Companies come under fire for various reasons. From whistleblower reports, negative employee feedback on public forums to efforts from competitors to tarnish a business’ name, companies have a lot to worry about when it comes to reputation management. With the world being a global village, bad press spreads around fast and your potential customer might likely hear about it as well.
Fortunately, reputation management services exist, which play a major role in helping companies restore their reputation with the help of various services. But are these services that important or just another scam to generate revenue? Find out the reality and the benefits that reputation management has to protect your business and brand identity:
Customer Trust
Arguably the most important reason for any business to uphold a high reputation is to gain the customer’s trust. The modern buyer is much smarter. Rather than rely on word of mouth or a sales-y pitch, they focus on genuine customer reviews and responses before opting for a service.
According to a survey, the average customer looks at around 10 positive reviews before they consider acquiring a business’ services or products. Negative responses from the general public can be lethal for your business, requiring you to put extra effort to paint a good image.
Better Recruitment
As companies become increasingly stringent about who they hire, employees are equally picky about the people they choose to work with. With information about companies available through forums like Glassdoor, among others, word spreads fairly quickly if a company has a bad reputation. Ultimately, this can put off potential employees from accepting job offers or even sending resumes.
A statistic from HBR claims that a bad reputation can cause a company to spend 10% more on average to hire an employee. Knowing that people are hesitant to join the company, candidates may also use this information as leverage to demand higher pay.
Brand Image
In many cases, a company might be producing high-quality products, but due to a bad rep, people could be put off by this. You might think that people only focus on products and services, but reputation plays a big role in how the general public perceives a company. An excellent example would be the presence of asbestos in Johnson & Johnson products.
Ever since the news broke out, Johnson & Johnson has been stigmatized. Their other products, despite not containing asbestos, are under question by the public. Not only do they have to take on damage control for the product that was an issue, but other aspects of the business are now being scrutinized as well.
Developing Brand Advocates and Affiliates
Affiliate marketing has skyrocketed in popularity. An estimated 80% of brands are involved in affiliate marketing, working with various brand advocates and renowned individuals, including social media influencers. Rather than take on overly grand marketing schemes, companies are working with people that have established a connection with an audience to promote their brands.
But rather than outright marketing, there’s an element of product promotion where the one reviewing or presenting the product has to maintain their image and integrity as well. If a company has a bad reputation, affiliates will be less tempted to promote the brand or be associated with the name as well.
Dealing with Rumours and Misinformation
Rival businesses and other nefarious parties often take on companies by dispelling all kinds of negative reputations about a company. Despite how baseless many of these accusations can be, people are bound to fall for it if they’re unaware of your business.
If the general public has an idea of how your company’s positive reputation, they might not fall for it or the negative rep won’t have such an impact.An alarming 18% of businesses have reported that they would consider taking on SEO tactics to sabotage their competitors. By running negative SEO-focused campaigns, companies can potentially harm their rival’s image on the search engine as well.
Better SEO Results
On the flip side, many companies use SEO for their means in a constructive way to improve their reputation. If any slander has been published in the past, you can mitigate its effects by running a positive reputation management campaign. It enables the public to be aware of your good efforts, services, and qualities as a business.
The ultimate goal of these efforts is to make it easier for people to find you online. Reputation management campaigns boost SEO factors, improving the keyword rankings for the brand and making them more prominent than their competitors.
Producing Quality Content
Reputation management involves producing different content pieces that help present the best aspects of your business. Apart from addressing any libel or slander, it covers a wide variety of topics, making use of SEO and newsworthy pieces to put your business in a good light.
On average, customers prefer looking over 3-4 content pieces before they get in touch with a customer representative to inquire about a business. The overall reputation management package can do a lot of good if utilized properly.
With a host of benefits that not only help save you from a bad reputation but also put your business in a better light among the public, reputation management is a must-have for any business. With customer response and perception being such key factors to a company’s success, being put in a negative light is something companies can’t afford.
Businesses should secure reputation management services to improve their image and generate good press now and then.
About the Author
This article was brought to you by a reputation management expert at Search Berg. Search Berg is a complete suite of SEO services, providing paid marketing, lead generation, content writing, reputation management, and more across a myriad of platforms.