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If you are a business owner or marketing expert, you know how important your brand's reputation is in generating new and recurring sales. Therefore, maintaining a positive online reputation is vital in ensuring the longevity of a business. But how do you effectively maintain your online reputation without taking time away from other essential aspects of your business? Enter an online reputation management service. In this guide, we explain the benefits of online reputation management services, which is the best based on personal experience, and what types of businesses can benefit the most from using an online reputation management service.
What Is An Online Reputation Management Software?
Online reputation management (ORM) software is a digital tool businesses and individuals use to monitor, analyze and enhance their brand reputation.
Unlike review management software that online targets online reviews, reputation management software enables businesses to develop an online reputation management strategy that involves social media monitoring, review management, sentiment analysis, and search engine optimization (SEO).
6 Benefits Of Online Reputation Management Services
There are numerous benefits of using an online reputation management company to manage and maintain your online reputation management. The benefits I value the most include the following:
1) Generate More Sales
Positive online reviews usually lead to increased sales. Generally, people, myself included, research products, services, and companies online before making a purchase - positive reviews can help sway their decision dramatically. Conversely, negative reviews can deter new customers. The best review management tools generate more business!
When you use an ORM service, you can manage your business's online reputation, promote positive reviews and address negative ones to mitigate their impact.
2) Fosters Trust & Good Will With Your Customers
ORM allows your business to communicate directly with customers and promptly address concerns. Customers value this level of transparency and open communication. Ultimately, this fosters trust and leads to loyal customers and more recurring sales.
3) Control Your Brand Image & Reputation
By using an ORM service, businesses can proactively manage their online image. I usually employ strategies promoting positive content about my business and constructively responding to negative content. I've noticed that when you have a hands-on approach to managing your online reputation (something the ORM helps with), aligning your brand image with your business goals is easier.
4) More Visible To Your Audience
This is one of my favorite benefits, as it brings in new customers. The ORM service I use (Eclincher) has industry-leading search engine optimization capabilities. Eclincher helps me spread positive information about my company so that my business appears higher in search engine results.
Another benefit of this strategy is that it pushes negative content further down the search results - suppressing these reviews and ensuring new customers only read online reviews that highlight confidence and satisfaction in the brand.
5) Monitor Customer Feedback
ORM services can monitor customer feedback across different channels and platforms, such as social media, review sites, and websites. This lets you stay on top of what people say about your business and respond to any issue before it spreads like wildfire.
6) Streamlining Online Marketing Efforts
An ORM service makes your online marketing efforts much more efficient. These tools consolidate all the features into a single service, making it easier to perform online reputation tasks.
The tools provides helpful insights into customer sentiment, trending products or services, and areas of improvement. This saves you time and resources on marketing tasks, enabling you to spend more time on other areas of your business.
What Does It Mean To Have A Good Online Reputation?
To have a positive online reputation means your brand or business is perceived favorably on the internet. This includes positive reviews, comments, feedback, customer testimonials, and a clean search engine presence.
Why Does A Good Reputation Create More Sales?
With a good reputation, potential customers are likelier to trust and do business. People are much more likely to buy from businesses they perceive as reliable and high-quality - both indicators of a good reputation. As we learned, it is hard to remove Google reviews and they can damage your sales!
However, a good reputation does not only increase sales from new customers, but it also increases recurring sales. When a customer is satisfied with your business's product, it fosters customer loyalty and promotes repeated business and sales.
What Type Of Business Should Use Reputation Management Strategies?
If you have an online presence and want to increase that online presence by driving traffic to your business, then you should most certainly use online reputation management strategies, regardless of the industry. Some common business types that can benefit include the following:
- Restaurants and Fast Food Stores
- E-commerce Businesses
- Healthcare and Insurance Providers
- Retail Stores
- Hotels and Lodges
- Service Providers
Should Small Businesses Use Reputation Management Tools?
A mistake I made at the start of my entrepreneurial journey was thinking an ORM tool wouldn't help my business - I couldn't be more wrong. Even though a start-up or small business has fewer online interactions to monitor, each positive review can profoundly boost your overall reputation and help put your business on the map faster.
Therefore, by using an online reputation management service, you can address issues proactively, improve products and services based on customer feedback and cultivate a stronger online presence.
Should Large Businesses Use Reputation Management Tools?
While small business benefits from the increased growth reputation management tools bring, large businesses benefit from the increased monitoring efficiency an ORM tool offers. Large businesses often have thousands of customers and online listings, making monitoring and managing online customer interaction very hard. Large companies use these tools to manage their online reputation much more efficiently.
How Many Employees Do You Need To Use An ORM Tool?
There is no strict requirement on the number of employees needed before using an ORM tool. I started using ORM tools when I was the only employee in my business, so even solo entrepreneurs and small businesses can benefit from using these tools. The more important question is whether you can afford this tool in your marketing budget.
As your business grows, so do your online reputation management requirements. When managing your online reputation becomes too complex for one person to handle, then it might be time to consider employing a team to use and manage an ORM tool.
Do Businesses Without A Website Need Reputation Management?
Yes, even if a business does not have a website, customers can still leave reviews on social media, review sites, and other third-party platforms. This makes businesses without a website more vulnerable to negative reviews or comments, which can harm their reputation and deter potential customers without the business even knowing.
Therefore, reputation management services can help businesses monitor and manage their online reputation on these platforms, ensuring they present a positive image to potential customers.
Which Reputation Management Tool Is The Best?
I've used many reputation management tools for managing my online businesses, and I can confidently say that Eclincher is the best reputation management tool I've used. The combination of versatility and robust tools makes it easy for me to perform all my online marketing efforts through the platform.
In addition to providing the best reputation management services, you can also publish and schedule posts, respond to social messages, monitor keywords and hashtags as well as manage all your social media accounts from a single dashboard. It truly is the best value-for-money reputation management that allows you to do anything relating to online marketing.
Are There Any Downsides To Using An ORM Tool?
Yes, an ORM tool does have some downsides:
- Cost: ORM tools can be expensive, so it is important that you make sure it fits into your budget.
- Learning Curve: Like any new software, ORM tools have a learning curve. You might need training if you want to use the tool effectively.
- False Positive/ Negatives: Automated sentiment analysis can sometimes misinterpret the tone of comments or feedback, causing inaccurate conclusions. Consequently, by adjusting your marketing strategy based on these conclusions, you create ineffective or even reputation-damaging marketing strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is your business's online brand important?
Yes, as we go deeper into the digital era, customers become more reliant on a business's online reputation and brand image. If a business's online reputation is negative, then a customer would be reluctant to buy from the company.
Is a online reputation management tool worth it?
Yes, online reputation management tools help improve your brand image and generate more sales for your business by building trust in existing customers and driving new customers to your business.
Is there a difference between reputation & review management?
Yes, review management software focuses specifically on handling customer feedback on review sites. In comparison, reputation management services encompass a broader strategy involving the shaping and monitoring of the overall public perception of a business across all online platforms, which includes but is not limited to, review management.
The Bottom Line
Managing your business's reputation is vital in ensuring new and recurring sales. Additionally, by using a reputation management service, you can manage your online reputation more efficiently and spend time on other areas of your business that needs attention.
