Hand drawing 5 stars in yellow marker.

How Reputation Drives Business

Before making a purchase, the first place most consumers turn to is online reviews to ensure they are getting the best quality product or service for their buck. Nearly nine out of ten (89 percent) consumers worldwide read reviews before buying anything. Not only does this represent how critical reviews are in the customers’ buying journey, but the level of trust shoppers put in the opinions of others.

What is Reputation Marketing?

Reputation marketing is promoting customers’ positive reviews about a business rather than focusing on minimizing negative reviews. As a result, this helps build a business’s reputation in search engine results by highlighting and amplifying positive brand content. Therefore, helping convert prospective buyers into customers.

In today’s world, online customer reviews are just as significant as personal recommendations, especially among younger generations. 91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as they do word of mouth.

There is no denying online reviews are a powerful marketing tool. How consumers perceive a brand and how they publicly share their opinion says a lot about a business. That is why businesses must manage their online reviews, social media comments, mentions, and various other customer-generated feedback regularly.

With reputation marketing, reviews and feedback can be used to drive search engine performance, social media strategy, and consumer engagement levels. With real-time notifications, brand managers can stay up-to-date when a new review is posted or their brand is mentioned online. They can then address any questions or concerns and respond promptly. Responding to reviews is essential in managing brand reputation. Negative reviews can quickly tarnish a brand’s reputation. When taking the time to respond to reviews, a business can build a relationship and foster goodwill with the media, facilitating customer loyalty.

Focus on the Positive

Most often, unhappy customers turn to reviews to document a negative experience. To mitigate negative feedback, it is important that a business have a strategy in mind to encourage positive feedback. Whether that be verbally asking a customer for their feedback after a job is complete or sending a follow-up thank you email, requesting reviews from customers is one of the most powerful acquisition and retention strategies for a company.

Everyone wants that five-star rating. Therefore, it is vital that a business actively seeks feedback from its customers. While the feedback received may not always be positive, with a response strategy in place a brand can be actively prepared to react to conversations in real-time and improve its overall reputation. Talk to Peabody today to find out how you can improve your reputation marketing strategy and stand out online.