As technology and the ways we communicate change, many professionals are seeking practical ways to establish themselves as experts and build their personal brand. Financial professionals can use a number of outreach strategies to raise awareness of their business and expertise, including public relations, content marketing and social media – three strategies that complement one another.
Position yourself as an expert
Focus on custom/expert commentary shared across a variety of media channels in the form of earned media coverage, placed content, social media posts, email, reprints for clients, etc. These methods leverage content across a variety of channels in an effort to reach multiple audiences and improve one’s credibility.
Placing custom content and positioning oneself as an expert in the media has the ability to help advisors and financial professionals identify and attract qualified leads, deepen relationships with clients, encourage referrals, and build their personal brand. Additionally, it provides clients with timely insights and educational materials that can help them better understand their situation.
Develop good content
Good content must be relevant, timely, and easy to understand. The purpose of content is to create something with meaningful purpose that can be used to help others understand the advisor’s thoughts on the market or educate them on his or her strategies.
Write content for the audience you a trying to reach. For instance, clients may want estate planning strategy, educational, or retirement planning pieces, while centers of influence (e.g. media outlets) may be more interested in information on advanced strategies and educational materials on complex topics. Prospects and referrals are likely to seek information on your process. Some content, such as market insights, can be useful to multiple audiences.
Your content can take the form of an article, blog post, case study, market commentary piece, or white paper. One caveat: content should be educational not sales material.
Leverage content on LinkedIn
Content may be shared in a variety of ways on LinkedIn. Most commonly, individuals and companies post “Updates” that include some commentary on the content and a link to the article/whitepaper/etc.
The same can be done in LinkedIn Groups, groups you can join on LinkedIn with other connections who share similar interests, where the selected audiences may find the content relevant and useful. However, if you share content in a Group, you must be prepared to respond to comments and answer questions.
In cases where an individual author is associated with the content, however, consider sharing it as a LinkedIn long-form post. This allows you to share the full article with your LinkedIn connections without directing them to another site. Your connections are familiar with you and more likely to engage with and share the article, especially if they are not directed outside of the platform. Additionally, long-form posts can sometimes be included in LinkedIn Pulse and the Pulse section of LinkedIn’s homepage, an aggregator of LinkedIn member content that connect with relevant professionals. While not every long-form post makes it into LinkedIn Pulse, the program’s algorithm regularly shares timely and relevant content with interested members.
Ultimately, the goal is to leverage content across media platforms to meet potential and existing clients where they are and establish a personal brand that displays your industry expertise.