Podcasts can have a serious role in driving Financial Planner marketing according to Pete Matthew, managing director of Jacksons Wealth Management.

Mr Matthew, creator of the MeaningfulMoney Podcasts, revealed how podcasting has blossomed in an exclusive article in the latest issue of Financial Planning Today.

Here he explains how podcasts can be a real asset in any Financial Planning firm’s arsenal.

I began recording my MeaningfulMoney Podcast back in 2012 and started taking it really seriously in April 2013.

Since then I have recorded over 350 episodes which have been downloaded nearly 2.5 million times.

I never began with the intention of setting up a marketing engine; I genuinely just wanted to get the message of simple financial principles and action into the hands of as many people as I could.

But now MeaningfulMoney is the biggest single source of new client enquiries to my Financial Planning practice, Jacksons Wealth Management in Penzance.

Let’s try to deconstruct this.

We must understand what a huge deal it is for people to get in touch with us for the first time.

Whether it is picking up the phone or walking into our office, people are scared.

They worry that we’ll be pushy salespeople, worse, that we’ll try to rip them off.

They’re concerned that we will make them look stupid for not coming to see us before now or will boggle their minds with technical jargon.

All these emotions put people on the back foot before they even meet us.

Of course, if we’re any good at our job, we will be able to reassure people quickly and set them at ease, but how much better would it be for them to already know our views on things like fees and investment approaches, and to get a sense of how we think and act, before they meet us?

Content marketing, which employs genuinely helpful, instructive, entertaining and inspiring content to win new clients, is well-established in 2019.

Instead of telling people how good we are, we instead prove it by providing value in advance through excellent articles, videos and in my case, podcasts. We use technology and social media sites to spread the word about what we do, and in so doing we cast our net more widely than we ever could have hoped for 20 years ago.

The technology involved does not need to be complex or expensive. It is possible to record a video or a podcast on your iPhone or Android.

As you get into your chosen medium though, it makes sense to upgrade equipment as you need to.

In an increasingly noisy world, one way to stand out is with quality, and for that, you need to have the right tools for the job.

Before I started podcasting, I shot short videos explaining financial concepts, usually on the beaches, cliffs and fields of west Cornwall, where I live.

It took 18 months and nearly 200 videos for my first prospective client to get in touch.

That’s not a great return on the investment of time!

If I was starting again now, it would take me a fraction of the time, as I have learned a great deal since 2010.

Now I have a steady stream of new clients asking to work with me and happy to join a waiting list.

They never quibble about fees because they are pre-sold on me and my service before they get in touch.

I have had to take on more staff and advisers to cope with the influx, and we have doubled our turnover in five years, without spending a penny on traditional marketing.

And you can do the same.

Click here to read the full article for free in the latest issue of Financial Planning Today.