In the early days, podcasting used to be the playground exclusively frequented by gamers, sports fans, standup comedy aficionados, and murder mystery enthusiasts. Little thought was initially given to how podcasting could be used as a way of sharing more complex knowledge, and even less to its potential to serve as a client acquisition tool for financial services firms.
Over the past 2 years, this has all changed.
Podcasting has continued to steadily grow, but the fastest-growing segments within the industry have been branded podcasts. Branded podcasts grew 82% from 2021 and 2022, as information-intensive businesses began to see podcasts as an effective vehicle to both highlight their expertise and build their brands.
Nowhere is this more relevant than in the world of investment advisory. Both independent financial advisors and larger investment firms are increasingly looking to podcasting as a more effective and compelling alternative to traditional ways in which financial professionals 1) build their credibility, 2) strengthen relationship with their existing clients, and 3) acquire new business.
Let’s see how finance podcasting stacks up to traditional methods of reaching these goals:
Why should a financial advisor create their own investment advisory podcast?
Building credibility
- You have a podcast listener’s attention long enough to help solve their financial challenges. Website messaging, investment briefs, and, yes, even blog articles like this one, are short-burst communication vehicles. By contrast, with podcasting, you will have on average 25 to 35 minutes of your listener’s undivided focus for each podcast episode. This is enough time to frame a particular financial challenge, describe a specific investment approach, and supply examples. More importantly, it is enough time to establish credibility and a trusted relationship with the listener.
- You can display your unique expertise in a specific financial domain. Podcasts are fast becoming the new virtual communities in which specialists in each domain congregate. As they have the potential to “go viral,” they are a better vehicle for cost-effectively reaching a larger audience of listeners who value your knowledge than just posting your content to a website and praying that visitors show up.
- You can use “video podcasting” to explain complex problems and solutions. Podcasting is the perfect medium for distilling complex information into simple concepts. This is achieved through compelling stories and facts. But you may find that certain concepts can best be conveyed through simple pictures, graphics, or other graphic forms. So, when recording a podcast Episode, it is now quite easy to capture both audio and video simultaneously, and you can employ podcast production services to cut in these elements to the video version.
Strengthening Existing Client Relationships
- Investment advisory podcasts hold investors’ attention longer than other communications vehicles over time. Not only do podcasts keep the listener engaged within an Episode, but they also establish and deepen client relationships over time. One reason: listening to an entertaining host with podcast guests who provide valuable financial insights is more compelling than reading dry recitations of financial principle and data in a whitepaper or blog post series.
- Clients relate to stories that feature people that are like them. Podcasts often employ vignettes that feature characters with whom a target audience can relate to. This creates a sense of empathy and relatability, making the listener more receptive to the messaging and knowledge the listener more receptive to the messaging and expertise that is being imparted. Investment advisory podcasts featuring relatable real-life examples both resonate emotionally and provide motivation to keep listeners coming back to listen to subsequent episodes.
- Podcasting reaches the unreachable. I’m talking both physically and mentally. There are a considerable number of investment advisory consumers, particularly executives and other high net-worth individuals, that are 1) constantly mobile, and therefore not in front of media through which traditional sales/marketing vehicles operate (screens, print, etc.) or 2) spending considerable time on repetitive leisure activities (hiking, walking, gardening, housework, or just lounging around).
Acquiring New Clients
- Podcasting is more a compelling medium for high-net-worth individuals. Listenership of financial podcasts has skyrocketed over the past few years. Triton Digital reports that the number of podcast downloads increased by 20% in 2022 – with listeners downloading an average of 3.8 hours of content each week, versus 2.7 hours in 2021.
- Podcasts is key to reaching younger audiences. According to Buzzsprout, 50% of people between the age of 12 to 34 listen to podcasts every month. While this may not be the age group with the most income with which to invest, if your strategy is to acquire clients with income growth potential, financial podcasting is a fantastic way to reach this demographic.
- Inviting a prospect to be a guest on your investment advisory podcast is gold! What better way to establish a relationship with a long-elusive prospective high-net-worth client than to invite her/him to be a guest on your show? For one person shops and small financial partnerships, acquiring clients using mass media approaches and digital marketing/SEO is expensive and inefficient. Helping key clients to establish their own credibility provides an exchange of value that makes both parties important to each other and provides the basis for a trusted partnership.
Sometimes the best way to begin thinking about how to start a podcast is to listen to a few. My favorite is Edelman Financial Engines. Go to their episode Archives page and peruse their podcast topics list; it spans a wide variety of investment topics: from personal finance items like retirement planning to global macroeconomics trends that impact investment decisions.
We would love to start a conversation with you about your own podcast aspirations. We welcome you to visit our website at www.gomodpod.com, or reach out to us via our Contact form or at info@gomodpod.com.
