Cold Calling Is Out; Lead Generation Is In for 2023: Survey

As the turn of the year draws near, financial advisors are assessing their businesses and marketing strategies and drawing up plans for 2023. 

SmartAsset surveyed 272 advisors on its platform in October to find out how they are currently marketing to clients and their expectations for 2023.

Sixty-eight percent of advisors said marketing is very important for their firm and growing their client base, while another 23% said it is fairly important.

According to the survey, 38.8% of advisors said lead generation platforms will be their main marketing strategy in 2023, up from 31.7% this year. In-person events will also come into more use, cited by 21.5%, up from 16.2% in 2022. 

Only 12.2% of advisors said social media outreach is their firm’s primary marketing strategy this year, but 18.6% said it will be the most important one in 2023.

Cold-calling and traditional advertisements are becoming much less popular. More than 52% of advisors said they are cold-calling less in 2022 than in previous years, and about 37% reported that they are promoting fewer traditional advertisements.