How to improve your online presence with reputation management

Do you know that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations? Your online reputation is essential, so you must take the right steps towards improving it to maximise your online presence. In this blog post, you’ll learn more about reputation management, how to strengthen your brand, and show that you’re listening to your consumers. 

There are endless benefits of reputation management. It doesn’t matter if it is a personal brand or a brand for public relations for a major corporation; your reputation or that of the companies is highly dependent on reputation management for survival.

What is reputation management?

Reputation management is the effort to influence how people view your business to improve your brand perception and increase sales. Reputation management can also be known as internet reputation management, online reputation management (ORM), rep management, impression management, brand reputation management, or brand perception.

A company can manage its reputation by handling reviews a certain, providing quality customer service, replying to comments/direct messages, and helping customers find the answers to their question.

The importance of reviews

Every business needs reviews because it builds trust around your brand, which is very important. Studies have shown that every additional one-star Yelp rating causes an increase in the business’s revenue as high as 9%.

Here are 7 reasons why reviews are important to every business:

• Reviews are critical because they help you understand your consumers and how to improve your customer service practices

• Reviews build credibility and are a form of social proof

• The indication of reviews on your page shows your consumers have a voice and that you listen to what they have to say

• Reviews provide an opportunity for new businesses to stand amongst more established competition

• Rankings are improved in Google searches for a brand

• Reviews encourage new consumers to leave feedback

• Positive reviews can be turned into simple marketing campaigns to boost awareness and sales

Why do you need to respond to both positive and negative reviews?

If improving the reputation of your online presence is your goal, you need to respond to both positive and negative reviews. Responding to all reviews helps you be more social on social media. It’s an effective way to build healthy relationships with the people who support your business. You also give yourself a chance to make things right with customers who aren’t happy with the experience they had with your business.

3 things you can do to improve your brand reputation this week

Now that you have a better understanding of what reputation management is and why reviews matter, here are a few things you can do to improve your brand image:

1. Ask your customers/clients for reviews: If you haven’t done so in awhile, ask your customers for reviews! Make it easy by sending over a link they can quickly click on whether it’s your Google listing or Facebook Reviews. Remember that reviews will help you improve online visibility and help you understand what you’re doing well as a business.

2. Respond to all of your reviews: Take time to go through your positive and negative reviews. Go through all of them to show that you’re listening. People want to be heard so show that you care. Once you’ve caught up with all of your reviews, start responding to reviews within 24 hours.

3. Track complaints and create a plan to resolve them: While you’re responding to all of your reviews, pay attention to the issues people have with your business. Figure out which problems are the most common and create operating procedures to prevent them from happening again. After you’ve addressed those issues, do the same with problems that don’t happen has often. You’ll be able to see an improvement in the types of reviews you receive from your customers and clients.

Now that you have a game plan, get to work! You’ll be able to see results over the next several weeks that will help you increase web traffic and even foot traffic if you have a brick-and-mortar store.

Do you have questions about improving your brand reputation? Let us know by filling out the form below!

Online reviews matter. Here are a few key stats you need to know.

Your ability to collect and earn positive reviews for your business has never been more important. In fact, there is a direct correlation between great online reviews and the revenue of your business. There are multiple places online where you can be reviewed by clients and customers such as Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook. If you’re not already working on improving your online reputation, hopefully these stats from Searchenginejournal.com help you get started.

1. 82% of shoppers seek out negative reviews: This stat isn’t really as discouraging as you think it might be as long as you’re doing a great job resolving issues with customers/clients. Shoppers are looking for negative reviews to see how you handle anything in the event something goes wrong. They want to know how friendly you actually are and if you care about making things right if you mess up a customer’s experience with your brand. This means that you should treat every negative experience as a way to earn a customer for life.

2. Young consumers trust reviews. As in 91% of consumers between 18 to 34 years of age count on reviews: People care about what their peers have to say. They want to know about the experiences others have had with your business before spending their hard earned cash. It gives consumers a chance to gain a better idea of your company culture and how well you measure up to the promises you make online.

3. Consumers need to see at least 40 online reviews before believing an average star rating: At one point, you only needed about 34 reviews back in 2017 but it’s been a few years since. This means that the value consumers place on reviews is greater than every before.

4. Likelihood of a product selling increases by 270% when it gets five reviews: If you’re just getting started in earning reviews from customers, getting 40 reviews might seem daunting. The thought getting 40 reviews when you have zero can be overwhelming. However, you can start with by just trying to get five reviews. The fact that you can increase your product sellability by nearly 300% should be enough motivation!

Your online presence improves with more positive reviews. The more positive reviews you receive, the more chances you have to sell and increase revenue. If you don’t know where to start, here are a handful of ideas to get reviews from people who have bought from you.

How to gain more online reviews

Gaining more reviews is a little easier than you think. With some patience and persistence, you’ll earn more reviews by using the following tips:

• Email your customer list: In your regular customer emails, ask for reviews! Be consistent about asking.

• Include a review request in customer confirmation emails: Did someone just place an order on your website? Send them an email asking about their experience!

• Share reviews you’ve received on social media: Remind people that others are talking about your brand and have great things to say. It’ll make it that much easier to ask for a review from a new customer.

• Incentives can get you more reviews: Throw in some discounts to motivate your customers to leave you a review. You can also include free product for anyone who leaves a review if that suits you better.

All of the tips are practical and easy to follow. Remember that you need to play the long game and invest in your brand by gaining feedback from real customers and clients.

Do you have any questions about how to build your online brand? Are you in need of a strategy that will help you improve your reputation and attract more customers? Email Josh at josh@jamiascreative.com!