How to get WAY more reviews

When I launched my first agency, I thought our results would speak for themselves. If we did great work, clients would come. I learned quickly that’s not how the world works.

Results matter, but reputation is what scales. Reviews are how people decide if you’re credible, trustworthy, and worth hiring.

If you’re doing between $250K and $500K a year, this is the stage where momentum starts to matter. You’re still small enough that every review counts, but big enough that ignoring your reputation will cost you. A single bad review can turn off dozens of prospects (or more). Alternatively, a steady stream of great reviews will cut your sales cycle in half.

Most agency owners treat reviews as an afterthought. They’ll ask for one here, one there. Or drop a hint in an email, but there’s no system.

I learned from running a $7 million agency that if you want reviews, the process has to be operationalized. A review must be requested of clients at the right times in the process.

Start by asking early and often. Don’t wait until the end of a project when clients have moved on mentally. Ask right after you deliver something meaningful, like a great campaign, a strong lead flow month, or a successful launch. And don’t rely on memory. Automate it. Use email or SMS follow-ups with links to Google, Clutch, Facebook, or wherever your prospects actually look.

Also, think about diversification. Google reviews are important, but AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are starting to scrape data from other sites. That means your reputation has to exist across multiple platforms. Spread your reviews out, not only to Google, Facebook, Clutch, and LinkedIn. If you’re invisible outside Google, you’re missing half the internet.

Set a goal for how many new reviews you’ll get each month and track it like you track new leads. Reward your team when they get a review for the company. Reward them more if the client mentions their name in the review! When reviews become part of your culture, referrals and retention will increase.

It isn’t glamorous work. It’s not “scaling" or “automation” or “AI-powered growth.” It’s the stuff that builds trust, and trust closes deals faster than any Google ad ever could.

We teach agency owners exactly how to systematize this kind of thing. Run a profitable, operationally tight agency that doesn’t depend on you to hustle for every lead.

I hope that helps.

~ Erik