Marketing for independent RIAs
Be easy to find, easy to trust, and easy to refer.
Furlong runs the marketing for advisory firms from $100M to $500M: your homepage, your reviews, your profiles, and the way referrals reach you. Written in your voice. Nothing goes out without your yes.
- Prices on the page
- No setup fee
- Month to month after 90 days
About two hours a month of your time: one call, plus your approvals.
fur·long (n.) A furrow long. About 660 feet, the distance an ox team plowed before it turned.
The problem
Referrals still work.
They just look you up first.
Most new clients still start with a referral. Then they check. They read your homepage, they search Google, and more and more, they ask ChatGPT.
If what they find is generic, the referral goes quiet. Nobody tells you. You just notice fewer first meetings than the year before.
That isn’t a lead problem. It’s a planting problem. The ground between “a friend mentioned you” and “I’d like to talk” hasn’t been tended.
True organic growth at the typical advisory firm, against a 10% target. Ensemble Practice, 2025
Client growth from referrals at practices 10+ years old, versus under 5 years. Kitces Research, 2026
What you’ve tried
Quiet beats loud.
Why Furlong
A furlong is
a furrow long.
It’s the old measure of how far a team of oxen could plow before they had to rest and turn: one straight row, worked by hand, about an eighth of a mile.
That’s how we think about marketing for an advisory firm. Not a campaign. Not a blast. One good row at a time, kept straight, kept up, season after season.
We aren’t responsible for the harvest. We are responsible for the planting.
No one honest can promise you new clients, and your CCO wouldn’t want us to. We promise the planting: the right work, done well, on schedule, every month. Then we show you what came up.
How it works
Ninety days to plow.
Then we tend it.
One interview at the start, then about two hours a month from you. Everything we write comes back to you as a review packet before it goes anywhere.
Week 1
We read your Form ADV. Then we interview you.
One 60-minute conversation. Who you serve, how you work, and the clients you’d like more of.
Weeks 2 to 4
We fix where referrals land.
Your homepage says who you serve in the first screen. Google and directory profiles get cleaned up and made consistent.
Month 2
We start your reviews program.
Every client gets the same simple ask. Disclosures are written in. Your CCO signs off once.
Month 3
We check what search and AI say.
Screenshots of what Google and ChatGPT return for an advisor like you, in your city. Then the fixes.
Month 4 on
We keep the rows straight.
One call a month, your approvals, and a one-page report: inquiries by source, reviews, profiles, and AI mentions.
Fair warning
Search takes six to twelve months to move, so we show you the numbers along the way. If nothing is moving by month four, cancel with one email.
Real photos
Your clients chose you, not a sailboat.
Most advisor websites run the same stock photos, and prospects can tell. On the Partner plan, McClain comes to your office for a half day each year with a camera and a short list of questions.
We bring the questions. Every frame goes through your review, like everything else.
- i. Portraits of you and your team
- ii. Your office, and how you actually work
- iii. A 60 to 90 second film: who you serve, in your words
- iv. Short cuts for your homepage, profiles, and emails
Compliance
Built for your CCO’s review.
Nothing goes out without a written yes.
From you, or from your compliance reviewer. No exceptions, and no “we assumed.”
Every piece comes as a review packet.
The final copy, where each fact came from, the disclosures we suggest, and a note on what changed.
Your archive captures everything.
We publish through your own accounts. You get a monthly export for your books and records.
Reviews, done by the rule.
The same ask for every client. No incentives, no editing, disclosures inline. State-registered? We check your state first.
No claims we can’t back up.
No performance figures, no projections, no “best” or “top.” We write what can be shown.
We don’t need client data.
We work from interviews and public information. We never ask for client records.
We don’t call our work “compliant.” That’s your CCO’s call. Our job is to make the review short.
The Referable Firm Program
Three plans.
Prices on the page.
Foundation
$2,000a month
Be easy to find and easy to trust. Usually $100M to $200M, one advisor.
- Form ADV read and a 60-minute positioning interview
- Homepage rewrite: who you serve, fees, and minimums, in the first screen
- Google Business Profile and directory profiles, kept current
- Reviews program on your own site, with a one-page policy for your CCO
- “How did you find us?” tracking on your contact form
- Quarterly check of what Google and ChatGPT say about you
- One client email a month, in your voice
- A one-page monthly report
Best fit for most firms
Growth
$3,500a month
Add the referral side. Usually $200M to $500M, two to four advisors.
- Everything in Foundation
- Pages for the clients you focus on, plus local search work
- Two articles a month built around your niche
- A referral kit: client touch calendar, thank-you notes, and wording that welcomes referrals
- One-pagers for the CPAs and attorneys who refer to you
- First-meeting agenda, follow-up templates, and close-rate tracking
- A quarterly planning call
Includes a photo day
Partner
$6,000a month
For larger or multi-advisor firms, or a firm bringing up its next advisor.
- Everything in Growth
- A half-day photo and film session each year at your office
- Profiles and bios for each advisor, including your next one
- Materials for client events and CPA or attorney lunches
- A monthly planning call instead of quarterly
- Your work goes to the front of the line
Not ready for a monthly plan?
Start with a Visibility Review. $750, one time.
A deeper look than the free teardown, and a plan you can use with or without us. Delivered within seven business days. Start a plan within 30 days and the full $750 comes off your first month.
- Your website and profiles, read the way a referred prospect reads them
- What Google, ChatGPT, and Perplexity say about you, next to three local firms
- A plain list of anything your CCO may want to look at
- A ranked fix list, with the effort and cost of each
- A 30-minute walkthrough with McClain
- No setup fee
- 90 days to start, then month to month
- Cancel with one email
- You own your site, accounts, and files
- One firm per city and niche
Five or more advisors? We’ll quote it after a short call. Photo day travel is quoted up front. Not included, on purpose: paid ads, lead lists, per-lead fees, cold calling, and return or projection figures.
Fit
Who this is for,
and who it isn’t.
A good fit if
- You own an independent RIA, roughly $100M to $500M.
- You have 2 to 10 people, and nobody’s job is marketing.
- Most clients came from referrals, and fewer come now.
- You’ve tried a lead service or content library and want something different.
Not a fit if
- Your broker-dealer pre-approves your marketing. We’re not set up for those review queues yet.
- You’re in the middle of selling the firm.
- Referrals are working and you’re happy with your book. You may not need us, and that’s fine.
A note from McClain
The work is the planting.
Independent advisors do some of the most personal work there is. Then the marketing lands on their desk at 9 p.m.
I’ve spent more than a decade behind a camera, making photos and films for national brands. The lesson from all of it is simple: people trust what feels real and specific. Most advisor marketing is neither. Stock photos, borrowed articles, and promises about leads.
So I built Furlong to do the slow part well. A few people who learn your firm, write in your voice, and let you approve every word. Prices on the page. A report every month.
We won’t show you numbers we don’t have. We’ll show you ours, every month.
FAQ
Fair questions.
Do you guarantee new clients?
No. No one honest can, and your CCO wouldn’t want us to say it. We promise the planting: the work, on schedule, and a monthly report of what moved. If nothing is moving by month four, cancel with one email.
Which plan should I pick?
Most firms from $100M to $200M with one advisor start with Foundation. Firms from $200M to $500M with a few advisors usually fit Growth, because referrals and follow-up are where the next clients come from. Partner is for larger or multi-advisor firms, or a firm bringing up its next advisor. Not sure? The free teardown or the Visibility Review will tell you.
What’s in the free teardown?
A short PDF with two parts. First, your homepage read the way a stranger reads it: is it clear who you serve, what you do, and why you? Second, screenshots of what Google and ChatGPT return when someone asks for an advisor like you in your city. We add the three fixes we’d make first. It’s yours to use, with or without us.
How much of my time does this take?
About two hours a month: one call and your approvals. The first month takes a little more, for the 60-minute interview. If it takes more than that, we’ve designed it wrong.
Will it sound like me?
It starts with interviews, not templates. We use your stories and your words. You read every piece before it goes anywhere.
Can I really use reviews and testimonials?
For SEC-registered advisers, the Marketing Rule has allowed them since November 2022, with disclosures. For state-registered firms it depends on the state, so we check first. Your CCO approves the program before anyone is asked.
Will you work with a firm down the street?
No. We take one firm per city and niche, and we put that in writing.
Is this written by AI?
We use AI for first drafts, formatting, and research. A person interviews you, writes the stories, checks every fact, and logs it. You approve the final word.
Why the name Furlong?
A furlong is a furrow long: the distance an ox team plowed in one straight row before turning. It’s a reminder of the job. We don’t control the harvest. We do the planting, carefully, one row at a time.
Do you work with advisors at a broker-dealer?
Not yet. Home-office review queues don’t fit how we work today. We’ll say so when that changes. The free teardown is still yours if you want it.
Where are you based?
Orlando, Florida. The monthly work is remote. For photo days, we come to your office.
Start here
See your firm the way a referral does.
Get the free teardown: your homepage, read by a stranger, plus what Google and ChatGPT say about you. A PDF in your inbox within five business days. No call needed.
