For financial advisors looking to expand their audience and brand recognition, podcasting is one more way to achieve those goals. Through its simple audio-only format, podcasting is accessible to nearly everyone with a smartphone.
But don’t let the simplicity undermine the value of podcasting for financial advisor marketing. This format can be a valuable tool to add to your content marketing strategy if leveraged properly. Read on to learn how podcasting can help grow your business and how to get started right away.
Basics of Podcasting for Financial Advisors
While it seems that anyone can have a podcast nowadays, it doesn’t mean everyone should. Before beginning a podcast for your financial advisory firm, it’s important to understand the basics of podcasting and how having a podcast can enhance your digital marketing efforts and reach prospective clients.
Podcast Name and Branding
When naming your podcast, think about what makes your firm unique and also include what the podcast is about so you can connect with your target audience. When it comes to each episode, simply numbering it won’t help people find you.
It’s recommended to not only number each episode but also to give it an SEO-friendly name to better show up in searches both on search engines and within podcast hosting platforms such as the Apple and Android podcast apps, as well as Spotify, Stitcher, and many others. Search engine optimization strategies apply to more than just written blogs and web copy.
Listen to Other Podcasts
The best way to become familiar with podcasting is to immerse yourself in other podcasts to see which elements you’d like to emulate and which you prefer to steer clear of. Of course, checking out other financial services industry podcasts is a good idea from a competition standpoint. Knowing what already exists in the podcast space for similar content can help you form your voice and approach for your financial advisor podcast.
Appeal to Your Niche
Chances are you’ve already found a niche within the financial planning space. If that’s the case, your podcast can use that same approach to position your advisory firm as a go-to resource for content on specific areas within financial advising and investing. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only content you can feature on your podcast; simply that your niche content should remain important throughout all of your digital marketing content.
Consider Your Distribution Channels
As mentioned above, there are numerous places where financial advisors can share their podcast content. The good news is that podcasts can be made available on many podcast platforms simultaneously. However, each channel requires maintenance and possibly responding to feedback, so it’s crucial not to spread your resources too thin, especially when first getting started. It’s also very common for financial podcasts to be shared on other financial professionals’ websites by simply embedding a feed from a podcast platform.
Promote, Promote, Promote
As with any other financial content, promoting your podcast within other digital marketing channels is a key part of growing your podcast audience and reaching more potential clients. This is an especially good way to get your existing social media and blog followers to become listeners.
Create a Consistent Schedule
Especially with podcasts, consistency is key to growing an audience. That’s because podcasts are meant to be a series with regularly added content. Similar to most television series, the most successful podcasts are released on a predictable schedule, such as weekly or monthly. Financial advisors will find it difficult to gain a large following for their podcast content without this consistency.
Quality Matters
While technically all it takes to make a podcast is a smartphone and an internet connection, there is a noticeable difference between a podcast recorded in a closet on speakerphone and a podcast recorded with modestly priced sound equipment.
If it’s in the budget to upgrade a few key pieces of equipment, it will go a long way toward creating a professional-sounding financial advisor podcast.
The bottom line is: you want to reach your ideal client, and they will respond more favorably to better quality content. This includes everything from the sound to the actual advice you are providing to them. Remember, at the end of the day, you are trying to drive more traffic to your websites and produce more leads for your firm.
Benefits of Podcasting for Financial Advisors
Now that you know the basics of what goes into starting a podcast for your financial advisory firm, here are some of the ways they are a benefit to your overall digital marketing strategy:
Become a Trusted Voice: Consumers are always looking for trustworthy resources when managing their financial goals. Through podcasting, financial planners have the ability to make a personal connection to podcast listeners that isn’t possible with other media formats. Because of this, podcasts can help their hosts form relationships with their listeners and create a loyal audience.
Podcasts Enhance SEO Efforts: Podcasts are just one more place your firm’s brand is represented online, and as such, it can have a positive impact on SEO. Reminder: Podcast episode titles and descriptions are crucial for seeing SEO benefits.
Low Cost When Compared to Other Media: Because podcasts are relatively low-tech when compared to other forms of media, they can be significantly less expensive from a production standpoint.
Add To Your Content Library: There’s no better way to establish your firm as a trusted resource than to build and share an impressive content library. By adding podcasts to the mix, financial advisors are going one step further to establish this trust.
Podcasts Appeal to Many Audiences: Podcasts are growing in popularity, and one of the main reasons is the mass appeal based on the vast number of topics. There is a podcast for nearly every subject matter, from hobbies and self-improvement to entertainment and finances.
Podcasts Have a Long Shelf Life: Podcasts are one of the most versatile types of content because they can live perpetually within a website platform. This can be beneficial for listeners who perhaps found your podcast recently and can “binge” the previous episodes within your library. For this reason, it’s important to have plenty of evergreen content that won’t make earlier episodes obsolete.
Is Podcasting a Good Fit for Your Financial Advisory Firm?
Podcasting is absolutely a great avenue to reach a wider base of clients. From large firms to small businesses, podcasting is a fantastic way to market your services and knowledge, regardless of how big or small your budget is.
For those who are on a tighter schedule, working with a digital marketing agency like Paladin can help you from start to finish, making it easier than ever to get involved.
