What Top-Growing Advisory Firms Are Doing Differently in 2026

When we sat down to host our recent webinar, 2026 Marketing Trends Shaping Financial Advisor Growth, we weren’t looking for polished theory.

We wanted to hear what’s actually working.

We brought together three industry leaders who live this every day from different angles: Kevin Lonergan, Independent firm advisor under LPL - Founder and Owner of Pacific Wealth Management Group; Carlyn Hosking Vice President at Luson Media, LLC; and Dan Schrock Head of Business Development, Marketing and Insurance Operations at CG Financial; and Graham Turner, President of Snappy Kraken, who led the webinar.

What followed was a candid conversation about how advisory firms are rethinking growth in 2026, and what’s separating the firms gaining momentum from the ones still relying on fragmented marketing efforts.

Building better marketing systems 

The biggest takeaway was simple: growth is no longer about doing more advisor marketing. It is about building better marketing systems.

The firms seeing better results are not treating marketing like a string of one-off campaigns. They are building repeatable systems that support personalization, timely follow-up, and consistent engagement.

As Carlyn put it, “Campaigns are great, but what really matters is being able to repeat them. Once you know which campaigns are working for you, you can build on them and repeat that campaign. It doesn’t have to be the same topic, you can change the topic, while still using the same process and flow.”

Personalization is crucial

That shift sounds simple, but it changes everything.

Instead of constantly starting over, firms are finding ways to create more structure around their outreach, and the speakers shared specific examples of what that looks like in practice. They talked about being more intentional about the client journey, the messages people receive, and how marketing can keep working even when advisors are pulled in a dozen different directions.

The discussion also made clear that personalization is no longer optional. Generic communication is easy to ignore. The advisors and firms making progress are segmenting more thoughtfully, speaking more directly to specific audiences, and using content that feels relevant instead of routine.

Dan captured that perfectly when he said, “The best marketing and the best marketing content delivered to the wrong audience can actually do more harm than good.”

That line stuck with us because it gets at a real challenge many firms face: it is not enough to have good content. It has to reach the right person, at the right time, in the right context, which is exactly where tools like segmentation and tracking can make all the difference.

Speed to lead

Another theme that surfaced throughout the webinar was speed.

Prospects do not stay warm forever.

Interest fades.

Opportunities move on...

The panel talked openly about how automation and workflow design can help firms respond faster without creating more manual work for busy teams. Kevin brought that idea down to a practical level, explaining that his team uses engagement data to identify the most active contacts, “the hottest (most active) ones you would call immediately.”

That was part of what made the webinar so valuable. The panelists brought strategic insight and practical experience to the conversation, grounding their ideas in the real work of attracting prospects, nurturing those relationships, and maintaining contact with existing clients.

One of the strongest threads in the conversation was that organic growth does not come only from chasing new leads. It also comes from serving current clients well, communicating consistently, and creating enough value that your name stays top of mind when conversations and referrals happen.

That is just a glimpse of what the panel covered.

If you are trying to build a more scalable marketing system, create more personalized outreach, improve follow-up, or simply understand what other firms are doing differently right now, the replay goes beyond high-level trends to show how these ideas actually look in practice.

To hear direct answers, honest insight, and takeaways you can put to work immediately, click here to watch the reply. 

This blog recap only scratches the surface.