Every online advertiser has one simple goal in mind—to attract as many visitors to a website as possible. Increase in traffic can trigger a chain reaction that affects conversion rate, sales, and revenue all at the same time, particularly if the website in question is a business. Whether or not the marketing strategy used works and is worth repeating depends on how much return on investment it yields.
Meanwhile, expert marketers have learned that having such a goal no longer suffice as far as marketing efficiency is concerned. For them, attracting visitors is too generic and only guarantees short-term benefits. To be able to deliver long-term benefits to their clients, expert marketers have figured out that their marketing strategy should focus on building a clean, strong reputation as well.
Flaw of Standard Marketing
They saw the apparent drawback of aiming solely to increase traffic. With consumers getting more engaged in social media where both good and bad information can contribute to profile-raising, marketing has become more lenient with negative publicity. Many neophyte advertisers are easily convinced that negative publicity can still help achieve their goal of getting traffic into a website, and so they carelessly include it in their strategy, sometimes with immense regard.
While it is true that negative publicity can create some kind of buzz, it doesn’t mean it can be wielded to do more good than harm to the person or business being advertised in the long run. Especially with businesses, a bad review about their products and services could only throw many years of hard work out the window. Yes, it can temporarily put a business in the spotlight, but it also gradually tears their reputation apart until nothing but shame is left.
Importance of Reputation Management
When it comes to online marketing, reputation is non-negotiable. You don’t trade it for publicity. There are two main reasons why this is so. First, consumers buy products and services with positive reviews, and it’s not very difficult to understand why. Of course, like you and everyone else, they want to invest in something that will benefit them, not the other way around.
Statistics show that 88 per cent of consumers trust online reviews, and all positive reviews make 74 per cent of consumers trust a local business. You can bet that the remaining less than 30 per cent who choose less reputable local businesses over reputable ones are taking a huge risk in every purchase they make for the little amount they can save. The numbers show that it wouldn’t be wise for a business to go after the minority regardless of any seemingly justifiable reason.
Second, a good reputation is the perfect branding. Regardless of whether the name of a business is not as easy to remember as the next or their logo looks awful, if they managed to establish a pretty solid reputation by providing high-quality products and services, they will never be forgotten. Even when new, bigger providers start to emerge around them, there’s still a huge chance consumers will go to them, the one they have known and trusted for a long time.
How to Build a Positive Online Reputation
There are plenty of ways to make a lasting impression on your target market, thanks to the continuously growing variety of marketing tools the Internet provides. Here are some of the best tips on how to manage online reputation.
Continue to Improve the Quality of Your Products and Services.
Before engaging in any online marketing activity, make sure that your products and services are as good as you would like to promote them. What good would it do your business to make promises that you know you cannot accomplish? Before promising high-quality products and services through your ads, make sure that your products and services are really of high quality.
Have a Fully Functioning, User-Friendly, Well-Designed, and Reliable Website.
Your website is your company’s face on the Internet. Its appearance and functionality will tell a lot about how reliable your business is. If visitors found no useful and genuine information in it, such as contact details and business address, they wouldn’t think twice to click “x” and open a new website. Make sure that your website is professional-looking, easy to navigate, has genuine information about your business, and complete with all terms and conditions that protect the visitors’ privacy.
Use Only Relevant and High-Quality Content in Your Marketing Campaigns.
In this age of information technology, internet users are looking for information that can actually help them. They are done with content that looks good but lacks substance. Producing relevant and high-quality content makes you an authority in your industry, and once you manage to make a good impression through your content, it usually lasts. People you’ve helped with your content will continue to share it to their friends until everyone in your area knows about you.
Take Advantage of the Opportunities Provided by Search Engines and Social Networking Sites.
Search engines like Google and Bing and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are dominating the World Wide Web. A huge fraction if not all of your target market is lurking in these sites. It’s only reasonable to believe that these are the best places to put up your billboards. Learn about SEO and SMO and make sure to invest in them, because your competitors are investing in them, too.
All of these reputation management techniques may seem easy but for someone who’s only read about “content” and “online marketing” for the first time, it can be downright overwhelming. Even those who have firsthand experience in online marketing find it challenging. This is why many businesses invest in reputation management services provided by trusted firms. And those who provide reputation management services and find that their resources are insufficient invest in white label reputation management services provided by top companies like White Label Club.