How Financial Advisors Can Find Clients (2024)

Acquiring new clients is essential for fueling growth in your advisory business but there’s no single way to approach it. Some of the most effective client acquisition strategies for financial advisors can include cold calling, digital marketing or in-person networking. If you’re ready to ramp up the growth of your business, it helps to know what to include in your marketing playbook.

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Getting More Clients

Getting new clients isn’t rocket science but it does require a commitment to identifying tactics and strategies that are designed to produce results. That can help you avoid a scenario where you’re wasting valuable time or other resources. There are numerous ways you can go about finding new clients, and the right strategy might depend on what type of clients you’re targeting and how much money you have in your marketing budget.

Before looking at specific client acquisition strategies, it’s important to understand that this can be outsourced for you. SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your firm’s AUM by automating lead generation. It’s an end-to-end marketing solution for advisors that delivers high-intent potential clients right to you. Plus, with a single subscription, you can receive live connections to validated referrals, automated text outreach, email nurture campaigns and more.

Here are five client acquisition strategies that can lead to positive growth for your business.

1. Use Your Time Wisely

Relationships lie at the heart of what you do as an advisor and the stronger they are, the better. If you want to acquire new clients, it’s important to first turn your attention to the ones you already have.

Spending more time with existing clients can help you nurture your connection while gaining a better understanding of their needs and goals. Fostering stronger relationships with your clients can result in more leads if they’re more inclined to refer you to their friends, family members and coworkers.

Once you get those referrals you can apply the same strategy to prospects. For instance, if you typically offer a 60-minute initial consultation, you might decide to extend that to 90 minutes. Or you might offer one to two 30-minute follow-up meetings.

The more time that you’re able to spend with a prospect, the more opportunity you have to convey your value. You may also have a stronger starting point for building trust and keeping clients engaged.

2. Expand Your Digital Footprint

The internet has made it incredibly easy for prospects to seek out and compare advisors online. If you don’t have an online presence, you could be missing a huge opportunity to acquire clients. At a minimum, it’s wise to have an advisor website that showcases your background, education and experience. Your website may be the first contact a prospect has with you, so it’s important for your site to be visually appealing and easy to navigate.

If you just have a website, consider how you can expand your reach to increase visibility. That might include creating email marketing campaigns, launching a blog or podcast or becoming more active on social media. Every piece you add to your digital footprint puzzle is a chance to connect with prospective clients.

3. Showcase Your Expertise

People seek out financial advisors because they need their expertise and knowledge. With so many advisors to choose from, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. That’s where highlighting your specific knowledge and skills comes into play. You can do that by creating content that emphasizes your status as an expert. The type of content you produce and where you share it can depend on what type of prospects you’re hoping to attract.

For example, if you’re interested in acquiring high net-worth clients in their 50s or 60s then you might focus on writing long-form articles, white papers or blog content that speaks to their unique financial planning needs. On the other hand, if you cater to 30-something married couples you might build your content marketing strategy around TikTok or YouTube instead.

The goal is to create valuable content that your ideal prospect might be searching for in places where they spend the most time online.

4. Go In-Depth With Financial Planning

Changing the scope of the advice you offer is another way to potentially acquire new clients while retaining existing ones. If you’re currently focused on just one or two planning areas, you may adapt your strategy to go broader and deeper. Rather than concentrating on portfolio management, for instance, you might expand your services to include retirement planning or tax planning.

The more comprehensive your advice is, the more prospects may be inclined to look to you for the financial solutions you need. And your existing clients may appreciate being able to come to you for in-depth financial planning as they navigate different life changes.

5. Make Planning a Family Affair

When serving current clients, consider how you might be able to continue your relationship with them for the long term. If they have children or grandchildren, for instance, there may be an opportunity for you to add them to your client roster.

That could mean expanding the range of services you offer to accommodate different age groups. So, if you’re used to focusing on retirement planning for older clients, you might think about offering planning services that address the needs of their older millennial children or Gen Z grandkids.

Again, it all comes back to building trust so that your clients are more likely to continue working with you. If you can do that effectively, that could open the door to working with other family members who could benefit from your services.

Bottom Line

In an ideal world, you’d have a steady stream of clients flowing to you all the time, but the reality is that getting new clients takes some work on your part. With so many client acquisition strategies to choose from, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Figuring out what works best for your business can help you generate the most impact for the time and effort you’re willing to invest.

Tips for Financial Advisor Marketing

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