Consumers buy your products/services based primarily on the trust and reliability of the companies. One might contend that reputation has always been the cornerstone of any business, but the nature of reputation-building has vastly changed with the onset of the internet.
Defending one’s online reputation has become very intimidating because of the proliferation of consumer review sites like Amazon, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. You must be terribly guarded because reviews on the internet spread quickly and has a far reach.
The task of managing online reputation is a highly competitive business for scores of professional who promise to give digital makeovers to everyone – individuals, small and mid-size business owners, corporate houses to politicians to celebrities.
Many of those ORM agencies offer credible services to help brands source positive reviews and flattering comments from happy customers.
But remember that the nature of the internet is such that anyone can engage in unethical practices and mischievously post negative content.
You may flood search engines with favorable reviews and positive brand stories as a way to suppress unfavorable content about your brand.
There is a rat race, and things are getting complicated as sophisticated tools are now employed to boost up a brand’s reputation.
All of this has resulted in a steep decline of consumer trust. In fact, surveys revealed that consumers are suspicious of even positive reviews.
In the present scenario consumer confidence in a brand’s digital presence can make or break your business success. Approaching online reputation management issues ethically must be your core strategy.
Improve search traffic and ranking with interesting, informative and dynamic content. Please remember that the overall rating for a product tends to increase along with the volume of reviews it receives. Besides, the volume also plays an important role in Google’s algorithms – thus, a steady stream of evergreen content about a company or brand will be rewarded with higher online search based results organically.
Word-of-mouth programs like requesting product reviews are one of the most rewarding ways to influence search results. Adding positive reviews to a product page typically results in 25% increase in search traffic.
Nobody obviously wants negative feedback about their business. But remember that even negative feedback can be good for business because of hidden opportunities to improve your business.
Experts opine that using negative reviews to eliminate product flaws can be an extremely valuable exercise. Negative as well as positive reviews can help quality control and launch of new products consistent with market demands.
You can build positive brand associations through customer responses. When brands respond to feedback or queries, they build relationships with consumers.
Never ignore negative comments. Surveys showed that consumers who saw a brand response to a negative product review were 75% more likely to consider making a purchase decision than those who didn’t.