How to Build a Strong Referral Program as a Financial Advisor

Word of mouth remains one of the most powerful marketing tools for growing your advisory business. Referrals attest to your firm’s credibility and to the level of satisfaction your clients feel when working with you. Building a financial advisor referral program is one way to maintain a full prospect pipeline so your business continues to grow year over year.

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6 Tips to Build a Successful Financial Advisor Referral Program

Increasing referrals to your business is a multi-step process, and it can take time for it to gain traction. Whether you’re starting from zero or want to add to the referrals you’re already getting, these tips can help you reach your goal.

1. Choose Your Referrers

Referrals can come from various places. Some of the most common referral sources for financial advisors include:

Current clients
CPAs, attorneys and other industry-adjacent professionals
Other advisors

Referrals from other financial advisors and similar professionals may come organically as you build centers of influence. That’s accomplished largely through networking and building reciprocal relationships, with referrals moving both ways.

A client-focused referral program has a different structure, and some clients may be more receptive to inclusion than others. If you’d like to gauge interest, an email can be effective.

You can share a link to a simple survey form that includes identifying questions, and ask your clients to share their thoughts. Their responses can help you determine if a referral program is worth exploring and point you toward the segments of your client list that have the potential to send the most referrals your way.

2. Create the Framework and Provide Incentives

Referral programs are, by nature, meant to reward both parties. As the advisor, you’re getting leads that you may be able to convert to clients. Your referrers, meanwhile, may expect something of value in return.

There are three things you’ll need to decide as you create your referral program:

What rewards or incentives will you offer to clients for each person they refer to you?
What will the value of those rewards be?
How will you qualify a referral?

Referral rewards should be something that a client will appreciate receiving. Otherwise, they have no reason to go out of their way to make the referral. Some of the incentives you might offer include:

Gift cards
Discounted services
Small gifts
Invitation to special client appreciation events

Any rewards or incentives you offer must meet compliance standards. You may ask clients for feedback on the type of rewards they’d be most interested in if you’re surveying them to assess their interest in a referral program.

Once you decide what to offer, you can define what will count as a referral and when your referrer qualifies for a reward. For example, does a prospect simply need to schedule a meeting with you, or do they need to take the next step and open an account? Will they need to keep that account open for a minimum amount of time, or bring a certain amount of assets under your management?

Transparency and clear communication can help avoid any misunderstandings with clients. You may consider adding a page to your website that covers the details of how your referral program works, and that includes a section with answers to frequently asked questions.

3. Keep It Simple

A well-designed financial advisor referral program gives clients a good reason to spread the word, and it makes it as easy as possible for them to do so.

For example, say that you want prospects to be referred to a page on your website where they can schedule a call. You can use a referral software platform to generate customized links for your existing clients. Your clients can share their personalized links with people in their circle, and the referral software will track each time someone uses it to book a meeting with you.

If you’re going the software route, look for a referral platform that easily integrates with the rest of your tech stack. You want the transfer of prospects’ information to your customer relationship management (CRM) platform and email marketing service to be as seamless as possible.

You may also establish a dedicated phone number to receive referrals via calls or texts, or set up an email address that clients can use to share prospects’ contact information. It’s okay to give clients multiple pathways to send referrals your way, but none of them should be complicated or confusing.

4. Give Your Clients a Heads Up

Once you’ve worked out the finer points of your referral program, you’ll need to tell your clients about it. You can do that by adding a mention to your next email newsletter, and include a link to your referral program’s landing page if you’ve created one.

After the initial announcement, you could include a regular reminder about your referral program each time you email your list. You can add a postscript or a note in the footer section of your email, encouraging them to use their referral link if they know someone who could benefit from your services.

If your referral program is structured so that your clients need to fill out a form through your referral software to join and get a custom link, you can include a link to that, as well. Encourage them to sign up if they haven’t done so already and begin enjoying referral rewards.

5. Track Your Program’s Effectiveness

A financial advisor referral program may be a solid investment of your time and resources if it helps you to grow your business. Regular monitoring can help you pinpoint what’s working with your program and where you may need to make some adjustments.

Consider tracking these metrics:

Number of new referrals received per month
Conversion rate for referrals received through the program
Client participation

You may want to dig into which clients are sending the most or least referrals your way. If you have clients who aren’t referring anyone to you, that might be a good opportunity to have a conversation with them about their satisfaction level. Improving the client experience could help you garner more referrals moving forward.

6. Personalize Your Outreach and Messaging

While having a formal referral program is essential, how you communicate it to clients can significantly impact their willingness to participate. Personalizing your outreach — whether by phone or email or via in-person conversation — can make clients feel valued and more inclined to refer others to you.

Instead of sending the same generic message to your entire list, tailor your referral requests to different client segments. For example, long-standing clients with whom you have strong rapport may appreciate a direct, heartfelt ask, while newer clients may respond better to a more informational tone explaining the program’s benefits.

Consider referencing specific milestones or positive outcomes from your work together to frame your request. For instance:

“It’s been great helping you navigate your retirement planning this year. If you know someone else who’s preparing for that same transition, I’d love the chance to help them, too.”

Personalization reinforces the relationship and reminds clients of the value you’ve delivered, both of which strengthen the likelihood of a referral.

Bottom Line

An advisor works on her firm's referral program.

Referrals are much sought-after, but not always easily realized. Developing a referral program can help you show your appreciation for your existing clients while potentially bridging relationships with new ones.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

Ask any advisor what their biggest challenges are, and marketing is likely to be somewhere on the list. Building out a digital footprint is more important than ever as investors look to online searches to find financial advice. If you’re looking for a way to streamline your efforts and free up more time to serve clients, partnering with an advisor marketing platform could be a solution. 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.
An often overlooked way to gain new referrals is simply to ask. Asking clients for referrals may feel uncomfortable in the beginning, but it’s one of the most direct ways to gain new leads. You can mention in your next meeting or email that you’re working on expanding your business, and that if clients have anyone they know who might benefit from your services, they can pass their information along to you.