Marketing yourself using media is a way to enhance your reputation and generate name familiarity among current and prospective clients. By using the media to increase public awareness of your knowledge and services, you also reassure your current clients that they selected the right person to handle their financial affairs. This realization makes them more willing to do additional business with you. Like other marketing strategies, media marketing is a slow process that does not create immediate results. However, in the long run it may prove to have a greater impact on your business than conventional advertising.

It is important that you do not confuse public relations with advertising. In an advertisement you are paying for your name to appear in a media format. On the other hand, when a reporter quotes you as a source or features your services in an article, an objective third party is writing about you. The impartial article carries more weight in the eyes of the public since it is not written strictly for your benefit.

Here are a few ideas to help you start getting noticed by the media:

• Send short notes to reporters, commenting on articles they have written or suggesting new article ideas. Fortunately, reporters are always on the lookout for fresh story ideas and new people to interview. This means that they are likely to listen to your ideas if they are well thought out and you provide reliable information.
• Ask to be a contributor to a local radio show that deals with financial matters. Personal finance is a hot topic, and if your local station doesn’t currently have a program, they would probably be happy to have your input.
• Contact the financial reporter at your local television station. Establish a relationship with that person by giving him/her your feedback on reports, as well as research information or new ideas for topics.

Although this may seem like a slow process, the benefits of becoming a media source are numerous. Once you are quoted in newspapers or magazines, you can have reprints produced to send to your clients or include in prospect letters. When they read your name in an article by a third party, their trust and confidence in you will increase. Use your client newsletter as another avenue to spread the word.

Having another person affirm that you are knowledgeable in a specific area can go a long way to enhancing your reputation in the eyes of your clients and prospects. It can also improve your qualifications among your peers. When other professionals, such as accountants and attorneys, see your name in print, they tend to move you up on their referral list. Even if they had been hesitant to recommend you in the past, when another party endorses you by quoting you or featuring you as a source, that confirms your credibility in their eyes.

Making yourself a source for the media does take some effort and persistence, but if you prove yourself to them, they will come to rely on you as an informative source, and you will reap the benefits in your business.