How to Grow Without a Referral Network as a Financial Advisor

The connections you build within your industry can help bring more referrals, and thus prospects, your way. Every referral you receive from another professional is a mark of trust, which can underscore your credibility and help you gain a prospective client’s loyalty. But is it possible to grow without a referral network in place? Yes, if you have the right plan.

Are you looking to expand the marketing of your financial advisor practice? Try SmartAsset AMP, a holistic client prospecting and marketing automation platform.

How to Grow Without a Referral Network as a Financial Advisor

A referral network is a group of individuals you’re connected to, who are willing to refer prospective clients to your business. Your network can include:

Certified public accountants (CPAs)
Attorneys
Mortgage professionals
Insurance professionals
Other advisors
Current clients

Referral networks take time to build, and some connections can prove more valuable than others.

Here are six common ideas for driving organic growth when you’re still working on building a network for referrals.

1. Build a Winning Website

Digital marketing offers a lot of opportunity for you to make a recognizable name for yourself and attract new clients. A comprehensive digital footprint includes:

Now, how do you use these tools to reach and engage with prospects?

First, you have to ensure that prospective clients can find you online. That’s where a functional, user-friendly website and search engine optimization (SEO) come in.

Website design may sound intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. You can use a financial advisor website template to build your site, or hire a web designer to create the framework. Once your site is up and running, you can focus on SEO.

SEO is a set of strategies designed to make your website easier to find in search engines. Keywords are a core element of SEO, and including them in your content and web pages can increase your rankings in search, potentially leading to more clicks and visits from prospects.

If your site has a blog, for example, you could create a series of posts around related keywords. You can then link those posts together. If the articles are factual, well-written and answer the reader’s questions, they could get a boost in search.

Learning the basics of SEO and keywords for financial advisors can help you create a website that’s designed to get traffic.

2. Get Social

Social media affords opportunities to engage with prospects in a friendly, casual way. If you’re new to social media marketing, building client personas can help you determine which platforms you should be targeting.

A client or buyer persona is a hypothetical profile of the exact person you want to serve. It represents who they are, in terms of their:

Age
Gender
Education level
Profession and industry
Income
Net worth
Risk tolerance
Marital status (and whether they have children)
Financial goals

Your buyer persona should also consider their social media habits. If you know that your target client would rather scroll Instagram than Facebook, for example, that can help you craft social media content that grabs a prospect’s attention.

3. Build an Email List

Email marketing puts you in a prospective client’s inbox. This is a chance for you to offer a deeper look at what your firm does and how you can solve a prospect’s most significant pain points. Email lets you carry on conversations with prospects about what they need, in a pressure-free way.

To get prospects onto your list, you’ll need to develop a compelling lead magnet. A lead magnet is a freebie you offer in exchange for someone’s email address. For example, you might offer a free retirement planning guide or a college planning worksheet, depending on who your ideal client is.

Once they’re on your list, you can use drip campaigns and email blasts to pique their attention and encourage them to get in touch to discuss their financial goals. Your customer relationship management (CRM) platform may have all the tools you need to start building a list. Redtail, for instance, includes email marketing capabilities.

4. Automate Your Lead Generation and Outreach

A financial advisor looking for a client file.

Automation can also play a critical role in your efforts. SmartAsset AMP is a comprehensive marketing and lead generation platform that connects financial advisors with high-intent investors, even facilitating real-time phone introductions.

According to a 2024 Broadridge survey, it takes an average of 3.6 months to convert a marketing lead into a client. SmartAsset AMP helps streamline that process by offering automated, compliant outreach through text and email, along with longer-term email nurturing campaigns to keep leads engaged.

T.J. Tamura, a financial advisor at Capitol Planning Group in California since 2022, shared how his early focus was on refining messaging and building a strong client base. SmartAsset AMP gave him the ability to reach a diverse range of potential clients.

“It was really important to me to get it connected with as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, and to see how my messaging resonated with as many people as possible,” Tamura told SmartAsset.

As his practice has grown, Tamura has increasingly focused on higher-net-worth leads. Still, he emphasized the value of working with prospects across the wealth spectrum.

“It’s a good place for younger advisors or people on your team to get connected and work on their skills and then move them into the higher asset levels over time,” he told SmartAsset.

5. Meet In Person (or Virtually)

One of the most powerful ways to gain new clients and grow your business is to meet with them face to face, if possible, or virtually, if not. The question is, how do you do that?

With seminars. Seminar marketing allows you to talk to prospects about a topic that’s meaningful to them, in a setting that they find comfortable. For example, if you know that paying for college is top of mind for your ideal clients, you could offer a free seminar comparing the costs of federal vs. private student loans.

You can host a seminar in person, online or both. You’ll need to decide what you want to discuss, based on your prospects’ pain points, as well as how and where to hold the seminar, and how you want to market it.

Aside from seminars, consider other ways to connect with prospects. Your approach might include:

Volunteer or charity work with local nonprofits
Sponsorship of a local youth sports team
Membership in a community business leaders association
Membership in an alumni association, or a service/leadership group
Participation in workshops or panels offered by local organizations

The bottom line is that if you want to grow locally, you have to put down roots in the community. These strategies can help you do that.

6. Prioritize the Client Experience

Some advisors are comfortable asking clients for referrals, while others prefer to encourage them naturally. If you’re in the latter camp, it makes sense to focus on delivering a top-tier client experience.

Here are some examples of how to do that:

Offer clients a digital portal that they can use to access and monitor their accounts
Host client appreciation events and invite clients to bring their families
Send thoughtful birthday or holiday cards, or randomly send a simple thank you note to show your appreciation
Respond quickly to client communications, and practice active listening when you meet
Develop a loyalty program that rewards clients when they refer their friends and family to you
Ask what you can do to improve their experience (a client experience survey allows you to collect responses anonymously)

Your clients want to feel seen, heard and understood. Enhancing the client experience can improve their overall satisfaction with your firm and ideally encourage them to tell others about your business.

Bottom Line

A financial advisor speaking with clients.

A referral network is an important tool for growing your business. But if you don’t have one in place yet, don’t worry. There are other options available to you. And it is possible to grow without a referral network as a financial advisor. Using the tips shared here can help you to keep a steady stream of prospects flowing your way.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

Digital marketing can be overwhelming if you’re trying to do it all yourself. Partnering with an advisor marketing platform can help you increase your visibility online and generate high-quality leads for your business. SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is a holistic marketing service that 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.
Collaborations are another way to generate interest in your business without a referral network. For example, you might come across a podcast that’s looking for an expert to discuss the tax implications of retirement planning. That’s an opportunity to showcase your knowledge and expertise in front of an entirely new audience that may be looking for an advisor to work with.