most reporters find sources by searching for who has already written about a thing.

When you are contacted, answer the question asked, quickly, and offer one thing they did not ask for. That second part is what makes you the first call next time.

Announcements, done properly

Firm news is worth publishing on your own site regardless — it is a page, it is indexable, and it gives you a reason to make contact. Whether it interests a journalist depends entirely on whether it says something about the industry rather than about you.

"We added a manager" is a company update. "Here is what advisors are asking for that they were not two years ago" is a story that happens to include your news.

The compliance frame

What you say to a journalist can become advertising the moment it is published, and a quote you did not approve can still be attributed to your firm. Know your own policy on media contact before the first call, and be careful with anything resembling a testimonial or a performance claim.

None of that is a reason to stay quiet. It is a reason to decide in advance what you will and will not say.

Questions this did not answer? Ask them directly — that is what the twenty minutes is for.

Schedule a call to see for yourself