Social Media Marketing Plan Template for Financial Advisors

Social media can offer advisors opportunities to connect with prospective clients while nurturing relationships with existing clients. Approximately 40% of advisors use social media as a marketing tool, according to a 2024 Kitces report titled “How Financial Planners Actually Market Their Services.”¹ A social media marketing plan template offers a starting point for developing, implementing and monitoring outreach campaigns.

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What Is a Financial Advisor’s Social Media Marketing Plan Template?

A template is a customizable document that serves as the framework for developing plans. In the case of marketing, templates can help advisors to flesh out the specifics of their campaigns, including:

• Who they’re hoping to attract (i.e., their ideal clients)
• Which marketing strategies they want to incorporate
• Key metrics for monitoring the success of their campaign
• Budget details for implementing the campaign

Using templates, whether it’s for social media marketing, email marketing or content marketing, can facilitate the planning process and improve lead generation results. Customization and shareability are key, as it’s important to use templates that you can adapt to fit your business’s needs, and that are accessible to the key members of your marketing team.

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What to Include in a Financial Advisor Social Media Marketing Plan Template

While the format may vary, social media marketing plan templates for advisors typically include the same elements. Here are some of the key focus areas to consider:

• Executive summary/objectives: Identifying clear goals is critical for effective social media marketing. Including a summary of your goals or objectives at the top of your template ensures that every team member who reviews it is on the same page.
• Target audience/buyer persona: Understanding your ideal client’s needs, challenges and desires is central to any marketing plan. If you’ve developed an ideal client avatar or buyer persona, you might include that in your social media marketing template. And if you don’t have these tools in place yet, you may want to spend some time thinking about who it is you want to attract to your business and how you’re uniquely positioned to serve them.
• Detailed goal breakdown: Before you can implement a marketing plan, you need to know what you hope to accomplish. For example, do you want to grow your social media following by 5,000 people? Increase your post engagement rate by 20%? Gain five new leads per month from social media? The more specific, measurable and actionable you can make your goals, the greater the likelihood of achieving them.
• Marketing strategies: The meat of your social media marketing template is your strategy. That includes the social media channels you plan to use, how frequently you plan to post to each of them, what kind of content you plan to share across each one, the start and end dates for specific marketing campaigns you plan to develop, and how critical tasks will be assigned. You’ll also need to give some though to the message you want to convey to prospects, and what your brand voice should sound like.
• Budget/costs: One of the benefits of social media as a marketing tool is that it can be very low-cost. You can establish your accounts for free, and if you’re creating all of the content yourself, you don’t have to worry about any additional costs. However, you may decide that you want to spend money on digital ad campaigns or outsource social media management to a marketing agency or virtual assistant. If you’re accounting for those types of things in your budget, you can include them in your marketing template.
• Metrics/tracking: Establishing a social media marketing plan can help your business grow, but you’ll need some metrics to measure that growth. Adding some key performance indicators (KPIs) to your marketing template can help you track what’s working and what’s not with individual campaigns, or your marketing strategy as a whole. For example, you might measure engagement rates, click-through rates if you’re attempting to drive traffic to your website, opt-in rates for lead magnets you offer through social media channels, and follower counts.
• Content calendar/schedule: A content calendar is key to staying organized when launching and managing social media marketing campaigns. Your content calendar allows you to see at a glance what content will be posted on which channels and when. This may be especially helpful if you plan to repurpose content or want to keep track of seasonal content, such as year-end financial planning tips you want to share with your audience.
• Task assignment: Once you’ve worked out the details of your social media marketing plan, the last step is determining who will do what and when. Adding a task assignment or responsibility list, along with a realistic timeline, can make it easier for you and your team to keep track of your plan implementation.

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Example Financial Advisor Social Media Marketing Plan Template

Digital tools can help you to develop your template. You can purchase a premade template or create one that’s completely customized to your business from scratch using a design tool like Canva or Adobe. ChatGPT may offer some suggestions about what to include and how to format your template. If you want something simple that doesn’t require you to purchase any products, you might build out your marketing plan template using Excel, Google Sheets, Word or Google Docs.

Here’s an idea of what your template might look like as you create your social media marketing plan.

Summary/objectives

• Objective #1: Create cohesive social media campaigns that accurately reflect our brand voice
• Objective #2: Develop a content calendar and posting schedule to fuel engagement
• Objective #3: Test ROI possibilities for paid social media marketing campaigns

Target audience

Our target audience is midlife couples who are entering their peak earning years and have questions about developing sustainable retirement plans. They face competing goals as they save for retirement while paying off a mortgage and helping kids with higher education costs. They estimate they’ll need $2 million to retire comfortably, but are unsure if they’re on track to reach that goal.

Social media marketing goals

• Increase Instagram followers by 10% quarterly
• Generate 5 new leads per month through Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
• Use a multi-channel approach to promote retirement planning seminars for a target enrollment of 500 prospects
• Grow LinkedIn engagement by 20% quarterly

Marketing strategies

• Invest $$$ in digital ad campaigns for Q1 and Q2 (Facebook and LinkedIn)
• Develop three new lead magnets to promote retirement planning seminars
• Post five times/week on LinkedIn and respond to 100% of comments
• Hire a virtual assistant to coordinate comment management and response across all channels

Budget/costs

Campaign #1:

• Expense
• Expense
• Expense

Total cost:

Total share of marketing budget:

Campaign #2:

• Expense
• Expense
• Expense

Total cost:

Total share of marketing budget:

Campaign #3:

• Expense
• Expense
• Expense

Total cost:

Total share of marketing budget:

Performance tracking

• Metric #1
• Metric #2
• Metric #3

Content calendar

Campaign #1:

• Channel:
• Content type:
• Posting frequency:

Campaign #2:

• Channel:
• Content type:
• Posting frequency:

Campaign #3:

• Channel:
• Content type:
• Posting frequency:

Task list/action items

• Campaign development
• Content creation
• Posting
• Comment moderation

Automation tools can help with tracking tasks and metrics. For example, your customer relationship management (CRM) platform might include features or tools that can help you monitor the progress of your social media campaigns, organize your content calendar and keep track of important action items.

You may also consider how artificial intelligence fits into your social media marketing plan. AI tools can assist with a variety of tasks, including:

• Brainstorming social media content ideas
• Drafting content
• Creating a content calendar

Any content you create will still require a human review to check for accuracy, tone and consistency with your brand voice. However, you may consider using AI to round out your social media marketing plan as a time-saving measure.

Bottom Line

Every financial advisor’s social media marketing plan template will be different, but they can all be equally useful in growing your reach. Whether you use pre-made templates or build one from scratch, having a clear plan can help you follow through on your marketing goals.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

• SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is a holistic marketing service financial advisors can use for client lead generation and automated marketing. Sign up for a free demo to explore how SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your practice’s marketing operation. Get started today.
• Whether you use social media, email, or a website to market your business, it’s important to stay compliant. The SEC’s marketing rule outlines the claims advisors can and cannot make, as well as requirements for including testimonials or reviews in your marketing communications. Reviewing these guidelines periodically can ensure that your campaigns are fully compliant.

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