It takes around 40 positive customer reviews to undo the damage of one negative review.
So, how can you protect your brand or business reputation?
An effective online reputation management strategy can safeguard your business image.
In this guide, we’ll define ORM, teach you how to identify your brand’s reputation and walk you through a 7-step ORM strategy to help you protect and improve your business reputation.
What Is Online Reputation Management?
Online Reputation Management (or ORM) refers to the process of monitoring and managing how your business or brand is perceived across online platforms.
This includes social media channels, search engines, and online communities
The goal is to ensure accurate and favorable information about your brand or business dominates online spaces.
Reputation Management Strategy Importance
1. Builds and Maintains Your Brand Image
Create a consistent brand voice by ensuring all communications match your business or brand values, personality, and message. Identify your business buyer persona, define your brand voice, create brand guidelines for your team, and track your performance.
Your reputation management strategy should make this voice clear, authentic, and memorable.
2. Protects Your Brand or Business
Manage business crises efficiently with a well-prepared reputation management strategy.
When dealing with unexpected events, minimize damage and restore clients amongst your customers through a proactive approach. Prepare a crisis communication strategy for your entire team instead of finding the best way to deal with the situation as your issues escalate.
3. Attracts New Customers
A positive online reputation helps you turn leads into customers.
95% of customer check reviews before buying, so your business’s online reputation significantly influences their buying decision.
Keep a steady flow of positive feedback, and more people will notice your product or business.
Develop an ORM Strategy
An effective ORM strategy not only defends your current online reputation but also strengthens it over time.
Here are 7 critical aspects every solid ORM plan should focus on:
Step 1. Identify Your Business Online Reputation
Are you successfully protecting your business’s online reputation or letting it get damaged?
Your business reputation begins with understanding where you currently stand. Here’s how to identify your business’s online reputation:
- Start With Your Assets
To identify and manage your online reputation, start with your digital assets.
Review your website business website, newsletter, and social media profiles. Do these assets fit your brand voice and provide a positive user experience? Are you consistently delivering the wanted impression?
Improve your online reputation by aligning your digital assets with your brand strategy. - Chek Search Engines Results
Identify the sentiment around your business by searching your business name, relevant keywords, or top executives’ names on Google and other popular search engines.
Track any news articles, press releases, or media mentions related to your business. Also, check the media content associated with your brand by checking image search results. - Monitor Social Media and Forums
Find out what existing or potential customers think about your brand or business by reviewing the comments, posts, or hashtags around your business.
Additionally, check reviews on Yelp, G2, Capterra, or industry-specific review sites. - Collect Customer Feedback
The best way to find out what people think about your business? Ask your customers.
Collect customer feedback through surveys, feedback forms, or direct interactions such as the customer support chat.
Step 2. Create Quality Content
Shape how people perceive your brand through high-quality content. Drown out negative sentiment around your business and establish it as an industry leader by producing engaging and shareable content.
Ensure your content is informative, valuable, and relevant to your audience and customers. Demonstrate expertise through blog posts, videos, and social media posts, and take charge of the story surrounding your brand.
Step 3. Leverage SEO
Your business should be Google’s top results when someone searches for its name or the most relevant keywords.
Besides driving more traffic to your website, a well-executed SEO campaign helps bury negative reviews deeper in search results.
Work with an SEO professional or invest in reliable SEO tools to improve your online visibility and protect your brand’s reputation.
Step 4. Listen and Respond
Minimize potential damage by tracking brand mentions. Set up a Google alert or use an online reputation management tool to address negative reviews or misinformation quickly.
Step 5. Build Meaningful Relationships
Get valuable endorsements and favorable coverage by cultivating strong relationships with your industry’s bloggers, influencers, and media publications.
These partnerships can amplify your brand message and help you establish credibility and authority with your target audience.
You can also become the preferred industry partner by working on mutually beneficial projects, sharing exclusive content and info, or offering experiences related to your product or service.
Step 6. Empower Employees
Turn your key employees into brand ambassadors.
Encourage them to showcase their expertise through content sharing, participation in industry events, and contribution to relevant online discussions.
Ensure the message fits your brand voice by sharing the knowledge and tools to represent your brand successfully with your team.
Step 7. Analyze Your Competitors
Identify areas for improvement by comparing your online presence and reputation with competitors.
Analyze their website content, reviews, social media accounts and engagement, and search engine rankings. Pay attention to their strengths, weaknesses, and overall online sentiment.
Manage Negative Content and Feedback
No matter how thorough your ORM strategy is, you can’t escape negative content or feedback.
When encountering potentially damaging criticism or comments, evaluate the situation carefully and respond appropriately. Here are some best practices:
- Reply quickly. The faster you get back to an unhappy client, the better your chances are of controlling the issue before it escalates.
- Acknowledge your mistake. Demonstrate that your business values customers’ experience by acknowledging the mistake and apologizing for the inconvenience. Then, move on to fixing the problem for your customer. This could include a discount, replacing the product, or a refund.
- Turn negative feedback into improvement. Analyze negative feedback to identify recurring issues such as product or service defects or communication failures.
Key takeaways
-> ORM is the process of monitoring and shaping online conversations about your brand or business to protect and improve its reputation.
-> ORM is the practice of monitoring and influencing online conversations about your business to protect and enhance its reputation.
-> When creating your ORM strategy, understand how existing and potential customers perceive your business.
-> Constantly audit your digital presence, adjust your ORM strategy, and proactively address negative feedback or content.
-> Build a positive image by creating valuable content, engaging in online conversations, and building strong relationships.
-> Turn key employees into brand ambassadors.
-> Quickly reply to negative feedback, learn from it, and improve your product, service, and business.
