How to Enhance Your Brand Through Effective Reputation Management
In today’s highly competitive digital marketplace, attracting new leads and building long-term client relationships requires a thorough marketing strategy. Potential clients not only browse price and availability of your products and services when they land at your site, but they also make a rapid evaluation of your small and medium-sized business’s (SMB’s) reputation.
Effectively managing your reputation requires dedicated, proactive and holistic strategies. You not only need to earn positive customer reviews by offering outstanding products and services, but you need to host high-quality, actionable content and maintain a dynamic social media profile.
Consider the Critical Role Customer Reviews Play in Your SMB’s Reputation
When assessing the products you offer or the services you provide, a majority of new leads will scan through reviews hosted on your website or third-party websites including Google, Yelp, Amazon, Foursquare, Angie’s List and more. While you cannot necessarily control the reviews posted to third-party sites, you can choose to solicit feedback directly from clients, and then host positive testimonials on your website. After delivering a product or completing service for a customer, send a short email to follow up asking about the overall experience. This process may also help you get in front of, and possibly address, negative feedback on a third-party site before it detrimentally affects your reputation.
Ultimately, soliciting feedback may help put you in control of your reputation and build trust with potential leads visiting your site. Host client reviews on your homepage, or establish a dedicated testimonials page, linked from your homepage, as part of your strategic site map.
Host Actionable and Informative Content to Enhance Your Reputation
Another effective strategy to build your SMB’s reputation is through continually hosting superior-quality, actionable and unique content which engages customers and provides value. Articles, blogs, press releases and more help establish your business as an authority in a particular area and grows your brand’s value to stand out from the competition. A running blog with space for users to submit comments, ask questions and interact with your team also helps build rapport and trust with potential clients. Ultimately, routinely hosting a variety of high-quality content helps grow your business and may even offer enhancements for SEO.
Enhance Your Profile on Social Media Sites
A well-designed page on a social media site also helps build your SMB’s brand, grows awareness of your products and services, and enhances your reputation. A fully optimized social media profile which stands out from the competition should include relevant information about your company, your logo, geographic location, phone number and services provided. Targeted reputation management should include crafting dynamic social media presences on major forums including:
- Tumblr
- Pinterest and more
You may also choose to post updates with positive reviews, ongoing specials, links to high-quality articles on your site and much more.
Through a holistic reputation management strategy, your SMB can quickly leverage a wide range of tools at your disposal to build trust with prospective leads and help unlock new opportunities.
