Brand management professionals experienced countless challenges in 2020. The COVID19 pandemic upset many of their well-laid plans. The salacious rumors about the economy circulating for over a year also rocked several companies’ branding strategies. However, in today’s ultra-digital landscape, online reputation management experts have a great chance to portray their clients’ businesses in the best way possible to the new stream of online consumers.
However, online reputation management involves more than just conducting basic Google searches for businesses and checking out what the online reviews have to say. Poor online reviews undoubtedly trigger serious ripple effects for businesses. So, ensuring consumers leave positive comments should certainly be a part of every business’s online reputation management (ORM) strategy.
In 2021, modern-day consumers shape their judgments about businesses on the Internet using information from various sources. From social media websites to consumer forums – brands are being discussed, praised, or criticized in every corner of the Internet. Here’s what the leading ORM experts from the best marketing agency in Arizona are doing to ensure the companies they work for are represented in the best way possible on the Internet –
Responding to Customer Reviews
In a recent survey involving online shoppers, 92% of respondents said they depend on customer reviews to make purchase decisions. ORM experts have strategized efficient tactics to ensure that this almost intrinsic habit of online shoppers is used to benefit their clients –
- ORM experts are always in tune with the nature of feedback the companies they represent, receive on the Internet.
- They note down the most-used words in reviews to recognize positive and negative aspects of their clients’ businesses.
- The reputation management team members respond to consumer reviews, promising them that the company will address their qualms.
- These timely replies help boost customer engagement rates and foster positive relationships with online shoppers.
The ORM experts then report this feedback to their clients. The detailed insights they provide clearly reflect what the companies need to do to improve their brand identities in the market. Leveraging feedback to simply engage with customers isn’t enough. The feedback provided by customers should be implemented in the companies’ day-to-day business operations.
Conducting Thorough Online Audits
The first step of every ORM strategy is assessing a business’s existing reputation on the Internet. So, ORM experts search their clients’ businesses on search engines, social media platforms, consumer review forums, and other businesses to get a detailed understanding of where their brands stand. Based on this extensive understanding of consumer perceptions, the ORM experts categorize customer responses and comments as positive, neutral, or negative. Then, an improvement strategy is launched based on how well/poorly the brands have performed in the past.
Establishing a Distinctive Digital Space
Think establishing digital spaces is as easy as setting up websites and opening up some accounts on social media platforms? Think again! Establishing unique and creative digital spaces is extremely difficult. It involves various steps such as –
- Opening multiple profiles on all social media platforms that the business’s target audience is using.
- Regularly updating these profiles and responding to users who engage with the brand.
- Setting up profiles on review sites like Yelp or the Better Business Bureau and managing them regularly.
- Setting up Google Alerts to receive immediate updates whenever something about the company is explored on search result pages. Any negative content posted on review websites, social media channels, etc., can be controlled or even deleted as soon as they’re posted.
- Purchase domain names that businesses don’t want other companies to acquire. For instance, if a company is planning to launch a new product, it should secure the domain name of that product.
These are the vital steps ORM experts take to secure their clients’ brand names in digital spaces. Since the average time users spend browsing websites has significantly increased since 2020, taking these steps is extremely important for all brands that want to appear as welcoming and customer-friendly on the Internet.
Personalization
In another survey involving online shoppers, 76% of respondents said that they expect brands to appreciate their requirements and expectations. Hence, brands that don’t modify their online presence to cater to the specific needs of their consumers will struggle to garner enough attention. Here’s how ORM experts plan to make brands more personable in 2021 –
- Create target customer-oriented content on business websites.
- Delete or modify all content on a business website that doesn’t match its target audience’s preferences.
- Watch out for prevalent trends on target customers’ social media accounts and creating suitable content or offers to entice them.
- Assessing how every follower, reader, reviewer, or past customer responds to the customized content.
- Leverage visual content (videos and photos) to connect with more target audiences.
Competing for consumer attention on the Internet is vastly different from competing for their attention offline. On Internet platforms, the amount of incoherent noise and the number of potential competitors is always amplified. So, companies must invest in technologically advanced Online Reputation Management(ORM) experts that can help them understand how consumers really feel about their brands, separate the noise from the facts, and help communicate with them in better ways.
