Content Marketing - Beyond Blogging

?I’d recommend that you take a look at the various materials that?I have online.?Interestingly Stephen (and, Steve) Oliver is fairly common but, google me (Stephen Oliver) with some combination of Financial Advisor, Marketing, Coaching, and such (the Podcast is Stephen Oliver’s Financial Advisor Marketing) and see all of the different stuff that comes up.?By the way add in Martial Arts or similar and you’ll find a bunch of stuff about me in that realm as well.

Now, search for Images.?Then search for Videos.?You find stuff literally EVERYWHERE.?YouTube videos, books listed for sale on Amazon, sometimes my stuff sold by others on Ebay, Podcasts on all major directories, many pages of blogs, articles by me, articles about me, director listings, Press Releases and more.?That’s obviously intentionally.?You can accomplish the same with your practice.

Creating a “Personal Relationship.”

If you listen to podcasts or YouTube videos from a person, you start to feel a sense of their personality and who they are. As such, if you ever get to meet them face-to-face, it already feels as if you know them well. Audio/video is a much more human way of interacting with someone, which becomes even more effective when that person is really engaging.?

Too many people come across as stiff, overly professional, and closed off when they create their content. This can have the opposite effect as, when someone meets you in real life, they will assume you are equally closed off. Sometimes, they may avoid you altogether because of that. And they certainly won’t revisit your podcasts and YouTube videos if they do not feel engaged.??

The key is to mix personal and professional.?Talk about the kids, your dog(s), about a recent vacation.?Give your “origin story,”?See any popular comic book character as an excellent example.?We all know for instance Spiderman’s or Batman’s “origin story.” Create that discussion about you.?Oh, and talk about politics, religion and other controversial things if they both fit into what makes you a unique individual and, to the degree that it helps attract the “right fit clients,” and repel others.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to follow a set formula with your content. There is no one way to be engaging and appealing. When we talk about being engaging, we mean showcasing your own individual personality, something that is unique to you. If you look at the two top radio hosts in the last 20 years, it's Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh, and you can't get much more polarizing than those guys. People who love them, love them and people who hate them, hate them.?

But creating your engaging audio and/or video content is only the first step. You could have the best content in the world, but if you don’t use it effectively, it becomes almost useless. And there is nothing sadder than great content going to waste when it could be used to boost your business. With our content, we always host it on our website and then branch out from there. Once the audio/video is up on the site, it then gets feed to the major podcast directories via RSS feed.?Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, IHeartRadio,Amazon and whatever else – all the big services.?See as an example:?https://advisorwealthmastery.com/subscribe-to-podcasts/

What happens then is we want people to watch the podcasts. There are ways to push these out to the public, your prospects, your clients, and other people. That's important because we want listeners to boost your Google ranking. However, Google is also indexing these platforms, and during this process. Google knows that they are connected to the podcasts on your website. This gives you authority in terms of Google. Essentially, Google thinks then your website is more important because you've got this podcast sitting on it that feeds out via RSS feed to all of the major podcast directories.

In addition to Google.?Prospective clients will be researching via Searching the various directories.?YouTube is the largest search engine for Entertainment and Education.?Millions search the major podcast directories daily for subject matter that’s of interest to them.?It’s important to set up each video and audio feed to be found easily with in search.

Now, go back to that list of keywords and “key word difficulty.” It’s a great way to generate ideas for topics, titles, and focus of all of your materials.?You could do a series of videos each focusing on one of the questions suggested.?Suddenly the individual podcasts, videos or blogs become much more likely to be found.

If you are podcasting on a weekly basis and auto, that already ticks a couple of boxes for Google. Not only are you connected to known large platforms, but the content is also new and reoccurring. Another important box to tick is the content subject itself. Is the content connected to your niche and the people you want to attract??

If you asked us a couple of years ago, podcasting would not have been that big of a deal. However, it has come on leaps and bounds of late and it is something we really like at the moment. It adds a lot of value to your business and it is easier to do that ever. With services like Zoom, and many others, jumping on and recording for 30 minutes or an hour is now extremely easy. Wherever you happen to be working from or doing meetings from, you can just log in, put a background up, and talk about your niche in an engaging way.

As an aside….

When it comes to creating video content, the visual aspect is obviously really important. That’s the whole thing that makes it more engaging than audio. People can see your face and hear your voice, instantly getting more of an idea about who you are. Humans are wired to be more engaged by a human face than a blank screen.?However, viewers of your content will also explore the background so you need to think about what is there. If you are presenting yourself as a financial expert and asking people to trust you with their finances, your background should not look like a 14-year-old YouTuber’s bedroom. Your background needs to come across as professional but not sterile. It needs to be relevant to you, while also standing out and showing personality. If you are a financial advisor who specializes in working with dentists but also has a passion for Porches, you could have a model Porsche in the background, as well as some dentistry-related items, for example.?

In all cases for video you want a decent camera.?In many cases a good HD webcam is fine.?The next step up is an entry level DSLR camera.?I have both set up at my desk for video shoots.?Regardless, lighting is crucial.?The basic lighting for video is represented by this simple diagram of a 3 point system.?Two lights in front both at angles and, then a back light to set you apart from the background.?In the photo of Kevin O’Leary you see him using the webcam from a Mac Pro Laptop.??In my case I’m running a 4K Webcam (Logitech Brio) shown in the photo I also have a Canon DSLR wired to use as well for a higher quality image (with depth of field control.)

?The other important consideration comes with using a quality microphone.?Many of the most widely listened to podcasts you’ll see the hosts and their guests using a Shure SM7B Microphone.??That’s one that you’lll see Joe Rogan among others using.?In the photo of my set-up above I’m using an Elector-Voice RE 20 Broadcast Microphone.?That’s the same one that Rush Limbaugh (famously gold plated) used as well as Dan Bongino.?There are some great choices, but frankly for less than $1,000 you can have an extremely professional set-up.?

Having met with 100’s of financial advisors via Zoom – I can tell you the difference in spending a bit of time on Background, Lighting, Quality Camera, and Quality Microphone makes a HUGE difference in the appearance of professionalism.

Podcasts are essentially long-form on-demand radio shows. You have your niche, you create your long-form content on that niche, and you share the RSS feed to the major podcast directories and to various other places to ensure it is on-demand.?With each it’s important to have good descriptions, exerpts, links back to your website and a clear picture in your mind of who would be looking for your content and the key words they would likely use to find you.

Make no mistake, podcasts are huge right now. However, with this popularity and this potential for success and traffic comes a lot of competition. There are millions of podcasts and probably hundreds or thousands within your sector. There may still even be a load within your niche. So what you have to do is get creative.?

As we explained before, the quality of the content is only half the battle. How you market that content is just as important. So be creative with the title, the topics, and how you position it. If people are looking to solve a problem they have, they should be able to find you. Not only can it be used to source new clients, but plenty of businesses successfully use podcasts to keep existing clients engaged. If they come on board and then hear you talking about their niche, their problems, and the solutions they need on a regular weekly basis, that keeps the client confident in you and engaged by you. This can also serve as an extra little meeting between you and the client, even though it is not live, in-person, or interactive. They can still have access to your face, your voice, and your information on-demand, which is a valuable and engaging asset. In fact, you can prompt them to subscribe to the podcast so they get alerts when new episodes come out.?

One of the best things about podcasting, if you haven’t done it before, is that it is free. The only thing that may cost you something is a little bit of the hosting, but that should be really cheap anyway. Whoever sets up your website and programs your podcast to be hosted there may charge a little more for that programming, but it won’t be anything major.

If we take a look into the actual content itself now and the structure of your podcast. In some cases, especially when there is compliance stuff involved, people like to have a script prepared or even a teleprompter next to the camera. However, we find that you get much better results if you have a more relaxed and unscripted chat, if possible. The basic podcast format should be welcoming a guest or a second host onto the show and chatting about a particular subject within your niche. If you can get a celebrity or high-profile name on there with you, even better. The bigger the name, the more clicks you will likely get. The number one box to tick is ensuring the person is important to talk to and can offer something to your listeners/viewers. It could be someone in your field, it could even be a client who can chat about their experienced and promote their business.?