It’s been one year since marketing technology firm Snappy Kraken acquired Advisor Websites, which gave the firm tools to brand and build websites for advisor clients. This week, the company is unveiling a new "unified system" that integrates all three of its current pillars—websites, marketing automation and text message marketing—into one unified tool and single sign-on.
With the move, Snappy Kraken is also overhauling its price, and bringing all of its marketing functions into the compliance platform that came over with the acquisition.
The unified platform will, the company says, seamlessly stitch together the data flowing back and forth when marketing from prospecting to bringing on clients. “A really well-executed marketing strategy will include everything being connected,” said Snappy Kraken CEO Robert Sofia. “All of your opt-ins from your website will flow into your automation and automatically be nurtured and followed up with. New channels, like text messaging, will be integrated into your website so people can text you their questions and your social profiles and things like that.”
Advisors can now track the activity in one place on a unified dashboard.
Along with the technology, Snappy Kraken has also overhauled its pricing. Previously, an advisor could access the company’s tools for about $230 a month. Now, there’s a lower entry point at $69 a month for each of the tools.
For $750 a month, an advisor gets the Freedom360 package, or all three components in the unified platform plus access to a dedicated team that provides extra brand consultation and monthly maintenance.
The new pricing model is not based on features of the technology, but rather, the advisor’s objectives: serve, expand and grow, Sofia said.
The company has also brought all of its services under the Advisor Website's compliance platform, which was more robust and enterprise-friendly than Snappy Kraken's.
“It’s got a very high approval rating with compliance officers, so we decided to just use that and put all our content through it now,” Sofia said. “That’s a big change as well for broker/dealers.”
Snappy Kraken’s new unified platform arrives just days before the firm’s second annual Jolt! conference, taking place this week in Las Vegas. Sofia said he expects about 750 advisors to attend. Overall, the company serves about 6,000 advisors.
In March, Snappy Kraken laid off some employees as part of the integration with Advisor Websites, which roughly doubled the size of its workforce. Sofia would not say how many people were let go, but that there were some redundancies in roles and responsibilities.
“Layoffs are never easy because you’re dealing with people’s livelihoods,” Sofia said, in a March interview with WealthManagement.com. “The reality is the layoffs that we made were ultimately designed to improve the health of our business.”