Top Reputation Management Tips for SMBs on a Tight Budget

Online transactions and consumerism run round-the-clock. It operates without pause, time-off, vacation, or even a minute’s break. No matter what business you own and what products you sell, managing your online reputation is not as simple as it seems. If you have a small or medium-sized business with little brand exposure, it is more important to develop a reputation management system that works seamlessly. The protection should be rock-solid so that you can turn around a bad situation and gain the trust of annoyed customers once again.

According to an article published on https://www.entrepreneur.com, you can sign for Google alerts for your business name to figure out what people are saying about your company and products. If there is any customer review, good or bad, mentioning your business name, you can see that in Google search. It is also one of the affordable ways for SMBs to keep track of their reputation in the digital landscape.

Again, small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) possibly spend a great amount of their budget for sales, advertising, and production. In simple words, you are spending your marketing dollars to reach a point where your business has a good reputation online. Then, you do not need to spend heavily to manage your brand reputation on the web. Here are some of the best ways to do so without creating a dent in your wallet:

Build an outreach method to attain valuable user content

When it comes to customer reviews, they are a vital element of reputation management on the web. Furthermore, consumer feedback and reviews are possibly the most powerful pieces of message or content as far as buying decisions are concerned. Based on the findings of Invespcro, it was found that almost 90 percent of customers rely on online reviews from unknown people just like any personal commendation.

Remembering this fact, one of the important elements to developing an online reputation is just getting individuals to leave responses about your company. It could be an interesting activity. Though it may not appear like it apparently, the very idea of web-based reviews has changed over time, and quite significantly.

Online reviews not only used to provide feedback about businesses and products but also utilized for the US president’s impeachment in the case of Bill Clinton. It’s also used to review medical professionals. All of this shows that reputation management is a powerful tool when it comes to ascertaining the credibility of people and businesses.

Understanding how influential online reputation management is in winning buying decisions, many brands often resort to unethical strategies such as posting fake reviews or paying people to write good reviews. Then, some of the reputed review platforms began to clean-up on such malpractices; buyers started understanding what is right and what is wrong or fake. These days, most online buyers have powerful radar for fake reviews and are not carried away by a simple 5-star rating or an unclear sentence, in spite of the fact whether it’s genuine or not. Therefore, if you’ve been hit by negative customer reviews, you can consult with experts from Walnutseo.com to manage your brand’s online reputation online without resorting to shoddy means.

Make the most of free or affordable monitoring tools

In the initial phases of dealing with your business’s online reputation, it’s comparatively simple to atop through brand mentions, social media comments, reviews, and things like that. However, when a business expands and grows, while you start building a respectable internet presence, it will become difficult to keep an eye on your business reputation online.

The best way to go about it is by using free tools as well as processes to monitor your brand reputation online. Of course, you will not require anything too expensive. You can set up Google alerts as mentioned before to receive prompt notifications each time your business name is mentioned online. It could be positive feedback or a negative one. If it is a poor review, you need to apologize to your customers and provide the best possible solution.

You can use a free tool such as IFTTT.com that connects all your devices and apps and any digital activity relevant to your brand is brought to your notice in no time.

When it comes to social media, the Hootsuite is a free tool if you want to keep an eye on your online presence over leading networks. Besides, monitoring your brand name, the tool helps in scheduling your content delivery as well as cope with your online responses.

Create a strategy for a negative response

Dealing with negative customer reviews is normal for any business. Then, you need to have a solid plan in place to counter the same. As far as SMBs are concerned, be extra cautious to figure out whether the feedback is fake or genuine. There are review technologies to help you determine the truth of online reviews. Thanks to technology, some of the popular and biggest platforms identify things when businesses attempt to avoid any process. The worst thing that can happen to your business is a competitor sabotaging your brand.

Again, when you receive genuine negative reviews from your customers, make sure you have a proper plan in place to deal with the same. First, understand the problem or the compliant instead of responding in a moment. Of course, you need to reply to negative feedback fast but not without thinking or understanding the gravity of the problem. The best time is to respond after 12 hours. Acknowledge your mistake and thank the customer for his or her valuable feedback. Next, you can make a promise to make rectifications, solve the issues, and provide a solution for gaining the trust of your buyers.

Final thoughts

Now that you have these tips in front of you, it is the best way to build the foundation for online reputation management of your SMB. The faster you get your processes set up; the better it is for your business, as it begins to scale up. Thank your customers for taking out time for leaving a review and reply in a responsible way. Solve the issue and take the conversation offline, if necessary.