Whether prospective clients are referred to you or are conducting their own search for financial advisors in their area, the first place they’ll go to learn more about your firm is your website. And where’s the first place they’ll look on your website to learn more about you? Your biography! So, what does that mean for you? Without a shred of a doubt, you need an informative, well-crafted, engaging bio that wins over prospects and motivates them to explore the rest of your website—and, ultimately, get in touch with you.

Brian Sullivan is Commonwealth’s newly minted senior vice president, chief marketing officer, and he brings with him experience from a variety of industries, including academia (Northeastern University), sports (the Boston Red Sox), and consumer brands (Oreos, Bagel Bites). If given a moment, he’ll tell you that great marketing is all about storytelling and experience, and he’s worked with all types of marketing talent to create memorable and effective messaging. In some cases, that talent has included third-party marketing support firms, a resource that many advisors need at one point or another. So, I decided to sit down with him to talk through what’s involved when assessing the need for third-party marketing support and how to evaluate the best fit for any firm.

You’ve seen them—those beautifully laid out, tidy, eye-catching e-mails, blog posts, and newsletters from companies well versed in marketing to their clients. We all should aim to have content equally as refined, but how do you achieve this if you aren’t a graphic designer yourself, and you don’t have one on staff? The solution is easy: use an infographic app.

E-mail newsletters offer a great opportunity to strengthen your connection with clients and prospects. But you can’t just throw a few articles into a Constant Contact template and call it a day. Strategy, goals, and, yes, your audience matter. Here are some things to think about when creating an e-newsletter for your firm.

In the not-too-distant-past, advisors were limited to face-to-face meetings, letters in the mail, newspaper ads, and cold calling to reach new clients. But times have changed, and while face-to-face meetings and networking will never go away, a whole new (digital) world has opened up to us.