Journal of Financial Planning: October 2018
Greg Rollett is an Emmy® award-winning producer and founder of “AmbitiousTV,” an online TV network that gives a voice to small business owners.
When “Will and Grace” was first broadcast by NBC in 2006, there were only three ways to catch an episode: (1) use an antenna (remember those?); (2) tune in via cable; or (3) watch it using a satellite dish service like DirectTV. Plus, you had to tune in Thursday nights at 8 p.m. If you got home late from work that night—at say 9 p.m.—there was no way to see that episode again.
When NBC rebooted the sitcom in 2017, they launched the show with more than 100 ways to watch a single episode. Sure, there’s still tuning in Thursday nights at 8 p.m., but if that were the only place NBC broadcast the show, they would lose out on more than 90 percent of the audience who wants to tune in. Today, viewers can watch that same episode on NBC Digital, on demand, taped via DVR, on DirectTV, with skinny cable bundles from YouTube TV or Sling, catch clips on Facebook and YouTube, through Hulu—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Financial planners are faced with the same distribution issues. Do you tell your clients, prospects, and market about your news or updates via an email, a newsletter, a video on YouTube, a photo on Instagram, or a status update on Facebook? The correct answer, much like TV networks have discovered, is that you use them all.
This is both good and bad news for planners. It’s bad news because we have limited time and resources and simply cannot be in all places at all times. It’s good news because it gives us even more outlets to share our content, our ideas, and our services with the people who need them.
In this “golden age of distribution,” planners have four key things to do to seize this opportunity.
Create Weekly Episodic Content
One thing we can all learn from our favorite TV shows is their frequency. Most are weekly and draw us back in to watch next week and then the next week. When you create weekly episodic videos, you are giving your community a reason to keep paying attention to you.
If creating a new video or episode intimidates you, record them in batches. Spend one Monday morning every month filming four episodes that can be spaced out throughout the month. Our clients create 10 to 13 episodes in one day, providing them with weekly episodes for an entire quarter.
Connect with Media Platforms that Need Financial Content
Local media brands understand that they need to create a massive amount of content to remain relevant. They also know that they cannot profitably afford to staff in-house video teams and staff writers to supply enough content to satisfy the demand. This is your opportunity to partner with media platforms and have them distribute and share your videos.
This is something we have done with Entrepreneur.com, which shares our weekly show, "The Ambitious Life" with millions of readers and social media followers every week. Entreprenuer.com gets a highly produced and valuable show to share with their audience without having to fund the production; and it gets us exposure to their audience.
You can do the same thing locally, nationally, or internationally with media outlets that have the attention of your market. Make a list of the media outlets your target market consumes and tell those outlets you want to create a show for their audience that you will pay for and produce. You’ll be surprised how many will take you up on that offer.
Share Content on Different Platforms
The reason you can see episodes of “Will and Grace” on 100 different platforms is because people are choosing to watch content where they want, when they want. My mentor, Dan Kennedy, taught me to sell in a vacuum, but that is becoming more difficult with our on-demand world. I still prefer to sell in a vacuum (in a sales environment I have control over), but I want to push out my content into as many channels as possible to start the conversation.
Taking a page from “Will and Grace,” every time I film an episode of my weekly show, I post it to Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. I send it to my email list, I share it with Entrepreneur.com, and distribute it to Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, and other platforms. A distribution model like this allows you to be everywhere your market is watching content.
Drive People Back to Your Media Platform
With everything you do, you want to lead interested prospects back to the media platform that you own and control. This can be your email list, your newsletter, your magazine, or any other media that you own and control. Every video and every piece of content you distribute online should point people back to your website, a landing page, or an opportunity to work with you.
You are not in the business of getting “likes.” You’re in the business of helping people create their financial future. Your content and episodes gain you attention, trust, and influence, but none of that feeds you. Turning this attention to dollars is what really matters. Never forget why you are investing time and money into video content.
Financial planners have an opportunity to enter the golden age of distribution. This can only happen when you film the first episode, then share it, market it, and distribute it. If you don’t, your market has plenty of other options to consume content from your competitors and more than 100 different ways to watch their favorite sitcoms. Why not make their new favorite show your own?
This column was originally published on the Journal’s Practice Management Blog. Read more at Practice ManagementBlog.OneFPA.org.
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FPA Media Training
Fine-tune your on-camera skills and become a source for journalists looking for information and commentary on personal finance and financial planning. FPA members can attend media training programs through their chapters or participate in virtual trainings throughout the year. The next virtual training is scheduled for Nov. 15, 2018 at 4 p.m., Eastern. Visit OneFPA.org/MediaTraining to register.