Your Online Brand Reputation is the image of your company seen by internet users. It’s how the public feels about your products and perceives your brand. A positive brand reputation- both on and offline- means that customers not only trust your business, but they are also likely to purchase your product or service.
Brand Reputation Management is the process of monitoring how consumers perceive your business and taking strategic action when necessary to improve your brands image.
The key to a winning reputation management strategy is recognizing that you don’t have to wait for people to form their own opinions of your brand. Instead, by building your brand’s experiences around your target customers’ needs, wants, values and opinions, you can also shape how they perceive your company.
Brand safety ensures advertisements, their content and any content shared by brands are appropriate and not associated with topics of consumer opinions that may be negative. By making sure your advertising is legitimate, your consumers won’t feel deceived by your brand and keeps them from having to second guess your business or distrust what you have to offer.
Various factors such as, online reviews, consumer forums, news articles, social media behavior and visibility in search results all impact your brand reputation. Your online brand reputation has become increasingly more important as the digital era continues to explode.
Building a strong brand takes a lot of work. Having a solid reputation strategy will not only help you on your goals of achieving your ideal perception but will also help when your brand inevitably must deal with a crisis.
Why is Brand Reputation Management Important?
Creates More Loyal Customers: For Outdoor Power Equipment companies, the majority of earnings come from a long and loyal customer set. When you follow a brand management strategy, you can look more closely at what avenues will attract and retain the most loyal customers. Customer Loyalty programs work because people like to do business with people they like and trust. Maintaining your brand’s reputation helps to build that trust.
Quickens Your Response to the Competition: Having a marketing strategy in place will help you identify what marketing or sales tactics you need when dealing with a competitive threat. Your Brand reputation strategy can help you decide if it’s a better idea to prioritize a new marketing campaign that focuses on selling to your existing clients, or if it’s better to narrow in on acquiring new customers in a currently under-served area.
Stabilizes Employee Growth: If you articulate the way you want your brand to be perceived, it’s much easier to identify good hires that will promote the culture you are trying to create. People look for jobs where they feel fulfilled and can make a meaningful contribution to something they believe in. Companies that have a clear brand identity and a well-founded brand reputation are the ones who offer these types of opportunities to perspective employees. With a great reputation both inside and outside, a company will have a more devoted workforce and lower levels of turnover and turmoil.
Build Your Brand Identity: Before you can even begin to think about a brand management strategy, you must first create a brand worth managing. Developing a strong brand identity ensures you have a clear understanding of what your company stands for and can help guide decisions in certain situations.
Your brand identity should include:
Logo, Colors & Imagery that are Cohesive
A Consistent Voice from the Brand
A Clear Company Mission, Vision and Value Statement
Establish Your Online Presence: Create a website that will allow visitors to experience your brand identity and form an accurate impression of your business right from the start. Setup and Manage your Google Business Profile and Social Media Accounts.
Actively Ask for and Respond to Reviews: The average consumer will read 10 reviews of your company prior to deciding they can or cannot trust your brand. Make sure to include a place for customers to leave reviews and include them as testimonials on your website. No matter the venue, make sure that you respond to every review as they come in, even the bad ones. If you address them honestly and quickly, many times you will find that you are able to turn a poor experience around and retain your customer’s business. Not only that, but it will show other people reading the reviews, that your brand cares about your consumers and that you will listen and resolve issues and complaints when they arise.
Listen to Feedback: Keeping an eye on what is being said about your brand is key to reputation management. Add a form to your website to create a place for customer feedback. The input you will receive is incredibly valuable.
Improve the Customer Experience: According to Microsoft Consumer Data, 58% of Consumers who feel like their experience falls short with a brand will sever all ties with them. It’s not just the lost revenue that you should concern yourself with.Customers who have had a poor experience are much more likely to leave a public facing review for a company than those who had a good one.
94% of consumers say a bad review has convinced them to avoid a business.
You must be ready to manage your brand reputation before others do it for you. A single bad review can deter multiple potential customers from doing business with your brand.
Company Culture Counts: Good things happen when a company promotes a healthy and positive internal environment. By giving your team members meaningful work and empowering them to take charge of their professional lives, they will become more confident and productive collaborators instead of individual contributors. This has a huge impact on your public reputation. When employees are more satisfied and fulfilled by their work, they will take pride in what they do, and as a result, do better work. Company culture also effects your internal brand reputation. The better supported your employees feel, the prouder of their work they will be which in turn will have a positive influence on your overall brand reputation.
Create a Brand Style Guide: As your company grows. You must always maintain the same identity and message across all channels with internal documentation. Creating a Brand Style Guide ensures that everything remains consistent when it comes to design choices, communication strategies, quality of customer service, etc.
Brand Reputation is critical to any growing business. A Positive brand reputation builds loyalty and increases customer confidence in your brand and product, ultimately, driving both sales and bottom-line growth.
Digital advertising comes in many different varieties, including display advertising (those web banners next to your favorite Youtube videos), sponsored ads (such as those on Google and Facebook), and of course, search ads —just to name a few! There are a ton of ways to reach your audience, and a lot of ‘Best Practices’ to remember.
So where do you start?
While there are a ton of online options to choose from, reaching your intended audience will still require a little bit of finesse. Luckily, using digital advertising to get your message across is easier than you think.
PICK THE RIGHT PLATFORM
In 2008, only 24 percent of the United States had a social media account. Today that number has skyrocketed to 81%. While traditional mediums such as television and newspapers still have their place, most companies are turning towards digital advertising for the majority of their needs—and who could blame them?
As of 2019, tech titans Google and Facebook together control over 77% of total internet revenue growth. Furthermore, in the third quarter of the same year, Google and Facebook together controlled 99% of advertising growth, with this number projected to be on the rise).
Why would you settle for anything but the best? Pick the right digital platforms and go where your ads will be seen.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Knowing your target demographic is undoubtedly one of the most beneficial tools in your advertising toolbox. Why? First off, not only does it give you a leg up for reaching the most likely people to buy your product or service, but it also helps to pick the appropriate platform and technology to deliver your message.
Audience facts you’ll want to know are things like where they live and shop, what their needs are, what your product specifically can do to solve one of their problems, and why they would find your brand appealing.
It also helps with ad targeting if you know ‘People who like -this thing- also tend to like my brand’ – so you can expand your reach to target people who like that other thing, knowing that there’s a good chance they’ll like you as well.
But be warned. Once you have their attention, there’s still plenty of work to do!
BE ORIGINAL
Did you know? The average clickthrough rate of display ads across all formats is a measly 0.06%.
From the moment that first browser opens in the morning until that last cat video before bed, internet users are bombarded with dozens of digital advertisements. By the time they get to work they’ve seen so many digital ads that they’ll likely only remember one or two, if that.That’s why it is vital to have the most creative content on the web to achieve that long sought after CLICK.
While you don’t have to break out into 90’s jingles and fake mustaches, you can win over big crowds by being entertaining, and authentically you. A brand that is unique and recognizable is one that is easily remembered – and you want to be top-of-mind when someone is thinking about buying your equipment.
So go against the grain and dare to be different!
GET INTERACTIVE
As the internet continues to advance, media is consumed differently.
More and more people are getting their entertainment and news from streaming options such as Netflix, Roku, Hulu and YouTube, and social sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It’s incredibly integrated into our lives.
So what does this mean for digital advertising?
Interaction!
Interactive ads get a higher clickthrough rate of around 6 percent, whereas most digital ads remain at a fraction of one percent.
Good advertisements tell a story that engages the audience. If you’re a mower dealer, enticing future customers with starbursts of color showing your sale prices for pages and pages just isn’t interesting.
But when you intrigue potential buyers with an eye catching video, a hilarious one-liner or a captivating call to action, you give them autonomy. If you provide them with education, they’ll be more likely to share your brand with their friends and use you as a resource, coming back again later. You can reach a wider audience by providing more reasons for them to share and return!
Don’t tell customers what to think, but instead show them why buying your product is the best decision.
KEEP IT SHORT AND SWEET
Don’t say too much! Short messages that pack a wallop and avoid cliches go a long way in the digital advertising world. Hook readers in with a memorable joke, a one liner, or a quick play on words. If you have a lot to say, break it into smaller pieces.
Did you know novels with shorter chapters tend to have people read more of the book? Since each chapter break allows the person to pause and digest what they’ve read, it’s easier for them to understand what they’ve read and stay intrigued to learn more.
A series of fairly short, related articles that link to each other will generally do better than one massive article. Those same articles can help your SEO, put you in a position to seem like a leader and educator, and really showcase your brand’s helpfulness to the local community.
TUG AT THEIR HEARTSTRINGS
While traditional word of mouth will always impact local business, the trick is to give them something positive to talk about. The most important thing about your digital advertising campaign should be about connecting with your audience. A little passion goes a long way.
Whether it’s a push to remember to use pesticides in an environmentally friendly fashion, to support a local business – giving people meaningful content to talk about scratches beyond the surface of a product and relates to people at a meaningful level.
Whether your message is sensitive or funny, at its core it should come across as authentic.
Make your digital ad memorable and appealing, and your brand will have those qualities as well.
Was this article helpful? Read more about improving your online presence, advertising, and more at our blog!
