What is the meaning of brand reputation?
The public's view of a brand is known as brand reputation. Because the internet has such a strong influence on public perception, brand perception is largely determined by online reputation.
In news articles, blog postings, and social media, how is the brand discussed? What are the opinions of the critics? When someone Googles the brand, what comes up on page one? These elements will have a long-term impact on your business.
Every stage of the funnel, including awareness, consideration, choice, and long-term loyalty, is influenced by your brand's reputation. Customers are aware of how to complete their homework. A staggering 91 percent of customers believe they are more likely to patronise a business that has received excellent feedback. Conversely, 82 percent say they are less likely to patronise a company that has received negative feedback.
Key Points
- Brand reputation plays an important role in every stage of the awareness funnel.
- To improve your brand's image, respond to client comments and create a memorable customer experience.
- Monitor your brand and invest in it to stay one step ahead. Before you take action, your brand's image doesn't have to make Comcast enraged. In fact, the more proactive you are in managing your brand's online identity, the more powerful you will be when it matters. And here's the deal: it's always a factor.
However, good and negative evaluations do not only surface for those who seek them out. They can also appear when consumers search for the brand on Google for whatever reason. When potential buyers use Google as a shortcut to your website or goods, for example. They'll undoubtedly think twice about continuing if Google provides unpleasant comments, articles, social posts, videos, or mentions.
How do you establish a successful brand reputation?
1. Use SEO to build a strong online presence.
The company's website usually comes up first in the search results, followed by third-party brand mentions. So, what happens when a person vents on a popular review site about a terrible experience? That bad review takes up residence on Google's first page. There is no alternative content to populate the SERPs if you don't have a strong web presence.
Consider expanding your internet presence beyond your own website's content with public relations and SEO. Obtain coverage on blogs and news sites. Make the most of the digital assets you hold. All social media profiles should be created and optimised. Claim the listings if you have local brick-and-mortar locations. Optimize for Google Images, videos, and your industry's vertical search engines. Create favourable PR in order to gain more media attention, such as for your excellent CSR efforts.
2. Establish yourself as a thought leader.
Nike isn't simply a shoe company; it's a shoe company. Microsoft isn't simply familiar with computers; it understands them. Netflix isn't just good at streaming; it's also good at... well, you get the idea.
They should never, however, reach the point where they feel compelled to vent their frustrations on social media in order to be heard. To ensure that your customers have a favourable experience with your brand, provide an outstanding customer experience at every point of contact.
Consider social media, the website's user experience, product descriptions, sales, assistance articles, customer service, confirmation emails, follow-up emails, and more. Is each point of contact user-friendly? Speedy? Transparent? Is there no roadblock in your way? If you go above and above for your customers, they will become your staunchest supporters.
An outstanding digital customer experience benefits not just your brand's reputation, but also your customer connections and revenue. Forrester discovered that focusing on the customer experience would improve revenue in every one of the 18 sectors analysed. Revenue growth and brand reputation are not mutually exclusive.
4.React to feedback and criticism.
One of the simplest and most effective methods on our list also happens to be one that busy businesses typically overlook. Customers think it feels like a brand cares about them when it answers to their input 78% of the time (78%) of the time.
Respond when someone leaves a Facebook comment, mentions you in a Tweet, or writes an online review about you. It's critical that your consumers and prospects believe their relationship with your company is reciprocal. It doesn't matter if the customer provides favourable or negative feedback; everyone who interacts with your brand wants to be heard.
5. Make everything as unique as possible.
Customers will feel appreciated and connected to your brand if they have a personalised experience. They can also help with boredom and frustration.
Personalized experiences aren't only on the surface. You don't just include the customer's name in your marketing emails; you personalise them so that they only receive information that is relevant to them. Similarly, just because you know the customer's name and can see what they've ordered doesn't mean your customer service is individualised.
Use your CRM system as a central repository for customer data, such as what they've bought, what difficulties they've had, what solutions they've tried, the quality of their previous customer service encounters, and so on. This information can be used as a starting point
whenever a client engages with your brand. Aim to keep each relationship going rather than starting over.
6. Develop a world-class business culture
Your happy employees can be your biggest allies, just like your customers, and the unhappy ones won't be bashful about sharing their problems.
Ensure that your corporate culture encourages the former. Companies that fail at this are those who believe that all they need to do to have excellent workers is to hire outstanding people. Great individuals, on the other hand, are just as prone to discontent and low productivity as everyone else if the corporate culture is lousy. Create an environment that allows outstanding employees to thrive while also empowering average employees to become great. Encourage a culture of openness, trust, and communication.
Negative employee reviews, like customer evaluations, are more likely to appear on Glassdoor if the employee hasn't had their input acknowledged in a constructive manner. As a result, pay attention to your employees' problems. Your employees are the coal mine's canary. Your customers are likely to dislike a product update, a company choice, or CEO behaviour if they don't like it.
7.involve social media to engage with your audience
our audience on.Social media is more than just a means of disseminating information to your target audience. It's also an opportunity to get feedback from your viewers. nd reputation. You may use social media to meaningfully engage returning and new customers. Create polls and ask questions. Monitor brand sentiment with social listening technologies. Direct involvement with your audience can not only help you develop a solid brand reputation, but it will also allow you to spot possible issues before they snowball.
8.Pay attention to (and act on) feedback
Remember how we encouraged you to respond to those evaluations and comments? It's not just about replying; make sure you respond to customer feedback in a way that reassures them that you've heard their concerns and are working to resolve them. This can turn an unhappy customer into a satisfied one, and your response to the feedback will be viewed favourably by anybody who witnesses the encounter, boosting your overall brand image.
Your answer to feedback, like your social media participation, isn't only for the customer. You can bet that for every consumer who comes to you with a specific piece of feedback, there are a slew of others who feel the same way but remain mute. Whether it's a customer service issue or poor product descriptions, resolving the problem will benefit your company's bottom line.
Customer feedback extends well beyond reviews. Voice of the Customer (VoC) data can also be used to improve marketing, retention, and brand experience.
9. Boost your content marketing efforts.
Content marketing that is educational, informative, and engaging in a variety of formats can help you achieve thought leadership and build a favourable relationship with your clients. People who find your information beneficial will connect to it and share it with others. As a result, it raises your SEO by increasing the authority of your site. When people discuss about your content, they build up a positive sentiment bank, making it difficult for negative sentiment to break through to page one.
To hit every target, mix up the content forms you use in your marketing strategy:
- Try white papers, case studies, customer testimonials, and reviews for consumers who need additional information and reassurance before making a purchase.
- Try video, infographics, lists, and interactive material to provide information in a digestible style.
- Try ebooks and manuals for meaty information that you can offer as an incentive for email signups or other interactions.
- Try guidelines, blog entries, video series, podcasts, webinars or e-courses, live Q&As, forums, and Slack channels to educate your people.
- Try UGC, social media, forums, Slack channels, live Q&As, webinars or e-courses, and interactive tools and templates for user interaction.
- Do you have a story to tell? Experiment with videos, blog entries, and podcasts.
10. Enhance your client service.
Most reputation management initiatives start with customer service employees. Give them all the tools they need to deal with problems promptly and send feedback to the right people. A good CRM system, enough time and assistance to handle each customer, and a mechanism to access customer history so they don't give repetitive solutions are all part of this.
Employ caution when determining which metrics to use to evaluate the success of your customer service representatives. It used to be common practise to evaluate customer service representatives based on how rapidly they could complete each encounter, but today, only the most bureaucratic firms utilise this as a criterion. Instead, concentrate on KPIs that assess the exchange's quality.
Provide your customers with all of the support channels they require, including social media, live chat, email, phone, and the option to upload files or show their screen as needed. And, because most customers prefer not to call customer service in the first place, make sure they have everything they need to handle their own problems. Getting-started instructions, knowledge bases, forums, FAQs, Facebook help networks, and extensive how-to articles are all examples.
11.Take use of influencer marketing
Having industry influencers endorse for you will boost your brand's credibility and trust. Consider your target demographic and the influences who appeal to them. After that, cultivate a relationship with those who have influence. Collaborate with them to create captivating content to improve the chances of your brand resonating with the target demographic. (Rather than seeing your engagements as transactions, you'll have a bigger impact on your brand's reputation if you develop genuine two-way connections with influencers.)
Micro-influencers can help you control your brand's reputation. These are persons who have devoted and devoted fans, and who have a deep understanding of their audience's thoughts, likes, and preferences. They're also far less expensive to deal with, allowing you to collaborate with a big number of micro influencers for compounding results.
12. Improve customer retention
Your happy customers and workers become brand ambassadors, who can help you build momentum and excitement during slow periods and defend your company's reputation when things go wrong. When you have a great customer experience and a great company culture, you will gain brand loyalty. However, in order to realise the potential of these relationships, you must actively nurture them.
Use social listening tools to get notifications when your business is mentioned. If the remark is positive, don't hesitate to contact the consumer and begin building a relationship with them. Allow them to be beta testers for new items or offer them unique insider deals and discounts. Customers who are loyal should be treated as VIPs. Also, don't be afraid to ask them to submit reviews or spread the word to their friends.
13.obtain testiminia and byline.
Reviews and bylines necessitate a proactive approach as well. When a company has a lot of pleased customers but hasn't asked any of them for a review, it's a common problem. When those voices aren't heard, a small number of negative reviews can give the impression that a company has a large number of dissatisfied customers.
Integrate public relations with SEO to strengthen your online presence with all of the good things you're doing and the good relationships you're forming.
Request reviews in your confirmation emails, via social media, and any time a customer gives a positive rating to a customer service interaction.
Make a list of industry blogs and media sites to pitch and start getting bylines published. Keep an eye on the type of content they provide, what they're missing, and what their target audience might enjoy. Then, come up with an amazing pitch that will stand out!
14.Keep an eye on your brand.
Monitoring your brand entails being aware of any mentions as soon as they occur. Set up Google News alerts for your company, as well as any high-profile items or persons associated with it. When your brand is mentioned in blog posts or news pieces, you'll be notified so you may take appropriate action, such as:
- Positively responding to article comments – answering questions, thanking readers for their feedback, and so on.
- Correcting inaccuracies by contacting the article's author
- Creating and publishing your own response to what was said on your blog or in an editorial
To keep on top of brand sentiment, you don't have to wait for blog pieces to be published. Social listening solutions such as Sprout Social, Keyhole, and Mention will notify you whenever your company is mentioned on social media. As soon as feasible, respond to feedback. If you don't address the issue, negative sentiment will spread quickly on social media.
15. Be proactive in protecting your brand's reputation.
Damage control isn't the only reason to hire a reputation management expert. They're also an element of a strategic brand reputation management plan. They assist you in staying ahead of the competition. Great reputation management firms take aggressive steps to improve your search engine rankings and spread high-quality material about your company. Not only do they help your reputation, but they also help your SEO and content strategy.
It's far too crucial to put off dealing with it until you're forced to. You'll be ready for anything with a proactive strategy.