Reputation management means taking control of the narrative of your own brand. While the ability to have free speech and open commentary on the internet creates a place for creative discussions and healthy debates, there are also toxic elements that can turn groups of people against each other and the brands they enjoy.
As a reputation manager, you don’t have to sit idly by as the internet decides what it thinks of your company. You can jump into the discussion and recruit brand ambassadors to your side. Here are four ways to approach online reputation management (ORM) to protect your brand.
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Engage with negative reviews.
Your customers post on review sites like Yelp and Bing to share what they think of your brand. Unfortunately, not all of these posts are from happy customers who want to share what you do. Negative reviews can turn away potential customers and increase your company’s income. This is where review management comes in.
With white label online reputation management, the marketing agency you hire will work with review sites to make sure the negative listings are accurate and reasonable. They can respond to complaints and apologize for bad experiences or ask site managers to have fake or low-quality one-star reviews removed. Their work shows that your brand is active in solving customer issues in negative reviews, as long as they are real and reasonable.
Increase exposure with SEO strategies.
Customer reviews don’t just define a brand’s reputation. Your target audience will seek out your brand name through Google searches and other digital queries. A quality reputation management service will also help increase your search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
SEO takes longer than other forms of customer service and marketing. Brands need to create quality content (typically in the form of blog posts) that address queries related to your industry. In some cases, the online reputation management service might recommend focusing on content that targets local search rather than the client’s business’s products.
This strategy aims to make your website and its useful content show up first in search results, rather than the website of your competitors or claims against your brand.
Track your reputation on social media.
A third white label solution that online reputation management services use is tracking social media engagement and sentiment. With sentiment analysis, the marketing agency you hire can determine what people think about your brand by posting content online. Are happy customers posting about what you do? Are people sharing negative experiences with large groups of followers? With this analysis, companies can see whether customers love or hate a particular brand.
Once a brand has insight into its social following, it can figure out the best way to win new customers. This might involve increasing social proof that a company is actually good at what it does or working to boost positive testimonials’ visibility so they are more prominent.
Launch a positive PR campaign.
Once you have control over your online reputation, you can take steps to boost your brand positively. Ask your online reputation management service to launch a PR campaign in your local market. They can promote your service offering or highlight the achievements of the business owner who founded the company. The goal is to take control of the message and show that your company is worth buying from.
You have many options for hiring a marketing agency or online reputation management service; however, look for a white label provider that uses honest tactics to protect your brand. This will help your online presence and customer retention. It’s a smarter strategy for your overall success.