The most successful way for advisors to gain new clients is through referrals from existing clients, according to a survey released Tuesday by Advisors Trusted Advisor.
While referrals were reported as the most successful way to gain new business, the most popular marketing tactic was face-to-face networking at client events. The second most successful way to gain new business is through referrals from other professionals. The second most popular marketing tactic was speaking at seminars.
Social media and cold calling ranked last on advisors' lists of favorite marketing tactics, but ATA principal Mike Slemmer noted that social media does play a part in advisors' practices.
"Comparing these data to ATA's 2009 survey on business building, LinkedIn use has more than doubled and — more significantly — those responding that their firm disallows social media use has been halved, to 33% from 65%," Slemmer said in a press release. "Moreover, the comments reflected a wide range of uses for social media that we didn't see in the 2009 results."