Free Marketing Tools for Financial Advisers – Updated List
Marketing is an expensive activity for any business. However ignorance is even more costly.
Over the years, I’ve heard financial advisers say they need a marketing agency, huge sums of cash to invest in marketing or another 24 hours in a day. The truth is you don’t.
What you do need however, is the right tools, the right discipline and more importantly the approval from your compliance team to share your marketing materials.
Sharing marketing material, especially those that could be considered a financial promotion, without this approval is a breach of the Financial Services & Markets Act 2000 and could land you in prison.
On this page you will find a range of tools that are free, effective and, when used correctly and compliantly will not get you into trouble with the regulator
Top 10 Free Marketing Tools (UK)
- Mailchimp
- Buffer (Free version)
- Canva (Free version)
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Answer the Public
- CapsuleCRM
- Hotjar
- Feedly
- Ubersuggest
I’ve been doing a bit of my own research and these tools are some of the best FREE tools that you can use to begin to establish and market your financial firm.
I’ve also included a few more options below, I shall endeavour to keep this list updated
FREE EMAIL MARKETING APPLICATIONS
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a GDPR compliant email marketing application that allows you to send quarterly, monthly or even daily emails to your clients or those that have given you permission to market to them. Mailchimp provides a free email marketing account for up to 250 contacts, and is a perfect place to start building and growing your audience base.
For those that have pennies to spend there is also the option to sign-up to some of their larger packages.
Compliance Check: Remember, under GDPR, you cannot just email anyone. Ensure you have ‘documented consent’ (Opt-in) before you upload a list, or your ‘free’ tool could cost you a fine.
FREE SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Buffer
Ever wondered how people can find the time to do social media and grow their business? Simple, they use scheduling tools. Buffer provides a free account that you can use to schedule up to an entire month’s worth of social media posts.
You can also add up to 3 different social media networks. For example, LinkedIn, Facebook and X, could be all on one account.
Remember that if you’re posting on social media and it could be classed as a financial promotion, then please get it approved by your financial promotions team or compliance officer.
Compliance Check: If you schedule a post about ‘Current Rates’ for next week, but rates change tomorrow, your post is now misleading. Always double-check scheduled content before it goes live
FREE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Asana
If you’re looking for a comprehensive project management system, then the free version of Asana has got you covered.
Add your colleagues and create as many projects as you want to. Add to do’s, email notifications and so much more.
Basecamp
I’m a huge lover of Basecamp, it’s a lightweight online project management system where you can simply dump the entire contents of your to do list. No more looking around for that sticky note or post-it, or trying to work out if that email was sent.
Basecamp provides a free account, giving you access to one project. It’s ideal if you’re looking for somewhere to put all your to dos in a single location. You can add up to 20 users to the single project and never have to pay a penny.
You also get a generous 1GB of storage.
FREE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Zoho
Zoho offers a highly intelligent and comprehensive content management system for free. However, to access some of its more innovative tools a fee is payable. Alongside this, Zoho is a system that requires a bit of work to get your head around.
It is an ideal system for those looking for a comprehensive CRM system, however, make sure you’ve got some time to learn how the system works.
CapsuleCRM
I’m a huge fan of CapsuleCRM, it’s customisable, lightweight and really easy to use. What’s more you can get a free version of the system with 250 contacts. Add customers, companies, suppliers and more.
Alongside this there is a wealth of documentation and support available for those who need a bit of help with the CRM System. CapsuleCRM also gives you the option to view and create pipeline, tracks and integrate with email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp.
FREE DESIGN TOOLS
Canva
Canva is an all in one design tool. A lightweight digital application that you can use to create leaflets, letter heads, logos, business cards and advertisements for your business.
The free version gives you access to the platform along with a wide variety of digital assets.
Compliance Check: Canva templates are pretty, but they often lack the space for mandatory disclaimers. So if you are using Canva for a leaflet or poster, always resize the footer to ensure your mandatory disclaimers are easy to read.
FREE DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS
Google Analytics
Knowing what your users are doing when they land on your website is crucial to taking the next steps in your digital marketing plan.
Google provides a free traffic tool, enabling you to monitor website traffic, observe the behaviour of your visitors and even manage and calculate your websites conversion rates.
Take a look at Google Analytics
Google Search Console
You can have the best website in the world, but if nobody see’s it, then it’s useless. Google Search console is a great tool to help get your website to rank on the Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
The console also gives you access to diagnostic information such as website errors, website performance, and also a unique insight into what keywords are triggering your website to show-up in the SERP’s
Take a look at Google Search Console
Hotjar
If Google Analytics provides you with the numbers on your website’s performance, then Hotjar gives you a real time overview, quite literally.
Through Hotjar you are able to see how your website visitors are interacting with your website. What pages they are visiting, how they are finding your navigation and where website visitors could be getting lost, confused or even angry.
Feedly
The financial markets are constantly changing. Staying up to date with all of the goings on can prove to be difficult. Feedly enables you to bring all of your news sources into one singular location and highlight and read the articles that are most appropriate for you.
Answer the Public
Unsure what people are searching for in your industry? Answer the Public is a great tool to help you build a picture of what topics are hot right now. You are then in a prime position to create content that best serves those customers looking for help and support with the financial requirements.
As always, ensure you get any content signed off by your compliance team before posting.
Take a look at Answer the Public
Ubersuggest
Another great tool that you could use to find out what people are searching for on either Google or ChatGPT is Ubersuggest.
Simply type in your keyword or give it a website domain and it will return a report on the keywords, backlinks, traffic estimation and so much more.
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Disclaimer: Some of the tools mentioned on this post have affiliate links. When you click on the link and purchase the product marketinginfinance.com will get a commission based off the value of your order.