How to Grow Your Financial Advisor Business

Building a thriving practice takes planning, dedication and, sometimes, just a little luck. When it comes to how to grow your financial advisor business, the fundamentals include actively building your brand, optimizing your marketing efforts and delivering a superior client experience. That being said, there are some strategies you can implement that can help you reach your goals sooner rather than later.

SmartAsset’s Advisor Marketing Platform (AMP) offers financial advisors services like client lead generation, automated marketing and more. Learn about SmartAsset AMP today.

How to Grow Your Financial Advisor Business: 8 Actionable Tips

Your growth strategy may look quite different from another advisor’s, depending on where you’re starting from. Testing out multiple approaches can help you find the most appropriate path forward.

Developing specific growth goals that you can track through key performance indicators (KPIs) can also help you gauge where you’re on target and where you may need to adjust. Here are some proven ways you can explore to help grow your advisory business.

1. Become an Expert

“Choose a niche” is an often-repeated piece of marketing advice for financial advisors. Your niche represents who you serve and reflects the types of problems you’re equipped to solve.

Niching down can encourage growth if you’re attracting your ideal clients because you’re a recognized expert in a particular planning area. Consider how you can establish yourself as an expert. That could mean:

Obtaining a professional designation or certification, such as a CFP® mark
Conducting PR outreach to offer yourself as an expert source to financial publications
Serving as a guest speaker at financial conferences or local community events that attract other financial professionals
Publishing white papers, case studies, blog posts or even a book

You don’t have to do all of these things at once. Start with one or two to gauge their effectiveness, then consider incorporating other strategies to underscore your expertise.

2. Create Brand Relevance

Brand relevance, in simple terms, means how well a brand stays in the minds of prospective customers. For example, if you see a swoop symbol, your mind may automatically connect it with Nike.

Relevance matters because it can influence buying decisions. In the case of your business, prospects are buying your services, knowledge and expertise, rather than a physical product, but relevancy is still important.

These tips can help you build brand relevance as you grow your business:

Understand your target audience and what challenges they face when developing a workable financial plan.
Monitor marketing and branding trends within your industry, specifically among competitor firms that target a client base similar to yours.
Cultivate brand messaging that makes an emotional connection with your prospects while remaining true to your firm’s core values and beliefs.
Review your brand image across each marketing channel you use, from your financial advisor website to your social media to your email signature, checking for consistency.

The goal is to create a brand that’s impactful and memorable, so that prospective clients are curious to learn more about what you do.

3. Market Through Multiple Channels

One mistake that’s easy to make is focusing on just one marketing outlet to attract your ideal clients. A comprehensive marketing plan should target multiple platforms and channels so that your business gets maximum exposure in front of your target audience.

Those channels may include:

A search engine optimized (SEO) website, with multiple lead magnets to collect prospect email addresses
An email newsletter that includes helpful tips and a clear CTA that encourages subscribers to schedule a chat
Social media profiles on platforms that your ideal clients use most often
Digital ads
Direct mail marketing

You may also consider adding seminars to your marketing plan. Seminars and workshops, whether held in person or virtually, can help you connect with prospects.

You can also consider adding a marketing platform like SmartAsset AMP to your strategy. The platform can deliver up to 540 validated leads per year, giving you a steady stream of prospective clients without the need for cold prospecting.

Here’s how it works: Investors in search of financial advice complete a detailed survey about their goals and preferences. Based on criteria like asset level and geographic location, they’re matched with advisors. When a match is made, you receive the lead by phone or email.

From there, you can use AMP’s built-in automation tools, such as email and text nurture campaigns, to engage leads and build relationships. With service tiers designed to help you target 3+, 7+, or 15+ new clients annually, AMP offers scalable support tailored to your business goals. Sign up for a free demo today.

4. Target Revenue-Boosters

Advisors share ideas for growing their financial advisor business.

If you want to secure growth, you may need to reevaluate how you spend your time. Prioritizing revenue-generating activities can help you strengthen your efforts to scale.

Revenue-boosters include:

Lead generation and prospecting
Networking and building centers of influence
Meeting with clients
Enhancing the client experience
Hosting client appreciation events and marketing events

These are your front office tasks, and they’re where you make the connections you need to grow. Consider how you can focus more on this side of the business and how you can automate or outsource middle and back office tasks to free up time in your schedule.

5. Build Partnerships

Partnerships can help your advisory business grow if you’re leveraging them to gain referrals or reach a new audience. Certified public accountants and attorneys, for instance, can send prospective clients to you who need help with financial planning, while you refer your clients to them for tax and legal services.

Digital partnerships can also help you spread your message through previously untapped channels and raise your brand awareness. Appearing on a financial podcast, for instance, can introduce you to an entirely new audience that may benefit from your advice.

Networking, whether it’s an in-person event like a financial conference or through social media platforms, can lead to opportunities for collaboration, as well. Look for individuals whose following or audience mirrors the ideal clients you’re hoping to reach.

6. Nurture Client Relationships

Relationship-building is critical if you want to scale successfully. Satisfied clients are easier to retain, and they may be more likely to refer others to you, which can help you grow. There may also be an opportunity to discuss generational wealth planning if they have children or grandchildren, which can mean future clients for you down the line.

Here are some ideas for how to foster stronger client relationships and encourage loyalty.

Improve your communication and response times, so that clients feel reassured that they can reach you when they need to.
Offer clients a secure portal or dashboard that they can use to track their accounts and send questions to you through direct messaging.
Implement a referral program that rewards clients with small but valuable incentives.
Hold client appreciation events regularly and use them as an opportunity to get to know clients better, outside of the office.

Sometimes the best way to find out what clients need from you is to simply ask. Collect responses anonymously through a client experience survey to learn where you may be able to improve.

7. Expand Your Services

Developing a new service offering is another way to grow if it enables you to attract new clients or generate more revenue from your existing clients. Consider what you’re not offering now that your clients may benefit from, then ask yourself how you could make your offering stand out from the competition.

Evaluate the cost of the offering and the level of return it’s likely to produce. Then, look at your client list to determine how many of them would potentially show interest in the offering. You can also do some market research to see how your competitors are handling the same type of service, and how it’s helping their business.

8. Target Assets Held Away

If your clients have assets held away, consider how you might bring them under your management. Offer your clients a free evaluation of their outside holdings and show them how you would manage those assets to help them reach their goals.

Creating a sample financial plan or using a portfolio visualizer tool to create a graphic showing possible outcomes can help clients connect the dots. Go through their goals with them one by one and suggest possible adjustments they could make to their portfolio that would make those goals easier to achieve. Show them the cost difference if they were to move all of their assets to your firm.

Some of your clients may say no right away, so be prepared for their objections. Others, however, may be receptive to the idea of having all of their assets in one place as they grow wealth.

Bottom Line

A financial advisor sits down with new clients.

Growing an advisory business is often a slow and steady race, and it takes patience to get where you want to be. These tips can help you increase revenues and scale while continuing to deliver top-tier service to your clients.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

Marketing is a significant part of the growth puzzle, and you’ll need a solid plan to attract prospects. If you’re looking for a way to streamline some of your promotional efforts, you may consider partnering with an advisor marketing platform like SmartAsset AMP. 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.
When setting growth goals for your business, be specific. Create goals that are measurable and achievable, and also relevant to your core mission. Use deadlines to help you stay on track and move toward your goals at a reasonable pace.