After onboarding many firms and speaking with hundreds of advisors, certain patterns become obvious. In this episode of Craft on Tap, Stephen Beach and Faustin Weber go beyond generic advice to address five frequent marketing mistakes and what RIAs should do instead to up their marketing game.
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The biggest mistake advisors make is focusing entirely on strangers while neglecting the people already in their corner.
Back when Craft Impact first started working with RIAs, a client firm ran Facebook ads for webinars and successfully lowered the cost per lead to $35. The team was celebrating until they realized the lead quality was poor. These "potential clients" were bots or individuals with no connection to the firm's ideal client. After months of effort, there were zero results.
The strategy changed when the firm’s president suggested marketing to their own clients instead. This shift is now the backbone of the Craft Impact approach. Engaging existing clients leads to more referrals, deeper wallet share, and more consolidation opportunities. Many firms have email lists that never see the light of day. When you share valuable content with existing clients, you give your top evangelists something easy to pass along to their peers.
What to do instead: Prioritize your clients. Before launching new campaigns, ensure you are communicating consistently with your current base. Make it clear you are accepting new clients, define who you serve best, and provide shareable content.
Most advisor websites try to speak to everyone (individuals, families, and business owners). This approach creates noise rather than clarity. Being intentional about your audience starts with crafting content that addresses specific challenges. Take this example of a firm with two partners: one focuses on corporate executives with equity compensation, while the other targets local pre-retirees. They use two distinct voices and sets of content without forcing the entire firm into a single persona.
With AI now able to generate generic retirement planning basics in seconds, differentiation makes you stand out. Specific stories and perspectives are what make your firm visible. If you are unsure where to start, look for patterns in your current client list. Identify the clients who are most profitable and those you most enjoy serving.
What to do instead: Treat audience selection as a business planning exercise. Pick at least one group (a specific industry, company, or life stage) and build your outbound marketing efforts around their unique challenges.
Starting a new social channel without a plan is a common path to failure. Many people (including marketing professionals!) fall into the trap of getting motivated for a month and then losing steam. Without defined metrics or a timeline, you can't know if the effort is working. Plus, taking on the role of full-time marketer in addition to being an RIA is a recipe for burnout.
What to do instead: Build a strategy before you publish. Focus on the questions your ideal clients Google late at night or ask during discovery calls. To create content without stress, interview your advisors. Record a 20-minute conversation and use that transcript to create blog articles, social posts, and videos. Or, consider hiring an outsourced CMO to ease the workload and keep your marketing efforts on track.
Your website is the infrastructure of your marketing. Every other channel eventually directs people there to make a decision. Referred prospects are likely to compare two or three firms simultaneously by opening multiple tabs.
Take this real-world example of a prospect who found an advisor through a Gemini search. The prospect landed on a specific service page for stock options, checked the advisor bios, and then booked a call. The page worked because it was built like a landing page: it featured a hero section for that persona, specific articles, and an ungated resource. The prospect arrived at the discovery call already convinced of the firm's value.
What to do instead: Treat your website as your most valuable marketing asset. Ensure your navigation is simple, your bios are professional, and your mobile experience is seamless. If your site does not reflect the quality of your service, fix it before spending money elsewhere.
Advisors try to open new channels by buying "guaranteed leads" from Google or Meta. They might spend $20,000 over six months only to receive a handful of unqualified leads.
The issue is rarely the platform itself but the lack of a follow-up system. Scaling with paid ads requires a sales team to call leads within minutes and automated email sequences to nurture them. Most advisory firms are not yet equipped for this level of volume.
Paid ads work best when they are hyper-targeted. For example, a campaign specifically for employees of a company undergoing a merger is much more effective than a broad "financial advisor near me" ad.
What to do instead: Focus on your clients, messaging, and website first. Once that foundation is solid and you have a content strategy in place, you can consider layering in targeted ads.
If your marketing efforts aren't getting results, it might be time to reassess your situation and adjust your marketing plan. This conversation is only a starting point. For ongoing insights and practical marketing strategies for RIA growth, listen to Craft on Tap. Available now, wherever you find your podcasts.
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