How to Find New Clients for Your Financial Planning Business for Under $10,000/month

As your business grows, your strategies for continued success will evolve with it. What has worked in the past may not be as effective as it once was. Or, perhaps you’re trying to reach new types of clients with strategies that you haven’t tried before. In any case, it helps to know which tactics are going to get the most attention and the most value for your money. 

When you’re working with a $10,000 per month budget, you might feel like things are a little tighter than you’d like. However, you’ll find out that there’s a lot more that you can do to increase your outreach and attract new clients with your budget than you think. Some strategies will work better than others, but you can guarantee that the tactics on this list will have your financial planning business on the path to finding all the new clients you want. 

If you work smarter, not harder, you’ll find that you can do a lot with that monthly budget. Let’s look at five strategies that will help you grow your client base without breaking the bank. 

Tactic #1: Build your professional reputation 

Cost: Free, unless you pay for memberships, etc. 

In professional services like financial planning, reputation is everything. With the increasing competition comes an equally increasing need for you to prove that you are the most reputable authority within your industry. You can do that in several ways, and on several platforms. Post and share financial planning news and tips, blogs, etc. Network with other industry businesses and try to get recommendations or build connections on social media to help bolster your reputation there. 

You could also pay someone to handle reputation management for you, which could cost anywhere from $2,000 to $8,000 per month or more, depending on the services that you choose and other factors. However, there’s a lot that you can do on your own if you’d rather spend that money elsewhere. 

Tactic #2: Get engaged on social media 

Cost: Free 

These days, there is little that you can do that has the power of social media marketing. And it’s not just about “marketing” your business, either. It’s about getting engaged and interacting with other businesses, clients, potential clients, etc. The people seeking your financial planning services want to work with companies that exist where they are, and they are on social media. Increasingly, people prefer to do business with companies that have a strong social media presence that helps bolster their professional reputation. 

This also allows you to show your clients that your team is comprised of real humans who are trying to help others with various financial needs. It’s a great way to build that connection with people and create authority at the same time. Make sure that you get creative and consider platforms like TikTok and YouTube to connect with people in a more fun way, too. 

Tactic #3: Get reviews, testimonials, and referrals 

Cost: Free, unless you offer incentives, discounts, etc. 

Word-of-mouth is still going to get you a lot further than you realize. Look at all the multinational companies and chains that have referral programs and incentive plans for people who share their business with others. It works because people love to share their experiences, both good and bad. The key here is to make sure that experiences are good and to get as many reviews, referrals, and recommendations as you can. 

You can create a program where you offer a free service or some type of incentive for people who give referrals or post a review, or you can simply ask for them. Pay attention to Google reviews, as well as those on sites like Yelp!, because those are the ones that will impact your search rankings and professional image the most. And if you do find the occasional bad review, make sure that you address it immediately so that it doesn’t hurt your reputation or rankings. 

Tactic #4: Conduct an SEO audit 

Cost: $500-$5,000, depending on how extensive the audit needs to be 

In today’s digital marketing space, SEO is everything. It’s also about more than just having the right keywords. Your technical SEO needs to be in order too, which includes things like your XML sitemap, site architecture, and other elements. While you can do some auditing of your SEO on your own, it’s often best to hire someone that can conduct a full, in-depth audit of your website and off-page SEO. 

Off-page refers to any listing or reference to your business that is outside of your website. This could include social media, business directories, professional forums, and the like. An audit will go through your entire online presence and analyze it to determine what is working, what needs to be changed, and what you can do to boost your rankings in the search results. That can be invaluable to your new client acquisitions. 

Tactic #5: Outsource time-consuming and tedious work 

Cost: $250-$5,000, depending on what you outsource

Outsourcing has been around for decades, but it’s something that is far more valuable today than many businesses realize. While you’re handling financial planning and tax prep for your clients, who is fielding the phone calls and following up on leads? You certainly can’t do it all, and you don’t have to. You can even start by outsourcing to a team like Smith.ai for assistance with your outreach campaigns in the first place. 

In addition to that, our virtual receptionists can also provide a 24/7 answering service so that your business never misses an opportunity, along with support for appointment scheduling, lead intake, and even your live website chat. Not offering chat yet? Maybe it’s time—ask how we can help you get started!

To learn more about how we can help your financial planning business with a custom strategy for communications, admin, and more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai. 

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