6 Proven Marketing Strategies for Financial Advisors

Creating an effective marketing plan as a financial advisor often involves testing different approaches to see what best fits your business. Starting with a set of proven tactics can provide a clear foundation, helping you avoid unnecessary costs and missteps while freeing up time to focus on growth. Certain marketing strategies have consistently shown stronger results when it comes to attracting new clients. Below are several approaches that are often among the most effective.

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Examples of Proven Marketing Strategies for Financial Advisors

One important reality of marketing is that some tactics are simply more effective than others, and what works well for one advisor may fall flat for another. Your results will depend on factors like your target audience, budget, niche and long-term goals.

It’s also worth noting that marketing is never static, new channels and trends emerge while others lose effectiveness over time. Advisors who stay flexible and willing to adapt are often best positioned to grow.

With that in mind, here are six marketing strategies that have proven effective for financial advisors looking to scale their practices.

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1. Email Marketing

What it involves: Email marketing allows you to promote your advisory business to people who have joined your email list.

You may collect email addresses through a simple contact form on your website or by offering an incentive to join, such as access to a free financial planning workshop, e-book you’ve created, or other lead magnet. You can then decide how often to send out marketing emails and what type of messaging they should include.

Why it works: Email marketing is a proven strategy because it gives you a direct path into someone’s inbox.

Crafting valuable messages that speak to the needs or pain points of the people on your list can help you establish trust and telegraph what your business is about, without any hard selling initially. You can then build on that trust to create messages that create a sense of urgency and encourage readers to take the next step and contact you for a consultation.

To keep up with these potential clients who end up needing a longer sales cycle, SmartAsset AMP helps deliver automated email nurture campaigns. Automating this work allows you to spend more time on closing and taking care of your clients.

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2. Social Media Marketing

What it involves: Social media marketing centers on building an audience online to generate interest in your business, while encouraging engagement.

You may be active on multiple social media channels or just one, depending on where your ideal clients spend the most time online. Social media content is often short-form, but you may experiment with creating longer posts or videos to see what your audience is most responsive to.

Why it works: Social media marketing is an effective marketing strategy simply because so many people spend a sizable portion of their day online. As an advisor, you can cultivate a loyal following by producing valuable, shareable content that answers questions or sparks discussion. You can use social media channels to promote your services, encourage followers to join your email list and drive traffic to your financial advisor website. A Broadridge survey of over 400 financial advisors found that four in 10 reported converting a social media lead into a client. ¹

While a lot of people like social media for the instant attention they can grab from potential clients, you could use SmartAsset AMP’s services and get paired with live connections directly over the phone.

3. Lead Generation Services

What it involves: Lead generation services can help you find prospective clients without having to do any marketing separately. For instance, you might buy life insurance leads from a third-party marketplace or use an online lead generation tool that connects you with prospects who meet your ideal client profile.

Why it works: Lead generation is most effective when you’re able to connect with prospects who are ready to buy. These are people who are interested in working with an advisor and may have done some initial research, but just need that final nudge to commit. While you’ll pay for leads, using a lead generation tool can save you time that you can spend on other tasks related to growing your business.

SmartAsset AMP can help you automate and streamline your lead generation efforts. As an end-to-end marketing platform built specifically for financial advisors, it connects you with high-intent investors who are actively seeking professional financial guidance. Rather than chasing cold leads, you’ll receive warm referrals tailored to your target client profile.

In addition to delivering leads, the AMP platform supports your long-term conversion strategy with automated text and email nurture campaigns, perfect for prospects who require more time before committing. With built-in compliance support and CRM integration, AMP helps you stay organized, consistent, and focused on growing your practice.

Ready to scale your marketing with less manual effort? Sign up for a free demo today to see how SmartAsset AMP can accelerate your growth.

4. Content Marketing

What it involves: Content marketing simply means creating and sharing content that’s designed to generate interest in your business’s services. As an advisor, you may create content for your business website or blog, including online workshops or webinars, blog posts, white papers, case studies and videos.

Why it works: Advisors can create a wide variety of content to meet different marketing needs, while keeping the core messaging consistent. For example, you might create an e-book that you offer to prospective clients to encourage them to join your email list, then repurpose the contents of that e-book to create a YouTube video or online seminar. You can decide which format to use for your content based on where it’s going to “live” online so that it has the most impact for those who consume it.

5. Webinar Hosting and Virtual Events

What it involves: Webinars and virtual events allow financial advisors to showcase their expertise while engaging directly with potential clients. You can host educational sessions on topics like retirement planning, tax strategies, market outlooks or estate planning. These events can be live or recorded for on-demand viewing, offering flexibility for both you and your audience.

Why it works: Webinars position you as a trusted expert and give prospects a chance to interact with you in a low-pressure environment. They also allow you to collect contact information for follow-up marketing, expanding your email list and nurturing leads. Virtual events can help deepen relationships with current clients and convert attendees into new clients by demonstrating the value you provide.

6. Direct Mail Marketing

What it involves: Direct mail marketing is what it sounds like, sending marketing messages via direct or snail mail. You can craft marketing messages yourself or work with a direct mail marketing agency to send out mailers.

Why it works: Direct mail is one of the best marketing strategies for financial advisors who want to take their efforts offline. Sending direct mail is an opportunity to pique the recipient’s interest so that they’re more likely to open it, whereas emails can easily be sent to the trash folder without being opened. You can also tailor the messages you send to different segments of your client base to provide the most value.

Why Marketing Is Important for Advisors

Advisor marketing matters because it can help you build a foundation of success as an advisor. After all, you can’t expect clients to show up out of nowhere if no one knows what you do or that your business even exists. Marketing is how you capture prospective clients’ attention and attract an audience for your services.

You could rely on referrals or word-of-mouth to generate leads, but those types of things may only take you so far. Actively marketing your business, both online and offline, allows you to:

• Communicate your unique value proposition to your target audience, i.e., the people who need to hear the message you’re delivering.
• Develop your brand image and increase its visibility amid a sea of competition from other advisors.
• Gain a better understanding of what your ideal client needs so that you can deliver it in the most efficient way possible.
• Establish credibility and your overall reputation in the financial advisory landscape.

Most importantly, marketing can help you to capture new leads, which is vital to running a sustainable business. The same Broadridge survey found that advisors with a defined marketing strategy generate 168% more leads each month and onboard 50% more clients each year than advisors without one.

If you’ve neglected to create a marketing plan for advisors thus far, you may be costing yourself valuable opportunities to get your business on your ideal clients’ radars.

Bottom Line

When it comes to marketing, it’s essential to direct your time, energy, and budget toward strategies that truly move the needle. Setting a clear marketing budget and identifying key performance metrics, such as lead conversion rate, cost per acquisition, or ROI, can help you assess which tactics are delivering results. This data-driven approach allows you to double down on what’s working while cutting back on wasted spend. Over time, refining your strategy based on measurable outcomes can help you attract more qualified prospects and grow your client base more efficiently. The more intentional your efforts, the greater your return on every marketing dollar invested.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

• If you’re ready to put these strategies into action and scale your outreach, a comprehensive platform can help you do it more efficiently. 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.
• While online marketing may be your focal point, don’t overlook opportunities to promote your business offline. Holding client appreciation events, asking existing clients for referrals, building your professional network and participating in community events are all ways to market your services and expand your book of business.

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