Managing Your Online Brand Reputation
A strong brand is important for any business. It helps to give you customer recognition and increases loyalty. When you have those things, you then get the benefits of a competitive edge in the market and it makes it easier to sell new products.
It’s important to cultivate a strong brand and then keep it going. This can be especially difficult online which is why there are a few key tips to follow. Let’s see what they are.
How to create a brand
Before you can manage a brand, you need to make one. One of the most important first steps is to create a strong logo, which you can do here. Once you have that, you can start thinking about how you want your business to come across to your users.
This includes knowing your target audience, choosing a personality for your business, a slogan and also a consistent style. Once you have a brand, you can then use it on your marketing materials such as leaflets, websites, and business cards, which you can create for free here. Once you know what style and personality you want for your business, you then need to protect it.
Protecting that brand
Social media
One of the best ways to manage your online brand reputation is by being on social media. There are many different options available and you should choose the ones which most closely match your target audience.
Facebook has universal appeal, Twitter is great for connecting with customers and LinkedIn is a more professional route. These are just three examples but you want customers, clients, and networkers to find you easily online.
It also gives people a point of contact and allows you to react to any industry news or any bad publicity surrounding your brand. It can be a bit of a minefield, however, so you should always be careful about what you’re posting.
Customer service
Being online also gives you a great chance to deliver excellent customer service. Dealing poorly with customers can be a surefire way to lose brand reputation. People need to know who they can contact whether that is via social media, e-mail, or telephone.
Whenever you get an online customer service query, it’s important to reply promptly. This can stop a situation escalating into something more severe. Poor customer service can also lead to negative reviews, which brings us onto our next point.
Positive online reviews
People are more likely to leave a negative review than a positive one. You can’t just rely on a good product or service, you need to keep on top of your reviews and comments. For every bad review that happens, you need plenty of positive ones to back it up.
This means asking people to leave a positive review. This could be on Facebook, Yelp, Google, or any specific website your business may feature on. You don’t want to be too pushy but politely asking for a positive review is a great idea.
Being consistent
Once you have a strong brand, you need to keep building it and making it strong. Let’s take an example of a flyer, which you can make with Canva.com. If you give out a flyer but it has a different font and color scheme to your poster or business card, then that is going to be confusing.
The same works for online branding too. Whether it’s your website, Twitter, or Facebook page, you want them all to look the same. This familiarity breeds loyalty and a better customer experience. Consistent branding is the perfect way to have a strong online presence. Without this, you’ll struggle badly with customer retention.
