Whether it’s the real world or the internet marketing platform, reputation almost always precedes quality. And as people increasingly go online for nearly every need, it’s the strength of your online presence that decides whether or not your website’s visitor is converted into a customer. This is because, if your website has several good reviews, it can very well lead to a purchase, whereas just a few bad reviews can spoil a potential deal from going through.
The issue here is, though, that without online reputation management (ORM), there is very little control you have over what a user will see about your product or brand. Therefore it becomes very important that you take ORM seriously. Also, because of basic human psychology, it’s a lot more common to share negative experiences (with a product or a brand) that it is to share positive ones.
Hence it’s absolutely essential that you not just review your online reputation, but that you actively participate in your online reputation management. The question now arises – how do you go about it? Well, we give you some very useful pointers:
A. Ask your customers to write positive reviews
This holds true both for small and for large businesses. What happens is this – people often rely on other people’s reviews about a product or service before coming to their own decision. So it’s very important that you have an outbound customer handling department within your team that can talk to satisfied customers and get them to write positive reviews for you. If they can leave these reviews on actual product pages, even better. This will only help turn more visitors into potential customers.
B. Deal with negative reviews offline
Negative reviews will happen once in a while. There is very little you can do about that. However, once you do come across one - whether from a disgruntled ex-employee, a person having a bad day or perhaps a customer who has indeed had a negative experience with your product – don’t go berserk. Instead, ask your customer interaction team to talk to the person (if possible) and see what could be done from your end to resolve the situation, and if the person would be ready to take back the negative review.
C. Employ a professional online reputation marketing firm
This is really important, as they will constantly manage your brand’s online presence by writing positive content that will also be search engine optimised.
Therefore make sure you take ORM strategy seriously. It’s an extremely important tool, so the better you are at it, the better your business will run.