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The 50-Point NDIS Marketing Checklist

Fifty tasks across seven areas, ordered so the work that unblocks everything else comes first. Twenty-one are flagged do first, so a time-poor provider can work the short list and ignore the rest until later. Tick as you go: your progress is saved on this device, per section, so you can see exactly where you are weak.

Progress saves on your device No email, no login, nothing sent anywhere Prints to a clean one-page plan
774,456
participants in the scheme at 31 March 2026
277,376
active providers, fewer than three participants each
526,376
participants using a plan manager
1,481
plan managers serving all of them

Figures from the NDIA Quarterly Report to disability ministers, Q3 2025-26 (data to 31 March 2026). Two things follow from those numbers. First, the provider market is crowded and fragmented, so being easy to find and easy to contact does more for you than being clever. Second, a very small number of plan management organisations sit alongside a very large share of participants, which is why the referral section of this checklist matters more than most providers treat it. For context on the higher-value end of the market, the same report records 36,808 participants receiving Supported Independent Living, at average annual SIL payments of $447,100 each.

How to use it

Work the short list first

Most marketing checklists are a flat wall of tickboxes that tell you nothing about sequence. This one is grouped into seven areas and every item carries a one-line reason, so you can decide whether it applies to you rather than ticking on faith.

  1. Do the do-first items only. Press Do first only in the bar below to hide the other 29 items. Twenty-one remain. These are the ones where being wrong costs you enquiries or creates compliance risk.
  2. Watch your weakest area. The bar tells you which of the seven sections has the lowest score. In our client onboarding that is almost always the referral network or measurement, and almost never the website.
  3. Come back to it. Ticks are written to your browser’s local storage on this device. There is no account and nothing is sent to us. Press Reset to wipe it, or clear your browser data and it goes with it.
  4. Print it for the team meeting. Print gives you a clean black-and-white version with your current ticks, no navigation and no ads, on the fewest pages it will fit.

Where an item is our opinion rather than a published rule or a figure we can point at, it is labelled as such. Everything else links to the source.

0%0 of 50

Nothing ticked yet. 50 items, 21 of them marked do first.

1 Foundations

Seven decisions everything else sits on. Get these wrong and the rest of the list has to be redone later.

0/7

2 Findability

Nine tasks that decide whether you appear at all when a family or coordinator searches for a provider near them.

0/9

3 Website and conversion

Nine tasks that decide whether the people who do find you actually make contact.

0/9

4 Proof and reputation

Six tasks that turn “they look fine” into “them”. This is the section providers most often intend to do and never start.

0/6

5 Referral network

Seven tasks for the channel most providers underwork. 526,376 participants use a plan manager, and only about 1,481 plan managers serve them.

0/7

6 Compliance and risk

Six checks. None of these will win you a participant, and any of them can cost you one. General information only, not legal advice.

0/6

7 Measurement

Six habits. Without them you cannot tell which of the previous 44 items is actually working for you.

0/6

Reading your score

Everything below is our opinion, formed from running this list in client onboarding rather than from published research.

Under 40 percent. Do not buy advertising yet. Traffic sent at a site with a broken form, no proof and no named referral contacts converts poorly, and you will conclude that marketing does not work when what failed was the plumbing. Work section one and section two only.

40 to 70 percent. This is where most established providers sit. The gap is almost always sections five and seven, the referral network and measurement, because they are the only two that cannot be finished in an afternoon and never look urgent. Pick the one with the lowest score in the bar above and give it four weeks.

Above 70 percent. The foundations are done and the constraint is usually consistency rather than knowledge: the vacancy update that goes out every month, the review ask that actually happens, the cost per enquiry that gets reviewed. At this point extra spend does start to compound.

Want the same review done for you? We will look at your visibility against the providers competing in your catchment and send a written growth plan, free, whether or not you work with us. Ask for a growth plan.

Questions about this checklist

Where should a new provider start?

Foundations, then findability. Until your registration status, catchment and contact paths are right, anything built on top has to be redone. Press Do first only and work the 21 items top to bottom before you look at the rest.

Is my progress sent to NDIS Growth?

No. Ticks are stored in your own browser using localStorage, on the device you are using right now. Nothing is transmitted to us or anyone else, there is no login, and there is no way for us to see your score. Pressing Reset, or clearing your browser data, erases it. If you are in private browsing your browser may block storage entirely, in which case the bar tells you so and the checklist still works for the session.

Why does the referral section matter more than it looks?

Because of how concentrated that side of the scheme is. The NDIA reported 526,376 participants using a plan manager at 31 March 2026, served by roughly 1,481 plan managers, alongside 277,376 active providers competing for attention. Relationships with a small number of coordinators and plan managers in your catchment reach further than the same effort spent broadening your advertising.

Does any of this apply to SIL providers specifically?

The whole list applies, but the stakes differ. The same NDIA report records 36,808 participants receiving Supported Independent Living at average annual payments of $447,100 each, so for SIL providers a single vacancy left unfilled is a materially different number from a missed allied health enquiry. That is why the vacancy update in section five is flagged do first.

Can I use the NDIS logo in my marketing?

Only if you are entitled to and you follow the NDIA logo guidelines. There are specific rules about the registered provider mark, and unregistered providers must not imply a registration they do not hold. Check the guidelines before a designer puts anything on a vehicle or a flyer.

Is this legal or compliance advice?

No. Section six is general information to prompt the right questions, pointing at the NDIA logo guidelines and the NDIS Code of Conduct as published. For anything specific to your organisation, take proper advice.

By The NDIS Growth Team · Updated 11 August 2026 · Scheme figures from the NDIA Quarterly Report to disability ministers, Q3 2025-26, covering the quarter to 31 March 2026. This is the same foundation list we work through in client onboarding.