Janaki Barik

Copywriter|Content writer| PR
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The Small Business Guide to Reputation Management

"Having no reputation is better than a bad reputation."

"You can do nothing, once it's online."

“You cannot control your reputation online.”

There are many sayings when you ask people about Reputation Management. Some call it black hat – public relations tactics. Some think it is about deleting those bad comments and reviews from your social media pages. These half-baked theories of people are critical and dangerous. The distorted perceptions of people about Reputation Management make it difficult for small businesses to understand the importance of online reputation and the impact it can create on their business and sales.



A good reputation is a great asset for any business, and it can make or break your business. And in this blog, we are going to smash all those misconceptions. We will tell you all about Reputation Management and what miracles it can do for your business.

Let's begin then!



What is Reputation Management?

By definition, reputation management refers to the act of monitoring, controlling, and managing the reputation of your business or brand.

Reputation management helps you influence, monitor, manage, conceal, and influence the things said about your business online. It is all about protecting and growing the reputation of the brand and business.



Why Do You Need Reputation Management?

As the century progresses by advancement in technology and the Internet, maintaining a good reputation online is crucial for any business. Your brand's positive business image is essential to maintain its credibility and trustworthiness in your consumers' eyes.

Today, we live in an era where everything is online, and companies highly depend on digital media to maintain their presence among customers and grow their branding. Digital media is one of the most critical platforms today to improve, grow, and create your business engagement. Thus, it is highly essential to have a strong brand/business image online.



Your reputation decides your business's future and credibility. It tells people why they should trust you. Thus, if you have a bad reputation online, your business is at stake.

Your business reputation decides how people/consumers perceive your business. And today, every consumer is a smart researcher. Consumers research about you and your business before they trust you or start buying. Thus, when they search you on digital media, the search results influence their perception of your business. Everything you have on digital media has a potential impact on your reputation and your business.

Some facts that you cannot afford to lose

According to Status Labs report on reputation management

  • About 85% of consumers believe and trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
  • 73% of consumers trust a local business more because of positive reviews.
  • 64% of consumers trust online search engines the most while researching about a business
  • Around 97% of consumers read online reviews when researching local businesses and around 12% among them do it regularly.
  • Reviews are the second most influential ranking factor for Google's Local Pack. Reviews have about 7% influence on rankings in Google search results.
  • 3 to 5-star ratings bring more clicks from Google.
  • 49% of consumers look for at least a 4-star rating before they decide to buy.
  • Around 30% of consumers judge a business based on online reviews.
  • Every 1-star increase in rating in review site Yelp leads to around a 5-9% increase in sales and revenue.
  • 74% of consumers who see customer reviews on a business website say they are more likely to contact the business.
  • 60% of consumers turn away due to negative reviews.
  • Around 83% of buyers trust recommendations from online users.

The findings above clearly show how your business' excellent reputation can influence consumers' perceptions about you and their buying decisions.



How Reputation Management Protects Your Business?

Reputation Management allows you to have complete control over your search results. It helps in making your brand name and identity stronger than before and maintains them consistently. It fights back all the negative reviews you have online and maintains a positive image of your brand name and identity online.

Reputation Management actively monitors your website and social media pages and addresses all the negative or false reviews. It responds to the averse comments consumers tweet or comment about you online, and tries to minimize the negative feedback received.

Let's say, customers who are unhappy with your products/services are tweeting/commenting wrong about your product on your social media pages, giving low ratings on your products and services, or sending negative reviews. You might think of them as mere comments/tweets, but they actually can change your whole business/brand image. Research says terrible reviews can cost about 22% of your customers.

Sounds scary? Well, it sure is!

In a scenario like this, Reputation Management is genuinely bliss. It tracks all the negative reviews and tries to minimize them by effectively responding to the reviews and combating false claims.







Some of the Significant Advantages of Reputation Management




Increases Your Business Credibility and Trust!

Gaining the trust of the customer is vital for the survival of any business. Since we have already discussed how essential online reviews are for your business' good reputation, a Reputation Management tool can quickly help you build a positive and healthy image of your business. With positive reviews and good ratings, it creates a strong brand image of your business. This helps the customers to trust your business more and makes your business more credible.

Higher SEO Ranking

Since every business is taking their online presence more and more seriously, it is estimated by Borrell Associates Inc. that SEO-related spending will be growing to around $80 billion by the end of 2020. Now, what makes Reputation Management an important tool here?

A Reputation Management tool helps you manage what people/ potential customers see when they search about you online. It deals with (SERP) search engine result page and keyword search. It smartly conceals all your negative reviews or feedback and presents the best possible positive results by improving your positive reviews' rankings.

Makes Way for New Customers

When a potential customer searches for your business online, they come across many things other than the website. They go through reviews, articles, blogs, and a lot more. They might see a review from their favorite influencer, any credible person, or any article and blog related to you and your competitor. Here, if you have positive search results online, then the odds of potential customers converting into paying customers, increase. And this makes Reputation Management a must-have tool to increase your reach and strengthen your relationship with your customers.

Increase Your Sales and Revenue

A good reputation management strategy not only helps you build a strong image of your business but also helps you to win more sales and increase your revenue. A strong positive image and a good reputation lead to higher trust and credibility. And this trust and credibility positively impact your customers’ buying decisions.

According to the Local Consumer Review Survey, around 49% of consumers look for at least a 4-star rating before they decide to choose a business. This means if you have a good rating in your search results, higher are the chances of your consumers buying from you.

A study conducted at Harvard Business School has also found that a good or higher ranking leads to around 5-9% of the increase in sales and revenue. Hence, if you are a trusted and reliable business with a better ranking, it can help drive your sales.

Have Everything Under Your Control!

We all have seen the rise and fall of businesses, famous personalities,and celebrities over the Internet. Many crumbled, some have had to close their doors, and some have lost their jobs because of unfitting replies, inapt branding, or bad reputation. One bad step over the internet can ultimately damage your business reputation. Thus, reputation management is an essential tool to protect your business from any damage or crisis.

Reputation management allows you to control the negative, online conversations about your business and shape the audience's perception about you in the right direction.



5 Efficient Reputation Management Strategies to Grow Your Business

We - Xspertto - are a Team-as-a-Service (TaaS) company - helping our clients get better SEO rankings to turn potential consumers into actual paying customers. We analyze our clients’ businesses, monitor and manage their business reputation, and help them win more sales through positive reviews.

It is not easy to get better SEO rankings or have positive search results, and we clearly understand the need and importance of Reputation Management. And thus, we share our proven reputation management strategy guide with you that can help you manage your reputation online.

Tip # 1: Monitor Your Business on Major Platforms

The first and primary necessity is to know your audience, your competitors, and influencers in and out. Research and monitor what they are talking about you.

Google My Business (GMB) is the top platform, where reviews are mostly searched. As a small business owner, you can create and optimize your business listing on Google. GMB gets all your quality and positive reviews and shows them to potential prospects giving them an inside view of your business. So, if you have positive and high-quality reviews, then through GMB, you can show them up to your potential prospects and use those reviews as a ranking factor for your searches.

You can also use Amazon and Facebook as they have a vast outreach and use the platforms to monitor and engage your customers.

Tip # 2: Guide Your Customers to Review Sites. Take Surveys!

Many times, due to the fear of negative reviews, you do not ask your customers for reviews. However, this can be problematic as it will be difficult for you to know where your business stands in your customers' eyes and lessen your chance of having a good ranking in the search results.

Thus, it is essential to drive your customers to review sites. However, before doing that, it's wiser to take short surveys and ask them about your products and services. If you receive a positive response, then you can direct them to share their experience on major platforms. If not, you can guide them to your customer service to address their problems and ward off negative reviews.

Tip # 3: Revert to the Reviews and Complaints

To gain a strong business reputation and maintain it, you cannot afford to ignore your customer reviews. A no-reply is still a response, and it can shake the customer's decision to trust your business. Hence, instead of giving them a "don't care" attitude with a no-reply, make sure you reply to every review received from your customers. Show gratitude to the positive reviews and address the negative reviews by offering them good customer service.

Tip # 4: Encourage and Highlight the Positive Reviews of Customers

Customer reviews are substantial proof to show your business’ credibility. You can use the high-quality and positive reviews of your customers with their permission and post, or feature them on your website. You can use the testimonial page or homepage to show the reviews. Also, you can use your ranking from popular review sites such as Yelp, G2 Crowd, etc., and highlight the rankings you have received from them.

Tip # 5: Improve Your Rankings of Positive Content Through SEO

No matter how hard you try, let's accept the truth that you cannot entirely escape bad reviews or stories, nor can you take them down from your search results. So, here you need to act smart! You cannot erase those negative stories written about you, but you can definitely push the positive content through SEO. According to reports, the first five results on the search page get 75% of the click. Hence, to counter the negative content, you can improve the rankings of your positive content so that no negative stories are seen on the first page of the search results.

It is not easy as it sounds, but a strong and active social media presence can help you to promote your positive content.






CONCLUSION

Warren Buffett has said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you will do things differently".

Online reviews today are a double-edged sword. The positive reviews can help you get new prospects, while bad reviews can even snatch away the existing ones. Thus, it is essential that your business must stand in a positive light. Rome was not built in a day, and the same goes for reputation. Your reputation does not happen just like that. The reputation of a business comes from how your customers perceive your business. It comes from the reviews and comments you receive from them. Thus, you must carefully devise and execute a smart reputation management strategy and work accordingly.

From monitoring your audience to engaging them in sharing positive stories about you, reputation management involves multiple things. And this needs effective and comprehensive reputation management strategies and the right tools to get the desired results. Sometimes your strategies do not work out the way you expected, but still, you always have the choice to get the right help for your problems. There are professionals and experts to guide you and help you grow your business.



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