How to Get Google Reviews from Your Clients, and Why It Works
Online reviews carry more weight than almost anything else you can put in front of a prospect, but asking for them feels awkward, so most advisors put it off indefinitely. The ask itself only takes minutes, and done right, it works fast.
Why Google Reviews Matter
When a prospect is actively searching for a financial advisor, a real review from a real client is the kind of endorsement no amount of marketing copy can replace. Reviews also feed directly into your local search ranking: more positive reviews generally result in a higher ranking in local search results.
There's a rough threshold where this starts to show. Once you have between 10 and 20 positive reviews, you'll likely notice a difference in how often you show up and how seriously prospects take you. Thirty is a good number to aim for from there.
Keep Them Coming
Review count is only half the picture. A stack of five-year-old reviews doesn't carry the same weight as a handful from this month. Recency and steadiness function as ranking signals on their own, separate from your total count, so a few fresh reviews this month can outweigh a much bigger pile from years back. Also, Google has been removing reviews more aggressively than it used to, using AI to flag activity that looks like manipulation. Unsurprisingly, AI doesn't always get it right, and legitimate reviews sometimes get caught in the sweep along with the fake ones. A steady trickle of new reviews replaces anything that may drop off.
Once those reviews start coming in, don't let them sit unanswered. A quick thank-you is good manners, shows prospects that you're actively engaged with your clients, and it's also a ranking signal Google takes into account.
How One Advisor Did It
We helped a solo advisor send an email to their client list requesting Google reviews, with a follow-up a few days later. Within a week, they had 31 new reviews. The mailing wasn’t flashy; it just asked for the review. What made it work especially well was that the advisor had established a genuinely strong relationship with his clients and was already emailing his list regularly, so the review request didn’t come out of the blue.
First Things First
For this to work, you need to have claimed and verified your Google Business Profile. If you haven't done that yet, check out our first article in this series, Verified or Invisible: Claiming Your Google Business Profile, and then come back here.
Your Quick Win
Draft a review request email and send it to your client list this week. Resend it to anyone who doesn’t open it a few days later, then schedule time to respond to reviews once a week.
If you'd like help building a Google review campaign, from the email itself to a plan for keeping reviews coming in, reach out and see how we can help with a customized done-for-you marketing strategy.
This material has been edited with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools. The information presented is based on sources believed to be reliable and accurate at the time of publication. This material is for educational purposes only and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author, presenter, or affiliated organizations.
