You’ve likely heard the term “Reputation Management” and may have an idea about what it means. It’s a discipline that aims to influence how a business is perceived by others. It’s also a discipline that has a shady reputation of its own. For example, some companies post fake reviews, censor negative ones, or use black or gray hat tactics to bury negative search results.
Though you may hold the administrative keys to your website, you are no longer fully in control over your Online Reputation. Sure, you can build a gorgeous website, load it with credible information and professional photos, and showcase your products and services in the best possible light, but your customers now have a voice and they’re increasingly using it on social media and review sites.
Let’s imagine for a moment that you need a new auto repair shop and you know of two shops near your home. You search for each by name on Google so that you can get their phone numbers. One has several 5-star ratings in the search results page as in our earlier example; the other have lower ratings. Which shop are you more inclined to call?
Online reviews and recommendations are appearing virtually everywhere, including Facebook. Not only does Facebook now display ratings and recommendations on business pages, customers can quickly and easily enter their own. This particular entry into the online review site has an important implication: When a user posts a review on Facebook, that review will show up in their friends’ news feeds.
All businesses can benefit from Reputation Marketing. Whether you’re a cake decorator or a swimming pool builder, most of your future customers will look to the experiences of other customers before making a decision. Some will actively seek online reviews as part of their research process. Others will be more passively persuaded by reviews that appear alongside your website in search engine results pages.
As discussed earlier, online reviews are a form of referral marketing which is a much warmer approach than traditional lead generation activities. Referral marketing builds trust and converts at higher rates.
Each geographic region will likely have its own local authority directories which vary by country and even by city.
Before we go into gathering reviews, let’s first discuss why a customer would bother to leave a review. Customers who have horrible experiences with businesses often go to online review sites as a means of expressing themselves as well as to warn others off. It’s a way to hold a business accountable for an awful experience.
One of the easiest ways to start getting reviews is to ask your customers to review your company, ideally as soon after the experience as possible. There are many ways to do this. For example, you could remind customers as they’re checking out that you’re on Google, Facebook... or put a statement such as “share your experience with us” on your receipts and invoices.
Now that you have encouraged customers to submit reviews, it’s time to start taking control over your reputation. Some customers will go directly to sites like Google, Facebook or Yelp and post their reviews. Others, however, will send you email messages, post a review directly on your website’s online review submission form, or return review cards via the postal service.
5-star reviews don’t happen by accident. They are the direct result of a fantastic customer experience. This means that your entire company needs to focus on making each customer experience topnotch.
Reputation-Marketing.com helps Small & Medium Businesses, Franchises, Large Businesses with multiple locations, to get a competitive advantage by marketing their excellent offline reputation online.