Your Online Reputation Matters More Than Ever
Nothing helps a brand to grow more than its reputation. Managing your brand’s online reputation is essential in order to build trust amongst your customers and increase sales.
Building a good reputation for your brand is all about making your customers feel important. By prioritizing your customer’s needs, you will be able to successfully build goodwill in the market. You will also grow your brand much more quickly as you build loyalty amongst your customers.
But what if your brand doesn’t have the best reputation? You will slowly start to lose your customers and may even lose your business!
In order to avoid such an instance, we have come up with a few steps which will help you to improve your brand’s online reputation and build a close relationship with your customers.
What Is ORM?
ORM or Online Reputation Management is the process of reviewing and improving a brand’s presence online by taking the necessary steps. Today, when new brands are emerging almost daily, it is important to stand out. ORM helps to keep a brand ahead of its competition. Even big brands have to keep an eye out for what is being said about them. People often post reviews about their experiences online. Brands stay active on these platforms and try to resolve issues that people may face and tackle bad reviews. Often just a single negative review may start a chain of negative reviews on Twitter or a Facebook post. If not resolved immediately, these negative reviews will eventually build up a negative image of the brand and may encourage customers to other brands.
Not just reviews, your brand reputation will also be dictated by your online presence on social media as well as on search engines such as Google. It is important to apply good SEO techniques on your website so your brand always comes at the top of Google search results.
To create a strategy of ORM for your brand, you can follow the steps given below:
Step 1: Assess Your Current Reputation
When creating a strategy, it is important to understand what your brand’s reputation is at present. You can start to assess your online reputation with these steps:-
1) A simple google search will reveal where your brand ranks on the Google search page. Ideally, it should be among the top 5 Google searches. That means, when people search for your brand or for keywords related to your brand, you should come out on top.
2) Next, you should check out reviews that people leave on various websites such as Glassdoor, Yelp, Google etc. Don’t forget to check out the reviews on social media.
3) Use tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush and Moz Pro etc. to track the metrics such as website traffic and performance.
Step 2: Social Listening
Another part of assessing your brand is listening to the chatters going around on social media about your brand. This is important in order to figure out the reaction amongst your customers to your products.
Social listening can also be used to track conversations on social media about your competitive brands. Figuring out people’s reactions to your competitors may provide a better understanding of your audience.
Social listening helps brands learn about trending topics and how customers feel about them. It essentially provides you with information about what people want. Gaining insight into public opinion will help in planning out better strategies.
Some of the best tools you can use for social listening are:-
1. Hootsuite
2. Talkwalker
3. Synthesio
5. Audience
Step 3: Listen To Your Audience
To be a successful business, you must find a problem people face and provide a solution for it. The answer has to be unique or in a way that is better than anyone else.
In order to do so, you must listen to your audience. Social listening, customer feedback and reviews will provide you with information about what people actually want. It will help you figure out the gaps that have yet to be filled by you and by your competitors.
Once you know what your customers want, you can easily work on your brand. Customers love it when brands listen to them and make changes to their products.
Following the advice of your customers will make them more loyal to your brand. It will help to increase customer satisfaction. Once the customers are satisfied, you will easily be able to retain them.
Step 4: Encourage Reviews From Customers
Online reviews are an important part of any business. They provide valuable insights into customer satisfaction and can be used to identify areas of improvement. Encouraging customers to leave reviews is a great way to get feedback on your products and services.
Reviews can also help boost your online visibility and SEO rankings, as well as give potential customers more confidence in your business. By providing incentives for customers to leave reviews, you can increase the number of positive ratings for your brand and improve customer loyalty.
With the right strategies in place, you can encourage customers to leave meaningful reviews that will help build trust with potential buyers and keep them coming back for more.
Step 5: Participate In Industry Forums And Groups
Participating in industry forums and groups is a great way to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in your field. It also provides you with an opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals and share your ideas, experiences, and insights.
By joining online forums and groups related to your industry, you can get valuable insights from experienced professionals who are already working in the field. You can also learn about the latest tools and strategies that will help you stay ahead of the competition.
Joining industry forums and groups is a great way to build relationships with other professionals who share similar interests as well as expand your knowledge base.Often customers also participate in these forums and leave reviews. You can use this opportunity to learn more about the needs of people. You can also participate in discussions and build a trustworthy brand image.
Step 6: Create Content To Address Common Questions And Issues
Creating content to address common questions and issues is an important part of any content strategy. It helps to build trust, inform customers, and establish credibility. By creating content that addresses common questions and issues, businesses can provide valuable information to potential customers while also increasing their visibility online. Content created for this purpose should be comprehensive, engaging, and easy to understand. It should also be optimized for search engines so that it can be easily found by people searching for answers to their questions or solutions to their problems.
By taking the time to create content that addresses common questions and issues, businesses can ensure that they are providing a valuable service to their customers.When creating content to address common questions and issues, the following elements should be taken into consideration:-
1) A title that provides an enticing introduction to the topic
2) A concise summary of the topic that explains the most important points and details without going into too much detail for a specific audience
3) Keywords that are used in your content, so when people search for information related to your article or blog post, it can be found more easily by relevant searches
4) A detailed list of resources at the end of your article or blog post to give people more information, should they want it
5) Some creative infographics, memes, screenshots, stock images etc. should also be provided to make the content more interesting and engaging.
Step 7: Manage Negative Online Reviews
Negative online reviews can have a significant impact on a business’s reputation and success. It is essential to understand the best ways to manage these reviews and ensure that your customers are happy with your services.The first step in managing negative online reviews is to respond quickly and professionally. By responding promptly, you show customers that you care about their opinions and are willing to take action to resolve any issues they may have experienced. Additionally, it is important to remain polite and professional while responding – no matter how negative the review may be.It is also important to take steps to prevent negative reviews from occurring in the first place. This includes providing excellent customer service, offering incentives for positive reviews, and monitoring customer feedback across all platforms. With the right strategies in place, businesses can ensure that they are able to manage any negative online reviews efficiently and effectively.
Takeaway:-
In today’s digital age, it is more important than ever to monitor and manage your online reputation. With the rise of social media, anyone can post anything about you or your business and it can spread quickly. It is essential to stay on top of what people are saying about you and take action when necessary.Having a good online reputation can help you attract new customers, build trust with existing customers, and increase your visibility in the marketplace. On the other hand, if your online reputation is not managed properly, it could lead to the negative publicity that could damage your brand’s image and hurt sales. That’s why it is essential to take proactive steps to monitor and manage your online reputation.