Build Your List: Top 10 Ways Financial Advisors can Get More Subscribers
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—at the core of every advisor’s digital marketing strategy should be two things:
Build your list
Engage your list
But that’s easier said than done. Building a substantial list of subscribers can take months if not years. You have to know where your audience is, get your content in front of them, and get them interested enough to sign up.
Definitely easier said than done in 2025, when every other advisor has a blog, podcast, and YouTube channel they’re pushing. But it’s worth it, considering that email is the only future-proof digital marketing method for advisors.
With the right strategies—some old, some new, some plainly obvious, and some not so much—you can still build a first-person audience of hundreds. Let’s get to it.
1. Add an Exit Intent Subscribe Form to Your Website
I know, I know—really groundbreaking stuff, right?
But the truth is, in all my years running email lists and websites for advisors, this is by far the single most consistently effective tactic for subscribers. Seriously.
I had a client some years ago who had a handful of “hit” blog posts that brought their website the vast majority of its traffic. All that traffic was nice to look at, but it wasn’t doing much for their pipeline. Once we added a popup form, they brought in 10-20 subscribers every month from those old articles without doing anything!
(Just in case you’re not familiar with the term, an “exit intent” form is the one that pops up when someone signals that they are planning to leave your site by moving their mouse to the top of the screen. I like to call it the Columbo form—oh, one more thing before you go…)
2. Subscription Forms in Your Posts
These are your standard subscription forms, just slipped into the middle of your articles—like the one coming up right here!
3. Use it as the CTA Whenever You Speak Somewhere
When I used to host webinars, I would create a special ebook or fact sheet to give to attendees. Everyone does it, and it always felt like the right move.
Then one time, I was a guest speaker on a webinar and rather than bring a piece of content to give to people who attended, I decided to just share a link to our newsletter subscription page. In the course of one hour, we got dozens of new subscribers! And these weren’t just random people who happened upon our website, these were subscribers who had already listened to me talk for 20 minutes and wanted to hear more!
You can still give people an ebook if they choose to go this route, too. After they subscribe, just send them a welcome email with a link to your piece of content.
4. Create Lead Magnets – Ebooks, Fact Sheets, Spreadsheet
Gated lead magnets (i.e., downloadable pieces of content that require people to enter their email address to access them) have fallen a little out of vogue in the current marketing landscape. “Give everything away all the time!” marketers yell. And I agree, to some extent.
Both ways (gated and ungated) have their strengths. If you don’t ask for contact info, then more people will download your ebook, which means more people will see your content and see your CTA at the end of it encouraging them to reach out to schedule a consultation. On the other hand, if you do ask for contact info, your list will grow, and you’ll have the chance to turn that subscriber into a client.
5. Create a Standalone Subscription Page and Share That on Social Once a Month
I see this one get missed a lot. Advisors may have subscribe forms all over their website, but they have no standalone subscription page. The problem with this is that you have nothing to share with people when they ask, “How do I subscribe?”
Create a subscription page with a simple URL like www.yourwebsite.com/subscribe, then if someone asks you in-person, it’s easy to remember.
Once you have that page, share it on social once a month, along with a preview of what will be included in your next newsletter or a teaser of what you’ve covered in previous issues.
6. Publish a Guest Article on a COI’s Blog and Include a Link to Your Subscription Page
Hopefully, you know a few accountants, lawyers, realtors, and other COIs who have blogs on their websites. Let them publish something on your blog and then ask if you can publish something on theirs. Whatever you publish on their blog, be sure to include a CTA that points to your subscription page.
7. Webinars
Webinars are a great way to grow your list, namely because they tend to attract only the most interested prospects (depending on the topic, of course). Again, partner up with a COI to offer a webinar that would be of interest to their audience and then they can join you on one for your audience.
8. Sign Your Clients Up
Clients are the most important part of every advisor’s subscriber list. Some may not want to hear from you, but others do, and they are more likely than anyone else to share your content with someone they know.
If you haven’t signed your clients up for your newsletter, do so—just be sure to tell them about it first.
9. Run Ads
While social media ads leave much to be desired, there’s still a case to be made for running ads to get subscribers, especially if you have a niche that is easily reached using the social platform’s targeting capabilities.
10. Put a Sign-Up Sheet at Reception in Your Office
There’s nothing wrong with a good ol’ fashioned clipboard with a pen attached to it. Many advisors eschew this route because it’s not “modern” enough, but think about this: If prospects come into visit you and decide they’re not quite ready to hire you, this gives them a chance to subscribe and stay in touch. If clients come in who don’t get your newsletter, this gives them a chance to sign up. It’s a no-lose situation.
That’s it! If you can implement all of those, then you are well on your way to growing a high-quality list of both prospects and clients.
Need Some Help?
At Clay Pigeon, building and engaging advisor subscriber lists is our bread and butter. We geek out on data from your list, apply that data to your content plan, then help create the most engaging content out there.
Interested? Click here to schedule a conversation and find out if we’re a good fit.
