Your company’s reputation is usually one of the first things to be knocked to the bottom of the list when the budget tightens and the work piles up. It’s natural and everyone does it, but that doesn’t make it right. In fact, with Google’s increasing focus on “local,” online reputation management services should be part of the bread and butter of your marketing – not to give you more work to do, but to take work off your plate.
Check out our top five reasons why it’s essential that you include online reputation management services in your marketing repertoire.
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Changing SERP Landscape
If you haven’t checked out Google lately, stop reading and go search around. You’ll notice pretty quickly that the results pages look significantly different now than they did 6 months or even a year ago. Now, you can see Shopping results, Twitter feeds and, yes, even customer reviews right in the SERP without having to leave the page. What this means is that any potential customer searching for your business will see reviews on your service and products right next to your company’s name. Is your star rating where you want it to be across all the review platforms that show up on page 1?
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Consumer Thermometer
As a marketer, it can be pretty frustrating to get those negative reviews. Hearing that a product was broken or that service was bad never makes for a good day. From a customer point of view, though, that sort of information is pure gold in the decision-making process. And since the customer is always right, we have to cater to those poor experiences as best we can. Learn from your mistakes and misgivings, improve the product, put training programs and place, and do better. Your review rating is a gauge of how well your customers think you’re doing. Use it to your advantage.
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Brand Protection
Have you ever seen a really bad review? One that completely eviscerates and calls out a business’ poor service for everyone to see? You don’t want that to happen to you, obviously. But what would you do if it does? The simple answer is: just respond to it, peacefully. As a marketer, you have to protect your brand. And nothing will shatter your reputation faster than negative reviews that are ignored or responded to poorly. How you conduct yourself in the public eye, including how you respond to negative reviews, can either be your armor or your Achilles’ heel.
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Ranking Factor
Did you know that Google uses your reviews as a ranking factor in its algorithms to determine where you show up in the SERPs? It’s true. The quantity, frequency and diversity of your reviews account for about 13% of the ranking signal that influences your SEO for local packs. With this in mind, not only are your reviews important from a company reputation point of view, but also from a technical SEO point of view.
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Time Management
So ya, everything we’ve talked about so far is great and it all makes sense, but in the end, it doesn’t really even matter if no one on your team has the time to do it. It’s time consuming to log into every platform, respond to each review manually and monitor the listings daily. Depending on your industry, it can be downright impossible. That’s why you absolutely need online reputation management services to help automate, or at the very least simply, the task. Services like Rannko consolidate your reviews in one place, enable you to respond quickly (or automate responses) and provide analytics and reports to help generate great insights. That sounds better than doing it all yourself, doesn’t it?
If you’re still not convinced to look into online reputation management services, do some research on your own to see what options you have and how much they cost. Some services are pretty pricey, but others like Rannko can meet your needs as an affordable option to you. Schedule a demo with us to see exactly how Rannko can help your team manage your reputation. Your reputation matters – for you and your business! Let Rannko take some of the responsibility off of your plate!
