Being recognizable is one of the valuable assets that a business can have. According to a survey, 59 percent of customers want to buy from brands that they already know.
Hence, it can be challenging for small businesses to be a top choice for their target customers. After all, large companies have more marketing budget.
Nonetheless, you can still get ahead of the competition by having a solid brand reputation.
What is A Brand Reputation?
In a nutshell, brand reputation is a belief or opinion others have about you. So, it is how others think of your business.
Creating a positive online reputation means that people believe and trust in your brand. Apart from that, they also feel good doing purchasing or doing business with you. A negative brand reputation, on the other hand, might hurt your chances of making a sale.
Whether you want to boost your online reputation yourself or would like to work with an agency that provides online reputation management services, here are seven ways to do it right:
1. Monitor Your Brand
Nowadays, it is easy to share your opinion about something online. This includes having excellent or poor customer experience.
Mind you; people tend to share whatever product they bought on social media. They also tend to rant or rave online. That’s why it is essential to always check what they say about your brand.
Doing so allows you to be prompt in showing your appreciation or addressing their concerns.
Monitoring your brand can be as simple as checking online review sites or using listening tools.
2. Be Transparent
Be transparent with your digital branding efforts, especially when using social media.
Customers nowadays are tech-savvy. Meaning, they can spot when a brand is being honest or shady. They will also know whether you are being helpful or being sales-y.
Hence, it is essential to use your online presence to tell your customers an entertaining brand story. That way, you can prove that you are a trustworthy brand and foster a meaningful relationship with your customers.
3. Provide Customer Satisfaction
A customer’s experience is all about paying attention to detail. Your keen attention to these details is something that’s built upon.
This includes any interaction with your customers. Some examples are your site navigation, social media replies, email autoresponders, and invoicing.
How you deliver your products and services also counts for customer satisfaction
Keep in mind that an excellent customer experience signals that you are a trustworthy business. It also shows that you will not abandon customers even after generating a sale.
Ensuring customer satisfaction also allows you to turn customers into brand evangelists. Meaning, they can help promote your brand through positive word-of-mouth.
4. Research Your Competition
Although we do not advise that you imitate big brands in your niche, you can learn from them.
Figure out what marketing tactics they are doing, and emulate what works from them. It would also help to take note of what they are doing wrong. That way, you will not do it for your business.
Your main goal should be how you could be able to differentiate your brand from the rest of the competition. How can you convince your prospects to choose you among other brands?
It would help if you thought of how your brand can stand out from what’s already in the market. So, research your fiercest competitors or your benchmark brands. Study how they managed to build a brand name for themselves.
It also helps that you ask yourself these questions:
- Is the competitor consistent with their brand identity and messaging across all platforms?
- What’s the quality of their products and services?
- Do they have old customer reviews and mentions that you can read?
- How do your competitors market their business, both online and offline?
5. Leverage Social Media
Many experts predict that by the time 2021 rolls in, the number of social media users will hit 3 billion. That amounts to almost one-third of the world’s population.
Having a positive and consistent social media presence can help improve your brand’s online reputation.
6. Under Promise, Over Deliver
The more promises that you keep, the stronger your brand reputation will be. Meanwhile, unmet and unmanaged customer expectations can hurt your brand’s reputation.
Keep in mind that if you are unable to meet your customers’ needs, it can frustrate them. And this can cause disappointment for your brand. Worse, they will lose the confidence to do business with you again.
On the other hand, being consistent with how you run your business can cultivate trust with your customers. And this can have a positive impact on your online reputation and revenue.
To be safe and ensure that you can deliver, we advise you not to make promises you cannot keep.
7. Create High-Quality Content
Your content can make or break your business. Hence, you should always create original and engaging content.
Doing so helps you improve your reputation. It also helps establish your business as a thought leader in your industry.
It would be best if you also focused on creating content that your audience will find useful, entertaining, and valuable. Something that they would like to share with their network.
8. Always Make Improvements
Make it convenient for your customers to give feedback on your products and services.
Create an environment where customer reviews are welcome. It is also crucial that they feel that you listen to their feedback. When you give them that outlet, you can prevent a negative sentiment from blowing up.
Feedback also helps strengthen your products at its core. When you take the time to identify your service or product’s weaknesses, you can improve on that. Thus, you can boost customer satisfaction.
More happy customers mean more sales for your business.
By applying the tips listed above, you are letting your business improve its online reputation. And a positive online reputation can help boost your sales. So, pick a tactic or two and see how it can affect your business’ revenue.
