If you want more clients, it can be tempting to jump straight into paid advertising.
After all, the promise is pretty appealing: put some money behind an ad, get it in front of the right people, generate leads and watch the enquiries roll in.
Simple, right?
Not quite.
For most financial advice businesses, I believe paid advertising should come after you’ve built a strong marketing foundation, not before.
Because there’s little point pouring more people into the top of the funnel if the rest of the funnel has a few holes in it.
Before you market, get clear on your business
One of the first things I see businesses struggle with is trying to market before they’ve worked out what they’re actually marketing.
Who are you best placed to help?
What problems do you solve?
Why should someone choose you over another financial adviser?
What do you want to be known for?
And perhaps most importantly, are you actually ready for more clients?
It’s easy to say you want more enquiries. But if your team doesn’t have the capacity to take on new clients, your onboarding process isn’t working smoothly, or you don’t have a clear process for following up enquiries, generating a flood of leads isn’t going to solve the problem.
It might just make the problem bigger.
Build your marketing foundations first
Before spending money on ads, I’d recommend getting the fundamentals of your marketing working together.
That means having:
- Clear positioning and messaging
- A well-defined target audience
- A strong, high-performing website
- Consistent organic social media
- A clear client journey and enquiry process
- The systems and capacity to onboard new clients
- Content that demonstrates your expertise and builds trust
These things might not sound as exciting as launching a shiny new ad campaign, but they’re the foundations that make your marketing work.
Why organic social and a great website matter
Your social media and website are often working together long before someone makes an enquiry.
Someone might discover you through a LinkedIn post. They might hear about you from a friend and then Google your business. They might see your name several times before they’re finally ready to get in touch.
That’s where organic marketing earns its keep.
Your social media should show that you’re active, credible, knowledgeable and clear about who you help. It gives people a chance to get to know the people behind the business and see how you think.
Then there’s your website.
When someone is considering working with you, your website needs to answer the questions they’re asking:
Who do you help? What do you do? Why should I trust you? Are you the right fit for me? What do I do next?
If your social media looks fantastic but your website is confusing, outdated or doesn’t clearly explain what you offer, you’ve created a problem.
Likewise, a brilliant website can’t do all the heavy lifting if your social profiles look like they’ve been abandoned since 2022.
Your website and organic social media should work together, telling the same story and building confidence at every touchpoint.
Paid advertising is an accelerator, not a foundation
Paid advertising absolutely has a place in marketing.
But I see it as an accelerator, rather than a foundation.
If you’re a rapidly growing advice business that needs a consistent, high volume of qualified leads to support that growth, paid advertising might make sense.
But for many financial advisers, it simply isn’t necessary.
A well-rounded marketing strategy can build visibility, credibility, trust, referrals and enquiries without paying to put every piece of content in front of someone.
And when your organic marketing is working, you can learn what messages resonate, what your audience responds to and what makes people take notice.
That’s valuable information.
So, what should you do instead?
If you’re just starting to invest in marketing, don’t feel like you need to jump straight into paid ads.
Start with the basics.
Get clear on your audience. Clarify your message. Make sure your website is doing its job. Build a consistent organic presence. Create useful content. Get your enquiry and onboarding processes working.
Then look at what’s working.
Once you’ve built that foundation, you can make a much more informed decision about whether paid advertising is actually something your business needs.
At Crisp Marketing & Communications, we don’t offer paid advertising, and that’s deliberate.
We believe most financial advice businesses will get more value from getting the fundamentals right first.
Because before you spend money getting more people through the door, make sure you know who you want walking through it, why they should choose you, and that you’re ready to give them a great experience when they arrive.
That’s good marketing.
And it starts well before you press Boost.