You’ve probably heard of reputation marketing. The practice involves marketing a company, product or service in a way that helps build credibility, trust, and/or authority for that company, product or service in the eyes of others.

Here’s the thing. Building credibility, trust, and/or authority doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. It takes research. And it takes strategy. That’s why successful businesses invest heavily in reputation management, hoping to find the right strategy that will help them overcome bad publicity, unfair criticism, inaccurate rumors, and more, in the eyes of customers, stakeholders, and the public at large.

If your business is looking for ways to improve its reputation, take a look at these online reputation marketing services. Despite the fact that there is no “one-stop-shop” for reputation marketing, these companies attempt to tackle the issue from every angle, making them the perfect choice for businesses that are more interested in long-term growth than in satisfying the demands of a particular customer, or those that want to become more accessible to a broader audience.

Why Should You Care About Your Online Reputation?

Let’s face it: Online reputation is a different ballgame from traditional reputation. While your reputation in the physical world can be easily ascertained, your online reputation is, to an extent, constructed online. This means that your reputation can change at any moment, based on what others say or do online. This is extremely difficult to track, and it’s definitely not something that you can control.

This is particularly problematic for businesses that try to keep a positive reputation, as there is always the possibility that something negative will be said about your company, product, or service. Depending on the nature of this negative information, it could have a devastating impact on your business.

Taking this into consideration, it’s clear that you should care about your online reputation. Why? Think about this for a moment: No one wants to do business with a company they feel isn’t trustworthy. After all, if you’re not sure whether or not your company can be trusted, then how can you be sure that they will deliver as promised? How can you be sure that they will follow through on their promises to provide value and service?

Types Of Online Reputations

Before we begin, let’s talk about what exactly constitutes an ‘online reputation’. To start, your online reputation can be either positive or negative. However, in practice, most people will consider your online reputation to be negative, unless they know or believe you to be reputable.

Your positive or negative reputation can be determined by looking at a variety of factors. These include, but are not limited to:

• Your engagement with customers (i.e., your level of responsiveness, communication, and support)
• The quality and accuracy of your products/services
• Your track record of delivering projects on time and within budget
• How you handle negative feedback
• Whether or not you engage in ethical or questionable behavior
• The list goes on and on

Keep in mind that all of these components make up your overall ‘online reputation’. In practice, it is nearly impossible to manage all of these factors, which is why most businesses that rely on online reputation opt to hire a reputable third party to do it for them.

Now that you have a better idea of what constitutes an ‘online reputation’, let’s talk about how to build it.

How Can You Build An Online Reputation?

In general, you can build an online reputation in one of two ways:

• By delivering high-quality products or services to your customers
• By responding to complaints, questions, and concerns raised about your company

Let’s talk about each of these in turn.

Positive Feedback

If you want to build a positive reputation, you need to do two things:

• Provide customers with value. This means that you need to ensure that your products are of high quality. Your customers will have one important thing in mind, and that is to ensure they get their money’s worth. If you want to build a positive reputation, then you need to ensure that customers are satisfied with what you’re providing.
• Give customers what they want. This means that you need to listen to what your customers tell you they want and then provide it to them, regardless of what is popular or fashionable at the moment.

For example, if customers are used to buying cheap, low-quality products that they’re afraid might break, you might want to take the opportunity to tell them that this is no longer the case. At the same time, you can introduce them to a better quality item, at a higher price, but with more value.

Negative Feedback

If you want to build a negative reputation, you need to do two things:

• Be slow to respond to customer issues.
• Only provide minimal or no customer support.

Again, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a potential customer. Say you’re looking for a new mattress and decide to check out online customer reviews before making a purchase decision. This is when you discover that several people are claiming that the product is highly flammable and won’t provide the appropriate degree of comfort.

In this situation, you have two options:

• Ignore the complaint, as it’s ‘only a few bad apples’ and you can’t be sure whether or not the bed will be safe for use
• Take the time to investigate the complaint. Perhaps the people complaining are just jealous that they can’t have the same quality bed that you’re enjoying. Or, perhaps this is a sign that your bed is not up to par, and it’s time for you to find a new brand or model.

Of course, you should aim to do your best to satisfy all of your customers, but sometimes, you just need to walk away, especially if you don’t have the resources to thoroughly investigate a complaint. Otherwise, you could end up in a bit of a pickle.

The Importance Of Content

If you’re creating or publishing content (i.e., writing blogs, articles, giving speeches, making YouTube videos, etc.) for the world to see, then you need to take into consideration how others will perceive this content. Fortunately, there are several tactics you can use to improve the chances of your content being positively received.

Professionalism

If you want to be taken seriously as an expert in your field, you need to act and speak like an expert. This means that you need to master the art of giving excellent quality content, regardless of whether or not you’re an expert in the field.

For example, if you’re writing an article for publication and you’re in the business of selling homes, you might want to take the time to research the top real estate companies before selecting the one you plan to work with. Doing this will not only help you find the best fit but ensure that your article is of the highest quality. Using ‘experts’ for freelance writing can be very beneficial, as they can help you avoid making spelling mistakes, use the right words, and structure the piece effectively. Additionally, having experts look over your article before it’s published, or before you send it to a client, can help you improve its credibility. Not only does this make you look more professional, but it also shows the reader that you took the time to make sure the content was of the highest quality. Even if you’re just writing for your personal use, you can still benefit from having an expert look over your work, especially if you want to be taken seriously as an expert in your field.