by Online reputation management is essential for businesses. It only takes a few negative reviews or comments to ruin your online reputation and cause customers to go elsewhere. That’s why it’s so important to have a solid online reputation management strategy. In this article, we’ll discuss what online reputation management is, why it’s important, and some tips to get started.
What is Online Reputation Management?
Online reputation management (ORM) is the process of monitoring, managing and improving a business’s online reputation. Social media includes positive and negative online content about your business, including online reviews and news articles. effective online reputation management platform It can be used to increase visibility, build trust, and repair damaged reputations. Online reputation management is important because online content is often the first thing people see when they search for products and services. A bad online reputation can hurt businesses. Conversely, a good online reputation can lead to success. That’s why every business should be aware of their online reputation and take steps to manage it effectively.
Why Does Your Business Need Online Reputation Management?
In today’s digital age, a online reputation management solution It goes hand in hand with any business with an online presence. While negative reviews, complaints and other forms of online criticism can quickly damage reputation, positive reviews and endorsements can help boost a company’s bottom line. Let’s take a closer look at the top benefits of having a great online reputation:
- Builds trust between potential customers and customers. You can easily build credibility with customers when your business gets lots of positive reviews.
- Increases online visibility for your business. Your customer reviews have a direct impact on how easily people find your business online. When people provide fresh and authentic customer experiences and post positive reviews about a business, it helps boost their ranking in online searches. Search engines like Google value online reviews as much as your customers. As a result, search engines will prioritize you online and your business will rank higher in relevant search results.
- Comments are equal. Online reviews can have a huge impact on your bottom line. Research shows that customer reviews drive an average of 18% increase in sales.
4 pillars of Reputation Management
To create an enviable reputation for your company, there are four pillars of reputation management you need to know.
- Create a review
- Review tracking
- Review management
- Review your marketing
Let’s look at each of these in more detail.
Column 1: Review Creation
This is the process of getting online reviews from customers on industry-specific review sites as well as relevant review sites like Google and Facebook. Creating a review, online reputation management plays an important role in customer acquisition and retention. To start creating a review, you need to know the “when, where and how”.
- How? Actively search for reviews instead of waiting for reviews to come to you. Ask each customer to leave a comment. Whether you do this manually or with reputation management software, every customer is a potential new review when asked.
- When? You must submit review requests within 24 hours of a sale or customer interaction. The experience will still be fresh in their minds and they will be more likely to write an accurate, detailed review. The longer you wait, the less likely they are to review as the memory of the experience is erased.
- Where? Your customers are discovering your business all over the internet, so you need to stay on top of your online reputation across all platforms.
For example, find and target the best review sites for your industry. Industry-specific sites like Avvo for lawyers, DealerRater for car dealerships, or Healthgrades for doctors, hospitals, and healthcare providers can help build a great online reputation.
Column 2: Review Tracking
If your potential customers are looking for online reviews about your business, there are hundreds of review sites they can turn to to help them decide. Bad reviews on a site can completely drive customers away from your business and potentially affect how they talk to others about your business. So be sure to follow every review site your business appears on.
Review tracking helps you keep track of reviews you get from anywhere online and prevents damage to your reputation. Together review management platformBy centralizing all these reviews in one simple dashboard, you can seamlessly monitor and respond to your reviews.
Alerts for new reviews
A review management platform also gives you unique tools like alerts to ensure you never lose track of a single review from your customers. With Alerts, you can receive notifications about who left the review, where, and whether it was positive or negative. Instant review alerts help you react or respond to customer feedback as soon as it arrives. This is especially helpful when it comes to negative reviews where problems can escalate pretty quickly.
Column 3: Review Management
It’s about when, where and how to respond to your reviews. Customers recognize and appreciate businesses that are willing to accept and address their comments and concerns. The best way to do this is to respond to every review you receive, whether positive or negative.
On time and at scale
Responding quickly to customer reviews is essential. Customers usually don’t care about your business if they don’t see a quick response to their review. In fact, one in three customers expect their comments to be responded to within one to three days.
The cost of not responding
Not responding to reviews, especially negative ones, can have a snowball effect where customers leave reviews, are not appreciated, and spread the word that your business doesn’t care about their customers. Additionally, potential customers reading your comments will not know which version of the events you are using and will inevitably form opinions based on these unanswered comments. This can be extremely damaging to your business’s online reputation.
automatic replies
You can use a software-integrated automation to keep track of the comments you receive and respond quickly. review management platform. This gives you the ability to respond directly to every review you receive as soon as it’s posted. You can also tailor your answers to specific criteria, so you always leave the right answer for every review.
Column 4: Review Marketing
There’s a reason we read reviews before we move forward with a business. It provides important insights based on previous customers’ experiences that help make informed purchasing decisions. Positive reviews are a powerful tool to use in your marketing messages and campaigns.
Showcasing your customer testimonials
Build trust and gain new customers by highlighting top reviews on your website, social media, and search results. You can embed your reviews on your website and display them on your social media channels to showcase positive customer experiences. The more positive reviews you get, the more people trust that your product or service is right for them.
Social media
make sure you have online reputation management platform This not only allows you to collect reviews, but also allows you to promote your best reviews on your social accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn through a pre-configured tool.
Web site
Use an online reputation management platform that allows you to embed your latest and greatest reviews on your company’s website in real time. That way, anyone visiting your site can see firsthand what others are saying about your business. And with testimonials from happy customers, you’ll be on your way to winning over even the most skeptical customer.
paid advertising
Customer reviews can be a powerful tool to improve your advertising campaigns. As we mentioned earlier, potential customers believe in the testimonies of other customers’ experiences with your company. For example, using the best reviews in your Google ad campaign can help improve the quality score of your ad’s performance. In addition, viewing positive customer reviews can also help increase click-through rates, as potential customers are more likely to click on an ad approved by others.
By making the most of all these methods, you are helping to further enhance the impact of a single new review. You also reach your potential customers wherever they meet you in person, on social media, on your website, through paid advertising or through a Google search.
Role of Online Reputation Management Software
Reputation management takes a lot of time and energy and can be overwhelming if your business is growing and you don’t have dedicated resources to manage it.
This is where technology can help. Online reputation management software can automate many of the tasks associated with managing your business’s reputation. This can save you time and energy to focus on other important aspects of your job.
Reputation management software can help you track your competitor’s reviews, respond to reviews, and request reviews from customers. If you’re growing your business, it’s a good idea to invest in this type of software to help simplify the process.
