There has been significant effort from online marketing specialists in offering guidance on the management of online ratings and reviews for local businesses. However, it is essential to consider that the impact of reputation goes beyond the reviews posted on platforms like Yelp and Google.
Almost every business faces occasional issues with customers.
If you can address issues promptly, it can prevent customers from resorting to public forums or feeling the need to warn others about your business. The internet has significantly facilitated the spread of word-of-mouth, allowing information to travel quickly.
If you have taken the necessary steps to prepare and plan for dealing with online criticism of your company, the effect of a few complaints can be significantly lessened, enabling you to respond promptly and efficiently to mitigate any financial repercussions.
How to Improve an Online Reputation
Online business reputation management is crucial due to several reasons. One of these reasons is that having a positive reputation aids in the attraction of more leads. Additionally, the credibility of your business is enhanced as a greater number of individuals provide reviews of your website.
Online reviews can also assist in improving your search results. According to Moz, review signals and Google My Business signals are included among the top three search engine factors that impact local business search results.
It is important to consider both the quantity and quality of reviews. According to an analysis conducted by RevenueJump on 54,376 local listings, the top-ranked listings on Google’s local results had an average of 38 reviews, whereas the lowest-ranked ones had an average of 14 reviews. Implement these tactics to increase the number of positive reviews received.
1. Ask
According to Search Engine Land, when asked, 70% of customers will review a business. This is a simple fact.
If you receive positive feedback from a satisfied customer in person, make sure to inform them about review sites and express your appreciation for customer reviews. Utilize email marketing to reach out to your most loyal customers and request their feedback. Additionally, include links to review sites on your website and social media platforms for easy access.
2. Spotlight Positive Reviews
If you receive a positive review, contact the customer to request permission to use it for marketing purposes. Once permission is obtained, transform the review into a visually appealing infographic testimonial. Subsequently, share this testimonial through email and on various social media platforms. This may inspire other customers to seek acknowledgment from your business by leaving positive reviews as well.
3. Provide Amazing Services or Products
The most important factor that influences reviews is how your business treats its customers. Make it your goal to offer exceptional products and services to ensure that receiving a positive review becomes the only choice.
4. Things to Consider Besides Review Sites
In addition to review sites, it is also crucial to have positive news about your business circulating on the internet. This ensures that when individuals search for your company, they will come across such content. To achieve this, implementing a public relations and/or influencer marketing strategy can help generate more positive blog mentions and news articles.
First, locate influencers in your industry on social media and in the content marketing sphere. You may utilize resources such as BuzzSumo to accomplish this task. Subsequently, make an effort to contact them, extending an opportunity to try your product or service at no cost, with the expectation of receiving an unbiased evaluation.
In order to effectively promote your product or service, locate influencers and bloggers with active audiences who are interested in your product or service. It is important to establish a connection with these influencers before introducing your product to them. Offer them useful resources such as fact sheets or images that can assist them in creating content.
When working with bloggers and influencers, the success of your product or service will be determined by its quality. If you offer something of poor quality, you will only receive more negative reviews and news about your business.
5. Create A Presence On Any And All Relevant Web Properties
Firstly, your company should already possess Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ accounts as a minimum requirement. However, if you operate in a fiercely competitive market and specific industry, it may be necessary to be actively present on other social media platforms as well. It is worth noting that numerous options exist, including industry-specific sites.
For B2B, high-tech, or professional businesses, it can be beneficial to have executives and employees connect on LinkedIn. Visual products may require the use of Pinterest, Instagram, and Flickr. Additionally, sharing videos on YouTube and Vimeo can be advantageous for most businesses.
6. Don’t Neglect Your Social Media Accounts
It’s important to build out your social media accounts. Merely having a Twitter, Facebook and Google+ account/page for your business is insufficient — you need to develop your audience on them, too. With ongoing development, you can build your social media accounts in order to interact with customers and to increase your influence and engagement scores.
If you fail to do this, the accounts may not have enough strength to surpass the postings if someone starts posting negative content. Although we’re uncertain about the specific criteria used by Google and Bing to measure social media account strength, you can employ independent scoring tools like Klout and Kred to evaluate your progress.
7. Consider Your Brands And Products
In order to ensure comprehensive online presence, it may be necessary to create online materials and social profiles for more than just your company name. If you have additional brand and product names apart from your company name, it is advisable to create relevant content to enhance their search engine ranking. It might also be essential to develop websites, web pages, social media profiles, and other collateral materials specifically to secure and protect each brand name.
8. Protect Individuals Associated With The Business
Develop a strong social media presence for your founders’, owners’, or executives’ names, particularly if they are distinctive. Keeping a low online profile to preserve your privacy just leaves you wide open for any drive-by defamers!
For businesses that have a strong connection between the company’s identity and their executives, it is crucial to have a reliable reputation management strategy. Individuals like doctors, dentists, and lawyers are frequently searched by their names, so it is important to develop material that can be ranked for these professionals if they do not have any already.
9. Implement Authorship Where Applicable
If a business has a founder or proprietor who is closely linked to the company’s identity, Google’s policy states that authors must be individuals and not associated with a business page.
If you are using the author tag, it is only worthwhile if you plan to regularly publish articles or blog posts over time.
10. Blog
For the purpose of reputation, having a solid “home court” ground where you can directly address any significant claims made about your company is not only beneficial, but it can also help boost your ranking for your name.
11. Listen
When addressing online complaints or bad reviews, it is important to carefully consider the possibility of shortcomings in your process that require attention, especially if you consistently receive negative feedback regarding a certain aspect.
When thinking logically, rephrase the following text without changing the meaning, adding new information, or removing any information. Remember the saying that “the customer is always correct”? Instead of being rigid, find an innovative approach to fulfill the desires of customers without causing any conflicts.
Just because you can pressure people into paying more doesn’t mean that you should. Consider that you could be driving existing or potential customers into the arms of your competitor. The extra money you make on that annoying fee could be cancelled out by business lost from those who see numerous complaints about it online.
Side notes
The success of your business can be influenced by what people say about it. It is important to take reviews and press coverage of your company seriously. If the feedback is negative, you can address the issue and potentially attract more positive publicity for your business. Conversely, if the feedback is positive, it is important to acknowledge and appreciate those who took the time to compliment your company.
