A strong reputation isn’t just about gaining and maintaining your company’s credibility. Your rep can also be an extremely powerful marketing tool.
Think of it this way, every five-star review, positive testimonial, and achievement you can link to your name is another thing that can help convince clients or customers to choose you over the competition. That’s the whole purpose of reputation marketing. You take your glowing reviews and feedback and use them to amplify your presence in the market.
This strategy works too. After all, around 93% of customers say reviews influence their buying decisions. Meanwhile, 72% won’t even consider a company until they’ve read a review.
At gFour Marketing, we know a thing or two about turning stellar reputations into marketing power. In this guide, we’re going to show you how you can use your reputation to unlock skyrocketing sales.
Reputation marketing is a proactive promotional strategy that focuses on building and highlighting a positive brand image, by using positive reviews, great customer feedback, and testimonials within your marketing materials. Basically, you leverage what your customers are already saying about your brand to grow your business.
In turn, new customers are far more likely to trust what a happy customer has to say about your brand. Your Google business profile, customer satisfaction scores, and strong reviews say a lot more about your company than anything you can create and publish yourself.
Keep in mind though that reputation management and reputation marketing aren’t the same thing. Reputation management is all about watching your offline and online reputation, and “reacting” in a way that minimizes damage.
Reputation marketing is more proactive. It’s about seeking out satisfied customers and using their insights to build and enhance a positive reputation.
Used correctly, your reputation marketing efforts can enhance your brand equity and attract new customers. However, it relies on a few things, such as:
Another thing you’ll need for a strong reputation marketing strategy is a broad presence. Online, you can share social proof, feedback, and testimonials on various channels, including your Google Business profile, website, social media channels, and even your email campaigns.
Offline, you can highlight your reviews and star ratings across different formats. These include mailer leaflets, billboards, newsletter campaigns, and any other marketing strategy you might try.
Ultimately, your brand reputation is always going to have an impact on your chances of making sales. Contractors in the home services industry, for instance, rely heavily on referrals and positive reviews to generate new opportunities.
Few people will consider hiring a plumber, electrician, or HVAC expert without at least checking out their customer testimonials.
Investing in reputation marketing helps you:
Today’s customers don’t just trust that companies are as great as they claim to be.98% of customers always read reviews before they consider working with a company – particularly a local one. A proactive approach to online reputation marketing helps customers find great reviews that will encourage them to work with your business.
Positive reviews don’t just build brand awareness and give you a good reputation. They can also help shorten sales cycles and minimize friction during the conversion process. Customers will have fewer objections if they see more “positive brand content” like five-star reviews, and less negative content.
Your visibility online doesn’t just depend on how many keywords you use in your marketing materials. Positive reviews and testimonials, particularly on platforms like Google My Business, can have a positive impact on local SEO. Google prioritizes businesses with high-quality customer reviews so customers can find your business faster.
When more customers find your business via local SEO, they’re more likely to click on your website or work with your brand if they see evidence that you offer an amazing customer experience or have a fantastic business reputation. This leads to much higher conversion rates. Your reviews can even boost the ROI of other aspects of your digital marketing strategy. For instance, sharing a review on social media can push more traffic back to your website.
Strong brand reputation marketing, combined with referral programs and brand advocates, can help make you the most obvious choice for your consumers. When customers see your name associated with positive feedback, they’re always going to choose you over the competition. Customers will always be more likely to buy from a company they believe they can trust.
So, how do you get started with reputation marketing? There are plenty of companies like gFour that can help you with the process. However, if you’re brand new to the concept, here are the basic steps you’ll need to follow.
This is where the “brand reputation management” side of things comes into play. Before you start promoting positive reviews, you need to know what people are already saying about your brand. It’s important to look your company up online and find out what people have to say about your business (what kind of strengths and weaknesses you showcase).
This step will help you to identify the existing reviews and positive feedback you can use in your brand marketing strategies. It will also give you an insight into whether you need to invest any time in “reputation repair” before taking the next step.
Next, you need a way to start collecting as many new (positive) reviews as possible. Ultimately, this means taking a proactive approach to requesting insights from every customer. For home services companies, the best time to start requesting reviews is right after a successful interaction or finished project.
Ask for insights while the experience is still fresh in their mind. This way, you’re more likely to end up with in-depth, useful responses. Consider using software to automatically request reviews on Facebook, your Google Business Profile, and channels like Yelp. Send out automatic surveys and forms, asking for in-depth feedback where possible.
Build review requests into your regular workflows. For instance, your team might automatically trigger an email asking for a review after a project wrap-up. You can also request a testimonial during a thank-you or follow-up call. Consider rewarding customers who leave reviews with discounts, special offers, or just the occasional gift to strengthen positive relationships.
Once you’ve gathered plenty of positive feedback, you need to start building it into your marketing strategy so you can enhance your brand’s reputation. Scan through all of your reviews and feedback for the most impactful messages, then:
Your satisfied customers aren’t just great sources of social proof. They could also be potential brand advocates. A lot of the people who love your business are more than happy to refer a friend. They just need you to reach out. Consider creating a simple referral program where you can automatically distribute rewards to people who bring new customers your way. For instance, you could:
Make the process easy to follow. Send referral links in thank-you emails, include info on your website, and promote it on social media. Pair this strategy with your reputation marketing efforts and you could end up with dozens of new prospects in no time.
Finally, make sure that you’re constantly measuring your reputation. Online reputation management is still an important part of maintaining your growth. Use reputation monitoring tools like Google Alerts or Mention to track brand mentions as they happen.
The more you know about what people are saying, the better you can respond. This also helps amplify the good and turn around any negatives. Remember, it’s important to constantly respond to reviews too – whether they’re good or bad. Thank the people who share positive feedback, and when you see a negative review, look for a quick way to fix the issue.
The right response to a negative review can be just as valuable for your brand reputation as another five-star rating from a happy customer.
Another way to upgrade your brand reputation marketing strategy is to work with a company like gFour Marketing. You can access useful services and solutions linked to:
At gFour Marketing, we specialize in reputation marketing. We help you build stronger relationships between companies and their clients, and use those relationships to increase sales. We can help you take advantage of reputation marketing with:
When you’re busy running a business, it’s easy to let online reputation marketing fall through the cracks. But with the right reputation marketing services, you don’t have to choose between doing the work and showing off the work. Agencies like gFour help you do both by building your positive reputation, improving local SEO, and converting more potential customers with ease.
These days, your business reputation isn’t just important. It’s the key to making sure you can succeed and thrive in a competitive market. Reputation marketing goes beyond simply “managing” how people perceive you (online and offline). It allows you to take advantage of all the positive things customers are already saying about your company – to drive new sales and opportunities.
The good news? You don’t have to handle everything yourself. With done-for-you campaigns, easy automation, and real-time dashboards for reputation management, agencies like gFour Marketing make reputation marketing simple.
If you want to spend less time chasing leads – start letting the magnetic power of your reputation do the work for you. Contact gFour Marketing today and discover how we can help you get the best results from your marketing efforts.
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