Why Should the Company Focus on Online Reputation? How to Do It?
The rise of digital marketing and social networks represents a unique opportunity for companies to connect with users. Still, this direct contact implies the need to work to maintain a good online reputation associated with an adequate brand image.
What is online reputation?
When we talk about online reputation, we refer to the image of a brand or person on the Internet.
Online reputation is created not only by a company’s actions but also by the news and comments that third parties publish in online media. These can condition the rest of the users’ opinions and the public’s interest in a brand or product.
Some key elements in building an online reputation are transparent behavior, good contact with users, and creating a solid community.
The importance of online reputation
If you have a company, you must work to create a positive digital corporate image. More and more users search the Internet for information about products or companies before deciding to purchase; therefore, what they read about you will influence them positively or negatively when deciding to convert to a purchase.
Generating credibility and trust is as important or more than attracting and attracting traffic. The brand image of your company or product is a very relevant determinant of the conversion potential of your website.
The digital environment allows users to express themselves almost completely freely and often, even with the brutal sincerity that the anonymity of a pseudonym gives them. That is why brands are at the mercy of all kinds of opinions, positive or negative.
With the abundant availability of information that characterizes the online environment, customers more than ever take control of their consumption habits and purchasing decisions. Consequently, brands’ online reputation is an important factor for them and a determining factor in the purchase process.
Influence of online reputation on business
Your brand’s online reputation can directly influence your sales and, therefore, the success of your business.
The content offered by the Internet increasingly influences the consumer. Content that is no longer unidirectional (from the company to the consumer) but springs from end consumers and the media with the viral showcase that the Internet offers them.
Being able to forge a positive online reputation for your company, brand, or product will allow your business to enjoy important benefits:
If you offer a positive experience to a customer, it will increase your company’s credibility. Therefore, it will be easier for them to trust and decide to buy your products.
A good online reputation originating from good customer service usually generates an increase in sales supported by the client’s loyalty and the increase in the power of attracting clients by reference to the former.
Active listening to customers, especially through social networks, is also a unique opportunity to correct errors and optimize the company’s work.
Control and monitoring
Giving value to positive opinions is as important as knowing how to respond to not-so-positive ones. One negative comment is exponentially more powerful than a handful of positive opinions. Therefore, we must be prepared to respond and correct negative experiences that can cause customers.
But… how to control everything that is commented on throughout the Internet? How to track forums, marketplaces, social networks,… and an endless number of digital scenarios where the customer can have an opinion today?
The solution lies in monitoring online reputation. Monitoring your company’s online reputation will help you improve your Internet presence and correct all those elements that may affect your relationship with your users. You can stop negative comments in time and correct growing waves of bad images simply by digitally serving dissatisfied customers wherever they choose to express themselves.
