Reputation marketing is the promotion, monitoring, and acquisition of positive brand content, such as reviews, social media comments, online forums, and traditional press. It is a strategy used to better understand what is being said about you or your company online, and to use that understanding to improve your brand and overall online reputation.
While there are many similarities between reputation marketing and reputation management, reputation marketing tends to focus on promoting positive content with the goal of improving a brand’s image and, subsequently, its sales. Reputation management does this too, but it is just one aspect under the vast umbrella of reputation management services.
- Reputation management is the effort to influence what and how people think of a brand or person.
- Reputation marketing is a strategy used to promote, monitor, and acquire positive brand content.
- Both are tactics used to improve a brand’s overall image and can lead to benefits such as higher trust, better talent, less business risk, improved marketing efforts, and more profit.
Your reputation is a key differentiator in today’s saturated marketplace. The reputation marketing efforts you make can help you stand out. This blog will cover what reputation marketing is, what it means for your business, and how you can develop a reputation marketing strategy today.
Definition of reputation marketing
Reputation marketing promotes positive content from third parties, such as online reviews, social media posts, online forums, and traditional press to improve your online reputation. It combines reputation management with brand building to lead to more positive opportunities and effectively creates a line of defense against negative content.
All too often, businesses don’t think about reputation management until they’re dealing with an influx of negative press, bad reviews, or other damaging online content. Reputation marketing provides an opportunity to build your brand authority and reputation before you find yourself in a crisis situation.
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What reputation marketing accomplishes
- Improved reviews and ratings: Carefully monitor reviews and ratings to ensure that they paint the best possible picture of your brand. While it is true that you can’t directly control online reviews, you can curate them over time. The difference between a 4-star and 5-star rating can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue (more on that in the next section).
- Wikipedia page development: Brand development can improve the notability of your company, which will increase your chances of earning a Wikipedia page. Not all brands can get one, but building your brand can make it much easier to develop a page later down the road when the timing is right.
- Google Knowledge Panel development: Google’s Knowledge Panel appears on the right side of your screen in desktop search results. It includes data that Google pulls about you or your business. Whether or not your search term will earn a Knowledge Panel depends on the authority your brand holds and the quality and amount of structured data on your site. Earning a Knowledge Panel is a huge business asset and can greatly boost the number of clicks to your website. Here’s what Netflix’s Knowledge Panel looks like:
- Google My Business development: Every business should have their Google My Business account set up. It’s free to do and unlocks the ability for you to connect with customers and build your brand. By optimizing your business profile, you can make your brand stand out from the competition in search results.
- Website SEO: Improving your website’s performance in search engine results is the main goal of search engine optimization. If search engines like Google determine our page to be an authority for your target keywords, you will get more eyeballs on your page.
- Local SEO: Local SEO is key for businesses to directly target the communities they serve. By focusing on your local SEO, you can increase the search visibility for your brick-and-mortar store.
- Own a higher percentage of branded search results: All of the work invested in building your brand will allow you to own a higher percentage of branded results. When someone searches the name of your company, business, or brand, they will see all of your existing positive content at the top of search engine results.
Measuring the impact of online reviews
Everybody knows that online reviews are critical for business survival. We know this because we do it too. We use Google, Yelp, Facebook, Instagram, and so many other platforms to research how people feel about doing business with a brand. We want to see positive experiences and evidence that a product is worth the price.
Here are a few online review statistics that show exactly how they can determine the fate of your brand.
- 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
- Positive reviews make 73% of consumers trust a local business more.
- 49% of consumers need at least a four-star rating before they choose to use a business.
- Consumers read an average of 7 reviews before trusting a business.
- Every additional one-star Yelp rating causes an increase in the business’s revenue as high as 9%.
- 3 out of 4 consumers trust a company to a greater degree if the reviews for that company are positive.
- Reviews that only gave 1 or 2 stars failed to convert 86% of prospective customers.
Since online reviews can directly impact your brand identity, they are a major part of reputation marketing efforts. Make sure to pay attention to online reviews and take proactive steps to manage them. Here are a few tips.
- Encourage positive reviews: Go ahead and ask your customers to leave a positive review of your business! Most happy customers are willing to leave a quick review on a product or brand they believe in. You can link to your page on your website, email, or social media accounts, or post a sign or window cling if you have a physical storefront.
- Monitor review sites: You can’t improve your online reviews if you aren’t in touch with what is going on out there. Keep tabs on what people are saying about your brand
- Respond to reviews: It is critical to respond to both positive and negative reviews. This shows that your brand is engaged with its customers, and that you listen to valid concerns. When dealing with negative reviews, remember to always keep a level head and try to solve the problem at its source. This may require you to contact the person privately.
How to create a reputation marketing strategy for your business
A well-constructed reputation marketing strategy can help your business stand out in search results while improving brand recognition. Your strategy should be tailored to your unique business needs and goals, but there are some core components that every reputation marketing campaign should have. Here are some ideas to get you started in creating your own.
Components of a reputation marketing campaign
- Competitive intelligence: Step one is to take a good look at the current state of your brand. Take the time to feel out the pulse of your company. Is your vision for your brand translating into how people feel about your brand? Are your reviews and search results positive or negative? Also consider researching your competitors to see how they identify with their customers. This can give you ideas for improvement or things to avoid.
- Online components to improve: Once you’ve targeted which areas of your business need the most work, you can direct your focus to make the most impact. Here are a few areas to focus on:
- Articles
- Reviews
- Ratings
- Wikipedia
- Business listings
- SEO
- Monitoring and improvement The best brands are consistently monitoring their reputation to make sure things are still going well. If you’re doing a good job monitoring your brand, you will be able to take action quickly whenever negative reviews or comments pop up.
Final thoughts
Reputation is your brand’s most valuable asset. As such, it should be carefully monitored, managed, and marketed to keep it in the best possible shape. Reputation marketing provides an opportunity to take control of your reputation by promoting, monitoring, and acquiring positive brand content. The proactive tactics discussed in this blog will help to distinguish your brand from its competitors and improve its image.