Online reputation management has always been important. After all, consumers prefer to work with companies they trust, and with values that closely mirror their own. With a solid reputation, attracting and converting new clients is easy. Moreover, retaining the ones you already have takes virtually no additional effort. Although most business owners recognize the importance of amassing large numbers of positive reviews, few understand why having a multi-pronged, proactive reputation marketing plan is essential. In fact, right now – these efforts matter more than ever.
Proactive vs. Reactive Reputation Management
Reputation marketing goes beyond soliciting positive feedback from satisfied customers. It is instead, the efforts that you make to proactively build your commercial image and bolster it against attacks. While there are myriad proactive reputation management strategies that you can leverage, the overarching goal is to provide consumers with value by offering helpful information, addressing their pain points, and appealing to their interests. For instance, you can:
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Use social media platforms to talk about trending, industry-related issues that matter to your clients
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Launch giving campaigns via your onsite blog or social profiles
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Produce and share funny and insightful advertising videos that answer important pre-purchase questions
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Offer engaging newsletters via your email marketing campaigns that supply details on product maintenance, offer troubleshooting tips, and more
When your business solves problems for people at no additional cost, this fosters trust and positions you as an industry authority. Think of it as lifting your commercial reputation up. This way, if your company ever experiences unwarranted attacks on its reputation, those launching these attacks will have to work far harder to successfully bring your reputation down.
Conversely, reactive reputation management is simply waiting for attacks to occur, and then responding in the best ways possible. Although good PR can help you mitigate damages from unwarranted attacks, reactive strategies are far less effective than proactive ones.
Staying Ahead of Cancel Culture: Why Right Now Is The Time To Stay On Top Of Reputation Marketing
Cancel culture is something that every business has to be leery of. A single, opinionated person can hone in on something that your business does or once said, and then use it to drive your company into the ground. This could be as minor as choosing not to go paperless in a highly eco-conscious market, having an unpopular political opinion, or choosing to support an unpopular cause. Companies that have fallen victim to cancel culture for these and other reasons have largely been unprepared for the ongoing social media attacks that they’ve faced. However, those that have had proactive reputation management campaigns in place consistently fared well. These entities had already convinced their markets of their value and their trustworthiness, and their efforts to do so had already established adequate loyalty for keeping their reputations and their bottom lines protected.
The key thing to remember when comparing proactive and reactive reputation management is that you never want to make protecting your business image something that you only think about in hindsight.
Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help you implement an effective, proactive reputation marketing campaign that prepares your company for the challenges and demands of an increasingly digital world and an increasingly opinionated public.
