Written by: Gabriella Schilling
You’ve heard it countless times: advisor marketing is evolving. That means you need to constantly look for new and engaging ways to share content that differentiates you from other advisors. But what if you don’t have a full marketing team at your disposition? Could you do it yourself? With so many variables to keep in mind like different formatting requirements for each social media platform, printing needs, and — cue dramatic music — what the algorithm favors, your best option for efficient content creation is to find tools that will allow you to create a variety of designs in formats that you can publish everywhere and don’t take too much time to make. Thankfully, you don’t need a design degree to be able to create engaging and professional-looking graphics and content. Start by exploring the platforms on this list and see how you can go from boring to brandtastic in under 15 minutes.1. Canva
Once a well-kept secret, Canva has become the go-to for many entrepreneurs and small business owners. This online platform allows you to create stunning graphics that are engaging, creative, and customizable. To start creating personalized designs, upload your company’s logo, photos, and graphics to your Canva account. Once you upload an image, you can choose to keep it on the platform to use in your future designs. You can also create and store your company’s color palette for you to use at any time without having to check your brand standards or color codes again. The best part about Canva is that you never have to start from scratch. Canva offers hundreds of pre-designed templates that you can use. You can choose from a wide range of templates — from presentations and social media posts to posters and business cards. Another time-saving feature is Canva’s ability to size your social media posts according to different formatting requirements. Using Canva’s main menu, you can choose which type of social media post you are creating and it will automatically create the right size for you. The added bonus is that you can create copies of your social media posts that are sized for sharing on different social media platforms, like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
The cherry-on-top feature of this design platform is that it has its own stock photo and video library. Meaning you don’t need to leave the site to find the perfect image for your designs.
Once you’ve finished your design, and depending on your plan (e.g. free, pro, enterprise), you can export your designs as PDFs, JPGs, transparent PNGs, and PowerPoint presentations to name just a few options.
2. Lumen5
Lumen5 allows you the freedom to create videos without all the time and effort it would normally take. If you already have a piece of content you want to promote, such as a blog or a podcast, are launching a new service, or simply want to share some news on social media, Lumen5 can boost your chances of getting this content noticed. You simply start by pressing the “create video” option and choosing to create your video from a link, text, or by starting off with one of their many templates. You also have the option to use your own content and upload your own images.
If you choose to start with a link or text, Lumen5 will automatically create a video that includes video clips from their library that best fit the keywords used in this content. For example, if you’ve used the word “business,” the platform will probably use a clip of an office; if the link includes an article that talks about retirement, your video will likely show a clip of an older person.
Regardless of whether you use your own images, text, a link, or a pre-made template to generate your video, you will be able to modify the images that the platform has selected, adjust the length of clips, change the layout, and modify the text. And if you want your video to have sound, you can add your own recording or music clips or use the music that is available on the platform.
3. Prezi
Prezi is the ultimate tool for creating persuasive presentations that will help you stand out. One of its best features is the option to refresh your existing PowerPoint presentations to give them a new image without having to start from scratch.
As with previous tools I’ve mentioned, Prezi has a library with millions of templates and presentations to choose from. This will considerably reduce the time you could spend creating the perfect presentation and allow you to focus on the content and delivery of your seminars, sales pitches, or day-to-day business communications.
If webinars are part of your marketing tactics, take note of Prezi’s new feature that allows you to create videos, called Prezi Video. This feature allows you to stay on camera and show your content right beside you for extra engagement points.
4. Grammarly
Even if you are a strong writer or are confident enough to write your own content without help, it’s always a good idea to have an extra set of “eyes” looking at your document. Grammarly can help you achieve a better level of writing instantaneously. Grammarly not only corrects common grammar mistakes or misspelled words, but it also helps you with conciseness, clarity, vocabulary, and confidence. You can upload documents into Grammarly’s app to be assessed not only on your grammar but also on your delivery, clarity, engagement, and correctness. Grammarly makes these assessments based on your goals for domain, tone, intent, which it will ask you to select once you’ve uploaded your document. For instance, you may be writing for a business domain and aiming for a respectful tone with the intent to inform. If you prefer to work outside of an app, try the Grammarly extension for Chrome. Serving as an ever-present writing assistant, Grammarly will help you eliminate writing errors and find the right words to express yourself as you write on Gmail, Twitter, LinkedIn, and nearly everywhere else you find yourself writing.
5. Hootsuite
There is a reason why this platform keeps appearing on lists like these, year after year. Hootsuite is the quintessential social media management tool. Since advisors are now expected to be present on social media platforms, interact with their networks, and post original content all while running a successful practice, it is practically essential to use an automation tool like Hootsuite. Using a free account, you can connect up to three of your social media accounts to Hootsuite and even more with a premium account. Hootsuite’s dashboard gives you a one-stop spot to monitor your mentions, comments, inbox messages, and like and reply to comments on different social media platforms. What really saves more of your time is Hootsuite’s scheduler. You can schedule social media content to automatically post for the day, the whole week, two weeks and on…depending on your plan. You can also get analytics, curate content from the platform, and promote your high-performing posts.
Whether you don’t have the capacity to hire a full-time marketing person or company to assist you, or you simply want to try something new on your own terms, these tools are designed to make your life — or your marketing — easier without compromising quality. Take a step into more engaging content by trying one of these five easy tools.
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