A couple of weeks ago, Newspage’s Dom Hiatt explained why it’s “pretty damn easy” for advisers and planners to get into the newspapers.

Then, this week I was on one of my regular marketing strategy calls with a money coach, who has recently started using Newspage. It’s working too, as he’s already been featured in three high profile national newspapers.

That’s great, but it begs the obvious question: what next?

You could take the easy option: sit back and wait for the enquiries to roll in. After all, you’re now an adviser, planner (or in this case) a money coach, that’s been featured in the national press. Prospective clients are bound to be queueing up to meet with you, right?

Wrong.

If you expect large numbers of enquiries to roll in after you’ve been featured in the papers, you’re going to be disappointed.

So, what’s the point of getting in the papers? Does an immediate lack of enquiries mean you’ve wasted the time you spent carefully crafting your insightful comment? Is PR a waste of time? Should you avoid it?

Absolutely not!

While it might not result in an avalanche of new enquiries, your press coverage will prove that you’re a trusted expert and will act as a brand amplifier (I love that phrase, huge thanks to Octo’s Lee Robertson for introducing me to it).

But to do those things you need to promote every piece of press coverage you get. Of course, that takes us back to something we talk about a lot here at Yardstick; the balance between content production and content promotion.

Too often advisers and planners get it wrong, spending more time producing content than promoting it. That means their content (which don’t forget is tough to produce) is seen by fewer people, gets less engagement and is unlikely to achieve the aim of producing it in the first place.

So, if you get into the papers what should you do next? How can you squeeze every ounce of value out of the coverage? How can you make sure your coverage is seen by as many relevant people as possible?

Here are six things you should do after you’ve got yourself into the papers.

1. Add it to the press page of your website

Your website should have a press page that lists all your press coverage. It should include:

• The logo of the publication you’ve been featured in
• The headline of the article
• A link to the article on the publication’s website.

You should also add information to make a journalist’s life easier (remember, you’re now a trusted source and other journalists might want to hear from you), so also include:

• The name of the person a journalist should contact in your organisation
• Their job title (be careful here, certain titles will put some journalists off)
• Their contact details including an email address and telephone number they can use to get hold of you on quickly
• A high-resolution image of the contact that the journalist can download.

Finally, add a link to your press page in the main navigation of your website.

To see this in action, click here to visit The Yardstick Agency’s press page.

2. Add the logos of newspapers you’ve been quoted to your website

As we said, being quoted in the national press helps to confirm your status as a trusted expert. But it’ll only benefit your business if clients, prospects and professional connections know that you’ve been featured.

When it comes to your website, that’s a problem because only a relatively small proportion of visitors will find their way to your press page.

The solution is simple: build a section showing the logos of the papers you’ve been featured in and add it to the key pages of your website. Remember to link each of the logos to your press page to drive more traffic there.

3. Update your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn banners

Everyone who visits your profiles will see your banner. That means it’s incredibly valuable online real estate. However, far too many advisers and planners use a random image, their logo or (even worse) leave it blank.

That’s a real waste. Instead, make your banners work for you by including:

• Your logo
• Your contact details, including your website address
• A ‘hero statement’ explaining what you do and who you do it for (for example, “Helping dentists retire successfully” or “Giving business owners financial peace of mind”)
• Social proof, which could be a testimonial, your VouchedFor or Google reviews and, of course, the logos of the newspapers you’ve been featured in.

4. Tell your clients, prospects and professional connections

When it comes to prospects (people that have made an enquiry but haven’t yet become clients) and professional connections it’s vital that you become a go-back-to expert. Telling them that you have been quoted in the newspapers is a great way of doing that.

Your clients will be interested too, so we need to ensure they don’t miss your name being up in lights.

However, unless they actually buy the newspaper or read it online, people in those three groups are unlikely to see your coverage. Instead, make sure they can’t miss it by sending it to them. Build an email that:

• Explains where you’ve been covered
• Tells them what you’ve been talking about, building on your comments to add further value and insight
• Includes a link to the article.

5. Promote your coverage on social media and networking sites

Promoting themselves online doesn’t come naturally to many financial advisers and planners. If that’s you, you’ve got to get past it.
Remember, you need to spend more time on content promotion than content production.

On the day you make it into the paper, post it on your key channels. On Facebook and LinkedIn, one post will probably be enough that day. If Twitter’s important to you post it two or three times.

Don’t stop there though. Social media posts are easily missed, so to maximise the chances of people seeing your coverage you need to post it a few times in the following days. Each time, write different posts and always link back to the original article.

Remember, if you’re posting on LinkedIn, add the link to the comments immediately after your post. Don’t include the link in the post itself.

6. Send a roundup of your coverage

If you’re regularly featured in the newspapers, we recommend sending out a roundup of your coverage every few months.

It should go to the three key groups of people we mentioned previously: existing clients, prospects and professional connections.
Seeing the number of occasions you’ve made it into the papers will be genuinely impressive and, in turn, that will continue to build the perception of expertise.

What are you waiting for?

All of this advice is completely pointless if you don’t make it into the papers.

To do that you have to build relationships with journalists (don’t worry, most of them don’t bite!) while looking at other innovative ways to get your thoughts in front of them. And, that’s why we love Newspage.

So, go take a look at Newspage, read Dom Hiatt’s blog for us from a couple of weeks ago, then grab a cuppa and start planning. Trust us, getting in the papers, and then promoting your coverage, really isn’t as hard as many people would like you to think.

If you have any questions about this article or would like to tell us about your PR successes, we’d love to hear from you. Please email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300.