A Practical Guide to Finding More NDIS Clients

It can be a challenge to find NDIS participants in such a competitive environment. We’ve put together this list of nine steps to help your NDIS provider business land new clients.

The biggest benefit of being an NDIS registered provider has to be that more clients can use your services. You can now offer your services for participants no matter how they have their funds managed: self managed, plan managed, and agency managed.

Becoming an NDIS registered provider takes a lot of effort in itself, but the challenge isn’t over – now, you need to find NDIS clients and build your network.

There’s no one right way to do things, but we have plenty of tips to help you get started to support more NDIS participants. Even if you’re not a registered NDIS provider business, you can still benefit from some of these marketing tactics.

 

 

While being an NDIS registered provider is absolutely about what you know, building your client base can be made easier by who you know in your local community.

If other professionals know about your services (and how working alongside you can be mutually beneficial for their own NDIS business), they may be of help to spread the word to more participants.

1. Connect with local Support Coordinators 

By using the NDIS Provider Finder tool, you can access a list of the NDIS Support Coordinators in your local area. From there you can go to their websites and find details on the participants they support, and any specialisation they may have to support people with a certain disability.

Sending a personalised, but succinct, email about why your NDIS services are relevant to their work can help strike up a professional relationship, or even get you on their list of preferred providers. Be specific to their offerings and avoid sending generic emails! 

2. Connect with Local Area Coordinators (LACs)

Again, the NDIS directory can help with seeing LACs operating in your area. You can find the offices and ask to speak to the community engagement officer, to see if you can link up around specific community events – you might be able to send information for them to pass on for disability support events like morning teas or peer mentoring.

3. Connect with other providers in your area

Find providers in your area that offer services complementary to yours, even ones that are not specifically disability providers. Working with other local businesses can help you share marketing costs, build recognition for your brand faster, and ultimately get NDIS clients who are compatible with your services. You might also look to connect with allied health providers if your services align.

Build your brand identity & online visibility

If you want people to engage with your services, it needs to be made very clear what those services are, and why you are different (and better) than any other competitor NDIS business. If you do have a website, make sure it is a user friendly website built with accessibility in mind.

1. Create a professional profile

This might be on your own website, or on a care provider directory like NDSP’s Disability Service Providers network. Use a high resolution, professional image (of yourself or of your logo) and work on your ‘elevator pitch’ that puts the most important things first.

This is in case people stop reading or the directory’s preview cuts off after a certain amount of characters. To attract NDIS participants, you need them to get the message even if they only read a small portion of it.

2. Use the NDIS Provider logo and tags

You’ve put the effort into becoming an NDIS registered provider, so you should make sure this is prominent on your website or other marketing materials (like brochures).

The NDIS provider logos show that you have registered with the scheme, which can reassure potential clients about your professionalism as a support worker or provider business. Be sure to check the T&Cs for when you can and cannot include the ‘I/we heart NDIS’, ‘I/we support the NDIS’, and ‘Registered provider’ tagline on your marketing material.

3. Get listed with local business directories

Outside of NDIS-specific directories, you can also add yourself to things like Yellow Pages or True Local. Some areas may have their own business directories as well – you could go old school and ask to put some flyers up on community notice boards around the place too.

You should also consider setting up a free Google Business Profile (GBP) with your up-to-date contact details, services you provide, your service area, and business hours. You can also add nice photos and a link to your website. Then, you must start asking clients for Google reviews – these are critical to helping you appear in the Google Maps local pack. Having a GBP can help people find you in search results, though if you really want to get serious about creating a strong online presence, you might look into partnering with an NDIS marketing agency that understands the unique needs of providers in the sector.

In any case, set a reminder for every six months or so to go over and check all your listed details are still correct (and any links are in working order!)

4. Use social media platforms

While not everyone’s cup of tea, social media pages are free to start and can be a great place to share client success stories, your own personal journey, answers to common questions, and create more genuine-feeling engagement with your community. You can even use free tools like Canva to make branded content or edit videos if you want to really utilise these highly visual platforms.

Similarly you may be able to network through Facebook community pages, sharing your expertise and client successes. You can also join groups pertaining to your services, particularly those connecting participants with providers. This is a good way to find self-managed participants who are looking for proof of a good fit, because it gives you a chance to communicate and build a voice as a trusted expert.

Promote your point of difference

You need to keep showing people your point of difference, because you never know where or when the right person will come across your details. Some ideas to get you started:

• Your service differentiation: What do you offer that other providers don’t? How does the way you provide service make things easier, more pleasant, or at least less stressful for participants? For example, “We are great at matching you with a support that you’ll click with. Ben is supported by James, they share a love for trains.”
• Your cost differentiation: How you offer better value for money than other NDIS providers. This doesn’t have to be your per hour rate – it could be how you claim for travel, transport, or last minute cancellations. This would also be covered in any service agreement you make with clients.

Another good way to prove you are the best choice is to celebrate wins. Make sure across whatever platforms you use, you continue to provide social proof (like client testimonials and reviews) of your quality service delivery. 

The good opinion of your existing or past clients can be a very powerful tool to help convince new clients of your trustworthiness and suitability.

Stay up to date with NDIS news & developments

The NDIS landscape is subject to change. Being across everything NDIS is not only necessary to ensuring you stay compliant as a provider, but it also means you can reassure clients about changes and what they might mean.

By going to NDIS events in your areas, you can also meet other service providers and larger organisations that may be able to help grow your network (and over time, your client base).

Related:

• NDIS Support Worker Pay Rates in 2025
• NDIS vs Thriving Kids: What You Need to Know
• New Changes to NDIS Funding Periods

Working with NDSP Plan Managers

Our provider finder lists both registered and unregistered providers from across Australia. This is unlike the official NDIS provider finder, which only had NDIS registered provider businesses. So even if you are not NDIS registered, we can still help you gain more visibility right where prospective clients are looking for help.

Our dedicated Community Engagement Managers are tasked with creating meaningful relationships in each state and territory, with providers and other stakeholders within the disability community. We focus on building these relationships so we can then provide better NDIS plan management assistance to our own clients, and to your clients if they are working with NDSP.

If you have questions about how it works, our expert team has answers – why not contact NDSP today to find out more.

We hope this article has given you some ideas on how to get NDIS clients to help your business grow. Don’t hesitate to reach out because we’re always looking to link up high quality providers.