8 Tips to Build an Effective Reputation Management Strategy
A strong reputation is one of the most valuable assets a business can have. It doesn't just happen, though — you need to develop and strengthen your brand's reputation with deliberate actions over time. Learn how to develop your own effective online reputation management strategy to help your business succeed.
What Is Reputation Management?
Reputation management is all about monitoring and influencing your business’s public image to be as strong as possible. Typically, it involves managing your online reviews, responding to customers, and being proactive about addressing anything that could hurt your business’s reputation.
Benefits of Reputation Management
For potential customers, your brand's reputation can be the difference between choosing your business and heading to one of your competitors. The stronger your reputation is, the easier it will be to keep the customers you have and attract new ones. That’s why reputation management is so important.
Companies invest significant amounts of time and resources into reputation management to receive benefits like:
- Lower customer turnover
- Improved search engine rankings
- Higher public perception
- Better crisis prevention and management
- Easier talent acquisition
- More sales and revenue
Remember that reputation management is a proactive process — you can’t just sit back and hope for a positive brand image. You need a strong reputation management strategy to build and maintain the reputation you want.
So what is a reputation management strategy? It’s an approach to strengthening your business's reputation — create your own with these eight steps.
1. Conduct a Reputation Audit
The first step is to conduct a reputation audit to determine where your brand stands right now. Look at your online reviews across multiple sites, social media activity (both on your brand’s posts and in other types of content), and customer feedback to gauge how customers feel about your business.
Rather than doing all of this research manually, you can use tools like review monitoring software and sentiment analysis platforms to speed up the process.
In this first step, it’s also worth doing some competitor analysis. Browse competitors' reviews, social media profiles, and marketing materials to get a better idea of where you stand in the market.
2. Establish a Crisis Management Plan
Next, it’s crucial to get a crisis management plan in place. If you wait until there’s a crisis to decide how you’re going to handle it, you’ll struggle to address the issue.
Your crisis management plan should outline potential threats to your reputation and describe how you would address them if they were to occur. Focus on details like:
- Establishing a communication protocol
- Deciding who’s going to take action and what their roles will be
- Making a list of priorities so your team knows what to focus on
- Developing a strategy for communicating with stakeholders, customers, and the media
- Drafting some pre-approved statements for different crisis scenarios
- Designating a spokesperson to speak on behalf of your business
3. Manage Your Online Reviews
Approximately 98% of customers read online reviews to inform their purchasing decisions. In the digital age, your online reviews play a considerable role in your brand's overall reputation. Potential customers want to see positive reviews to feel confident that your business is trustworthy and provides high-quality service.
So encourage your satisfied customers to leave positive reviews about their experiences. Google’s policies prohibit companies from offering incentives in exchange for reviews, but you can prompt your customers to share their honest experiences. Consider sending a reminder email or text to encourage customers to leave a review for your business online.
Then, respond to the reviews you receive, even if they’re negative reviews. Responding to positive reviews is a great way to strengthen your online presence, showing customers that you’re engaged and grateful for their positive feedback.
Responding to negative feedback can be even more beneficial, as it allows you to do some damage control and improve the unhappy customer’s experience. At the same time, you have the opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to customer service to everyone who reads your reviews.
When you’re responding to negative online reviews, try techniques like:
- Staying calm and professional
- Personalizing your response
- Proposing several possible solutions for the customer
- Contextualizing the situation
- Apologizing if necessary
- Moving the conversation to another channel, like email or phone, for more details
4. Highlight Positive Reviews and Case Studies
A positive reputation is built on strong customer feedback, so don’t be afraid to show off the strong feedback you get. Highlight positive reviews on your website, social media profiles, and other online platforms. That way, you can build customer trust and enhance your online presence at the same time.
Similarly, case studies can offer a more in-depth look at how your business has helped your satisfied clients. Potential customers who are on the fence about buying from your business will read these case studies and see clear evidence of what your business can do.
5. Implement Social Listening Tools
Social listening tools automatically monitor online conversations that are relevant to your business and analyze the tone. With these tools, you can quickly learn how people feel about your business and any other topics you choose.
The advantage of using social listening tools is that your team will save lots of time compared to manually monitoring customer interactions, comments on social media platforms, and other digital references to your business. You can also use these tools to quickly identify potential issues your reputation may face. That way, you can address them before they become bigger problems.
6. Measure and Analyze the Results
Online reputation management strategies always involve measuring and analyzing concrete metrics. Tracking these numbers will provide valuable insights into the success of your reputation management efforts.
Focus on key performance metrics like:
- Net Promoter Score: how likely customers are to recommend your business
- Customer reviews
- Brand mentions
- Social media engagement
- Customer satisfaction
Track these metrics over time to compare your current reputation to your past performance. If your brand reputation management strategies are working, you should see these metrics trending positively.
7. Improve the Customer Experience
Providing better service will improve your customer satisfaction and, in turn, your customer reviews. When you see negative content on online platforms, don’t worry too much. This content presents opportunities for improvement.
You should learn from the feedback you get and work on providing customers with the best experience possible. From there, you’ll likely see much more positive comments in your future reviews.
8. Take Advantage of Reputation Management Software
Reputation management software simplifies this process, saving you time and effort. Depending on the software you choose, it may:
- Monitor your business’s online presence
- Analyze online sentiment
- Offer insights into the public perception of your business
- Send alerts and notifications of new reviews
Ideally, your reputation management software should integrate with other platforms you use, like your social media accounts and CRM system, for even more convenience.
Manage Your Brand With the Right Reputation Management Strategy
Reputation management can be challenging, but developing the right strategy will take your business a long way. After that, managing your reputation is still an ongoing task.
If you’d like some help with managing your online reviews and optimizing your business listings, try Optimize Digital Marketing’s reputation management services.