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It’s not just smaller advisor firms with limited marketing resources that can use podcasting to deliver their messaging to affluent prospects and clients. Big firms can easily leverage the potential of podcasts. I recently started a modestly successful podcast, so here are my suggestions for those who are thinking of doing the same.
Podcast versus video
Podcasting is something that advisors should definitely consider doing. It’s easier than YouTube video.
The investment of cost and time is much smaller than other forms of multimedia production such as videos. I have a YouTube channel and every time I shoot a video I have to worry about lighting, sound, the background setting, how my hair looks and what I’m wearing. The list goes on and on. I never professionally produced the videos, which results in poor production quality. Don’t get me wrong; the channel is still successful but it’s raw.
But it’s obvious I’m not investing a ton of time prettying things up.
I’m not alone. Videos have also been a struggle for my clients. Even my bigger clients, those with substantial staff to help, have found it a chore to coordinate production of videos.
It’s also easier to mass produce content with a podcast. If I want to tape three episodes in a row of my podcast, nobody knows that they were taped on the same day. In contrast, if I want to tape three YouTube videos, I have to change my outfit three times or people know that I just rolled them out one after the other.
It is way easier to collaborate via podcast. Collaboration matters because getting exposure to your guest’s audience is one of the best ways to get exposure. On YouTube, if you were to do a collaboration video, either the person has to be in your physical vicinity or you have to do one of those split screen videos. That requires investing in the technology and it is less cohesive to see two people in two different places. In other words, it’s obvious that the two people are remote. In contrast, I can tape a podcast with my guests over Zoom conference. It costs me no money and the viewer never has to know that we’re not in the same place.
Other podcast benefits
For my advisor clients, podcasting has been way quicker to adopt as compared to videos. For whatever reason, people are less shy about taping a podcast than appearing on camera. Maybe it’s our self-consciousness as human beings.
Podcasting is going to be even bigger in the future with the growing popularity of smart cars (equipped with Bluetooth). Many people have said they listened to my podcast on their way home from work. As I’ve written before, it’s getting harder and harder for people to read things. Any chance that you have to offer content that people can listen to while they’re doing other things, you should take the opportunity.
Hearing your voice is more powerful in terms of making people feel comfortable with you. It’s easier to connect with someone as you hear them speak because so much more expression is conveyed than through the written word.
To get started, here are my tips.
Tips for starting a podcast
Have several episodes ready before you launch
You should really pound the drum when you launch your podcast: press releases, blogs, social media posts, mention it in your newsletter, etc.
This is breaking news so people are going to get excited. Having just one episode when they click to visit your show will disappoint them. Your success during the first eight weeks on iTunes are what Apple uses to evaluate if your show is worthy of higher visibility on their platform.
Think twice about hosting it on your website
I’m not an IT person but you should be aware that podcasts are fairly large files. Having them hosted on your website, as opposed to a third party such as Blubrry (which I use), could mean slower website load times and other issues.
Plus (at the risk of this sounding like a sales pitch for Blubrry, which it’s not), third-party hosting sites come with great perks such as the ability to integrate with distribution channels such as iTunes or Stitcher directly.
Keep it short
I’m a fan of the theory that less is more. Assume that people are going to be doing other things as they listen. I advocate for short, punchy episodes instead of longer ones until you find out what content really hits a nerve with people.
Produce a longer episode once you get feedback from your audience that this is something they want to hear more about. Until then, keep it to 10 minutes or less.
Offer your guests an outline but not a list of questions.
People get flustered by a script. If you offer your guests a list of questions you’re going to ask, the show risks becoming too mechanical or stilted. Instead give them a rough outline with a few topics that you are going to discuss.
Dual record the show
If you’re doing a sit-down interview with a guest, have the guest record their own copy of the show. You can use the redundancy and you never know what acoustics are like from a different recording position.
Offer show notes or a blog about the podcast
Combine the podcast with a succinct written explanation of what the show is about. I’ve even seen some people reference the exact time in the show when certain topics are discussed. That’s a good idea especially if the podcast is on the longer side.
Sara’s upshot
Online communication is shifting from written to audio and advisors should jump onboard. You will get your content heard with less time and money than video. This is great for smaller advisor firms with less marketing resources. To see an example of a recently launched podcast that has met with some success, please visit mine on iTunes or Blubrry.
Sara Grillo, CFA, is a top financial writer with a focus on marketing and branding for investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor and worked at Lehman Brothers. Sara graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature and has an MBA from NYU Stern in Quantitative Finance.
Read more articles by Sara Grillo
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
