Publicity and Marketing Magic For Financial Planners: The Four Mores

Publicity will take your financial planning practice, your business, and your life to the next level. It's going to bring you:

• more recognition
• more credibility
• more value to the marketplace
• more business

By magic mostly, I have concluded. You see, there's something powerful, magical, and perhaps even a little irrational about this ? but I have found it consistently to be true:

Something special happens when you are featured or quoted in the media. Not only do more people get to see more about you, but they somehow think more of you.

The response is almost universal--and it's a marketing dream. It goes something like this: "Oh, Jennifer must be good at what she does. I see her quoted all the time."

Or ? raise your hand if the description fits ? you'll tear an article from the paper because it talks about exactly the problem or need you're facing right now.

Maybe it's a health concern. Or a personal finance question. Or maybe it's just some useful information on what type of cell phone to buy.

The article quotes someone. An expert. Someone who seems to really know the topic. "He must be good, he's in the paper." And you call them. Or, at a minimum, you make a mental note of the expert's name and you save the clipping for the day you're ready to act. Ideal marketing.

That's what we mean by more credibility. And when you think about it, it's not really so irrational.

Getting quoted in the media ? which is way different than touting your own self in an ad ? means that professional journalists have evaluated you, held you up to the light, and judged you worthy of being interviewed and quoted.

To use big words, it's called third-party validation. Instead of you saying you are worthy, they are saying it for you. Powerful stuff, no?

And when you achieve that higher level of credibility, your value in the marketplace automatically goes up. You're that expert who was on the TV news last week.

I know of one practitioner who was flabbergasted to experience this effect after he was quoted in his hometown newspaper.

"I was riding to work on the train the morning I was in the paper," he recalls, "and I couldn't believe what happened. One of my neighbors saw the story ? someone who knew me ? and he asked me to autograph it."

His value went up. And, before long, so did his business. The fourth "more."

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.