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Building a Positive Online Reputation

diksha
April 9, 2024
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Nowadays information travels like fire. The need to maintain a positive online reputation is a must in today’s time. Customers before making a purchase check online reviews or feedback to gain information about the company. According to PowerReviews, 98% of customers feel that reviews are an essential resource when making a purchasing decision, this practice has witnessed an increase since 2018, when it was 89%. This shows that this trend will continue to increase and that customers trust and value online reviews. In this blog, we’ll explore the strategies for generating and managing reviews and the benefits of having a good online reputation.

What is Online Reputation

Online reputation is the opinion or perception that customers and the industry have of your business and its services. It depends on the type of content you have produced, the type your service provided, and how you respond to customer’s queries. Having a good reputation builds trust and credibility.

How do negative reviews affect your business?

Whenever someone leaves negative feedback or reviews on your website, social media, and Google, it harms your business. Negative feedback leads to a decrease in customer trust, sales, and ROI. According to BrightLocal, 94% of customers refused to make purchases from a business based on negative reviews. 57% of customers make a purchase only if a business has four or more stars.

Once a negative reputation has been formed, you have to work very hard and efficiently to change that negative reputation. Therefore it is an ongoing process and you should have an effective strategy in place to combat negative feedback.

Strategies for generating & managing reviews

According to Zignal Labs, 52% of a company’s market value is attributed to its reputation. Here are a few strategies that help you generate and manage reviews

Brand audit: Make a list of all your online assets such as your website, blog, social media, etc, and evaluate it. See how your audience views you on Google and your business’s mentions. This will help you in finding the areas you need to improve.
Monitor brand mentions: Monitor the mentions of your brand across the internet. Respond to the negative review with patience and try to resolve the issue. Highlight the positive reviews on your website and social media.
Respond to negative reviews: Give a helpful and respectful reply to a negative review and try to understand their issue. Resolve the issue at the earliest and apologize for the inconvenience. Never ignore or delete the negative review rather focus on fixing it.
Boost SEO: Your business should appear on the first page of search engines and SEO will help in doing so. According to Google’s algorithm, businesses with positive customer reviews outperform those with no or fewer customer reviews. Google’s algorithm considers factors such as quantity, quality, and recency of reviews.
Boost public relations: An effective PR can create positive news for you. You can try guest blogging or collaborate with industry influencers to generate a positive reputation.
Engaging Content: Create engaging, relevant, and informative content that compels your audience to reshare it or give a positive review.
Collect reviews: collect reviews from your old customers. Highlight positive reviews on social media and websites. Collect photo or video reviews as well.
User Generated Content: Encourage and promote user-generated content. It creates a positive reputation for your business and establishes trust in your customers and industry. These UGCs work as social proof for new customers.
Use social media: Nowadays majority of users use social media and trust the reviews they find there. Thus having a strong social media presence and reputation is a must. Share your achievements on social media.
Update your blog: regularly update your blogs on the website. A professional and well-updated website also helps in establishing your business’s positive reputation
Customer Service: have active and 24/7 customer service. So that you can fix or respond to your customer’s queries at the earliest and provide a good user experience
Use of tools: You can use tools like Google My Business to collect and manage reviews. Google is the most used search engine. Having positive reviews on Google gives an immediate boost to your business. If you want to promote your business locally then Google My Business is the best tool. According to Exploding Topics, 81% of customers use Google to evaluate local businesses.

Benefits

Having a strong online reputation benefits you a lot.

Increase in Search Engine Ranking: Having a strong and good reputation increases your visibility and awareness. More the brand awareness, the easier it is for customers to find you.
Increase customer trust: Customers trust a business with good and positive reviews. They tend to trust businesses with good reputations.
Influencing purchase decisions: The businesses that are trustworthy and have positive feedback can influence the purchasing decisions of the customers.
Edge over a competitor: Having a strong reputation gives you an edge over your competitors.
Increase in sales/ROI: Ultimately a strong reputation will increase your sales and market value.
Customer retention: It encourages repeat purchases and attracts new customers.
Brand loyalty: The satisfied customers will share their experience with their friends and family, encouraging them to make purchases. Also, they spread positive word of mouth for your business online.
Opportunities for growth and expansion: A strong reputation gives you the freedom to expand your business. You attract new investors, partners, and new areas of business.

Conclusion

You have learned how having a positive reputation increases your sales, trust, and credibility. Maintaining a positive reputation is not easy and requires an effective strategy. We at Lumia 360 with years of experience can help you in managing your reviews with our review management software. To more know about our services contact info@lumia360.com or call us at +1 (514) 668 – 5599