Hortz: Besides as a virtual engagement tool, can podcasting or content marketing also be looked at as an asset that can grow its value?
Lowe: Yes, your podcast can be purposely developed into a tangible asset since there are three ways to monetize podcasting: 1) use the podcast to develop relationships with clients, prospects and centers of influence who will do business with you, and 2) your audience itself becomes an asset that attracts community sponsors, and 3) create quality content where, with each new episode and shared wisdom, the digital asset itself develops quantifiable valuable (i.e. can be sold).
Most marketing tactics after completion, are not intrinsically worth anything, nor do they continue to promote your thought-leadership and business. Podcasting on the other hand, episode by episode, is a library of content that adds to your credibility every day, builds an audience, and creates an asset. A good podcast will present opportunities for paid guest appearances, re-publishing as content with media partners, in-podcast advertising, and sponsorship. I call this momentum marketing versus traditional marketing tactics that advisors typically employ. Podcasting opens up a whole new world of opportunity and how advisors approach and potentially pay for marketing.
Hortz: What steps do you take with advisors to help them launch and maintain a podcast show?
Lowe: There are a number of key steps in launching a podcast:
Goals and expectations—first, we want to understand and help the advisor with their goals and expectations. Like any good plan or strategy, you need to understand the purpose and expected outcomes of podcasting. In some instances, we work with advisors to realign their expectations.
Establish the podcast brand—once the name, style and description of the show are developed, we create the cover art, build the podcast channel, and hire a professional voice-over artist to introduce their show. This stage is when the podcast starts coming together, including the format, episode topics, tone of podcast.
Production of the podcast—The advisor is now ready to receive their podcast starter kit, which includes their microphone, filter, stand, headphones. There are many podcast formats: positioning the advisor as a niche financial expert, interview-style guest (COI), lifestyle, local business’ and heroes' stories, and client hobbyist episodes. The most common format is positioning the advisor as the niche expert. Advisors have the option of solo-casting or professional co-host. However, 90% of our clients choose to work with one of our co-hosts, who have decades of financial and broadcasting experience. The co-hosts add an impressive layer of professionalism that helps advisors quickly get comfortable and start sounding like a pro.
Topic and show development—Most advisors worry about coming up with topics and creating an outline for their episode recordings, but we quickly alleviate this concern by extracting their first 6–12 episode topics during our discovery call. Plus, we teach advisors how to come up with topics during their workweek and we offer access to a database of 115+ financial topics with key talking points.
Hortz: What kind of supporting marketing needs to be done to develop awareness and build an audience of listeners?
Lowe: A podcast’s success lies in the value it adds to your audiences’ lives, as well as, how it is marketed and distributed. Few advisors will achieve influencer status organically. The goal is for the advisor is to establish niche expertise with an audience in a specific region and then market with those criteria in mind. Digital marketing allows advisors to efficiently and effectively achieve this goal. When done consistently with value and clarity, it can build authority momentum that most advisors may have not experienced.
There are three steps to scaling an advisor’s credibility: 1) multiply; 2) share; and 3) boost.