The consumer is the King of the market. Brands have to enact a positive influence that drives consumers into the business. Internet users are increasing with awareness and requirement of technology. According to the statistics, there were 4.6 billion users in 2021. Moving towards January 2022, there were 4.65 billion users online. Building a positive brand virtually makes a huge impact.?
As more people are entering into digital space, businesses have to be aware of their reputation online. Whether you are a business owner, a freelancer, or a blogger it is important to appear on search results to grow your brand. Appearing on google is your getaway card into customers’ hearts. The benefits of ranking in google will not only be helpful with an increase in sales but reaching mass audiences, present customer retention and convoy new customers in the business.
Nowadays, consumers go through social media and review sites 10 times before trusting their local or global business. Someone’s purchase is largely dependent on the brand’s image. This is why monitoring brand reputation online has become crucial.
What is Brand Reputation Management?
In Brand reputation management, while building the personal brand one has to come to an understanding of how customers reckon with your business and monitor for the same. After perceiving, monitoring the behaviour and taking strategic actions to improve one’s brand. These days reputation management is eccentric around monitoring and protecting a brand’s reputation in reviews, social media and Google.
Reputation management is an ongoing process, professionals have to sustain their online presence to stay on top in the eyes of the public. They have to address the damaging situations when they arise. One of the benefits is positive reputation influences customer loyalty and drives revenue and growth in business. A negative reputation directly affects sales and customer retention. Further, these damaging situations come with a lesson. It makes one understand what customers are like and can help upgrade business procedures.
A positive brand reputation has several benefits such as:
Word-of-mouth Advertising: When your brand has a positive approach, customers information about your brand with friends and family about great products and attentive customer service.
Increased Profits: When customers are happy with products and services, one can see an increase in demand for goods that would fill your pocket with profits.
Access to better talent: Employees are willing to work for companies with stellar reputations and community. A positive brand impact can hire talented and creative employees.
Reputation Management Guide:
Reputation management is an ongoing process with no one-and-done step. All the steps that are mentioned should remain consistent as long as your business is running. The steps given are a small guide to how to build a positive brand image.
1. Audit and Research About Your Business
?Reputation management starts with research. This phase is about knowing the reviews about your business and what people have been talking about it. One has to see all the different types of conversations about your businesses, feedback and perceptions to improve your reputations.?
One can conduct this audit from customer review sites, on social media, or simply searching your name on a Google page. Searching for business-related keywords or even the feeds of your competitors is a handful. Consumers are everywhere and you have to meet them where they have been gathered.
There are various platforms and websites to choose from to conduct your research. Yet, using a quality reputation management tool will make the process easier.?
2. Build a Management Strategy
The perception of your brand will help you to focus to improve it. One has to get an idea of how the brand is performing and customers are reacting to it. As such, the next step is to establish an effective review management strategy. Your strategy should address the following:
- Who will monitor online conversations on daily basis?
The work should be delegated to a person who will monitor and research online conversations on daily basis in your company. The customer-centric teams like customer service teams or marketing teams have experience in how to deal with customers so designating them for this role would be a wise option. These employees should be well-versed in how to deal with customers while having an online conversation.
- How to make out which reviews, comments or mentions need responses?
There are positive, negative and fake comments. Some only comment to diminish your brand or to troll your business to let it down. These tailgaters’ comments should be avoided until they reach adversity. Many people’s legitimate comments are reflective thoughts about your brands. They can be either positive or negative. Respond to real customers and understands which comment deserves a response.
- Different Tone for responding to comments
One has to respond to numerous customers on daily basis. Hence, the tone of voice in responses should be consistent. Develop a tone guide and a consistent tone while responding to either positive or harsh comments. It will help during a crisis and maintain the reputation of the brand. So, adhering to strict guidelines becomes crucial.
3. Practice and Learn From Comments, Feedback and Reviews
Understanding customer’s perception is a best reviews platform for improvement and innovation. The pain points and difficulties of customers will help you make an informed decision about what areas have to be fixed and improvised. Whereas, the positive feedback and comments will help you know what you’re doing right and what should you continue doing.
?
As you’re managing your reputation, take action based on your comments and reviews. It will build a positive image that will manage your reputation as you’re making changes that consumers are willing to see.
4. Keep Practicing Steps for Consistent Results.
As mentioned above, managing the online reputation is a continuous process. A lot of effort and minute details have to be taken care of while managing. Rectification is a continuous process as well mending one situation doesn’t mean that everything is smooth from now onwards. Always research and monitor the reviews and conversations to get a sense of your reputation stands. Follow the steps of your plan and act on the feedback you’ve received.
As the editor of the blog, She curate insightful content that sparks curiosity and fosters learning. With a passion for storytelling and a keen eye for detail, she strive to bring diverse perspectives and engaging narratives to readers, ensuring every piece informs, inspires, and enriches.
