Having a solid online reputation is indispensable in today’s business world.
Think about the time when you bought a product or used a service. What were the factors you considered before making the purchase? I am pretty sure you searched for the business online. You probably scoured through review sites and social media just to get a feel of what others are saying about the business.
In this information age, every single customer follows the same process. They access the online reputation of a brand before they decide to do business with them.
And that includes your brand, too.
Fortunately, building a good reputation online isn’t rocket science. There are proven steps you can take to properly build and manage your online reputation.
If your business is new, the best place to build and manage your reputation is online. Why? Because most of potential customers go online to get information about brands before they do business with them.
Another reason is because it is less expensive to build your reputation online than it is offline.
Below I have outlined 5 easy ways to build your online reputation.
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Create A Blog
Having a website for your business isn’t enough. To properly build a reputation online, you need to have a blog. Your blog gives you a channel to pass information through text. Writing short posts on your social media page is good but a blog is better suited for long-form text content.
You may write blog posts or create infographics about what you do, who you are, the history of your brand, your staff, etc. You can put out valuable information about your industry or provide tips and tricks to help your customers save time/money.
Your blog positions you as a leader, an authority in your field. This helps to build trust in your brand. So then, you should regularly update your blog with fresh new content.
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Get Your Brand Listed In Online Directories
Back in the day we had yellow pages. However, we now have online business directories that hold basic contact and locational information of businesses. They allow customers find information like office address, phone number, opening and closing hours, website url, email, social media handles, and photos of your office building.
Business listings can help drive traffic to your website or social media page. Basically, they improve your online visibility which in turn improves your reputation. Ensure the information on your preferred listing site is always accurate. Here are 4 ways to improve your local listing to boost your marketing performance.
Some directories even have review sections where customers can leave feedback about their experience with a brand.
Which leads us to our next point…
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Encourage Your Customers To Reviews
Like word-of-mouth, online reviews have quickly become really important to businesses.
They help you attract new customers, foster trust, and build a solid online reputation. Etailing Group published a survey that showed that 92% of internet users actively read online reviews. Research has also shown that 89% of customers believe online reviews as much as they would personal recommendation.
Looking at the figures above, it’s easy to see why you need to get as many reviews as you can. You should encourage your customers to leave feedback about your business. To do this, you can send an automatic request to your customers asking for feedback after they have made a purchase.
To further encourage them, you want to make the process easy for them. In your review request, include a link that takes them directly to the review page where they can write their feedback.
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Publicize Your Brand
They say it’s useless to wink at a girl in a dark room.
It is also a waste of time trying to build online reputation when nobody knows you exist. You need to actively promote your business online so that people know that you exist.
You could write blog posts for another website and link back to yours. There’s also the option of running online ads to help get your content in front of those who matter to you. Google ad is a great place to do this. But you could also run Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram ads to publicize your brand.
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Get Social
Over 70% of consumers say it is important to find information about brands online before you do business with them. Majority of consumers will begin this search on social media. They will look for your social media page and read up the basic information you have put there.
This helps you to get found easily. But more importantly, it helps you engage with your customers. Many customers love to interact with businesses through social media. They go on social media to look for pictures or videos about new products, upcoming events, special offers, and more.
Therefore, don’t miss this opportunity to interact with your customers. Do well to post regularly and respond to customer comments.
Building a strong online reputation, though not difficult, takes some time to achieve. It could take months and even years to actualize this and see results from your efforts. Be patient and work hard at it. You can learn more in this article: what you need to know about brand reputation management.
POSTED ON December 10, 2019Share:
