“Advisors are scrambling these days to keep their income where it was two years ago. They’re using the traditional methods to serve clients and attract prospects, and they don’t take the time to explore the newer, more efficient technology,” says Gluck. “When they do take the time, the returns are excellent.”

For example, Neubauer uses Advisor Products’ Client Portal to improve communication with clients and create back-office efficiencies. “Providing performance reports online saves me three days of clerical work each quarter,” he notes. “The portal also gives clients access to aggregated data from all their accounts, including 401(k)s and 529s; a vault where I upload tax returns, insurance policies, healthcare directives, and estate planning documents; and access to my blog and to-do lists.”  ByAllAccounts, a Massachusetts-based vendor, has become a leader in supporting financial advisors with account aggregation technology.

Neubauer also uses a portal function that allows him to create personalized electronic newsletters for each client according to their characterization as a retiree, pre-retiree, or business owner.  Clients have reacted positively.

If you are participating in the social networking craze, use technology to boost your return on investment, says Peterson. “Automatically pull your recent tweets into your site and push blog posts into Facebook and LinkedIn via RSS feed,” he advises. “To determine which social networks are most effective in driving traffic to your site, monitor your web site traffic with a program like Google Analytics.”

“We routinely see changes in fonts, misspelled words, and links that don’t work,” says Swift. “A prospect’s reaction will be, ‘If this is what you put forward in your marketing, how can I trust you with my money?’” Swift advises paying particular attention to your firm’s name and logo. “Consistency is crucial,” she says. “There should be a clean transition between your paper and digital representations.”