Today, most businesses look to enhance their digital presence due to the availability of their large customer base. Online Reputation Management is the process of monitoring the online presence and mitigating the risks associated with negative reviews related to the business.
This process can be clarified with one simple question: Today, whenever you want to buy something, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? You do online research, see various providers and options, take reviews from your friends and family, etc.
It is not just a statement, but a research report also states that around 95% of consumers read online reviews before buying a product, whereas around 81% of people check Google reviews before visiting a physical store.
A review can expand your business, while a negative review can change customer perception. So, for this reason, today, every business looks to a leading digital marketing service provider to enhance their online presence.
Understanding Online Reputation Management in Digital Marketing
ORM is the practice of monitoring and managing how businesses, people, and brands are visible on internet platforms. Through this practice, businesses can check their brand reviews, comments, and mentions to mitigate the risk that can tarnish the brand’s image in public. The major aim of this practice is to maintain the positive brand reputation by resolving the negative pointers of the business to encourage a positive customer base.
Now, let’s look at the 3 Ms of ORM:
Monitoring: Monitoring refers to the process where a brand needs to keep an eye on every mention of their company across the web, from everything from reviews to mentions and comments on social media platforms. This process helps you to stay informed and tracked related to addressing the issues before it turns out to be terrible.
Management: Once you have completely monitored the brand’s presence, it’s time to manage the gathered data. This process includes the involvement of engaging with the audience and addressing the feedback with complete understanding, solution-oriented steps, patience, and care. For the effectiveness of the online management system, you have to embark on positive reviews and reactions for the brand and reinforce positive perceptions.
Mitigation: Mitigation refers to the process in which the gathered errors are resolved, such as misleading information, implementing content, and dealing with negative reviews and SEO strategies that are used to build a positive brand image.
What is the Major Difference Between ORM and SEO?
SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization that focuses on content-rich platforms that can be used to enhance a website’s ranking of the business on SERP (Search Engine Result Page). ORM is used to monitor and maintain the online presence of the brand.
Other than this, SEO is dependent on content marketing strategies to enable the website to rank higher. ORM focuses on identifying the negative comments, reviews, feedback, and mentions of the brands through various platforms and then focuses on resolving those errors to build brand trust and credibility. This process required brands to handle feedback with positive content-rich resources and a strong SEO strategy to enhance the functionality and features of the business.
The Key Importance of Online Reputation Management
Online reputation management plays an important role in developing a positive brand image of the business. Besides this, there are other major roles of the ORM system. Continue reading to learn about all of them:
Brand Image Reputation
A bad review may be a dark hole in a brand that takes years to build. In digital marketing, ORM helps to keep a positive brand image and patiently responds to negative criticism by introducing more positive information so that prospective buyers can feel fairly and impartially informed.
Customer Trust and Credibility
A good online reputation of the brand leads to a happy customer base. Monitor your business and analyze whether your customers are facing difficulty in interacting with your business. This process must be taken care of with priority, and steps should be taken to mitigate the outlook towards your business.
Crisis Management
Crisis Management and Online reputation management are considered the same thing and go hand in hand. A small mistake left unnoticed can completely harm your business’s online reputation. Ensuring to identify all the small errors and vulnerabilities and make sure to correct them with the best ORM strategies can play a crucial role during the crisis. Furthermore, to mitigate the damage to the online reputation, smooth and appropriate steps should be taken.
Search Engine Ranking and Optimization
To have a beneficial effect on the rankings, the business should use SEO tactics and strong content. To accomplish the intended results with an SEO strategy, optimize the website and rank for the targeted keywords, including real profiles that encourage positive brand discourse, and push the bad phrases by influencing search engines with positive content.
Customer Retention
Always remember that a highly satisfied customer will become your long-term client with a positive brand advocate. All this process can be achieved when you are actively engaging with them; all you need to do is confront these errors and address them with positivity and sincerity. Recent studies have shown that consumers are likely to choose brands where their reviews are valued and heard.
A Checklist for Online Reputation Management
- Verify that your company is listed at the top of search engine results pages.
- Determine the positive or negative impact of third-party links about your company.
- Find any ORM problems that require quick resolution.
- Check that the information about your company on external websites is accurate.
- Keep an eye on social media for feedback and interactions from customers.
- To measure brand sentiment, keep an eye on pertinent hashtags.
- Check for criticism and discover if your brand is defended by supporters.
- Look through Google Reviews to find reviews and comments left by customers.
- Examine other blogs and articles that discuss your goods and services.
- Keep a close eye on online mentions to learn about popular public opinions.
Final Words
Finally, we can say that Online Reputation Management in digital marketing plays an important role in enhancing the online reputation of the business. In this process, businesses need to keep an understanding of what is being published about a brand by customers, other brands, and the press. Once a good reputation of the brand is established, ORM works on affecting positive change for the brand’s image. Furthermore, the ORM procedure can also be done with the help of paid advertisements, adjusting content on the brand’s own website, or encouraging customers to leave a positive impact on their experience on social media platforms. A good ORM is helpful to enhance the SEO of the brand, SEO-driven company can better help you enhance your brand presence.
