The Top Five Things to Remember
About Reputation Marketing
By Rick McNeely...
Reputation Marketing - Overview
Have you looked at the results of a search engine query for your company? How do they look? For example, if you have good reputation management (which includes reputation marketing) you’ll find the first page of search engine results will include favorable reviews, your company website, your social media sites and perhaps a couple of great blog posts. Each of these pieces of content provide prospective clients with positive proof to do business with you. Conversely, if you have reputation management problems you’ll find negative reviews, competitor sites or even negative postings on sites like Rip Off Report. In either case, reputation marketing allows you to gain as much control as possible over what prospective clients are finding online.
1. Why Reputation Marketing?
Reputation marketing is all about taking the initiative in positioning your company toward a great online reputation. In other words, if you wait for a problem in the form of a bad review or negative online article, it’s too late. As a result, you’re playing catch-up!
Reputation Marketing allows you to use search engine optimization, paid advertising, social media and blog posts to claim the prime online positions. Indeed, prospective clients are likely viewing only the high ranking search engine results when making a buying decision. With this in mind, be sure the best online real estate provides the most positive view of your company.
2. Monitor What’s Being Said
A key point of your reputation management is monitoring or listening to what the market is saying. For instance, get alerts or use technology that notifies you of new reviews or other online content being released about your company. Additionally, have someone on your marketing staff or an agency review and report on what results are found on the search engines each month and track your progress by establishing measurable goals.
3. Some Organic Positioning
Along with paid marketing, generate great organic content in the form of website pages, blog posts and social media. It is truer now than ever, “content is king.” Well written content, with attention to keywords and SEO, also organically positions your company where customers are browsing online.
4. Playing Offense With Reputation Marketing
As you’ve probably gathered, taking the offense is key. Specifically, position your company favorably by managing the online real estate to the best of your ability. Granted, you will have competition advertising on several of those valuable search engine results. You can’t control where Google places advertising, so stay focused on where you can make progress in managing your online results. This is also a great reason to be running paid branded campaigns for search. Your clicks will be reasonably priced and you will control more of that search engine page one real estate. A realistic goal is to control the first page of search engine results (excluding competitor ads).
5. Whose Got the Time for Reputation Marketing?
You’ve got the time for reputation marketing. However, that doesn’t mean you have to do it yourself. If your marketing team is maxed out, have a vendor help with your reputation management and marketing. Operation Reputation is a great example of companies who can manage and market your online reputation. Ask for a monthly report and of course updates regarding any immediate opportunities like negative reviews or media mentions.
Recommendation
If you’re not managing your online reputation or allocating marketing budget to reputation marketing, we would highly recommend you do so. The cost of having your in-house team (or an agency) monitor your presence and make ongoing efforts is a great investment. Of course, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to send me an email at rickmcneely@operationreputation.com.