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Written by: Paige Jones
Today, technology isn’t an option for your advisory firm – it’s something your clients expect. Integrating technology into your advisory businesscan help increase awareness, introduce a new world of marketing opportunities, bring you closer to your clients, and make your overall operations more efficient.In today’s digital age, you have an abundance of tech tools at your disposal to reap these benefits. If you aren’t already using these 7 tech tools, your advisory firm is behind. Luckily, there are plenty of easy-to-use resources to catch you up to speed!1. Domain Name
Domain names are the gateway to the online and digital marketing world. A domain name is the address where internet users can access your website. It can be any combination of letters and numbers that isn’t already taken, and it can be used in combination of the various domain name extensions, such as .com, .net and more.Every domain name is unique, so it must be registered before you can use it. However, your domain name is not permanently stuck with any specific website. You can disconnect it and reconnect it to any other website you want, or keep the same domain name if you end up redesigning your site.There are free domain names you can get from website builders like WordPress.com, Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, and others. But when you choose a free domain, the website builder is often included in your domain name. For example, for weebly it would be “yourdomain.weebly.com.” While this saves you some money, this can also seriously hurt your firm’s brand image. This is why we always recommend spending a few extra bucks to get a proper domain that’s fully your own.There are plenty of domain registrars to purchase your own customized address, like Domain.com, Bluehost, and GoDaddy. These all come with different fees, services, and user experiences, so you’ll want to do a little research on which is best for your firm’s online needs.2. Website
Once you have your domain, you need to start building your site. This is a tech tool you should be willing to invest in since your website is often where clients get their first impression of your firm. Your website needs to have a stunning design, a top-notch user experience (UX), and colorful copy to show what your firm is all about. There are a lot of pieces that go into creating the perfect site for your advisory business, so use this checklistto stay on track before launching your own site.There are many decisions that go into building your dream site. You can build your website yourself or hire a web-designer, work with a framework or template site, choose to add a blog and landing pages, and so many other options. Jumping into the world of web-design can be overwhelming at first, so check out these 16 must-know terms for building your site. Whether you’re doing it yourself or working with a professional team, these terms will help keep you up to speed.Whether you’re interested in building it yourself or working with a team of web-designers, Twenty Over Ten has you covered. Unlike our competitors, Twenty Over Ten does not limit advisors to strict website templates. Instead, our platform allows advisors to easily build their own unique websites or work with Twenty Over Ten’s in-house design team to create a tailored website design for them. To look into working with our platform or designers, click here for more information.
Twenty Over Ten’s client, Rx Wealth Advisors, created a stunning, professional site that highlights its niche and works seamlessly on all devices.3. Place to Store Your Contacts
As a financial advisor, your client relationships are everything. Adopting a client relationship management software (CRM) gives you the ability to organize your clients, build more trusting relationships, and deliver a more personal and accessible service. CRMs can help store and track detailed versions of your clients’ data, offer client and account reports, archive client documents for compliance, provide a messaging system and more. All in all, they help provide consistent service and streamline your workforce.Pricing and special features of CRMs can make a huge difference in software and which one you choose to use for your firm depends on your goals for your business and client experience. Like most other fintech solutions, there’s an abundance of options for CRM software. We’ve worked closely with Redtail Technology, Salesforce, Kronos, Junxure, Wealthbox, and Envestnet Tamarac. Each of these CRMs have their own benefits and drawbacks, so check out a detailed comparison here to find out which is best for your firm.
4. Email Marketing Platform
Email marketing is a great way to drip on prospects that aren’t quite ready to commit. By featuring a landing page on your website, you can capture information from leads and check back up on them with an email newsletter. This can be a monthly newsletter, a promotional email, or a way to round up your recent content.Whatever you decide to center your email marketing around, you have to decide on an email service provider (ESP) before you start your campaign. There are plenty of ESPs that offer great templates for newsletters. Here are a few of our favorites:MAILCHIMP
Mailchimp’s design tools make it easy to create sophisticated campaigns that shine a light on the best of your business. Mailchimp can also put your data to work so you can gather insights on your most successful campaigns to tailor your next moves.CONSTANT CONTACT
Constant Contact has an array of newsletter templates, an easy-to-use editor, and powerful list-building tools. It makes it easy to create, customize, and send professional emails that work for the financial services industry and engage your customers on every device.AWEBER
If you are looking for some lead generation and to send some immediate follow-up messages, this provider would do the job. Aweber comes with a subscriber automation feature and several templates to get started.5. Online Scheduling Tool
Using online scheduling tools can help strengthen client relationships through fast and easy communication, online scheduling, simple integrations, and more. It can also help alleviate the stress of double-bookings and scheduling conflicts. With their flexible, integrated, and customizable features, they’re a great way to communicate efficiently without the hassle of back-and-forth emailing.SCHEDULEONCE
ScheduleOnce is an online scheduling app that allows you to schedule meetings and appointments with your clients and prospects. With this app, you are able to easily connect with current clients and engage with potential prospects. It’s a multi-device platform, integrates easily into Twenty Over Ten sites, and has a strong call-to-action.CALENDLY
Calendly allows for Flexible scheduling between clients and team members, integration to your Google, Outlook, or Office Calendar, and is compatible on all devices. It also easily integrates into your Twenty Over Ten site.TIMETRADE
Timetrade is a cloud application that integrates appointment scheduling, queue management, and analytics services for your business. It works on all levels of the business from enterprise, salesforce or business teams, to individuals.Related: The Greatest, Most Immediate Impact to Increase Your Website’s Google Ranking6. Social Media Automation
Social media has taken over the digital marketing scene, but we get that it can be hard to keep up with. Simply having social media profiles isn’t enough. You have to have a strong, consistent presence on social media with constant engagement and daily posts. While setting aside time to post on social media several times throughout the day might be impossible for your firm, scheduling a week of posts at once is a lot more manageable.This is where social media scheduling tools come in. These tools can alleviate the stress of social media marketing for your business by providing unique solutions to best organize, publish, and analyze your online presence. Here are some we recommend:COSCHEDULE
CoSchedule gives you the ability to look at your posts with one quick glance, collaborate on projects, and schedule your social posts in one place. It also gives you insight into your marketing review and analytics with real-time status updatesHOOTSUITE
Instead of having to manually log into your social media accounts to post articles or various other content specifically at a certain time, you can utilize Hootsuite to schedule your posts in a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. It also provides analytics and easy social media monitoring.