A practical guide to evaluating what’s working and planning for the year ahead
January is planning season. Your clients are setting goals, reviewing their portfolios, and thinking about the year ahead. You should be doing the same thing with your marketing.
But here’s the thing: a marketing audit doesn’t need to be overwhelming. You don’t need to rebuild everything from scratch or hire an expensive consultant to tell you what’s broken.
You just need to get 10% better.
I borrow this philosophy from Dan Harris’s book “10% Happier.” The premise is simple: small, sustainable improvements beat dramatic overhauls every time. Applied to your marketing, this means identifying one or two tweaks at each stage of your funnel that will compound over the year.
Let’s walk through each stage.
Awareness: What Are You Actually Known For?
The top of your funnel is all about visibility. Are the right people finding you? And when they do, do they immediately understand what you do and who you serve?
Most advisors struggle here because they’re trying to be everything to everyone. Their website talks about retirement planning, tax strategies, estate planning, investment management, and insurance. Their social media bounces between market commentary, lifestyle content, and the occasional firm announcement. There’s no through-line.
Your audit question: What 3-4 topics do you want to be known for this year?
These should be areas where you have genuine expertise, subjects you actually enjoy discussing, and topics your ideal clients care deeply about. Once you’ve identified them, look at your website, your LinkedIn profile, your blog content, and any other marketing touchpoints. Does everything align with those 3-4 themes? Or is your messaging scattered?
Getting 10% better here might mean updating your LinkedIn headline to reflect your specialty. Or rewriting your website homepage to lead with the problem you solve. Or committing to only post content about your core topics for the next 90 days.
Interest: Is Your Lead Magnet Actually Compelling?
Once someone knows you exist, you need a way to capture their interest. For most advisors, this means a lead magnet – something valuable enough that a prospect will give you their email address to get it.
The problem is that most advisor lead magnets are painfully generic. “7 Tips for Retirement” doesn’t cut it anymore. There are thousands of those floating around the internet.
The lead magnets that work in 2026 solve a specific, urgent problem. They make someone say, “Oh, I actually need this right now.”
A few examples that work:
A quiz that tells executives if their stock compensation strategy is optimized. An interactive checklist for business owners preparing for a sale. A guide comparing the actual retirement readiness of different savings rates.
Your audit question: Would you download your own lead magnet if you were your ideal client?
Be honest. If the answer is lukewarm, it’s time to rethink what you’re offering.
Nurture: Are You Actually Showing Up Consistently?
The middle of the funnel is where most advisors drop the ball. They capture an email address, send a few newsletters, and then… silence until they remember they should probably send something.
Prospects notice this inconsistency. And it doesn’t build trust.
The advisors who win at nurture marketing aren’t necessarily the best writers or the most creative content producers. They’re the ones who show up reliably, month after month, year after year.
Your audit question: What frequency can you actually sustain for 12 straight months?
Not what sounds impressive at a conference. Not what some marketing guru told you to do. What can you realistically commit to given your current capacity?
For some advisors, that’s weekly. For others, it’s monthly. There’s no magic answer except the one you’ll actually stick to.
Once you’ve picked your frequency, protect it like a client meeting. Put it on your calendar. Assign ownership. Build a system.
Conversion: How Easy Is It to Work With You?
Someone has found you. They’ve downloaded your lead magnet. They’ve read your emails for months. Now they’re ready to book a call.
How easy do you make that?
I recently tried to book a discovery call with a service provider. The process involved a lengthy intake form, a confirmation email, a second scheduling step, and then another form with nearly identical questions. By the middle of it, I was frustrated. By the end, I almost didn’t complete it.
Every extra click, every extra form field, every unclear instruction is a chance for a prospect to abandon ship.
Your audit question: How many steps does it take to book a call with you, and how many of them are actually necessary?
Go through your own booking process. Time it. Count the clicks. Feel the friction your prospects feel.
The 10% better version probably involves eliminating half the questions on your intake form, using scheduling software if you aren’t already, and being crystal clear about what the prospect is committing to. “This is a 20-minute introductory call to see if we might be a fit” removes ambiguity and lowers the stakes.
Client Marketing: What’s Your One Systematized Initiative?
Marketing to existing clients is the most overlooked part of most advisors’ strategies. The intention is usually there. “I should ask for more referrals.” “I should send educational content.” “I should host a client event.”
But without a system, intention stays intention.
Your audit question: What is ONE client marketing initiative you will systematize this year?
Just one. Maybe it’s a quarterly referral ask built into your client review process. Maybe it’s a monthly educational email that goes only to clients. Maybe it’s two client appreciation events already on the calendar for 2026.
The specific initiative matters less than having a system. Put it in your CRM. Assign it to a team member. Make it automatic.
Quick Wins for January
While you’re thinking strategically about your funnel, here are three things you can do this week that will generate immediate results:
First, email past prospects who went cold. Pull up everyone from the last 6-18 months who had a discovery call but didn’t convert. Send a simple, personal check-in. No pitch, no pressure, just genuine curiosity about how they’re doing. You’ll be surprised how many respond with “I’ve actually been meaning to reach out.”
Second, ask for referrals. Pick three clients who you know are happy with your work. After your next meeting with each of them, ask directly: “I built my practice working with people like you. If you know anyone in a similar situation who might benefit from this kind of planning, I’d love an introduction.” Specific beats generic.
Third, get reviews. Send all of your clients an email asking them to leave a Google or Wealthtender review. Most people are willing to help when asked directly. Ten new reviews in January sets you up for the whole year.
Putting It All Together
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about marketing audits: the goal isn’t to do everything at once.
If you try to overhaul your messaging, create a new lead magnet, systematize your nurture sequence, fix your conversion process, and implement a referral system all in January, you’ll burn out by February and nothing will actually get done.
Instead, pick one area. Get 10% better. Build the habit or the system. Then move to the next.
Small improvements compound. An advisor who gets 10% better at each stage of their funnel over the course of a year ends up dramatically more effective than one who tries to transform everything overnight.
So here’s my challenge to you: What’s the one stage of your funnel that’s weakest right now? What’s one small improvement you can make this month?
Start there. The rest will follow.