Online Reputation Management Your Customers Are Talking

Your online reputation can get you on the short list of new sales opportunities. Or not. We help firms build a strategic online reputation management strategy that is grounded in your authority, credibility and trust.

Long before the proliferation of the digital world, there was a saying in Hollywood: “your reputation is everything.” The availability of digital technologies, fueled by a global culture that goes online to find everything from the weather to stock prices to your company’s reputation makes business online reputation management critical to new sales opportunities.

Brand reputation management has evolved out of the corporate public relations and communications offices down to the front line of customer facing employees. Those companies that recognize this fact provide training and online reputation coaching to employees to deliver support of your online reputation.

Online Reputation Management Affects Revenue

In business to business – B2B sales, your prospects typically implement a selection process that goes something like this.

Brand Reputation Management

 

What is Your Online Reputation Management Strategy?

If your company makes the short list, the evaluation team may begin to interact with your company online before agreeing to speak to a human being at your company. In many cases the evaluation team will conduct a thorough online search and investigation of your company and products in attempt to whittle the list down to 3 finalists.

The process described above may be carried out over weeks or months. It usually occurs entirely online with little or no contact with your company, even though you are on their evaluation list.

Your prospects are reviewing your brand’s online reputation by deeply reading your website, your blog articles and possibly quietly attending your webinars and conferences where you speak or exhibit.

The evaluation team is using a scoring sheet to grade your brand for attributes that include:

  • Your footprint in the market (measured largely online)
  • Your employee interaction with non-customers (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)
  • How your employees respond to problems (all of the above)
  • The extent of your company’s thought leadership (blogs, articles, speaking)
  • What your customers say about you (industry forums, LinkedIn, Twitter)
  • What your competition says about you (all of the above)
  • What the industry says about you (all of the above)

The most astute evaluation teams can conduct this brand evaluation 100% online. Of course, they may also attend industry conferences. And, while conferences can be very useful, they are costly. Some companies don’t attend conferences. Instead, they let their fingers do the work on the keyboard at their office.

Avoid Online Reputation Management Limitations

When considering how important your online reputation is, don’t limit your thinking to your company or your products. In B2B evaluations, people don’t buy a logo. They want to do business with a company they can trust. They heavily evaluate your people.

Building your brand’s online reputation is heavily dependent on the online reputation of your people and your customer’s comments.

We’ll build a strategic online reputation that is grounded in your authority, credibility and trust. The key elements to your brand management plan are your content and participation by your employees in online reputation building as well as a collaborative willingness to engage in authentic online brand management strategies. We use the most current digital technologies to monitor your online reputation, and the reputation of your competitors to guide your brand online reputation management plan.

Learn more about our online reputation management services and social media training offerings. Contact us now.