Even though social media has become the new media, radio still carries some significant weight as a traditional marketing tactic.
Advisors can gain credibility from PR. Once they are seen as an expert in print, on TV or on the radio, prospective clients become aware of the advisor, build a virtual relationship and in some cases become clients. This was proved at the recent media training for the FPA of Massachusetts, conducted by Byrnes Consulting, LLC, which concluded with a panel of four industry success stories, all of which had radio experience.
Panelists included John Napolitano, author of a weekly column on finances for the Patriot Ledger and syndicated through Gatehouse Media; Marc Freedman, host of “Dollars & Sense” broadcasting on 104.9 FM radio; Chris Boyd, host of “Something More with Chris Boyd” broadcasting on WXTK 95.1; and Mike McNamara, the host of “McNamara on Money” broadcasting on WATD 95.9 FM. The panel was moderated by Kevin Feehily from Byrnes Consulting.
Here are a few of the questions that were asked.
Feehily: How did you get started with radio and how did radio benefit your business?
Napolitano answered first and said being on the radio generated a crazy amount of interest. Although he cautioned they are not all the right types of leads.
McNamara shared advice, saying, “Treat your listeners like they are your real clients. Empathy is really powerful.”
Boyd said, “I wanted to be likeable. I wanted to be perceived as intelligent and entertaining.” Ultimately it is the hope that a radio program will lead to new business.
Freedman said, “I wanted to build a brand that people can trust. There is a lot of crap out there.
A lot is salesy and not authentic.” He wanted to share real-life situations that people can relate to. By doing so, hopefully the listeners will want to work with you.
Feehily: What was it like getting started with radio programs?
Boyd spoke about the learning curve, saying, “There isn’t any training. I wasn’t very good at it. The B-D was happy for me to be on the radio, as long as I didn’t say anything.” (This brought lots of laughs.) He added, “That’s not really practical for a live radio show.” As a result, he did a lot of interviews so he would not get himself in trouble, but eventually the restrictions led him to leave the broker-dealer channel.