In such a high-paced world, counsellors must equip themselves with the latest technology. It ensures stable growth and makes the output more efficient. Be it self-promotion or managing workflow, several tools assist the workflow.
All of these tools mentioned are either free or affordable and provide spectacular benefits. Allow me to share 15 digital tools that can transform your counselling career.
1. Career Assessment
A career Assessment tool is a basic must-have for any Career Counsellor. The assessment framework needs to be user-friendly and simple. A career guidance framework is important to identify multiple dimensions of students.
Most assessments available offer or provide one or a couple of dimensions, which fails to provide a holistic view of the candidate. It may generate vague career recommendations and generally displays top 3 or top 5 recommended career options.
On the other hand, assessments that explore multiple dimensions of the candidate give more accurate, elaborate and precise results.
Using Edumilestones multi-dimensional career guidance platform, the candidates are assessed on 5 key dimensions giving you an edge over other service providers:
- Personality
- Career Interests
- Career Motivators
- Learning Style
- Skills and Abilities (with 8 parameters)
Our career assessment platform which is tested on statistical methodologies provides 98.6% accurate results and is tested by more than 3000+ Career Counsellors.
2. Career Library
Your client is interested in a career or set of careers. They want to know if they are suitable for it. How do you test it ? There is a simple and effective tool for it.
Use Career Library, a tool from Edumilestones where more than 400+ career options are available, covering most career options available in the current market. At the comfort of their fingertips, your clients can know suitability for a particular career path in 20 mins and get an 8-page report including their suitability, skills required, and about the career.
The report also shows a highly accurate analysis since a 5-dimensional psychometric career assessment is used as mentioned in the first tool.
3. Career Counselling Near Me
Did you know, 75% of people will never scroll past the first page on a Google search. Businesses that show up on the first page get 80% more brand awareness and enquiries than those that don’t. This is why you need to show up on the first page of Google in order to get more visibility and clients.
But, there is one challenge. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to get to the first page of Google search. You need to put in a lot of work or hire somebody to do it. Even then many career counsellors can’t get there.
We have solved this issue through the “Career Counselling Near Me” feature which has enabled more than 2,200+ Career Counsellors across 100+ locations to show up on the first page of Google search. People who come to the page from Google search then book appointments with the Career Counsellors listed.
Try searching for “ Career Counsellor near (your city)” and you will see that our website shows up on the first page and when clicked shows career counsellors who have taken this feature.
4. Canva
Let us agree that every business or service requires some form of digital advertisement. It may be through social media posts, banners, or templates. However, not every career counsellor can hire a designer at the initial stage. What if all this work can be accomplished without spending any capital and effort?
It is possible through Canva, which is an easy and free designing tool. The best thing about this platform is that there are hundreds of readymade templates for different uses. Moreover, it is based on a drag and drop system to create the desired output. If you want to instill professionalism in your work, try out Canva.
5. Hootsuite
How much time do you spend on managing social media handles and replying to people? The answer will be quite shocking, as social media requires specialized attention. However, counsellors are often busy in their sessions leading to no extra time.
It does not imply that one should stay aloof from the absolute power of Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin. Hootsuite is a social media management tool that integrates all of the platforms together.
Some tasks performed by it include scheduling posts, checking up comments, and reviewing content. The online growth will certainly welcome you with open arms. Save your precious time and do more in less time with this tool.
6. Mailer Lite
Get all your email marketing done with ease by using a tool called Mailer Lite. It allows you to create dynamic emails using pre-designed templates. Moreover, counsellors can reap the benefit of landing pages, pop-ups, and websites which are almost everything you need to scale your business digitally.
It is indeed a robust tool that allows career counselling to be organized and more visible. You will also save a lot of bucks through the free version of MailerLite. The platform has a subscriber limit of 1,000 people which can further send 12,000 emails per month.
Furthermore, counsellors can optimize their content using such helpful tools. Mailer Lite has covered everything from segmentation to surveys. And best of all, it has a relatively small learning curve and its easy to use even to a person who is not digitally savvy.
7. Calendly
It goes without saying that time management is a crucial part of career counselling. After all, a counsellor needs to schedule a lot of meetings and book sessions. The entire process through manual methods can be both messy and complicated.
And if you are already occupied with work, the external tasks of scheduling will pile up. Calendly comes as a lifesaver by providing a number of features to the users. The workflow can be managed by enabling autopilot. Be it sending reminder emails or thank you notes, this tool has got everything covered.
Career counsellors also need to book sessions with clients and the same gets facilitated by Calendly. Thus, other people can check your availability and select slots for counselling sessions. The efficient process also allows rescheduling or cancellation feasibly. Adopt Calendly to coordinate all meetings and manage your time and get rid of wasted effort and time from back and forth communication with your clients trying to find the right time slot.
8. All major payment gateways
Let us agree that the payment method is the end goal of any service thus it should be both easy and diverse. There should not be any restriction in terms of payment methods. A user should be equipped with various platforms, like, Paytm, google pay, UPI, net banking, and much more.
.A payment gateway is a service to process and facilitate online payments that can be integrated with your website or application. Having major payment gateways end up making the entire process seamless and more effective
Clients need not stress over the method as attention would be diverted to counselling sessions only. The new methods also require less time than the conventional monetary transfers. Thus, such platforms ensure an enriching experience for both clients and counsellors.
Some popular payment gateways are Razorpay, Instamojo, Paypal, Paytm, Cashfree, CCAvenue, PayU, Billdesk.
9. Google Drive
A counsellor has to store a lot of documents including templates and questionnaires for their work. Google Drive can be pretty handy here as it requires no downloading and covers every feature. It is free to use till 15GBs which is very generous since most people never get to the 15GB mark.
You can click and upload any document at your fingertips only. Further, there is no requirement of any physical place to pile up all those papers. The accessibility is also smooth as you can access all material anytime, anywhere, and using any device.
The list of uses does not end here as google drive provides you with an option to share links. It can be useful while sending an email or WhatsApp messages. Counsellors can simply upload the document on the drive and share the links of the documents instead of attaching the documents every time they want to send it to someone.
10. Bit.ly
When it comes to personalized branding, online links have an abundance of relevance. It is always ideal to keep the URLs short as long ones can leave a bad impression. You can do it for google review forms, online sessions, or documents.
Moreover, simplified URLs can fit with any marketing material and lead to hassle-free workflow. The perks leave a dramatic impression on your counselling business. Short links are likely to be remembered and get recalled by people. Thus, the online traffic will spike up as people share the URLs with others.
Bit.ly is the most popular name in this context as it is trusted by a sheer amount of people and enterprises. Be sure to benefit from its utility.
11. Zoom/Google Meet
The current scenario of counselling has changed with the onset of the global pandemic COVID-19. People still hesitate to go outside in need of any services. At the same time, they also want to experience proximity during sessions.
Thanks to video call conferencing, we can still offer a similar experience. After all, it is not feasible to meet people physically and initiate conversations. Every successful career counsellor uses Zoom or Google Meet to interact with their clients.
These platforms allow conversation with a lot of users at the same time. Along with it, one can use any device and function smoothly. Let not the distance become a barrier in your counselling career.
Many counsellors also conduct online webinars on various concerned topics. It not only boosts publicity but generates awareness among the people. Just think about the money and resources that will be utilized in conducting a physical seminar. You will end up saving a lot with video conferring platforms and reach a large array of people.
12. Online Website Builders
Career counsellors must have a solid website to enhance their growth. It generates a sense of credibility among the people. Along with that, a level of trust can be built among the users. Websites are a feasible way to present information to potential clients.
Despite such utility, not every person can afford to build a website. Their cost ranges from Rs. 20,000 for a basic layout and can extend up to Rs. 50,000 for a dynamic version. It can rip your pockets especially if you are at the start of your career.
Branding can be done effectively by using free online website builders. You need not hire any developer or website designer to carry the whole process. There are a lot of templates available on these platforms beforehand.
Thus, you can choose any of them and deploy information according to the requirements. Wix.com is a popular example in terms of website builders. Other options are also available whose paid versions are less than what you spend for a website.
A simple google search for online website builders will give you access to a lot of options. Pick one thats suitable for your business.
13. Bulk Whatsapp Sender
A website is indeed the most convenient way to exchange information or hold conversations. It can also be used for marketing purposes by a counsellor. However, the sending restriction on WhatsApp might become a barrier for users.
One cannot spend a lot of messages in one go as per the guidelines of the app. You need to manually select the contacts which are time-consuming. A counsellor should save such efforts and channel them into more productive activities.
Bulk Whatsapp Sender is a useful tool in this case. Anyone can send messages to 100-200 or more in some tools to people in a single click. All you have to do is add numbers and click on the ‘send’ option. Such features are available in the form of mobile applications and websites.
A simple google search or play store search will show you bulk WhatsApp sender services ranging from apps and software to simple browser plugins.
14. CRM
Imagine, you got a gift of an expensive and powerful sports car and It can reach 100 Km/hr speed in 3 seconds. It can reach a top speed of 500 km/hr.
The only hitch is, there is no break in it to control the car. Would you drive it?
That will be the same situation if you have an assessment platform without a CRM dashboard to monitor, manage and control your counselling activities.
A good CRM will have:
- Advanced features and filters: Access to contact details, reports, session logs, Indian and International college repository, forward report to another counsellor.
- A multi-functional panel where you can edit and modify your content, logo, career report colours, assessment and SEO settings.
- Monitor associate partners and referral partners performance.
- Lead management panel.
All these are essential for a seamless experience of running a career counselling practice successfully. To know more, can check out our White Label Platform or our Co-Branded Platform.
15. Hiring Apps and Websites
You can’t do everything in your practice and then grow it. Eventually, you need people who can help you do some tasks so that you can focus on your strengths,i.e. career counselling. Hiring is essential as you grow.
Hence, becoming familiar with multiple platforms for hiring in the form of apps or websites come in handy when you decide to expand your team. It is very useful not just for hiring full-time employees but also for hiring freelancers on a project or deliverable basis which can be extremely helpful.
Some famous hiring apps/websites are, Fiver, Indeed, Internshala, Upwork and Linkedin.
Conclusion
It takes substantial patience and up-gradation to build success in career counselling. The field is rapidly growing, and individuals must adopt the latest methods over time. Gone are the times when success was solely dependent on monetary resources.
However, all mentioned tools do not guarantee prosperity on their own. They add a cherry on top of your expertise and knowledge. Do not compromise with the quality of your services and reach a wide network. Career counsellors should keep searching for more ways to build their online and offline presence. Edumilestones is trusted by a large number of users to help career counsellors get discovered.
If you want to provide client satisfaction, be sure to use the relevant methodologies. Career psychometric test is widely used by counsellors to gain comprehensive knowledge about people. Read this blog till the end to know everything about it and further set a milestone on your journey. Read about the Top 10 psychometric test essentials for career counsellors.
All the best for your future endeavours!
