Online Reputation Management What It Is & Why You Need It

For every eCommerce site, the importance of online reputation management is immense. Most of the modern marketers emphasize on this because this is the best way in which you can keep your customers happy. This, in turn, will ensure that they show loyalty to your brand and even refer their friends and family to your business.

However, it also means that you will gain more brownie points from Amazon or eBay if you are using these marketplaces. This is because having good reviews will help you to rank better in Google. This means that people who buy a product after checking about it online will find you easily.

Therefore, everything boils down to your good online reputation, and eCommerce is all about online reputation.

  • This is because there is a lack of actual contact between the buyer and the seller.
  • It is also because they cannot physically check any merchandise before it is delivered to them.

All these points out to one specific thing: you will only be able to make a sale if you can win their trust. It is for this reason that there is a significant rise in demand seen among business owners to hire the services of an online reputation management company Orlando to better their reputation, manage it well and maintain it.

The Proactive Steps

If you want to improve your online reputation, which is a continual process, you will need to follow some proactive steps.

  • The first step is to know what is out there and identify the most significant brand queries for your specific business.
  • The next step is to set up a few Google alerts so that you can track any significant changes. These changes can be in reviews, articles, and the merchant listing websites.

In addition to these initial steps, you will also need to exert as much control as possible by following a few other specific tactics such as:

  • Requesting to remove any false information especially if it is from any reliable source
  • Considering submitting legal take-down on degrading content or when any libel occurs
  • Putting out online press releases on authoritative websites that will clear things and false criticisms
  • Encouraging more online reviews and customer testimonials regarding your products
  • Being specific and more transparent to build up customer confidence and
  • Encouraging conversions.

However, do not be overwhelmed by bad reviews about your brand because the customers are intelligent and expect every brand to have a few of these.

Grow Your Business & Brand

Online reputation will help your business to grow and, at the same time, beat the competition that is seen to be increasing day by day. According to the latest survey, it is found that:

  • 70% of the customers purchase any product online based on the online product review
  • 58% of the people trust those brands that are available on the official websites of the brand
  • 85% of customers first read the product reviews and then make a buying decision
  • 71% of customers trust those businesses that have a robust online presence
  • 65% of customers prefer to choose those brands that have more positive reviews over the ones with fewer of these reviews.

These statistics are good enough reasons alone to invest your time and money in managing your online reputation to help your eCommerce site and business grow.

The Best Ways To Do This Are

  • Implementing reverse SEO techniques on your products
  • Optimizing your top products regularly will fetch you more and good response
  • Highlighting the positive reviews on your top products and
  • Applying the ORM techniques as fast as you can to stay in the competition for a long time.

You will need to access all social media networks and landscapes, such as product reviews, complaints, and service queries. Analyze these and, after that, plan your response. Your response plan can include anything of the following:

  • Blogging
  • Sharing pictures
  • Video marketing
  • Viral marketing, and more.

All these efforts will pay off well and enable your eCommerce store to build more trust among the visitors to convert them into loyal customers.

The Online Reputation Management Scenario

For all eCommerce companies, it is necessarily required to ensure proper online reputation management just like most of the companies do. This will help in lots of different ways, such as:

  • Generating more positive search results
  • Responding to customer complaints and queries more actively
  • Promoting positive feeling about the brand across various social sites
  • Controlling negative sentiments
  • Enhancing online engagement with the customers and
  • Increasing the number of likes and mentions of the brand.

It is essential for any eCommerce business to be more responsive to customer complaints. This does not only involves answering to their queries and providing the best solutions but also includes:

  • Holding more contests and quizzes
  • Responding to positive fan messages and
  • Posting promotional messages.

There are even a few eCommerce majors that engage users to contribute to any social cause and promises to match their amount. This enables them to connect with those users and, at the same time, showcases the brand in a much better way and a positive light. This enhances their online reputation, which is the most significant aspect of social media marketing.

The Additional Benefits Gained

A positive and good online reputation will enable a business to gain some additional benefits. These benefits are:

  • Creating a great first impression on the prospects
  • Highlighting the strengths of the business
  • Increasing the chances of turning cold visitors turning into prospective clients and customers
  • Establishing them as thought leaders and more.

All these are apart from the common ones, such as leading to higher trust, gaining better talent, more credibility, and reducing risks.

Summary

Therefore, when you analyze things deeply, you will know that a low reputation will reflect the low value of the company. This will eventually affect the sales as people will avoid sites that cannot provide them with the value and the expectations as desired. Therefore, focus on the essential variables such as easy navigation, intuitive features, search function, accessible contact information, and transparency to increase your online reputation.

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Author

CTO at Emizentech and a member of the Forbes technology council, Amit Samsukha, is acknowledged by the Indian tech world as an innovator and community builder. He has a well-established vocation with 12+ years of progressive experience in the technology industry. He directs all product initiatives, worldwide sales and marketing, and business enablement. He has spearheaded the journey in the e-commerce landscape for various businesses in India and the U.S.

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