More and more businesses are using reputation marketing services these days. 

Our article will help you understand what is reputation marketing and how it helps you build your brand.

What is Reputation Marketing?

Reputation marketing is an emerging field that combines elements of reputation management and brand marketing.

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In simple words, it’s the process of acquiring and amplifying brand content to increase your brand’s reputation.

When done correctly, it helps increase sales, improve business metrics, market new leads and increase customer acquisition.

By marketing your brand’s positive reputation, you establish trust with your customers even before they speak to your sales representative. This eases their concerns and shows that your brand is trustworthy. That’s what you need to build a successful brand!

It’s a powerful strategy that uses your brand’s assets to boost your brand’s reputation as promotional and advertising materials. 

Therefore, reputation marketing is all about using customer testimonials and reviews as a part of your marketing campaign. 

Simply put, you’re just marketing your brand’s reputation. You can do so by sharing testimonials on your website, advertisements on social media or positive reviews. 

However, reputation marketing shouldn’t be confused with reputation management or brand marketing. 

Definition of Reputation Marketing

It promotes positive content from third parties such as online forums, traditional press, social media posts, online reviews, etc. to enhance your brand’s reputation.

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It’s a combination of brand building and reputation management tactics that help generate more positive opportunities. This way, it effectively creates a genuine line of defence against negative content. 

Generally, businesses don’t think of reputation management until they’re dealing with a lot of bad reviews, damaging content or negative press. 

However, getting started with reputation marketing early on helps you build a positive brand image right from the beginning. It helps you gain an advantage as a positive brand image is already established before you’re in a crisis.

Importance of Reputation Marketing

Customers have become aware and research the product they’re planning to purchase. Some speak to their friends and families for recommendations while others do a thorough background check of the brand they wish to associate with.

Therefore, it’s important to understand that your brand is visible in search results, social media and the press. And this information can be easily obtained by anyone across the globe. This can either break or make your brand.

You might have 1000s of followers on your social media but if your online reviews are negative, then chances are, you will start losing customers. In addition, gaining new customers will become difficult with each passing day.

This is where reputation marketing comes in. It helps create meaningful, genuine trust-based relationships with customers in the form of testimonials and online reviews. 

Good reviews are the key to a positive brand reputation (and not more likes and followers). They strategically help improve your flexibility, trustworthiness and influence.

With the help of reputation marketing, you can use customer feedback, comments, social media and reviews to improve your brand visibility. In addition, it helps increase engagement levels, enhance social media strategy and boost search engine performance.

The Benefits of Reputation Marketing

Before we move on to the benefits, here are a few facts and statistics to consider:

• 40% of individuals don’t wait more than 3 seconds for a website to load before they leave.
• 92% of customers consider online reviews before making a purchase. 
• Research shows that even a 0.5-star difference in online reviews makes a tremendous impact on consumer behaviour.
• 40% of individuals follow their favourite brands on social media.

All these facts and statistics are proof that reputation marketing is crucial for businesses. Here are a few benefits of reputation marketing:

• Increases brand equity. Higher brand equity makes it possible for brands to charge more money for their products and services. 
• More shareholder value. Increased brand equity promotes a better cash flow that increases shareholder value in the longer run.
• Higher brand awareness. The better your reputation is, the more people will be of your brand. People take recommendations from family and friends and therefore, the more satisfied your customers are, the better it is for your brand.
• Reduced acquisition costs. It costs less to find and attract new customers as people are already aware of your brand.
• Increased customer lifetime value. Did you know that a loyal customer is worth up to 10 times as much as his first purchase? The higher your brand value is, the more your customers will spend. 
• Availability of funds to invest in innovation. Brands with a good reputation focus on innovation and growth. This results in new products/services with excellent results.
• Better organizational environment. Brands that actively listen and pay attention to their shareholders’ feedback enjoy higher returns. 

Fundamentals of Reputation Marketing

Here are the five fundamentals you need to understand before getting started:

#1. Online Listings

For almost all customers, the first point of contact during research on your brand is online listings. Here’s why it’s so important:

• Suppose a customer watches an advertisement and shows interest in your brand. You have their attention but your contact information is inaccurate. Or worse, you can’t be found online. This will just direct them to your competitor. However, you can avoid this by increasing your online listings. Ensure that they’re accurate so that more and more people can reach you. As a local business owner, you will harness your advertising budget as well as increase website traffic.
• Even if your competitor claims your listing, your brand’s contact information will lead them to you. This rarely happens with an exception of the food and restaurant industry. 

The more accurate and updated your online listings are, the more customers you will have. Invest time and effort to get your listings right. 

#2. Reviews

Let’s go back to the example: the customer lands on your website. 

What next? They’re probably wondering if you can be trusted. So they do a quick search and go through your reviews. 

Therefore, reviews are one of the most influential factors that determine customer behaviour. In addition, reviews are gaining more and more popularity now. Actual reviews from customers are what influences a customer to purchase your product/service. 

As a business owner, you can take the help of reputation marketing services. They politely request customers to leave reviews. In addition, you can even offer incentives and make it easy for customers to leave reviews. 

#3. Social Media

It’s another significant proof of how your business operates. Just like everything else, it has its pros and cons. 

However, as a local business owner, you need to be careful of what people are saying on your social media channels. This will help you nudge more customers to purchase your products. 

Use social media to build a brand your target audience loves. Ensure that you appear friendly, approachable and consistent. Here’s how you can do that:

• Post regularly. Start by following a schedule. The general rule of thumb is to post as actively as the more outward-facing your business is. For instance, you can start by posting twice a week if you run a boutique. However, post 3-4 times a week if you run a restaurant. 
• Engage with customers. Do so even if they’re not praising you. Understand that the most powerful aspect of social media is that it allows you to engage with your target audience. When you reply to negative comments in a positive manner, you show your audience that you value their feedback. In addition, it shows that you care about what they think and are willing to improve.
• Showcase your brand’s personality. But don’t limit your posts to just that. Give customer shout-outs, organize giveaways and polls. These strategies help increase brand awareness and customer engagement.

#4. Search Engine Optimization

Reputation marketing isn’t just limited to online reviews and social media. SEO at first seems daunting. However, with the right kind of help and strategies, you can easily optimise your online presence. 

To do so, always keep this question in mind: “What can I do to improve my website?”

Search engines love websites such as Google that focus on building websites that their customers find helpful. 

However, SEO isn’t just limited to improving your website for local business owners. Here are a few things you’ll need to work on to make the most of your SEO strategies:

• Offer quality content and products. Sounds obvious, right? But, not everyone offers quality content. Sure, you may be offering high-quality products but what about customers that want more? Be thoughtful and understand what customers will find useful. In addition, it will give you a competitive edge over your rivals. For instance, you can start a blog and share information related to your industry to educate your customers. Ensure that your posts contain valuable information. In addition, you can use compelling images and videos and podcasts.
• Enhance your URLs. Simplify your URLs so that it’s easier for search engines and your customers to trust you. Avoid using random characters or lengthy URLs as they arise suspicion. 
• Use accurate and unique page titles. Keep the titles concise, accurate and unique. This helps customers understand what the page is all about and increases their trust. 

#5. Website

Your website is the final frontier. If everything goes right, you have leveraged all the available tools to be found quickly and got a customer that trusts you. 

But, that’s not all! Depending on the industry, websites serve several purposes. For instance, your website can just be a tool to arrange a service IRL or you may be using it as an online store. 

Whatever the purpose of your website, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Ensure it’s mobile-friendly. Your customers will go to your competitor’s website if your website doesn’t open properly. And that’s an absolute shame considering all the effort you’ve put in to acquire the customer. 
• Reduce loading time. Studies have shown that customers expect your website to load within 3 seconds. In fact, search engines promote sites that load faster. This means your site will automatically lose rankings if it loads slowly. 
• Use the website to develop a connection. Include CTAs but don’t appear pushy or desperate. Give your customers the opportunity to leave reviews and sign up to your mailing list. 

Reputation Marketing Examples

Here’s a sneak peek into the most successful reputation marketing examples and campaigns.

• Starbucks. They treat their customers like royalty and believe their customers have high standards. Therefore, they leave no stone unturned to please their customers. In addition, they’re active on social media and always respond to negative and positive reviews.
• Nike. They have a tweet support team dedicated to address the concerns of their clients. The team engages with their target audience and immediately addresses customer complaints and problems. They may not be able to satisfy everyone but it shows how helpful and supportive they are. 

In Conclusion

Believe it or not, your brand’s reputation is your most valuable asset. Therefore, it needs to be carefully managed, monitored and marketed to showcase your brand values. 

Reputation marketing helps you take control of your brand’s reputation by monitoring, promoting and acquiring positive user-generated content. 

Use the information in this article to distinguish your brand from your competitors and improve your brand value!