What you will learn
Why Retention Drives IB Revenue
Acquiring a new client costs time, money and effort. Keeping an existing client active costs a fraction of that. Yet most IBs invest the vast majority of their effort in acquisition and minimal effort in retention — which creates a leaky bucket dynamic where new clients barely offset the ones quietly going inactive.
Retention is also a multiplier on acquisition. If you are acquiring 20 new clients per month with 50% annual retention, your active portfolio grows slowly. With 80% annual retention on the same acquisition rate, your active portfolio grows substantially faster. Fix retention before accelerating acquisition.
The First 90 Days Are Critical
Most client churn happens in the first 90 days — not because clients had a bad experience, but because they did not have enough support or context to build a successful trading habit. Early inactivity becomes permanent inactivity if nothing intervenes.
Design your onboarding around answering questions before they are asked. Create a 3-email welcome sequence triggered on registration. Check in personally at Day 7, Day 30 and Day 60. Provide educational resources that help them use the platform effectively. An IB who invests 20 minutes in a new client's onboarding saves hours of re-engagement attempts later.
Day 7 check-in
A personal message at Day 7 — not automated — is one of the highest-impact retention interventions available. Ask what questions they have, what they are finding difficult, and what you can help with. Most IBs never do this. The ones who do have measurably higher 90-day retention.
Communication Cadence
Regular, valuable communication is the simplest retention mechanism available. Clients who hear from you regularly — with content that is actually useful to them — maintain a sense of relationship that makes them far less likely to drift to inactivity.
Build a communication calendar: monthly newsletter, weekly social content they can follow, and a quarterly personal check-in for your highest-value clients. The newsletter and social content are scalable. Reserve personal check-ins for clients generating significant volume — these relationships deserve personal investment.
Re-Engagement Campaigns
Every IB accumulates a pool of dormant clients — people who registered and may have traded briefly, then went quiet. Most IBs ignore this pool entirely. The IBs who maximise rebate income treat it as a recovery opportunity.
A three-step re-engagement campaign: (1) a no-pressure update sharing something genuinely useful with no CTA, (2) a market insight relevant to their stated interests with a soft invitation to return, (3) a direct, honest message about the opportunity they are currently missing with a specific low-friction next step. Expect 3–8% re-activation rates — on 100 dormant clients, that is 3–8 new active traders at zero acquisition cost.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Key Takeaways
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this topic from our IB community.
Action Checklist
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