Frequently Asked Questions

Question: How do I make changes to my newsletter?

Answer: You are always in full control of editing or making changes to your weekly suggested newsletter and we certainly encourage you to do so. If you are removing or swapping out content and replacing it with content that has a small green checkmark this will not require compliance review. However, if you choose to alter the introduction message, or add a content piece that does not have a green checkmark this will require compliance review. All edits can be submitted for review to compliance through the AdvisorStream newsletter builder. You will receive an email notification once compliance has reviewed your changes. 

Resource: How Do I Make Changes To My Newsletter And Send To Compliance?

Question: How do I create my own newsletter?

Answer:  All newsletters that are created by an advisor require compliance review and do not follow the weekly automation, it’s up to the advisor to send it out following approval. Once compliance has approved your newsletter, you must return to your AdvisorStream account and click the send button, found in the newsletter builder. 

Resource: How Do I Create My Own Newsletter?

Question: How do I approve my newsletter? 

Answer:  If you have chosen the semi-automated newsletter automation you must approve your weekly newsletter by clicking the approve button before Friday at 11:00 am ET time. You can approve your newsletter in 1 of  3 ways:
1) Email notification sent to you on Wednesday
2) From the approve button in the Outbox
3) From the Newsletter Builder 

Resource: How do I approve my newsletter? 

Question: How do I know if my newsletter went out?

Answer: All activity including your weekly newsletter and social media/ web posts can be found within the Outbox section of your AdvisorStream account. 

• If your newsletter is in the Today or This Week section this means it's gone out. 
• If your newsletter is in the Awaiting Approval section this means you are on the semi-automated newsletter automation and you have not approved the newsletter.
• If your newsletter is within the Awaiting Approval section and has a green "Awaiting Compliance Review" trap this indicates that compliance has not yet approved your newsletter changes.
• If the newsletter is in the In-progress section but does not have the edit option to the right, this means your newsletter is in progress to be sent out via our system. Check back in an hour.
• If the newsletter is in the In-progress section and still allows you to edit, this means changes were made to the newsletter but were not submitted for review. Head into the newsletter builder by clicking the edit button to the right, then click on the send option, and lastly click the Submit for Review button. If you’ve missed the deadline of Friday, 11:00 am ET you’ll need to manually send the newsletter following compliance approval. 

Resource: How Do I Know My Newsletter Was Sent?

Question: My newsletter didn’t go out, how come?

Answer: There may be a few reasons your newsletter did not go out on Friday:

1. Your newsletter is on the semi-automated level and you did not approve the newsletter before the cut-off time of 11:00 am ET or you did not approve it all together.
   Click here to learn how to send it manually.
   
   
2. You made changes to your newsletter but did not Submit for Review. 
1. To check this, head to the Outbox >> edit the newsletter >> click send.  If you see the submit for review button this means it was not submitted.
   
   
3. Compliance declined the changes you made to your newsletter.  You would have received an email notification once compliance reviewed your newsletter indicating the changes. Comments can also be found by visiting the AdvisorStream Outbox, clicking on the
   newsletter title, which will display all compliance comments above the newsletter.  

Question: How do I know if compliance has approved my newsletter?

Answer: An email notification will be sent to you once compliance has approved your newsletter changes. You can also check by heading to your AdvisorStream Outbox and clicking on the title of this week's newsletter - this will show you the comments and include an approved time stamp. 

Resource: How do I know Compliance has approved my newsletter changes?

Question: My Social Media stopped posting, how come? 

Answer: This occurs periodically since social networks require the social token to be refreshed as a security and privacy precaution.

When you have the chance, login to your AdvisorStream account and re-authenticate your Linkedin/Facebook. This way, AdvisorStream can continue posting to your connected social networks.

Follow these easy steps:

1.  Access your Account Settings by clicking on your name on the top right.
2.  Select Social Networks on the left.
3.  Turn off, then turn back on desired social network accounts.
4.  Select Social Scheduler on the left.
5.  Scroll down to the Content Auto Select section, and under the subsection "Share On", select all social networks you'd like us to automatically post on.

Resource: How do I reconnect my social networks?

Question: The following article did not post to my website, how come? 

Answer: It is always AdvisorStream’s main goal to provide you with the best content in the market. It’s important to note that different licensing arrangements allow for different rights. That said, The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s allow for their great content within your newsletters and social media, however, our agreement does not include posting to a public website. 

Question:  How do I share an article on my social media/website? 

Answer: You can always choose to share an article to your social media/website directly from the AdvisorStream library. Place your cursor over the article you want and click the share icon.

Resource: How do I  choose an article and share it on social? 

Question: How do I change my profile picture?

Answer:  We encourage you to keep your profile picture consistent on all digital properties, as you are a part of your brand, consistency is very important to help prospects and clients recognize you and your brand and build awareness. 

Resource: Please send photo to as_support@broadridge.com or Edit your profile in settings

Question: Can I add an additional email address to receive the email notifications? 

Answer:  The email notifications are sent to a single email address as they require action to be taken. Having additional email addresses would break the hierarchy.  You can choose to include a joint email address or set-up emails coming for notifcation@advisorstream.com to be forwarded to the second email address. 

Resource: How do I change the email address that receives the email notifications for my account?

Question:  How do I update or upload additional contacts? 

Answer: All contacts are managed within the Contacts section of your account. Please ensure you are  CASL compliant before adding any new contacts. This means the individual has provided expressed or implied consent to receive communications from you. 

Resource: How do I import a list of contacts?  | How do I add a single contact? 

Question:  How do I see who’s unsubscribed from my newsletter?

Answer: You can review all contact's communication preferences within the Contacts section of your account.  As a way to remain CASL compliant, we do not encourage you to delete these contacts, as a preventative measure to ensure they are not re-uploaded and lose their unsubscribe status. 

Resource: How do I find Contacts that have unsubscribes? 

Question:  How do I see who has opened my newsletter or viewed an article? 

Answer: Any information related to clients/prospect engagement can be found within the Reports dashboard of your account. We encourage you to review this information frequently. 

Resource:  How do I see who’s opened my newsletter? | How do I see who views an article? 

Question: What is the difference between an open and a view? 

Answer: Opens and views are both important engagement metrics to monitor.
- An open refers to an individual choosing to open the email delivered to them.
- A view refers to an individual choosing to click-through to read/view an article/video within that newsletter/email or an article/video shared on your social media/ website. 

Resource: About Opens & Views 

Question: How to follow up with leads? 

Answer: It's important to nurture the leads you capture using the AdvisorStream platform. Here are a few best practices we suggest:

• Enable the Automated Follow-Up: This can be found within your Account & Settings >> Lead Capture Opt-in. This ensures that any new leads captured immediately receive a thank you message from you along with a similar article to the one they first discovered.
  
  
• Practice consistency:  New leads captured will automatically begin to receive your weekly newsletter, allowing you to communicate frequently and consistently to remain top of mind.
   
• Monitor their engagement: You’ll want to closely monitor their engagement from the weekly newsletter to learn more about their financial goal and interests.  Review the articles they are consuming within your Contacts >> Engagement & Activity.
  
  
• Proactively Follow-up:  Timing is everything when it comes to lead follow-up. You want to remain patient and allow your lead some extra time to continue engaging with your content, and by doing so, learn more about who you are and what you offer.
  Following up too soon could hinder your ability to connect with the lead - the more they are engaged with your content first, the more they learn to trust you digitally before you proactively take action.
  Once a lead has clicked on a minimum of 5-6 pieces of content then you can proactively reach out. Remember the key here is to review the content they’re reading/watching, to arm yourself with tailored, content recommendations that are suitable for the lead. From there use the Email an Article tool to send a direct one-to-one email message. This tool is meant to be more casual than your weekly newsletter.
  
  Marketing funnel to Sales funnel: Don't let your digital marketing exist only online. Bring the articles to life and have meaningful conversations with prospects about the content they are reading. Developing a routine question to ask regarding feedback on your newsletters, or the articles you are sending out will go a long way to opening up conversations about the content.
  
  

Resource: 

• How to follow-up with leads 
• How to send a direct email 
• How do I see the content my clients are consuming

Question: How to segment my contact list(s)? 

Answer: Segmenting your contact list(s) allows advisors to precisely engage a client/prospect with their specific needs and goals. It allows you to provide the right message, to the right person, at the right time. By segmenting your contacts, you can break down your customer base into smaller and more detailed groups depending on different criteria — and target each one more specifically. 

We suggest beginning with at least two lists; your (1) Clients and (2) Prospects. Other potential contact segments include; profession, client level, or demographic. This is all easily done in the Contacts tab on the platform. By leveraging different contact segments, you can tailor your outreach and follow-up strategies to fit each grouping to achieve higher engagement.
 

Resource: To segment your contact list, we encourage you to have your contacts split out into separate Excel lists beforehand, and upload each unique list one after the other. Click here to learn how to upload contacts.

If you’ve already imported your contacts then consider creating a new list and moving existing clients from list [A] to list [B]. Click here to learn how to create a contact list and move clients from one list to another.

The AdvisorStream platform allows a unique contact to resign in multiple lists, but will only live within the All Contacts once and only receive the weekly newsletter once. AdvisorStream will only send unique communications to a contact once.

Question: I want to send a welcome newsletter to my clients … 

Answer:  If you are looking to provide new client(s) with a welcome newsletter, introduce your newsletter service and outline what they can expect to receive.

Choose one of the following 3 options: 

1. Build your own newsletter from scratch, selecting the articles along with the text below.
   
   
2.  Make a copy of the newsletter and replace the introduction message with the text below. Send the copied/edited version to the new client(s) and the regular weekly newsletter to all other clients.
   
   
3. If you recently signed up for Advisorstream, and you would like to introduce all clients to your newsletter service, then edit the introduction of your weekly suggested newsletter and replace it with the text below.
   
   

I want to share some good news with you. Starting this week, I will be able to provide you with the best premium news and information, curated especially for you, from the New York Times, Business Insider, Forbes, Reuters, Bloomberg, and other subscription publishers.

My goal is to share relevant and meaningful articles and videos that will help you focus on your investments and your future at no cost. I welcome you to share any of the articles you find useful with your friends, family, and colleagues. If you want to change your email preference or unsubscribe, you can do so at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of any newsletter.

As always, I’m here should any of the articles spark questions or comments. I look forward to sharing great news and information with you as we build your financial future. 

Resource:

• How to edit my newsletter
• How to make a copy of my newsletter 
• How to build a newsletter from scratch