12 Months of Marketing Goals for Independent Financial Advisors

In an environment where competing for and winning new clients is only getting harder, providing comprehensive financial planning isn’t enough to set you apart from the competition anymore. According to Kitces’ latest report, How Financial Planners Actually Market Their Services, for firms to be successful, marketing needs to be regarded as an ongoing and key operational component of the firm and not just something advisors do as time and resources allow. 

To help cut down on the noise and jumpstart your marketing efforts, I’ve outlined a basic 12-month schedule of marketing goals for you. You can commit to all of these monthly initiatives or use them as a starting point to develop a plan of your own. The important thing to take away is that your marketing strategy should not be a set-it-and-forget-it task. Your plan should be dynamic and include a combination of tactics to get—and keep—the ideal clients you want to work with.

January: Goal Setting and Understanding What Works

Use the beginning of the year to review what has been working and what hasn’t regarding your marketing efforts. To help determine this, turn to your data. Look at your Google Analytics, dashboards from social media accounts, and any data your email provider gives you. A look at this data will help you determine where your weak spots and opportunities are. If you haven’t already, begin tracking this data every month to help provide yourself with more insight as the year progresses. 

Based on your findings, define your goals for the year. Do you want increased brand awareness, lead generation, more lead conversion, and/or enhanced client retention? After you decide your priorities, allocate your time and monetary resources. Part of recognizing that marketing is a key operational component of your firm is dedicating time and money to your initiatives. Kitces points out that spending more on marketing correlates to more growth but doesn’t ensure it unless done efficiently. This efficiency is achieved through employing a combination of tactics and the flexibility to adapt these tactics as your firm evolves.

February: Profiles & Branding

February is a short month, so I suggest a smaller but important initiative. Review your online profiles to ensure information is up-to-date and consistent across platforms. Take a look at your branding. Are you using the most up-to-date logo, the same color scheme, fonts, etc.? 

Turn to your colleagues, friends, or family for feedback. Sometimes, we are too close to our content, and a fresh set of eyes is needed. Is the information you want to convey coming across the way you intend, or do you need to switch things up? There are various places within the network where you can collaborate with XYPN members. The Community Forums are a great place to crowdsource, or stop by Drop In Coaching with Executive Business Coaches Arlene Moss and Maddy to get expert insight!

March: Freemiums or Premium Content

Challenge yourself this month to create a new “freemium” that you can use to attract potential clients! A freemium, or lead magnet, is “gated” content that a visitor to your website can access only after entering their email address. The idea is to provide something valuable to them in exchange for the ability to market to them. Freemiums are an excellent way to highlight your expertise, build trust, and establish a connection with potential clients.

Regarding the freemium you should create, look to your ideal client. What would they find most appealing? What would indicate that you are the right planner for them? Some examples of freemiums are budget templates, retirement planning checklists, investment strategy worksheets, or eBooks. Another source of inspiration is past content! You can turn a past blog about budgeting into a budget spreadsheet or goal worksheet.

Everyone who accepts your offer (or converts) is now in your marketing funnel for you to nurture. Don’t skip this month’s challenge even if you already utilize freemiums! Remember from Chapter 3 of our Ready, Set, Grow! An RIA Marketing Guide states that the more relevant content you create, the more opportunities your ideal clients have out there searching for that content to find you!

April: Launch a Newsletter

Now that you have spent time developing high-value freemiums in exchange for email addresses, it is the perfect time to launch a prospect newsletter! A prospect newsletter has many benefits. Some of these are:

Keeping Prospects Informed

A newsletter provides engaging content on a regular basis, keeping readers informed about your business and the industry while providing a venue for other information.

Stay Top of Mind

Email newsletters can complement your lead nurturing campaigns and help bridge the gap between a prospect's initial consultation with you and their becoming a client. 

When a prospect isn’t quite ready to buy into a financial planning relationship, a prospect newsletter helps bridge that gap while they make a decision. This lets you stay relevant in their decision stage by regularly appearing in their inbox. Plus, if your newsletter prompts a question or thought, it’s really simple for a subscriber to hit reply and stay engaged.

Create Trust Passively

Consistently sending important information to someone’s inbox establishes you as an expert and helps create trust throughout your marketing and sales process. 

Addressing the pain points of your ideal client (which should mirror those of your prospects) is a great way to show alignment between your expertise and the value you could and are providing

How can I create a prospect newsletter? We have a resource for that! Head to Academy and check out our template, Creating Prospect Newsletters.

May: Schedule Social

Use this month to streamline your social media processes and prep for the busy months by using a social media scheduling tool to ensure regular posting. If it feels daunting to plan your content that far ahead, consider what topics are most relevant during certain times of the year. For example, in the spring, you can post about maximizing potential tax refunds. You can also look at your old content that performed well and recycle it with a fresh perspective!

Several social media scheduling tools are well-suited for financial advisors. Here are a few options:

• Hootsuite: Some of Hootsuite's pros include a user-friendly interface, integration with a wide range of social networks, and the ability to monitor brand mentions and keywords.

• Buffer: Buffer is a nice, affordable option with a simple, intuitive interface and strong customer support to help you get rolling.

June: Client Survey

Knowing how your clients perceive and experience your value is crucial for ongoing momentum and confidence, and it helps you identify areas for improvement. You can use this feedback to make adjustments to your marketing strategy. Sure, you hear from your clients during a meeting once in a while that you’re helpful, or you get a big “thank you” email as someone archives their goals. But what do they really think about how you serve them, what you charge, and what you bring to their lives? 

Answers to these questions are vital to making any meaningful change to your approach. Not evolving your services or knowing your value could result in client churn, no internal referrals, or an overall mismatch of service between clients. 

Without answers to these questions, when it comes to updating your service model, tweaking your niche, or rebranding yourself is done in the dark. What’s the best way to find the answers to these questions? Ask them. Putting together a client survey doesn’t need to be overly complicated. In fact, we encourage you to ask no more than 10 questions, which should take 5 minutes to answer once a year! You simply need the bravery to send it out and hear the feedback. To learn more about how to conduct a Client Survey, check out this resource in XYPN Academy!

July:  Re-evaluate Automated Sequences

Automated drip campaigns are awesome—until they’re not. The benefit of automating email responses is saving boatloads of time. The drawback is not refining your messages on an ongoing basis. The ability to “set it and forget it” is liberating, but it’s not ideal to forget it forever. Set aside time at least once a year to review and refine these communications.

This task is another opportunity to use your data. Add a link or two to the most converting content in your drip campaigns. For example, if a potential client uses your meeting scheduler to set up a call, the automated response may be, “Thank you for scheduling a financial assessment.

I’m looking forward to visiting with you. In the meantime, you might enjoy my article, The First Steps to Taking Control of Your Finances.”

On that note, I’m a big fan of delineating the introductory calls you offer via your scheduler to get a feel for the prospect's needs. This will also give your prospect calls a higher perceived value. Your prospect might choose between a financial assessment, a 401k evaluation, college funding Q&A, or whatever speaks to your niche. These are all prospect calls, but you will approach them differently based on the client’s needs.

Then, you can use your automated sequences to convert prospects into clients. For example, a Prospect books a call specific to his or her needs… receives a link to a blog (or web content or a media article you were mentioned in) addressing their exact pain point…, and you’ve just sold them on your expertise before even speaking to them!

August: Try Something New

The year is half over, and it's the perfect time to challenge yourself! Marketing the same thing year after year indicates that your firm is not changing or evolving, which we know isn’t true. You will find the most success with your marketing initiatives when they are tailored to your firm's unique characteristics, which inherently change as you grow and scale.

Need some ideas? Some of these are new to you: Facebook Live. YouTube. Webinars. LinkedIn groups. Guest blogging. Podcasting. Referral program. eBook. Infographics. Online courses. Instagram. Pinterest. Public speaking. Tutorials. Community events. Pay-per-click ads. Email signature campaigns. For inspiration, check out what other advisors are doing in the network and look at industry trends as a whole and outside the industry. You might find an idea in a different vertical that you can make work for you! 

September: Recycle

As you roll into the fall and begin to prepare for the holidays, take a closer look at your old, successful content and consider how you might leverage it in new ways. Repurposing old content allows you to develop new ideas more easily, saves you time, creates cohesion and allows you to expand to other content platforms. 

When deciding what content to repurpose, it is helpful to consider whether it is evergreen. For example, a blog on pandemic-specific planning wouldn’t be as relevant as it was in 2021, but a piece on saving for retirement with an emphasis on starting early could easily be reformatted. 

If you make recycling part of your annual plan, you’ll think about the versatility of your content as you create it throughout the year.

October: Get Inspired or Learn Something New at XYPN LIVE

It’s entirely coincidental, yet convenient for the sake of this blog post, that our annual conference, XYPN LIVE, falls in October. As usual, this year’s conference will include multiple sessions about marketing.  From peers who’ve been in your shoes to industry experts, we're packing the content schedule with real, actionable advice.

XYPN LIVE is a great place for you to connect with your peers! With various community events like lightning networking, supper clubs, and after-the-conference connections, you are bound to walk away inspired and with new ideas.

November: Thank Your Clients

November is the month for gratitude. Therefore, it’s a time to let your clients know how much you value their business. This doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming, or expensive- most importantly, consider what you want your thank you to evoke with your clients. If you hope your clients will simply see it as a nice gesture of appreciation, a handwritten note would work. If you hope your clients will be wow-ed and feel special, consider something more personalized, like branded coffee mugs if you know they are avid coffee drinkers or something inspired by their latest vacation.

Be genuine, personal, and thoughtful; you’ll nail it every time.

December: Review & Plan Ahead

Spend this month reflecting on all you have accomplished in the last twelve months! Consider what performed how you hoped and didn’t, and adjust as needed. Begin setting marketing goals for next year and drafting a plan based on this year’s performance and insights. If you feel overwhelmed or uninspired, return to the data you’ve been tracking.

Remember that the most important part of your marketing plan is your ability to adjust and push yourself beyond what you are currently doing and are comfortable with!

What’s Next?

In a competitive landscape where attracting and retaining clients is increasingly challenging, having a dynamic and well-structured marketing plan is essential for independent financial advisors. 

By following a 12-month schedule of targeted marketing goals, you can systematically enhance your strategies and adapt to evolving market conditions. 

Embrace the continuous nature of marketing—view it as an ongoing, integral part of your operations rather than a one-time project. By remaining flexible and proactive, you’ll improve your visibility and build stronger, more meaningful connections with your clients, setting the stage for sustained growth and success.