You can have dozens of marvelous ideas to get free publicity, but nothing will happen unless you pick up the phone and call a reporter.

Here's where the publicity game gets interesting for marketing-minded financial planners. Youve been tracking reporters you know who covers your topics. Youve been tracking Topic As and trends affecting your market. Youre ready!

When you call a reporter, youre going to say something like:

"Hi, Bob. Im Stephanie Smart, and I am a financial planning consultant in town. I see you cover mutual funds, and I thought you might be interested in this.

Did you know that about two-thirds of my clients lately have been asking me for help with picking the right index fund? Its a fascinating switch from what Ive been seeing in the past."

And it has broad implications for our community, given the number of young professionals in the area, just beginning to think about retirement planning."

Or Bob, I saw your story last week on retirement planning by young professionals. Did you know that these folks are already leaning more towards index funds than traditional mutual funds? Would you like to know more?

Trust me, every mutual fund reporter worth his or her weight in stock certificates is going to listen very closely to you.