Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors

To attract clients, establish credibility and differentiate themselves in a competitive industry, financial advisors need a marketing plan. Taking advantage of digital advertising, automation, social media and other resources can be a cost-effective way of driving sustainable business growth — and differentiating yourself from both robo-advisory services and big banks.

On this page, we’re drawing from the Hubly blog, as well as our recently published ebook on financial advisor marketing (get it above ⬆️), to give you an overview of some key topics for growing firms, including:

How to create a financial advisor marketing plan
How to define your ideal customer profile
How to get creative and reach new audiences
How to leverage email for marketing your advisory firm
Where to look online for additional resources

Read on for more, or download the full ebook for a more in-depth look at financial advisor marketing.

Creating a Financial Advisor Marketing Plan

Creating a financial advisor marketing plan requires identifying target markets, setting clear marketing objectives, defining a unique value proposition, conducting thorough competitive analysis, and outlining specific marketing strategies and tactics. You'll need to identify your market — basically, your ideal customer profile, which we touch on below — and define your offer to them. In other words, who do I serve and how do I serve them? These questions will form the basis for a cost-effective, highly targeted financial advisor marketing plan.

Next, you'll need to think about how and where you'll get that messaging out. Where does your ideal customer consume information, online and off? What will be more effective — a paid ad, or a referral from an existing customer? How can you distribute resources and allocate effort across multiple channels in a way that makes sense and maximizes your exposure to your customer?

Once you know this, you can start engaging your leads. Get the attention of potential clients by offering them something for free — a workshop or webinar, a retirement planning guide, or even an intro consultation — the goal is to identify potential customers and collect their contact information, so you can begin to market to them.

About that — with a growing mailing list, you can start selling. Email is an excellent way to do this at first, and can be automated with reusable templates. As clients come closer to making a decision, reaching out over the phone or in-person can be the thing that compels them to take the next step.

Once you've landed your client, the work doesn't stop. You'll need to a process for wowing them with the onboarding process to increase the likelihood of a referral. Here's a quick look at how Hubly can help with this:

Demographics
Financial goals
Risk tolerance
Net worth
Life stage
Financial knowledge
Values and beliefs

Imagine in your head an ideal customer — the one you connect best with and have the most success retaining. How do they line up on each of the above categories. Then, think about how they consume information, how they make decisions and what types of channels might be most effective in reaching them. You can even interview some of your star clients for additional insight.

The point of this exercise is twofold — understanding your client will help you create messaging that resonates with them. It will also give you clues as to where they’re most active, online and off, so that you can deliver that message effectively.

Creative Marketing Strategies for Financial Advisors

Now that you've identified your target market and built out an end-to-end marketing plan, you need to find creative ways of engaging them — basically, steps three and four in the article linked above. This section will explore five proven, creative marketing strategies for financial advisors. Think of them as suggestions to get your creative juices flowing — ultimately, what works best for your clients won't be the same as what works best for your competitors. Your firm is unique, your clients are unique and your offer is unique too. With that said, let's dive into a few general marketing strategies for financial advisors:

Launch a newsletter: A newsletter is a powerful part of a marketing strategy for financial advisors. By sharing your industry expertise and insights, you can establish yourself as a thought leader and build credibility with potential clients. Consider including content such as industry news, market updates, investment strategies or financial tips. Develop a schedule for sending out the newsletter and design it to align with your firm's identity. Additionally, incorporate a compelling call-to-action that encourages readers to reach out for further information or consultations.
Explore emerging social media channels: While major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are saturated with financial advice, there are alternative channels where you can more easily build an audience and drive your financial advisor marketing strategy. TikTok offers an opportunity to share financial advice and insights through short videos, potentially reaching a broad audience. Engaging with Reddit's r/personalfinance, r/investing, and related forums can help you connect with interested investors. Quora provides a platform to answer personal finance and investing-related questions, establishing your expertise.
Diversify your paid advertising strategy: As we cover in our financial advisor marketing ebook, paid advertising can be an important component of a financial advisor's marketing strategy. If you've had success on Google and Facebook, there's no reason to limit yourself to the major platforms. Taboola, a content discovery platform, helps you reach your target audience by promoting your content across various websites and mobile apps. AdRoll, primarily focused on eCommerce, can be utilized to advertise your services on multiple channels, including the web, social media, and email. By diversifying your paid media strategy, you can reach a wider audience and potentially generate more leads.
Offer free community workshops: Providing value to potential clients through educational workshops, webinars or lunch-and-learn sessions can be a great real-world complement to your digital marketing strategy. Select topics that resonate with your ideal audience and align with your plan. For example, hosting a student loan restructuring workshop could attract millennials, while discussing AI and budgeting with ChatGPT might engage tech-savvy entrepreneurs. By offering relevant insights, you can establish yourself as a trusted advisor and build meaningful connections with potential clients.
Leverage podcasts: Podcasts have gained immense popularity, and appearing as a guest on relevant shows can significantly expand your reach. Identify podcasts that align with your target audience and pitch compelling story ideas to the content producers. Don't limit yourself to personal finance podcasts; consider general interest programs that discuss money-related topics. Once you secure a podcast appearance, repurpose excerpts from the interview for your advertising and email outreach. By leveraging podcasts, you can increase brand visibility and attract new clients.

Implementing innovative marketing strategies is vital for financial advisors to differentiate themselves in a competitive landscape. Just remember, marketing takes time and effort — consider automating prep work and follow-up wherever possible using Hubly's workflow templates

Email Marketing for Financial Advisors

For financial advisors, email marketing is a powerful tool for engaging and nurturing an audience. This section will delve into best practices for incorporating email into your overall marketing plan. By mastering the art of email marketing, financial advisors can strengthen client relationships and drive conversions.

The first stepis building the necessary infrastructure. Advisors need an email marketing tool to reach out to subscribers, create automated workflows and manage contact information. Popular options include Mailchimp and Hubspot's Marketing Hub, which integrate with customer relationship management (CRM) platforms like Redtail. Additionally, advisors should create a subscriber form to collect contact information and build a contact list by leveraging existing contacts and social media channels.

To attract email subscribers, financial advisors should offer something valuable. Instead of simply asking people to subscribe, they should provide a compelling reason. This can be achieved by offering free resources such as budgeting templates, retirement calculators or investment guides. Creating a sense of urgency can also encourage immediate action, such as limited-time promotions or early access to services. Showcasing expertise and credibility through qualifications, certifications, success stories, or testimonials further enhances the value proposition.

Placing the subscriber form in strategic locations is crucial for gaining visibility. It should be placed on various pages of the advisor's website, including the home page, popular pages, new blog posts, and in the sidebar/footer. Social media bios can also include a link to the subscriber form. Website pops-up are also highly effective in converting visitors into subscribers, and can be triggered based on visitor behavior.

After setting up the infrastructure and subscriber acquisition channels, financial advisors can create email marketing campaigns. Different types of campaigns can be set up, including introductory campaigns for new subscribers, welcome campaigns for new customers, upsell/cross-sell campaigns, and referral campaigns. Segmentation based on criteria stored in the CRM enables highly personalized campaigns.

When writing marketing emails, financial advisors should focus on providing valuable and relevant content. It is important to avoid solely promoting products or services, as this may lead to unsubscribes. Personalization can enhance engagement by addressing subscribers by name, referencing their interests, and customizing content based on their segment.

Testing, measuring and tweaking are essential for optimizing email marketing campaigns. Advisors should analyze metrics such as open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates to evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns. By testing different elements, such as value hooks, copy on subscriber forms, subject lines, campaign types, calls-to-action, design, timing and frequency, you can continuously improve your financial advisor email marketing strategy.

Use actionable subject lines

ie, "Restructure Your Student Loan Today." Avoid words like 'free' or 'offer' that could land you in spam folders.
Be normal

Keep it conversational and authentic, as if you're writing a friend. Avoid 'marketer speak.'
Add some humor

Jokes can go a long way towards creating an authentic connection — as long as it feels natural to you.
Make the next steps clear

End with a simple call to action that will compel readers to take the next steps.

Digital Marketing Resources for Financial Advisors

If you're looking for additional digital marketing resources for financial advisors, the best place to start is our ebook. In it, we'v got nearly 30 pages of tips and tracks that cut through the noise and offer practical advisor for advisors looking to grow their practice using digital marketing.

Of course, there's only so much we can cover in one ebook. With that in mind, here are a few additional digital marketing resources financial advisors can turn to as they move further along their marketing journey:

Training: It's easier than ever to find free digital marketing resources for financial advisors. For basic education beyond what we've covered on this page, look to Hubspot Academy, Semrush Academy, and Neil Patel's digital marketing training.
Design tools: Design tools play a crucial role in creating a consistent and professional look across marketing materials. Canva is recommended as a beginner-friendly tool with templates for social media, brochures, and presentations. Adobe Creative Cloud, with programs like Illustrator and InDesign, is suggested for those with stronger design skills or the willingness to learn. Shutterstock is recommended as a source for stock images, vector graphics, videos, and royalty-free music.
Social media: social media is a crucial digital marketing resource for financial advisors. The most common platforms linclude Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. Additionally, tools like Hootsuite or Buffer can be used to manage multiple social media channels effectively.
Paid advertising: Paid advertising is another key component of digital marketing for financial advisors. LinkedIn Ads is recommended for targeted demographic outreach, especially for professionals. LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides advanced search filters, lead recommendations and personalized messaging options. Meta Business Suite covers advertising on Instagram and Facebook, while Google Ads is the top platform for reaching internet searches.
Other digital marketing resources for financial advisors: Check out Hubspot and Squarespace for website building and hosting, MailChimp or Beehiiv for newsletters and email marketing, Google Analytics for web traffic monitoring, Ahrefs and Ubersuggest for keyword research, Similarweb for competitor analysis, and ChatGPT for content creation.

Check out the Hubly blog for links to the above financial advisor digital marketing resources.

The Hubly Guide to
Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors

Get 27 Pages of Tips, Tricks and Strategies for Marketing Your Firm

The Hubly Guide to Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors is written specifically for advisors that want to grow their business beyond referrals — but don't know the first thing about marketing.