Ultimate Guide to Getting Clients as a Financial Advisor

If you work in a service-based business, you know It’s no secret that bringing in new clients is equally important as keeping current clients satisfied.

The same rings true for certified financial planners (CFPs).

Your current clients likely have an expiration date regarding their financial needs. As they progress toward their financial goals, they’ll stop needing your services at some point.

If you’re looking to grow your practice, you’ll need to grow your number of clients and build a pipeline of prospects. 

There are more than a few ways to get clients as a financial advisor. If you’re already regularly bringing in new accounts, we recommend sticking to your method. However, if you’re just starting out or are interested in taking on more business, consider adding alternatives to supplement your current methodology.

How to Get Clients as a Financial Advisor

Here are a few things to pay attention to when you start creating your lead generation system.

Determine Your Ideal Client

Determining your ideal client will help you narrow down what methods you’ll need to attract new business. The characteristics of your ideal client will help you customize your strategy to get better results from your outreach and marketing efforts.

Understanding client demographics would help narrow your target market, especially when you’re doing outreach campaigns, such as cold calling or cold emailing.

Additionally, try to identify the major pain points, criteria, and concerns that your clients might have about hiring a financial advisory firm.

The more you know about your ideal clients, the better you can tailor your marketing outreach strategy and attract them.

For example, your ideal target audience may be small business owners who are actively looking for a financial advisor. In this case, you can attract their attention by providing content that you know is helpful for them. Consider explaining the types of financial services an advisor can offer or specialize in within a company or what type of financial planning services are necessary to grow a small business.

Knowing more about your ideal clients means you can provide a more personalized experience and build a connection, up to the point where they can feel comfortable reaching out to you.

Lean into Referrals

Word-of-mouth referrals are the best way to get new clients for all service-based businesses, including financial advising.

If you have clients who are already happy with your services, they’ll likely have friends who also need your skillset.

You may need to ask them to refer people to you. If you feel a bit odd asking your client base for referrals, you could try sending small gifts as a thank you to clients or offer a discount on services when they refer someone to you.

Rather than just outright asking them to refer someone to you, consider also mentioning what kind of clients you want to work with and the type of financial services you excel at, such as retirement planning, wealth management, or tax services for small businesses. This makes it easier for clients to refer the right type of people your way.

Elevate Your Digital Marketing Strategies

Outreach is a great way to find new clients, especially if you need to find one urgently.

However, a digital marketing strategy can help you execute lead generation seamlessly without wasting too much time. 

Having a great digital marketing strategy helps you attract more people to your practice, qualify ideal prospects, and stand out from others in your industry.

Tailor your strategies, campaigns, and messages to your target audience. Information about your target audience should be at the core of your efforts and inform most — if not all — of your marketing campaigns.

Instead of blindly following marketing trends, consider analyzing how this particular trend would work for your target audience when you’re adapting it.

In addition, make sure that you’re keeping an eye on the important metrics and adjusting your approach according to the feedback and insights you receive from these results.

Stay Involved

Involving yourself in your community or networking with locals is a great way to find new clients.

Just remember not to be that person who just has to mention their services in every single conversation. Remember that networking isn’t about finding new clients right now but about connecting and building relationships with potential clients so you can have a strong network in the long run.

However, do mention what you do once in a while, and do keep a stash of business cards to hand over when you meet someone new.

Business cards are a staple at networking events. While some prefer to go digital or connect straight on their preferred social media, physical business cards also have their advantages.

Physical business cards help people recall who you are after the event ends. Potential clients might not get too invested in your services during the actual event. However, if you make an impact, they could be reminded of you when they see your business card lying around the house.

Build a User-Friendly Website

Having a website makes it easy for potential clients to gather information independently.

An online presence also helps you streamline the way you reach clients. Beyond an interactive brochure, your website can help you attract the people you want to work with and repel the ones who aren’t a great fit for your services.

With a bit more effort, you’ll also be able to streamline and automate your client acquisition process, freeing you up for the work you actually care about. For example, you can set up an automated workflow where clients can ‘apply’ to talk to you. Set up a quiz that lets you filter and prioritizes reaching out to clients who fulfill all the criteria.

Combined with email marketing, your website is a powerful tool to grow your client base and streamline your financial advisor prospecting attempts.

However, the key here is actually building a “user-friendly” website instead.

User-friendly might refer to its usability. For example, does it load in less than 3 seconds? Is everything that seems clickable lead where they’re supposed to? Are your contact forms working?

In addition to the ease of use, you should analyze the content of your website. For example, are you talking about relevant things to your ideal clients? Are your value propositions clear enough and show why they should work with you instead of your competitors? Provide information that they need to contact you by confirming their pain point, addressing their concerns about hiring you, and proving that you’re qualified to take on the challenge.

Take to Social Media

Social media is one of the tools that you can’t ignore — especially considering that it’s the quickest way to reach your target audience.

Social media marketing includes growing your reputation as a brand through helpful content or running ads on a social media platform.

LinkedIn, for one, is a great medium for financial planners and advisors alike. You can include your certifications, expertise, and testimonials from previous clients on your profile to prove your qualifications. You can also connect with fellow professionals and find a specific target audience according to their roles or experience.

Growing your brand through social media helps you draw an audience and connect with potential clients.

Note that while you can post whenever you want, it’s best if you try to stay consistent with your efforts. Post even if you don’t have a slot for more client appointments, and definitely post when you’re looking for clients.

If content that you’re posting is relevant for ideal clients, keep posting even if it seems like you’re not getting the traction you need to grow big. It might be that your posts are being shared outside of the platform and can still bring in clients. 

Similar to referrals, instead of asking people you know on social media if they need your services, try asking your audience if they know someone who needs your services. You can reach someone that’s not within your circle of connections this way.

Host Webinars

Webinars, or virtual seminars held over the internet, are a great way to connect with ideal clients and build trust. Unlike the other methods we mention in this guide, people get to interact with you face-to-face during webinars.

Discuss topics that you know your prospective clients are struggling with. By sharing your expertise for free or for a small fee, you’re giving potential clients a taste of what it feels like to work with you.

You can share your expertise through a self-hosted webinar or by joining events that cater to your ideal audience. Joining events lets you ‘borrow’ the host’s audience and can help you reach more people, while self-hosted webinars are great for cultivating trust with your existing circle.

In addition, a webinar isn’t the time to censor yourself. Don’t be afraid to share high-value information. Being more generous with financial advice means showing off your expertise as a financial advisor and proving that you’ll be able to help them with the financial goal they want to achieve.

Enhance Your Financial Services with Asset-Map

Having a steady stream of new clients is good for any business.

If you’ve been relying on outreach to look for new clients so far, it may be time to double down on outreach. You can also set up a lead generation campaign using some of the earlier strategies to get more leads seemingly on autopilot.

However, once you’ve reached your potential clients, you need to establish your practice as the one they’d line up to work with.

Impress potential clients from the first time they interact with you with a frictionless onboarding experience and simple first meeting, leading to a longer, more meaningful client relationship. Asset-Map makes it easy to explain a client’s financial situation, and the visual representation you can create promotes a faster understanding for your potential clients.

Get a demo today and see for yourself how Asset-Map can enhance your financial services.