Yes, podcasting will make you a better advisor in many ways. I’d go so far as to say that podcasting makes our lives better, one idea at a time. But today, I’ll start by telling you how it can make you a better advisor.
It Makes You a Better Communicator
Being a good podcaster not only requires you to be knowledgeable about the subject you’re going to talk about, but it also requires you to practice how you communicate your what and your why. A productive podcast draws people into your world or, better yet, you into their world. It makes you find ways to connect with your audience, understand their challenges, and find opportunities to solve their concerns. It’s easy to understand that improving your communication skills has benefits, while not improving these skills will keep you from advancing professionally. Podcasting will inspire you to implement strategies that can further develop your skill of communicating the expertise you’ve learned.
Any time while producing a podcast, you will ask yourself questions like:
- How can I best explain this topic?
- How does the topic impact my target audience?
- What can my audience do to resolve or avoid their challenges?
It Makes You a Better Marketer
Speaking about and understanding what your ideal clients want to hear about can make you a better marketer. Podcasting forces you to consider your ideal clients’ needs, your unique strengths, and the synergy between the two. Also, if you think you “sound” like everyone else, it will be more obvious when you start podcasting. Podcasting allows you to hear yourself, analyze the way you tell your story, and improve your delivery. It will inevitably push you to become better at positioning your strengths and your ideal audience’s needs. Now, that is a tremendous impact on your marketing!A few questions that you’ll want to consider:
- What’s your story? What separates you from other advisors?
- What does your audience care most about?
- Which channel(s) does your audience engage in the most when you share your podcast?
- Where does your podcast traffic come from?
It Makes You a Better Leader
Leaders start important conversations and then speak intelligently about them. Podcasting is steadily becoming a household-friendly media platform to discover and engage in thoughtful insights and perspectives. People are listening. In fact, 70% of Americans have heard of podcasting.Consider these ideas on becoming a financial leader through podcasting. Podcasting will inspire you to:
- Search for trends in society and how they impact people’s financial decisions.
- Sign up for news alerts or social listening tools such as Google Alerts, Awario and, BrandWatch. You could track keywords such as “new retirement” and “changing retirement.”
- Read news, listen to clients’ stories about life, and listen to podcasts. Be a lifelong learner and use that to power your thought leadership.
- Stay tuned to regional and global events and their potential financial impact.
- Plan ahead for calendar events that have life or financial impact.
It Makes You a Better Networker
One of the best podcast tactics is to search, qualify, and invite other experts and influencers to be guests on your podcast. The process of how you do that, and the tactics you employ, will make you a better networker. You will also build a richer, larger peer network.Here are a few steps to finding the right people and then expanding your network:
- Log onto LinkedIn. Click on the search bar and select “content” from the options that appear. Now, search for different keywords to see who’s talking about subjects your clients care about.
- Create an invite message on LinkedIn that’s conversational, not promotional. No offers, just an introduction. If possible, refer to something in their profile or activity stream that brought you to them.
- Consider the people who are talking about subjects that matter to your clients. Are there any trends within this group? Can you create a search to find more people like them? If yes, that’s gold right there.
- Recognize that your LinkedIn audience only really cares about themselves. Find ways to add value to their lives and work and they’ll share your ideas.
- Look for LinkedIn connections who have similar audiences. You don’t want to build relationships with the largest influencers; they won’t have time for you. What you want is to connect with micro-influencers who have ideal and engaged audiences.
- Design a one-page promo sheet that highlights your podcast focus, ideal audience/listenership, and stats. Share this with centers of influence that you’d like to have as a guest on your podcast.
- Share an onboarding email with centers of influence that outline guest expectations, podcast and promotional best practices, and potential launch episode dates. Here at Top Advisor Marketing, we provide a four-page podcast promo guide to help our guests promote their episodes.