There’s no denying the fact that reputation management is becoming a bigger part of internet marketing. It started with simple reviews but companies soon found out how much money they were losing because of a bad rep. Imagine your car dealership spends $10,000 a month in advertising and gets 100,000 views to your website. That’s a pretty successful campaign but before people visit your dealership they go onto Google and search your business. At the top of the page is your website followed by several sites that talk about how terrible the service was, how they didn’t like the car, how they didn’t like something you did. The frustrating part is most of these comments are exaggerated or they can even be from competitors. Sadly it doesn’t matter, people see them and it could scare them away.
NUMBERS NEVER LIE
It’s estimated that businesses can lose up to 25% of new business due to a bad reputation. Put aside the money you lose from getting those people to find your company, now think about the money you lose from those sales. It’s enough to make you sick to your stomach.
Whether you need reputation management to fix your current image or you want to protect the clean image you already have, there are a few things you can do that will get results and protect your name.
SOCIAL PROFILES
Social media accounts are great so don’t shy away from having them and keeping them active. Google and other search engines rank these profiles very highly which gets you more attention and pushes down those negatives reviews. If you search a company name you may find their website, their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram before you find any negative talk about them.
USE OF CONTENT
One of the best ways to minimize the damage caused by negative talk is to flood the market with positive content. Articles, blogs, press releases, comments and reviews will all help improve the conversation about you and get people more comfortable with your brand. Featured articles about your company work well for advertising, marketing and improving your online reputation as well. You should be producing a quality piece of content every day and strive to have someone else talking about you in a positive way at least once a week.
PRESS RELEASE
When you send out a press release, especially with a top-tier platform, you are getting real attention. When people search your business they see that release at the top and it gives them an update on the latest news about your company. It’s a great way to get more eyes on you but also control what they are seeing.
There’s no denying the importance of protecting your reputation whether you have a great one or a bad one. Repairing it may take some time but it must be done, otherwise, your marketing efforts will suffer as potential new customers will quickly be scared away. DigDev Direct has several aggressive methods to improving your online image so that you can focus on what you do best and start making sales again..