What is Reputation Marketing?
Basically it is the idea of building a five star reputation and then marketing that reputation to attract more customers.
Build Your Reputation
Reviews.
After being referred to a business, more than half of people asked what they would do next, said they would read online reviews of the business.
Your reputation is built up of not just marketing your brand, important though that is, but making sure that when people hear about your brand and research your business, they get a favorable impression. Increasingly, the most influential part of that now is online reviews. Real people who you’ve done business with, provided a service, sold them a product, being so happy that they are prepared to spend time writing a review of your business.
The more obvious way to build a reputation is to give good service every time but sometimes things don’t work out. So if something goes wrong, ensure you respond quickly. That means monitoring for bad reviews, and responding in the right way so the reviewer is eventually left with a favorable view of your business, and future visitors see how you handled a poor review positively and so know you run a professional business they can trust.
You want customers to be able to easily give you feedback, and a review if they want to. So make it easy for them. Create a feedback page for your website (or have us do it for you). If they’re taking the trouble to let you know about their experience, good or bad, then make it easy for them, and don’t fear bad reviews, they can be turned round with the right response.
Become The Expert
Let people know the things you or your business is good at. One of the ways we help a business with this is to create what we call an ‘Expert Video’ where we interview the business owner or someone else in your business that can share expert opinions on something that then helps build your reputation for being an expert in the field.
Social Media and Blog posts. Post about topics that potential visitors are interested in and share knowledge, this also brands you as an expert. Again this is something we already do for some of our clients as many clients do not have time or available staff to handle this.
Market Your Reputation.
Branding.
Show a professional front to visitors and customers. You don’t have to be flashy but you should have a consistent brand and make sure it appears everywhere your visitors and customers do. So check your branding is consistent across your website, social media, directories you appear on, Google My Business, Bing, etc. Common message, images, appearance so whatever site someone lands on they know it’s you.
Make sure your business is registered with relevant authoritative directories. Some will allow more about your business than others to be posted in them, but make sure you use them to the maximum to showcase your business and what it’s best at. You can not only find customers but also get reviews of your business in these sites.
If you need help with this we have a free audit service to show you how your citations appear in these directories.
Reviews.
You want visitors to your business website to be able to easily find reviews from customers, so create a reviews page for your site. It will help convert visitors into customers to be able to read positive reviews of your business online. On the same page put links to your directory listings as well. This is all part of marketing your business and reputation.
Review Videos.
You want visitors to your social media pages to be able to read what other customers think, so post about it. One of the ways we help with this to create a video showcasing a 5 star review from your business, then post it to all your social media channels. Let people know your business is well thought of.
Negative Reviews.
Don’t fear them. Make sure to monitor them so you can quickly respond. If on social media ensure your positive replies are visible so future visitors can see how you handled them.
Encourage feedback from your customers so that there is enough positive feedback to more than offset any negative reviews.
It has been said that when something hits the internet, it stays there. This is true, and for whatever reason, there may be things online that you would prefer not to exist. While we may not necessarily be able to have these removed (but we try anyway), it is however quite possible to bury them.
Studies have shown that 78% of internet users conduct product research online and 80% have a change in purchase decision after seeing a negative review online.
Whether real or fictitious, one negative review about your company from a disgruntled customer can quickly damage your reputation. Take control of how your brand is perceived online by countering negative reviews with positive ones. Make sure that people know about your brand’s glowing reviews and testimonials.
What do you do next?
Take in what we have said above, and if you have staff to handle it, take action and start putting it into practice. If you need help we can offer a variety of help, from free reputation audits, or local directory audit, up to full reputation marketing for your business. Just get in touch, either by email, or schedule a 15 minute call with us to discuss your business and how we can help.
John Smith
