Investing in your digital brand identity (or, in professional terms, digital marketing) is the primary and most crucial step to make people aware of your business and begin generating initial leads. The U.S. Small Business Administration suggests allocating approximately 7% to 8% of gross revenue to marketing, with 50% specifically earmarked for digital marketing. However, most companies allocate around 10% to 14% of their total company budget to marketing. While this approach sometimes yields results and attracts clients, it can work even better if you pay attention to online reputation management. Never heard of it? Dima Raketa, the CEO of one of America’s top reputation agencies, Reputation House, explains how to establish trust and credibility with clients in just five steps using online reputation management.
The global Online Reputation Management market (or ORM) is projected to surge to $3.4 billion by 2030, with nearly 50% of the market share dominated by the USA, according to experts. This isn’t just a passing trend but a sustainable niche that continues to grow and evolve.
Dima Raketa states, “You can’t start fixing your reputation or building connections with your customers without a clear understanding of your weaknesses and strengths. Reputation monitoring is where you need to begin. It can be time-consuming, but it’s entirely feasible to do in-house. However, if you lack the resources to handle it on your own, turn to the professionals who can do it right.”
Reputation monitoring helps you understand who is talking about your company online, what they are saying about you, and where they are sharing their thoughts and opinions. To do this, you can simply use Google or any other search engine, check blogs, and monitor social media. Identify instances of negative or irrelevant content about your brand and take steps to prevent its spread across the web.
Implement review management to your marketing campaigns. Motivate people to leave feedback on goods and services you are selling, respond to each and every comment paying special attention to the negative mentions and simplify the feedback channels. Reviews are the key to success in the digital world. Learn about guerrilla marketing and feel free to use it to stay competitive.
Removing negative content about your brand can be challenging. You can’t get rid of every single negative mention about your company (or even yourself) on the internet due to various legal and ethical reasons. However, you can take steps to address and rectify the situation. Contact the managers of the sources where you found provocative or false information that damages your brand. Explain the situation and work toward a resolution. When it comes to review websites, it’s essential to acknowledge that not everyone will be completely satisfied with your products or services. Respond to all comments, clarify situations, provide evidence, and learn from any mistakes that were made.
Wisely use public relations and paid media tools. Public relations is a valuable instrument for gaining recognition, trust, and love from your target audience. Establish connections with local media, influencers, journalists, and news outlets. If they aren’t paying attention or publishing information about you, consider using paid media channels, although this may require an addition to your marketing budget.
Spread content about your brand and its activities across the global internet. Utilize all available platforms, including blogs, social media, ad banners, influencer collaborations, digital advertising, and email marketing. Be active but not overly boastful.
As Dima Raketa says, “If you think of your company as small, you will always remain small in the market. Change your perspective on your business and how you promote it, and you will soon see changes. Your best ally in this endeavor is online reputation management and all its tools and technologies.”
Ignoring online reputation management and its potential is equivalent to missing out on opportunities for digital growth. The local American sector is projected to capture up to $1.5 billion of the global market size by 2030, so now is the ideal time to take action. Learn about online reputation management, implement its practices, and consider hiring professionals to guide your company toward digital success.
Reputation House is known for its expertise in enhancing and safeguarding online reputation, developing AI software to monitor, analyze and timely respond to mentions on the Internet, such as Reputation House App for large-scale online data analysis and My Reputation App for small businesses and personal use.
