LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategies for Financial Advisors – SmartAsset.com

LinkedIn is primarily a business-focused social media platform, but it has the potential to be more than just a networking tool for financial advisors. In a 2024 Broadridge survey, 68% of advisors reported investing in LinkedIn as a marketing tool.¹ Incorporating LinkedIn lead generation strategies into your marketing strategy can help you build authority and attract high-quality prospects to your business. 
Are you looking to expand the marketing of your financial advisor practice? Try SmartAsset AMP, a holistic client prospecting and marketing automation platform.
What does lead generation on LinkedIn look like? There’s no single answer; there are several ways advisors can leverage the platform to connect with prospective clients. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective strategies for using LinkedIn to promote your firm.
Your LinkedIn profile may be the first thing a prospective client sees, and it’s important to ensure that you’re making a positive impression. An attention-grabbing profile includes:
Optimizing your profile to include keywords can also help you gain more visibility in LinkedIn searches. Familiarizing yourself with search engine optimization (SEO) can give you an idea of which keywords you may want to include in your LinkedIn profile. SEO refers to strategies and techniques that are designed to increase your visibility in search results.
As you build your profile, showcase your expertise and experience in a way that’s relatable to prospective clients. And consider asking members of your professional network or existing clients to share recommendations on your page. 
LinkedIn has become increasingly content-focused. And there are several ways you can use that to your advantage when it comes to generating leads.
Some of the types of content you can publish through LinkedIn include:
The key to creating content that attracts views and engagement is knowing what your target clients are most likely to respond to. You can publish the most interesting and informative thought leadership article ever written, but it won’t matter if your audience doesn’t care about the topic. 
In the Broadridge survey, only four in 10 advisors focused on creating personalized content, despite 42% of clients saying they would prefer content that’s tailored to their needs, goals and life situation. If you’re unsure what prospective clients are most likely to respond to, developing buyer personas or an ideal client avatar may shed some light. 
It’s also important to include a clear call to action in your posts. For example, you might share a snippet of a case study your firm recently published and direct readers to visit your website to download the full text. This also gives you a chance to add them to your mailing list, should they need to enter their email address to access the case study.
Generating leads through LinkedIn or any other platform goes beyond content. You also need to build relationships with the people who follow you.
Prompting interaction with current or prospective clients could be as simple as asking a question on your profile. For instance, if your ideal clients are married 40-somethings with kids, you might post a question asking them about their biggest struggles in saving for college or retirement.
Responding to comments and sharing content from other LinkedIn users are also ways to drive engagement. The goal is to let prospects see the person you are behind the profile and create conversations. Those conversations are your entry point for telling a prospect more about what you do and how you can help them.
Digital ads can help you increase your exposure online. With LinkedIn ads, you can target a specific audience through the platform to ensure that your messaging reaches the right people.
LinkedIn offers multiple ad options, including:
Sponsored ads can take different formats, including static images, videos, carousels or documents. Sponsored messaging allows you to send ads to a prospect’s LinkedIn inbox, while text and dynamic ads will appear as someone browses the site on their desktop or phone. 
You have full control over your LinkedIn ad budget and can start or stop campaigns at any time. Before launching an ad, consider your goal. Are you looking to increase overall brand awareness, or promote a specific service your firm offers?
Targeting is another key factor. For example, dynamic ads let you tailor campaigns based on details from a prospect’s LinkedIn profile, such as their employer or job title. This can be especially useful if you specialize in working with certain professionals, like physicians.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is designed for prospecting, and while it’s not exclusive to financial advisors, it can be an effective way to generate leads.
Here are some of the things you can do with Sales Navigator:
Sales Navigator integrates with several top customer relationship management (CRM) applications, including Salesforce. This feature is available with the Advanced Plus plan. You can request a demo to explore Sales Navigator features and get more information about plan pricing.
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While LinkedIn is a powerful tool, financial advisors can also diversify their lead generation efforts with other effective strategies.
SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform), for instance, is a leading end-to-end marketing solution that can deliver validated referrals and automated outreach tools that make it easier to follow up with potential clients. This includes a feature known as Fast Call, which gives advisors the opportunity to automatically call a lead when it’s received. 
Other AMP tools include:
These types of features allow you to streamline client acquisition efforts beyond LinkedIn. Sign up for a free demo today.
Content marketing is another strategy, leveraging blogs, podcasts, or webinars to attract and educate prospects. Again, the key is creating content that’s interesting and personalized to fit your ideal clients. 
Finally, referral programs and partnerships with other professionals, such as certified public accountants (CPAs) and estate attorneys, can help advisors tap into existing client networks for new opportunities.
Automate your marketing with a proven system. Automated outreach, nurture campaigns and more.
Social media can be a powerful tool for marketing your advisory business, and LinkedIn stands out as a platform tailored to professional growth. Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn attracts users focused on building business connections, exploring career opportunities and keeping up with industry news.
For financial advisors, LinkedIn offers several distinct advantages:
For advisors targeting young professionals, business owners or affluent individuals, LinkedIn can be a particularly effective channel for growth.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sets rules concerning the kinds of statements advisors can and cannot make in their marketing materials. When sharing content on LinkedIn (or other marketing platforms) advisors must:
Running any content you create for LinkedIn past your chief compliance officer (CCO) for review can help you avoid potential violations. If you’re using compliance software for content review, it may be equipped to detect keywords or phrases that are noncompliant.
As mentioned, LinkedIn allows the option to post recommendations written by clients, colleagues or former employers on your profile page. Having glowing reviews or recommendations on your page can increase your credibility in the eyes of prospective clients. The SEC’s marketing rule allows registered investment advisors (RIAs) to share testimonials or endorsements; however, there are some stipulations.
RIAs must disclose:
In turn, RIAs can post recommendations, but there are standards you must follow. If you’re unsure whether a recommendation meets the marketing rule standard, you may want to hide it from your profile altogether.
If you’re interested in working with more high-net-worth investors, LinkedIn could be an outstanding place to find them. Posting content that’s likely to be top of mind for someone with a higher net worth, on topics like investing, estate planning or the economy could be an excellent way to get their attention. You may also leverage your network on the platform to connect with high-net-worth leads.
There’s no rule saying you have to create a LinkedIn profile for your advisory business. However, you could miss opportunities to expand your professional network and promote your firm to prospects if you don’t have a LinkedIn presence. If the type of client you’re hoping to target regularly uses the platform, it makes sense to leverage it as part of your marketing plan.
Using LinkedIn to get more clients starts with having a profile that highlights who you are as an advisor and what you do. Creating unique and valuable content for your audience that encourages engagement can help you expand your reach. You can also take advantage of built-in platform features like LinkedIn ads or LinkedIn Sales Navigator to attract more clients to your business.
If you’re not using LinkedIn for lead generation, you could be short-changing your business’s potential for growth. Knowing who you want to target can help you shape your marketing efforts. If you haven’t done so already, spend some time identifying who your target clients are and what type of marketing campaigns may be most effective in attracting them.
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All articles are reviewed and updated by SmartAsset’s fact-checkers for accuracy. Visit our Editorial Policy for more details on our overall journalistic standards.
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