It’s a risk to think too little of your Tarpon Springs business’s online reputation. A favorable image brings you money while a negative reputation can mean plummeting sales. In this age where competition is mighty high and consumer attraction extremely volatile, it’s not enough to simply serve—your business has to reach out and market itself to look its best, to hold the attraction for bigger stakes on your target market.
How seriously do you take your company’s online reputation management? In this article, we will debunk top four myths surrounding this digital marketing tactic:
Myth 1: Negative online image is only a concern of big companies.
Fact: Search engine results today are more localized than before. Even companies with branches nationwide need to optimize their pages for the local market to be found. If you’re operating a boutique-scale company, any reputation management expert would insist that you optimize your profile and regularly monitor reviews in local and influential sites such as Yelp. In fact, 83% of consumers admit they’re influenced by reviews in Yelp, according to an article from Forbes.com.
Myth 2: It’s perfectly reasonable to defend my business online.
Fact: It depends on how you handle it. When reading public reviews, you may come across disgruntled customers or ‘snitches’ paid by competitors to tarnish your name. The remarks can be very hurtful but either way you have to keep your cool. Be the bigger person and offer to make amends by providing them a link to a feedback form. If the complaint is genuine, make sure to address the issue promptly. If you encounter a positive review, do express gratitude (you need it for your website).
Myth 3: It’s alright to publish fake reviews; my competitors do it anyway.
Fact: Fake reviews are something businesses which have nothing good to offer resort to. Smart consumers can’t be fooled and they can sense if a feedback is authentic or con by the way it sounds. Even platforms such as Amazon and Yelp are equipped with advanced tools that screen out reviews they deem sham.
Myth 4: It’s time-consuming and I have more important business matters to attend to.
Fact: Indeed, reputation marketing entails a number of activities. These include optimizing your Tarpon Springs business profile in major listing sites, monitoring the online world for mentions and reviews about your brand, responding properly to unfavorable feedbacks, as well as consistently updating your social media for customer engagement. You can choose to perform all these, or choose not to at your own risk. However, know that there are SEO firms like Your Marketing Crew to turn to when you need to outsource these tasks to stay competitive.
Source:
How Reputation Management Drives Small Business, Forbes.com
Are You Creating a Bad Business Reputation? Business.com
