Is a reputation management strategy the key to getting better brand awareness for your company?

Many marketers cited that they would be focusing on improving their brand strategy this year, alongside other areas of focus like content marketing or social media marketing.

Indeed, companies are becoming more conscious of the fact that they must have a strong brand if they’re to start turning leads into customers and customers into loyal fans. But how do you boost brand awareness?

Our answer: having a great reputation management strategy designed to boost brand awareness. 

Read on to learn how to create your own effective reputation management strategy, designed to help you turn great brand experiences into selling points while leveraging negative brand experiences into opportunities.

How to Create an Online Reputation Management Strategy

Identify Your Unique Value Proposition

Before jumping into creating a reputation management strategy for your brand, you’ll want to first identify what makes your brand different from the rest.

Don’t be afraid to get really specific with this. After all, your brand will resonate with your target audience, and it’s okay if your unique value proposition isn’t appealing to everybody.

To get a better sense of your unique value proposition, you can take a look at the existing competition. Find out what needs aren’t being met by others in the industry, and use that information to fill in the gaps yourself. 

This way, you can create a strong brand right from the get-go, with target customers knowing that you exist to solve a problem they’re looking for in your own unique way.

This unique value proposition could be a unique offer in itself. For example, your marketing agency might position itself to work solely with law firms and lawyers. Or it may be an add-on service or feature that no other business has. For example, you may offer clients access to free tools and software that are proprietary to your agency.

Be Clear About Your Why

We’ve probably all seen Simon Sinek’s famous Ted Talk on starting with your why and using The Golden Circle of why-how-what to align teams and leaders to work for a greater good. And we also see the importance of knowing our why when it comes to building a great brand reputation.

When customers see what you’re all about, when customers can tell that you exist to make their lives or businesses better, then they’ll be more likely to be drawn to your brand.

People respond positively to brands that share their values or a common goal. Simon Sinek uses Apple as an example of a brand with strong positioning and why. Apple’s mission is to create innovative, creative, and imaginative products on the market – and they invite their customers to take part in that mission by purchasing their products.

For marketing agencies or service-based industries, your why ties greatly with your clients’ why. You’ll want to know what makes your clients tick, what drives their businesses forward. With that knowledge, you can help them reach their goals — and achieve their why in the process.

Focus on Providing Valuable and Helpful Information

One of the best reputation management tactics is being helpful to your customers. And many marketers know this too, as several are increasingly focusing on content marketing through blogs or social media posts to share helpful information around their industry.

Focusing on content can help customers see that you’re an expert in your field. And this can even help you develop strong relationships with your audience after they see your willingness to keep providing value.

There are many ways you can share these valuable tips with consumers, including in-depth blog posts, podcasts, and videos. Webinars are also becoming a fan-favorite way to reach more and deepen relationships with customers. With reliable webinar software in the market, it’s even become possible to run automated repeat webinars to save on time and resources.

Award-winning web development agency Orbit Media uses their blog to showcase best practices for web design, lead generation, and content marketing.

Choose the Platforms Where You’ll Engage with Your Audience

Just as important as knowing what to share is where you’re going to share it. Understanding your customers’ most preferred platforms for engaging with agencies like yours can help make sure you not only reach your customers but also makes sure that customers can reach you.

Part of an effective reputation management strategy involves you effectively engaging with your audience. Email marketing is one of the most popular and profitable platforms to engage and nurture existing subscribers who can later turn into clients for your agency. You may also be on Facebook or Instagram to share helpful tips that will get clients results, based on your agency’s strategies.

But also consider platforms that will help your existing clients turn into ambassadors for your brand. Collect testimonials and create case studies that you can share on platforms like your blog or YouTube channel.

Optimize Your Website’s User Experience

Every touchpoint matters when you’re trying to boost your brand reputation. And just because we live in an era of social media platforms doesn’t mean you can stop paying attention to one of the most important platforms you’ll have as a brand: your website.

Keep your website performing in tip-top shape, aiming to load pages in just three seconds or shorter. Also with so many people now online and vulnerable, secure your site so as not to fall victim to cybercrimes like hacking or data breaches. 

Clients need to have an excellent experience on your site, whether they’re there to contact you, look for more info, or just learn more about your agency.

Page load time can affect user experience on your site as much as downtimes or risk of data breaches. (Image source)

Collaborate and Partner with Influencers

Influencers can be valuable people to develop relationships with as a brand. For one thing, they can help you build an image of community online, especially if you choose high quality, relevant influencers in your niche.

Sometimes these influencers are right under your nose: your existing clients. Leverage existing relationships with your biggest clients to turn them into influencers for your agency. Aside from testimonials or case studies, partner with these thought leader clients.

Consider partnering with them for webinars for their audience, doing interviews about your working relationship together, or offering an affiliate commission for successful referrals they send your way.

Have a Plan to Deal with Negative Reviews and Complaints

Finally, you can boost your reputation in the eyes of your audience by dealing with negative comments and feedback with grace. Don’t simply ignore the bad things people are saying about your brand as this can only backfire or show that you don’t really care.

Instead, pay attention to these negative reviews. Do they mention things you can actionably improve on in your business? How can you show your audience that you are paying attention to their gripes?

Turn negative brand experiences into opportunities to uplift your brand’s reputation. Offer any perks or reparative actions for users who had a bad experience. Make real changes on things that require your attention.

This way, you can continuously show customers and clients that you’re serious about being the best possible agency you can be. And when you do something to keep improving your services and products, you might even win over non-customers with such sincerity.

Key Takeaways

There’s no such thing as a perfect brand. But that doesn’t mean you can’t build your brand and manage your reputation well, especially online. With clients demanding and expecting more from their favorite agencies, this becomes an opportunity for you to impress customers, drive deeper relationships with your audience, and attract attention from newer prospects in the mix.