By Sarah Falcon. Updated 2026-10-08.
A plan that fits on one page gets used. It names one growth goal, the few tactics that serve it, the person who owns it, and the numbers you will read each month.
A clear client description helps the plan and the referrals that follow it. In the Kitces study, practices with a niche, meaning 75% or more of new clients in one target market, had referral-driven client growth of 5.0% against 4.5%. Referrals: what the 2026 data says
The typical practice in the 2026 Kitces study used five of the 26 tactics it examined. Between 2024 and 2026 the typical practice's revenue acquisition cost (RAC), the cost of each new dollar of client revenue, fell from just over $1.00 to $0.70. Kitces attributes the drop to advisors dropping less efficient tactics, and among advisors who answered both surveys, the typical one used one fewer tactic in 2026.
Kitces also reports that adding tactics beyond about four before the existing ones work efficiently leaves a strategy unfocused and less successful.
A plan that lists what to do should also list what to stop.
The typical practice in the study spent 7% of revenue on marketing, and about two-thirds of that was time, not cash. Practices actively seeking growth spent 8.1%. A plan that counts only cash understates what marketing costs.
The cost also shifts with size. Marketing cost as a share of revenue fell from 14% for practices under $250,000 to 6.9% in the $500,000 to $2 million range, then rose to 8.2% above $5 million, because partner time becomes more expensive as a firm grows. What partners should spend time on.
In the same study, high-growth practices were more likely than others to use at least three inputs when building a plan, such as client surveys, conferences, industry research, or consultants (65% against 49%). They were more likely to design tactics that complement one another (70% against 44%) and to track prospects once they arrive (37% against 25%). These are associations in self-reported data.
In practice that means asking clients why they chose the firm, seeing what peers do, and recording where each prospect came from.
| Section | What to write |
|---|---|
| Goal | One sentence |
| Client | Who, and where they are found |
| Tactics | Up to four, each with a reason |
| Owner | One name |
| Numbers | First meetings by source, new clients by source, partner and staff time, cash spent |
| Stop list | What the firm is dropping this year |
| Review | A date each quarter |
Kitces counts accountability, tracking, and a plan revised at least quarterly among eight steps it uses to measure how intentional a firm's marketing is.
How long should an RIA marketing plan be? One page, written so any partner can read it quickly and say what the firm is doing and why.
Who should own the plan? One person with the time and the authority to direct the work. The Kitces study counts having someone accountable as one of its eight steps of intentional marketing.
A marketing plan is one of the three ways to work with Kestrel. See the services
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