The online world is one of the most powerful tools for your brand, but it can also be a place where you could potentially lose control. Your reputation is how people feel when interacting with your company on social media without even knowing who’s behind. It goes beyond just being an active account holder. To get interaction from someone new, they have to feel valued when buying or listening to what you say. Luckily, Online Reputation Management Service (ORM) makes this task much easier by influencing the opinion of potential customers in an early stage. Moreover, it ultimately lasts longer throughout all stages of maintaining relationships.
Online reputation management is a way to build trust in yourself and your company by generating positive feelings about the brand. It’s also important for handling any bad comments or negative reviews to help with sales! The ultimate guide will help you address these issues so your business can flourish.
Importance of Positive Online Reputation
A good online reputation can lead to a great offline one, which is why the internet has so much influence on our lives. Statistics show that 91% of people trust reviews when it comes to local businesses in their area. About 1/4 won’t deal with a company if it doesn’t have at least 4 out of 5 stars!
In a world where company research is easy and deciding whether to buy in the first place, a single negative comment can ruin brand worth. If two or three negatives show at the top of search engine results pages, brands have an even higher chance of being passed up by 44-59%. And with big names comes bigger consequences; when the media picks up on these stories for local communities, their trust will plummet too.
Online reputation management Service is essential for businesses to control what other people are saying about them and their perceptions. By being proactive in their online reputation management, companies can influence what type of information makes it the tip of Google search results or even a customer’s mind! Be sure that you encourage happy customers by providing useful feedback and minimizing negative findings with your company.
The Different Types of Negative Content
Brands need to be aware of the different types of negative content that can affect them. One example is people complaining on social media platforms, regardless of having any real issue. Unless the problem is genuine, the review won’t do any harm. Fortunately, there are many ways to shield your brand from negative content in the future, including monitoring social media results or Google search engine result pages (SERPs). Here are some examples of negative content:
- Negative Reviews
- The opinions of online shoppers are hugely important in the decision-making process. Ensure that reviews for your brand and products on third-party sites reflect positivity if you want to be taken seriously as a reputable company.
- Hate Sites
- Hate sites come from people who look to defame a company or public figure. What’s unfortunate is, many of these sites at times provide false information, aimed at turning potential customers away.
- Negative Press
- “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” While it might not apply to public figures like celebrities or politicians, it does for brands and companies.
Getting Positive Reviews
It’s important to have your happy customers share their satisfaction with others. While some will leave a positive review without any other action on your part, many others need encouragement before writing something online. Below are several steps you can take to generate more reviews:
- Request for Reviews
- Consider asking customers for their feedback as an obvious avenue.
- Go easy
- Look for ways to simplify the process as much as you can. To do so, create an instructions sheet where customers can rate and give product reviews.
- Give reminders
- Always leave a thank you note at the end or maybe an email reminder asking for feedback.
- Utilize Personalization
- Make your emails stand out from the spam ones by adding something personalized. Use first name-last initial on it, so readers know who sent them what information more easily!
- Give Incentives
- Some people won’t bother reviewing your business unless you give them a small token of appreciation like a discount coupon, for example.
Handling Negative Reviews
When you’re faced with negative reviews, the worst thing to do is ignore them. Not only will it show that you don’t care about your customers or their satisfaction, but it tremendously impacts how people view your brand as well. Follow these guidelines for pushing down any bad comments and ratings coming at you:
- Listen to what buyers say
- Make it a habit to go through comments and underline mentioned problems. Connect with your audience by figuring out how to control the situation. Let people know that you care for them and consider their opinions as important.
- Provide Honesty
- When a customer has an issue, take responsibility for your part and apologize for any inconvenience. It’s important for both parties to work together for a mutual understanding of what went wrong and how to make up for it.
- Don’t take it Personally
- We understand that when a customer has an experience they are not happy with. It’s natural to want to share their thoughts. However, keep calm and don’t take things personally; DON’T intensify matters by responding aggressively.
Bottom Line
Do you need help with an online reputation management service to deal with nightmares that are affecting your business image? If so, Out Origin is here to help!
Our team of experts can handle all of these issues from start to finish by working on social media marketing as well as handling any SEO work necessary for online reputation management.
With our expertise in both digital marketing and PR, we know how important it is for businesses everywhere to have positive online images because they ultimately lead directly into sales.
