If you’ve qualified for VouchedFor’s Top Rated guide, tomorrow is an important day for you (because it’s published in the Times on Saturday 9 March) but I’m nervous you’re going to make a big mistake.

Worried that publicising their inclusion will be seen as bragging, boasting, or blustering, many advisers, planners, and firms will let the opportunities that come from being included in the guide slip through their fingers:

• They won’t tell clients
• They will leave prospects in the dark
• Professional connections will never know.

I completely understand that self-publicity doesn’t come naturally to many people but it’s a myth that promoting yourself (if it’s done elegantly) will be received negatively.

Furthermore, it’s an inescapable truth that, if you don’t publicise your successes, no one else will do it for you and you will lose the opportunity.

To put it more succinctly and, as a wise man once said to me, (take a bow Andy Appleyard): “You’ve got to PR the PR”.

I could write a lengthy article explaining why Andy is right, but the wonderful Ozan Varol has already done that. In his article, Varol carefully dismantles the myth of shameless self-promotion. If you’re worried about publicising your inclusion in VouchedFor’s guide, you need to read it.

Once Varol has convinced you, there are many other successes you could promote.

Press coverage

Being featured or quoted in the trade or personal finance press is only half the job. As a minimum, you should promote all press coverage on social media and add it to your website’s press page, while you should also update your site’s “featured in” carousel.

Awards

Entering awards, even if you don’t win, offers more promotional opportunities than you can shake a stick at:

• Let your social media followers know that you’re writing an entry.
• If you’re shortlisted, tell people in your newsletter, through your social accounts and on your website.
• Take advantage of opportunities in the lead-up to the announcement.
• If you win, promote your success to your email database, website visitors, and social media connections.

Accreditations

If you personally become Chartered or Certified, or your firm attains Corporate Chartered or Accredited status, it sets you apart, and you need to tell the world about it.

Positive feedback for your team

Advisers and planners often overlook this.

Let’s say a client gives you some positive feedback about a member of your team. Apart from sharing it with them, do you do anything else? There’s so much you could do with it to promote the member of your team who pleased your client so much.

Reviews

If your processes are working properly, you should be collecting a steady stream of reviews. So, promoting each one of them might soon become tedious. Instead, publish a selection of your stand-out reviews each month.

Charitable and community work

I accept you need to tread carefully on this one, but if you raise money for a good cause, or provide support in other ways, you really should tell people (albeit in a classy and low-key way).

And of course, if you’re in VouchedFor’s Top Rated Guide, you need to promote that too. It’s out tomorrow morning so, if you hurry, you’ve just about got time left.

Get the balance right

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to turn you into the Kim Kardashian of financial services and would never recommend that you’re permanently stuck in self-promotion mode.

After all, if your emails and social posts are always humblebrags or boasts, it’s soon going to wear thin. So, you’ve got to get the balance right.

Here at Yardstick, we talk about the 8-1-1 rule for posting on social media and elsewhere.

Follow it, and you won’t go far wrong. It goes something like this:

• 8 out of every 10 posts should add value to whoever engages with them
• 1 out of every 10 posts should tell people about something that’s happening in your business
• The final post should celebrate successes, including the six examples we’ve given above and certainly your inclusion in VouchedFor’s Top Rated guide, even if you haven’t previously been posting the added-value stuff.

By sticking roughly to our 8-1-1 rule, you’ll get the balance right.

And as Varol says: “The alternative to self-promotion is to hide”.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Are you convinced? Do you still worry about getting the balance right?

Send an email to phil@theyardstickagency.co.uk to let me know or call me on 07785 284429.