Category: Digital Marketing

In 2020, consumers expect to be interacting with digital marketing material and rely on these materials to learn about brands and business offerings.

In real estate in particular, digital marketing makes a world of difference. In the last year, 93% of people found information about properties via a company website and 73% sought out properties on a mobile device.

Benefits may not seem immediately apparent to commercial real estate companies based on statistics such as these, but like individuals, businesses favor starting their research online.

Digital marketing assets offer a level of interactivity that print marketing doesn’t. Additionally, commercial real estate firms can appeal to a broader audience by focusing on digital marketing rather than print marketing assets.

How can businesses best take advantage of the strengths of digital marketing to showcase real estate in a B2B space? This article breaks down four methods of making your commercial properties stand out through digital marketing.

Prioritize Engaging Visuals

Companies looking to effectively market their commercial properties should hire a professional real estate photographer to capture the property strategically and in a sharp, engaging manner.

Redfin studies found that property listings that feature sharp, polished images sell at or above list price 44% of the time. Additionally, properties with professional, engaging visuals sell within six months 64% of the time.

Commercial real estate experts believe that high-quality photographs make for stronger first impressions and provide prospective leasees or buyers with the best possible understanding of the space.

Some professionals recommend engaging potential tenants through aerial photography or video. This innovative approach to property presentation will impact your listings in the following ways:

• The unique perspectives will differentiate your property
• The use of wide shots will allow viewers to understand how the entirety of the property looks
• The wealth of possible shots will allow you more control over which parts of the property you showcase

Listings with aerial photos also tend to sell more quickly than those with more traditional photos. The eye-catching quality of aerial shots is more likely to stop businesses from passing through your listing after a quick glance.

Engaging photos will encourage businesses to examine the rest of the property more thoroughly. This is especially important because when reviewing listings, potential occupants tend to spend the majority of their time looking at the photography components.

In addition to listings, visuals can be used in email outreach, social media posts, and on your company website. This makes them an essential part of any commercial real estate company’s digital marketing plans.

Execute Targeted Email Outreach

Email outreach may not seem like the most trendy or innovative way to reach new clients, but it remains the most effective form of outreach.

In 2020, 87% of B2B marketers said email is one of their top free organic lead generation channels. Additionally, many (31%) of these marketers found that email newsletters were the best way to nurture leads following outreach.

Commercial Real Estate marketers at Calico Marketing recommend that companies:

• Write short, succinct subject lines
• Avoid introducing yourself
• Focus on pain points and how your business can fix them
• Include a call to action within the email

In following those guidelines, you’re positioning your company to solve problems others are facing while earning yourself new clients.

Email marketing will be most effective if accurately targeted to the correct audiences. Consider creating email lists that include companies most closely aligned with your services.

From there, be sure to segment and personalize your outreach. You can segment an email list by location, organzation type, company size, and more.

By segmenting your email list, you will be better able to adjust the language in your emails to resonate with customers with varying needs. Once you segment your list, be sure to regularly update it as customers convert or unsubscribe from emails.

Conducting targeted email outreach is an excellent way to capture leads and stand out in competitive markets.

Optimize Your Site Content for SEO

SEO is an important part of digital marketing for any business hoping to show up at the top of a Google search results pages.

To most, this may seem like a challenging task. However, CRE companies are able to improve their rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) simply by conducting a site audit and making adjustments to the structure of your site.

When conducting an SEO audit, industry experts recommend to focus on the state of the following on your site:

• Site structure and redirects
• Page structure and meta descriptions
• Keyword selection and linking strategy within your page copy
• Instances of broken links
• Opportunities for internal links
• Site speed

All of the above aspects of your website help determine where your page will fall on search results. After conducting a site audit or hiring a SEO company to help you, your areas for improvement will become more apparent.

Looking to be more competitive in a specific market? One of the best ways to attract niche audiences is by targeting the keywords they search within your content.

Using a tool like Ahrefs, your team will be able to gain insights into the search volume and competition level for certain keywords.

Finding appropriate keywords that align with you business that offer low competition level with a high level of monthly searching will best position you to rank highly for that keyword.

6Generally, the keywords with the greatest volume of monthly searches will also have a higher competition level. Your time spent doing keyword research will be used finding opportunities to capture many users without too much competition.

Once you locate your ideal keyword, you can begin prioritizing them within your site’s content. That way, your services will rise to the top of Google rankings and see a substantial increase in web traffic.

Strategically Leverage Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising can be tricky for B2B companies, but CRE companies can benefit from strategically using platforms to engage new tenants.

Many B2B companies struggle with social media marketing on platforms such as Instagram because the practice is more aligned with B2C companies’ focus on directly connecting with consumers. However, due to the engaging visual elements of CRE properties, commercial real estate companies can be an exception to this norm.

Many companies, such as Hines, perform well on Instagram by showcasing their high-quality images or videos of their properties.

Additionally, these companies leverage Instagram’s tagging features strategically. In the image above, Hines make sure to tag the property manager in the post for increased visibility.

The company also includes several hashtags in a comment below the caption, helping the post gain traction for various phases such as #CRE or #coworking. Instagram users in search of coworking spaces may come across this post due to the hashtag and become a prospective tenant.

Instagram is a great place to share the most compelling visuals of your properties to begin to establish a visually-engaging brand, but CRE companies can also benefit from showcasing their properties and services on LinkedIn.

Due to the professional nature of LinkedIn, the social media site is a great place to share content that’s meant for a B2B audience. The business-oriented network promotes connections between companies in a way that few other online platforms do. Just like with Instagram, companies should include relevant hashtags and company tags in their LinkedIn posts to boost visibility.

Leveraging both LinkedIn and Instagram will yield the best results for CRE companies looking to connect with potential clients over social media and broaden their reach.

Digital Marketing Strategies Create Visibility for CRE Companies

There’s no question that digital marketing is necessary for commercial real estate companies in this day and age.

Companies can capture the interest of prospective clients by creating compelling visuals to share on social media and property listings.

From there, leveraging Instagram and LinkedIn will aid CRE firms in expanding the pool of potential buyers.

In tandem with social media efforts, companies should also look into investing in more traditional digital marketing practices, such as email marketing and SEO. While these strategies are more common in the field, it’s important to build optimzed systems that will generate leads while competing in tough markets.

Sydney Wess is a content writer and editor at Clutch, specializing in promoting visibility for business service providers.

In this technology-enabled world, a rising number of consumers are shifting online to search and buy different products. Be it grocery shopping, ordering meals, doing laundry, or buying gadgets, everything can be bought online in just a few taps.

This trend in consumer buying behavior is making digital marketing arise as an essential business skill. Businesses who haven’t yet entered the digital world or are not implementing digital marketing strategies will gradually lose the race.

An essential reason why businesses are embracing digital marketing is that it enables them to interact and engage with their target audience in real-time, as opposed to traditional marketing channels. Therefore, as a business owner, it is important to involve digital marketing strategies in marketing your product or service.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing includes marketing efforts that involve the use of the internet and electronic devices. It involves the use of digital channels like social media, search engines, other websites, and emails to interact with existing and potential customers.

The different types of digital marketing a business can use to market its product are:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Search Engine Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Pay Per Click Advertising
• Instant Messaging Marketing

Why is Digital Marketing an essential business skill?

Almost all businesses build their own website as soon as they plan to start a business. However, many of them don’t realize that merely having a website is not enough to create awareness and visibility for the business. If you want your target audience to visit your website and buy your products or services, you need an effective marketing strategy.

This is where digital marketing comes into the picture. It helps your customers to find your website on the internet by using strategies such as SEO, content marketing, PPC, etc.

Moreover, digital marketing is quite cost-effective when compared to other forms of marketing. This is because once you invest in different strategies of digital marketing, the impacts stay for a longer time without requiring your involvement.

It also enables businesses to create customized campaigns for a specific audience. Businesses can also track the data through analytics to optimize the campaigns.

Digital marketing in combination with RPA services is streamlining the use of strategies to promote and market brands. RPA eases the digital marketing tasks of marketers by automating many tasks such as keyword search, link building, content editing, monitoring rankings, etc.

Here are some statistics on digital marketing that reveal its importance:

• 86% of women refer to social media before making a purchasing decision.
• Leading brands spend 25% to 43% of their budget on content marketing.
• 49% of consumers prefer receiving weekly promotional emails from their favorite brands.
• 78% of salespeople that use social media perform better than their peers.
• 51% of shoppers complete an online purchase on their smartphone.
• 67% of search engine clicks are made on the first 5 results displayed.

How Digital Marketing is becoming an essential business skill?

• Increasing number of customers are going online

With technological advancements and most of the people across the world owning a smartphone, an increasing number of customers can be found online. Moreover, the lockdown situation in most of the companies during the COVID-19 pandemic, made people more dependent on mobile devices for ordering essentials and non-essentials.

Therefore, if you are still not leveraging the digital world, you are losing out.

Customer’s buying decisions these days are quite influenced by what they read about your business online. For this, they get recommendations from other people on social media, analyze your website, and read your content. If a customer also comes across a brand name several times, the name is then imprinted on their brains.

When the customers are in need of a product that you sell, they will be able to recall viewing your name and will give your business a try if they are satisfied.

• Competitors are leveraging the digital world

Having an online presence and using digital marketing strategies is not only important to analyze customer behavior, their buying trends, and to attract them to your website. It is also important to watch your competitors, analyze the strategies they are using to influence their customers, and learn from their mistakes and achievements.

Sites like Google Analytics and UberSuggest help you to track the performance of your competitors. You can also find the keywords that they are using and are ranking for.

Using similar keywords in your digital marketing strategy can help your website also rank on the search engine. The strategies that your competitors use can help you plan strategies for your business as well.

• Identify your target audience

Digital marketing enables businesses to engage and interact with their prospective customers. The strategies help understand the needs and buying behavior of potential customers. Interacting with the target audience helps businesses identify the pain points of customers and provide adequate solutions.

Digital marketing offers many tools to identify and understand your target audience. You can even interact with your customers on social media, conduct surveys to understand their requirements, and consider their comments and feedback on the surveys or on social media platforms to improve your product or service. When you operate a business with a customer-centric focus, you can instantly gain customer trust and visibility.

Trends in digital marketing that are helping businesses boost their ROI

• Influencer Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Content Marketing
• App Store optimization
• Live Video Streaming
• Site Optimization for Wearables
• Consumer Engagement Strategy
• Big Data Personalization

The Bottom Line

As we all know that the world is shifting from traditional marketing to digital marketing.

Eventually, digital marketing is expected to be the fate of marketing. Consumers are also preferring to shop online from the comfort of their homes. Therefore, it is important for businesses to reach their customers online.

Moreover, digital marketing is more cost-effective than traditional marketing and are adaptable, quantifiable, quicker, and result-driven. Its benefits can be leveraged by customers and marketers alike.

Digital marketing works for businesses of all kinds irrespective of size and industry. Regardless of what you are selling, it helps build buyer personas to identify the needs of your target audience and create online content.

However, different businesses should use different digital marketing strategies based on their product and target customers

Author Bio– Vijaya Bharti is a Content Writer at Enuke Software Company specialized in RPA, iOT and Blockchain app development. She is passionate about writing, she has made her passion her profession.

Ever since digital marketing came into play, businesses are being more creative, automated and precise in their chase of their targeted audience. There are various digital tools and techniques which one can make use of to grow its business using the digital means.

One of those techniques or form of digital marketing services is, Content Marketing. As business owners you might not be very familiar or know the exact meaning behind content marketing. So let’s breakdown this word first;

Content Marketing is simply a technique or approach used in the marketing world to attract and target a precisely described audience through creating and distributing content regularly to achieve your business goals.

That being said, let’s look into why content marketing is one of the best options to market your business and scale its potential reach.

Why Content Marketing is the Best Option?

• Way better ROI

Every marketing effort is directed towards just one goal, that is making money which could be direct (promoting your product/service) or indirect (brand awareness). However either in long term or short term the brand wants more leads, customers or clients.

Talking about the overall ROI, according to Content marketing institute, it’s evident that content marketing costs around 62% less than traditional or outbound marketing. Also in many other studies, it has been proven that inbound (content) marketing brings way more return on investment compared to outbound.

It’s important to mention that the primary reason and logic behind this better ROI is the general nature of how inbound and outbound marketing are differentiated. With inbound the customers are bound to come to you, however in outbound it’s you who is to be knocking on their doors.

• Builds Trust in Your Audience

Trust is the variable of success for anyone selling anything in the world. If your targeted audience doesn’t believe in what you are selling, as much as you do, then you’ll never be able to scale your business. You may be able to sell your product once or twice, or have a couple of clients for your service, but with trust you can have regularly buying loyal customers/clients.

What content marketing does is providing information or knowledge over a subject that is relevant to your business and solves problem for your targeted business.

For example, a cleaning company writing an article on “An Office Cleaning Checklist” also shows the checklist the company follows which indirectly mentions how good and detailed their process is. The consumer reading the article would start believing in their service’s quality.

• Scalable Yet Targeted Reach

Growth and scaling is the dream of every business. Let it be a tech company, an agency or even a brick and mortar store, the hunger for growth usually never stops. Content Marketing is known to for its incredible ability of scaling it’ reach.

Let’s take search engines for example, which are one prominent medium of doing content marketing. You create a piece of content which solves one or several problems for your consumers.

Again taking the previous example, let’s you’re a cleaning company, and you write an article on “How to Clean Your Office?” for your consumers. The interesting part is that this one phrase (How to Clean Your Office) isn’t just a random phrase. It’s being searched in search engines like Google hundreds and thousands of times all over the world.

Thus if your readers after reading that article contacts you for reading services, that won’t be just one person. They’d be hundreds of people depending on how much traffic your website was getting yet you just wrote one article. That’s how one piece of content can help you scale.

Using Content Marketing for Scaling Business’s Reach

Many of the marketers or business owners when think about content marketing, only have one or two channels in mind. However, content marketing itself is a very broad term which has many components.

• Search Engine Optimization

SEO is definitely the first in list when we talk about a content marketing channel. Search engines like Google are one of the biggest traffic sources for websites today. In fact in 2019 Google contributed about 75% of all desktop web traffic.

Top-notch SEO services when gets mixed with content marketing can accomplish wonders.

But how does it work?

Let’s say you started a new co-working space business and want it to be promoted through content marketing using search engine as a channel. Find some relevant keywords with good search volume you can see the demand you can fulfill with content creation.

For example, you can write an article targeting the keyword; “Choosing a Co-working Space” by writing an article on the topic; “How to Choose a Co-Working Space for Your Business?”

This piece of content is bringing traffic to your website out of which a small percentage of visitors will potentially convert into customers, provided that you consistently keep the content cycle rolling.

• Social Media Marketing

Social media is the highest engagement channel for promoting any marketing campaign. Having nearly billion users, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter and LinkedIn have their own dynamics can get your content in front of your targeted audience.

As of January 2020, the total active users on all social media platforms are around 3.8 billion. The number itself is huge and directly implies that your target audience is present on any of these platforms.

When we talk about creating content and distribution, the concept remains the same. You have to solve problems for your consumers with your content on social media and when it’s done on a larger scale you start acquiring more customers.

When we talk about content marketing through social media, what else can you do than just posting pictures with good captions and using trending hashtags?

You can target your potential customers based on demographics, interests, activities and behaviors precisely. Using the previous same example, let’s say your coworking space needs to be promoted through social media platforms like Facebook & Instagram.

You can create a video of 1 minutes showing what factors should be taken into account when choosing a Coworking space with the intention of running it on paid advertising targeting the audience relevant to your business.

You can then create another ad-set which retargets the users who consumed that video up to at least 30 seconds introducing them to your coworking space. Afterwards a third ad-set can target the users which had shown the most engagement with the second video and present your coworking space’s prices and packages.

That is how a content marketing funnel can help you narrow down from a broader audience to your precisely selected customer.

A challenge most of the social media marketers face is differentiating between each social media platform and then shaping their content with respect to that.

So what does that mean?

Let’s say you have a sneakers brand which you want to promote on social media. Platforms like Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok would be the best choice.

But would you choose the same platform if you’re looking for some B2B prospects/leads? The answer is no. In this case LinkedIn would be a better place to market on.

The reason for this is that most of the users on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are teenagers while most of those on LinkedIn are business owners or professionals. Each platform has different audiences which by simple human psychology consume different kind of content.

• Email as a Distribution Channel

One aspect of content marketing apart from creating content is distribution. You can create the most useful and the most researched piece of content, but if you’re distribution channels aren’t helping you put that content in front of the right audience, it’s all wasted.

As your website start getting some traffic through the content marketing efforts of SEO & Social media efforts, you should start making your email list. An email list can be used for your newsletter where you can commit to regular content for your audience.

What’s good about email newsletters is that it comes right into your inbox. Your consumer wouldn’t even need to perform a search and look through the results. If that’s what he was already looking for, he’ll open up the email and consume that content right away.

Email can also be used to amplify the reach of the content pieces you’ve been creating.

Secondly, email is also known to be a better medium for conversions. In fact, according to Oberlo, every 1$ spent on email marketing turns into a return of 42$. Thus the ROI is insanely great through emails.

Conclusion

Content marketing have existed long before internet has existed and if you understand the basic concepts of it, your campaign will always be a good performer.

However one thing to point out here is that there’s not one best channel you can use for content marketing.

It totally depends on the industry your business operates in and the goals you’re trying to accomplish with it.

The Internet has enabled people to do a lot of things with ease. Some examples are:

• Retrieving and sharing information
• Connecting with friends and loved ones
• Buying and paying items
• Sharing opinion with other

This also explains why online reputation is becoming key to success for many businesses. After all, customers tend to leave reviews on various websites. And a simple Yelp review can make or break your business.

This is where online reputation management comes in. It is the process of establishing how people perceive your brand online. You can do this by responding to online reviews and publishing PR content.

Hence, the urgent need for hiring companies that provide online reputation management services. They have online reputation management experts that can help fix the way customers perceive your brand.

Keep in mind that a solid online reputation has several direct and indirect benefits for a business. This includes trust, more profit, and reduced risk.

Still not convinced how online reputation management can benefit your business? Read on:

Makes Good First Impression

The “Broken Window” theory posits that a warehouse with a broken window attracts more vandals. In this case, having negative online reviews is more likely to attract problematic customers to your business.

Hence, the best way to fix this is through online reputation management.

For one, it allows you to improve your tarnished online reputation. Second, it helps you make an excellent first impression. That’s because positive reviews compel a potential customer to buy from you.

But how can you salvage your business’ damaged online reputation? Here’s how:

1. Identify the Root Cause. You cannot fix what is not broken. Hence, the first step in reputation management is to identify the root cause. What broke your online reputation in the first place?
2. Repair at the Source. Just because the Internet is written in ink does not mean you cannot rectify it. Did a negative press release wrongfully damage your business’ reputation? Reach out to the author and ask to either remove or update the press release.
3. Disavow Negative Search Results. Luckily, you do not have to bear associating your brand with negative PR content. You can use Google’s disavow tool so you can bury these negative results. What happens is that when someone searches for your brand, the negative PR will be excluded from the results.
4. Create Positive Content. Can’t bury those negative PR? You can push them down by creating your content. Write and publish relevant content about your business that people are more likely to share with their friends and family. That way, the negative PR becomes irrelevant, and search engines are less likely to include it to their results.

Cultivates Trust

Trust is the symbol of the success of your business. In case you are unaware, 33% of American consumers prefer to buy from brands that they trust. That’s because they cannot afford to waste any money on bad purchases.

Thus, building trust is one of the most significant benefits of online reputation management.

How can you build trust through online reputation management?

First, you need to check what people say about your business online. You can use social monitoring tools so you can track online customer reviews.

Second, take the time to respond to these customer reviews. Doing so showcases that you value transparency and their opinion.

It will also help if you have put a review management strategy in place. This will enable you to track and respond to online reviews and generate reviews from various websites.

Improves Products and Services

The best thing about listening to your customers is that you gain insight into how you can improve your products and services.

This explains why you should not ignore a negative review. Instead, consider this and use it to your advantage.

For example, you run an online food delivery business. And you notice that people always point out your portion size.

You might want to check whether there is something off about how you portion your food. And then tweak it where needed.

The best thing about doing this is that you are making your customers involved with your business decisions. Thus, they feel more valued. And the more valued they feel, the more loyal they become.

Attracts Talented Employees

Here’s the thing: Your customers are not the only ones who can leave reviews about your business. Your employees can do the same.

Thus, another advantage of online reputation management is that you can attract talented employees.

Employees want to work for a company that shares the same core values and beliefs as themselves. Plus, online reviews can convey the work culture in your company. And a positive work culture can attract talented employees ‒ people who can make your business successful.

That said, it is also essential to check your profile on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, and more. These platforms may not allow you to respond to employee reviews. Yet, you can use it to your advantage.

For one, you can use those reviews to improve your business. Who knows? What you read on Glassdoor are legit sentiments.

Improves Search Engine Ranking

In case you do not know, customer reviews are a great example of user-generated content. Sure, they do not directly affect your search engine ranking, but it can affect how Internet users perceive your brand. That’s because online reviews can also appear on search results.

If you run a restaurant, there is a big chance that you have a Google My Business profile. This enables customers to leave a review and give you a star rating.

When other Internet users see poor star ratings, they are less likely to trust you. Mind you; your star rating can have a direct impact on your business’ revenue.

According to a Womply study, businesses with a 3.5 to 4.5-star rating can increase their annual revenue.

The more people ignore your online presence, the more search engine bots will deem that your profile is irrelevant. Thus, your search engine ranking can plummet.

The key here, though, is to do something good. Provide excellent services and produce top-quality products. That way, it is easier to convince your customers to leave a positive review.

Boosts Your Profit

As mentioned earlier, a star rating can have an impact on your business revenue. According to a Womply study, a 4.0 to 4.5-star rating can boost your annual income by up to 28%.

This is because brands with excellent online reviews attract customers. For one, people are 31% more likely to buy from businesses with positive reviews.

On the other hand, a single negative review can turn off about 22% of customers. This means that two out of ten potential customers would opt to buy from your competitors instead.

This explains why you need to perform well as a business. Doing so can help you generate more positive customer reviews. And this one of the best ways to salvage lost customers.

Resolves Conflict

Conflict management is another significant benefit of online reputation management. That’s because it helps businesses to address negative customer reviews adequately.

Addressing negative customer reviews can be as simple as responding to them. And by “responding,” we mean reassuring your past customers that you are doing your best to improve your products and services. Moreover, 34% of customers are more likely to remove a negative review after hearing from a brand.

Yet, some conflicts go beyond negative customer reviews. In times like these, you might need to hire a company that provides online reputation management services.

That’s because they can help you handle large-scale issues. This includes running a PR campaign or seeking the help of a lawyer.

Nonetheless, keep in mind that not all negative reviews are worth responding to. Reacting to trolls and haters will only escalate the issue the wrong way.

The Takeaway

To recap, here are the benefits of online reputation management:

1. Makes an excellent first impression
2. Cultivates trust
3. Improves products and services
4. Attracts talented employees
5. Improves search engine ranking
6. Boosts your profit
7. Resolves conflict

Think of it this way: Your online reputation can affect how customers perceive your business.

When they like what they see at a glance, they will be confident to do business with you. They would even opt to buy premium products from you! And this can mean a boost in your sales and revenue.

But keep in mind that a positive online reputation can go beyond that. Businesses with an excellent online reputation receive better treatment and even given a second chance.

Luckily, you can always save your business’ online reputation. And you do not have to do it alone since there are companies that offer online reputation management services.

Whatever the size and nature of your business, you need an online reputation management strategy in place. Doing so will not only ensure that you are making a good impression. It also lets you bring in more customers and improve your business’ revenue.

Now that you know how online reputation management can help your business, we hope that you will do your best to keep your online reputation in shape.

Positive reputation management is such a crucial part of your business. Trust is hard to come by these days, and customers are more cautious than ever before they give a brand or a business their trust. There is so much going on now behind a brand’s trust rating, and once you have a positive reputation online, you would want to continue building it up and improving it.

A negative reputation is not just something that can make your day gloomy. It has the potential of affecting your brand’s credibility, even if the cause of negative reputation may be biased or even untrue. Word of mouth through peer reviews are trusted more by customers than what brands have to say. And often, it takes a longer time to rebuild reputation than the time it took to break it.

In fact, in a poll conducted among 1,843 respondents from 60 countries, owning either private or public companies, rank reputation damage as a top management concern.

So, what are the things that can damage your reputation, and what are the ways you can build towards a positive online reputation for your business?

What Causes Company Reputation Damage?

Many factors can damage your positive reputation online. The most common would be the personal online reputation of the faces of your brand.

Anyone in your company widely known to represent your brand must learn that it is hard to separate personal identity from the brand you represent. We are in a digital age, and information is available and easy to attain.

People vet brands and their representatives more often than you realize. Authenticity is so important to consumers. Anyone that is deemed untrustworthy will have a hard time redeeming themselves if they do not change their reputation or work towards being acceptable to the digital community again.

Remember that consumers are looking for authenticity and not perfection. That is impossible to achieve. But they want to see brands—whether individual or corporate—to exude humility, originality, and truthfulness.

Make sure you and your team are minding your personal social media platforms so that it does not affect your brand.

Beware also of the pitfalls of bad social media etiquette because it can tarnish your positive reputation quickly. For example, post consistently, do not retaliate or fight with customers or peers online, respond to concerns and queries right away, and do not bombard your customers and followers’ walls with over-posting.

Also, be careful with your company and customer’s data, so you prevent any malware attacks and data breach. Know the best security software for small businesses so you can successfully guard your company’s positive reputation online through apt security protocols.

7 Ways to Better Manage Your Positive Reputation Online

1.    Avoid Data Breaches at all Costs

Identifying the cause of the data breach is as important is resolving the breach as soon as possible. Hackers will always try to breach systems or inject malware, but your responsibility as a company should be as immediate and thorough as can be.

Immediate dissemination of information is also needed. Inform customers right away about the breach and educate them on how to secure their accounts as soon as possible.

Reacting quickly and informing your affected customers shows integrity and accountability on your part. Putting plans into action right away to restore data safety can mitigate possible reputation damage.

You can also avoid data breaches by educating your employees and stakeholders and setting cybersecurity standards.

You also need to have updated data security controls. Limit data access to absolute necessity. It is a natural layer of protection you can add to your security protocol.

Even access to the internet and your company’s data should be limited. For instance, you can limit the kind of websites that employees can access on the company’s network.

Block websites that are not necessary for your operations. You do not have to give employees admin access to their computers to ensure the IT team or personnel will be responsible for every software download or maintenance.

Passwords to the internet or network can also be controlled. IT personnel can encode passwords unto devices to activate access without spreading the password information to too many people.

Simple measures like this done with other security measures all pile up into a robust cybersecurity and data privacy in place for your company.

You can also hire encryption experts to amp your cybersecurity measures. You can also use advanced cyber threat analytic tools that can detect malicious activity even before it can cause damage to your network and your data.

Make sure that you also have cybersecurity insurance and the best protection you can afford. Data breaches often lead to legal cases filed against you. You might need to compensate customers that were compromised for damages.

Being proactive in safeguarding your data is being productive in managing your online reputation.

2.    Track regularly all mentions of yourself, your company, and products

Trace whatever mentions you get for your personal accounts, your company, or your products and services. It may seem time-consuming but would be worth it. Word of mouth travels so fast, and monitoring your online presence consistently helps you mitigate negative comments before they get out of hand.

You can use tools that alert you every time your brand is mentioned anywhere on the internet. Brand24 and Isentia help you monitor your brand across different media in real-time. Tools such as these make positive reputation management, media monitoring, and tracking your competition easier.

Retweet or repost positive comments right away and thank the users that complemented your brand. You can also reply to a customer who may concern or complaint right away.

You cannot avoid complaints altogether, but your response can say a lot about your brand. If you value your customers, it will show in your response time and the quality of action or solution you provide.

3. Know What Customers Value and Deliver It Well

When you continuously work on improving your brand and your service, it helps maintain a positive reputation online as well. You need to keep ensuring you are meeting the current needs of your market and providing solutions they are looking for.

Keep the demand for your brand active by enhancing your service—both where you are already strong and where you may be weak. It strengthens your brand position and relevance in the market.

Always check where you can add value on top of your products or services. Generosity is a big come-on for consumers, which can improve your online reputation. Being aware of what is valuable to your target market helps you provide better results, keep a positive brand image.

You get your target market’s pulse through feedbacks, surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Optimise on these customer-centric tools to get to a grasp of your customer’s preferences and offer products and services that are relevant, even unique to the market.

4. Authority

Does your brand have domain authority high enough for you to be trusted by your target market? The higher your brand authority, the higher your credibility, and the more it will improve your positive online reputation.

Optimise of multiple assets you have from websites and social media platforms. Aim to rank consistently high on Google and other search engines. Maintain consistency in your posts’ performance to keep your trust level secure.

5. Push for more Google/Yelp Reviews

User-generated content like reviews is trusted more by consumers than what brands say about themselves. Customers who are in the beginning stages of the sales funnel rely on customer reviews to trim down their search for the right product or service.

Google reviews and Yelp reviews are common platforms of customers for reviews. If your brand shows up with positive reviews in these sites, it helps establish your brand as trustworthy, bringing value to consumers’ lives.

Whenever you provide a service or sell a product, encourage immediate feedback from your customers right away without being too pushy. If the customers are happy, they will not find it hard to leave a good review or even recommend your brand.

Optimise email marketing campaigns to encourage customers to write their reviews or comments as well. According to research, most customers leave a review when asked. You can also provide incentives in exchange for reviews.

6. Open accounts with your brand name on trending social media sites

Aside from securing your domain name, you also need to open social media sites with your brand name even before you launch. It is the same as paying for your domain name, so you get branding authority right away.

Prioritise securing ownership of your brand name on key social media sites. This boosts your positive reputation a great deal if you are known in a similar brand name across social media sites.

Use tools such as KnowEm or CheckUserNames to check if your brand name is on all key social media sites your target market goes to. Secure your username on all these platforms.

In the case that somebody else has taken your brand name on any of the social media sites, put something in your brand name that makes it unique. You can put “_NZ” “_official” after your brand name to identify it is your brand’s official social media site.

7. Practice Consistent Online Reputation Management

Reputation Management is not a one-time activity. You need to consistently monitor your reputation and avoid those things that can damage it.

Continue with improving your efforts and strategies to establish your credibility in your niche. Treat your brand’s positive image as an investment that will yield better revenues for your company.

Make it easier for your customers to leave testimonials or reviews on your site.

Build strong customer relationships by engaging with them through your website or social media sites.

Develop relationships with peers in the industry through collaborative efforts that serve your market’s needs or interests. Your peers can be a good source of recommendation too.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is also important to consumers. They want to trust a brand that is positively involved with the community. Are your products environment-friendly? Do you have humane practices in your production line? Do you treat your employees well? All these things are also necessary for your millennial consumers.

Highlighting things like this on your social media sites is part of positive reputation management.

Conclusion: Consistent Online Reputation Management is Key

Online reputation Management takes persistence and consistency. It will not be a perfect course, but if you keep at it, you will be able to maintain a positive reputation.

Actively track the impression that users leave on your site and social media accounts. Adjust your campaigns, even things as design and usability of your websites, if it does not align with the image you want your brand to exude.

There are many tools, especially in social media, to help you create appealing and relevant content consistently to keep your social media presence strong, which also boosts your online reputation well.

Whatever you do, be consistent about it, because consistency is key to positive reputation management.

This article is contributed by Mayleen Meñez, Content Writer for Softvire Australia and Softvire New Zealand.