Improve Your Business Reputation with Online Content

Running a business means paying attention to a lot of things, from quality of your products and inventory to office management and staffing concerns. You may be so concerned with the internal workings of your business, you are not aware of how your business is perceived by clients and the general public.

Most local businesses are blissfully unaware that they have reputation problems, says Rebecca Lieb, digital marketing consultant and former vice president at Econsultancy.

She suggests that business owners monitor Google Places, Foursquare, Yelp, Citysearch, Zagat, Twitter, and local online review sites that invite customers to rate businesses. Listen carefully. Does your target audience mistakenly think that you are more expensive, less convenient, slower, or less skilled than your competitors? Is your service seen as erratic? Those are all reputation issues, and your online content needs to address them.

Forget bland, generic content about “value” and “quality.” First identify specific areas where clients have commented on your business. Whether it is an issue of product quality, concerns about service, or the perception that another business offers better value, you need to address those areas directly.

You also need to decide where your message will best resonate with your clients. With all the online avenues now available to market your business, it’s difficult to determine which of the industry blogs or social media sites will work best for your message.

Here are some basic steps to crafting smart online content to defend and enhance your company’s reputation:

• Use your blog to educate clients about your company: For instance, is your pricing competitive because it includes more service than your competitors? Do weekend hours make your shop more convenient? Are you a reliable resource for information about your industry? Lieb advises that your message use well-chosen keywords and tags in a blog post to attract shoppers. Your blog can also provide important links to websites of your outlets, vendors, and other associated businesses.
• Use Facebook to zero in on customer issues and objections: Address consumer misperceptions by linking to current news articles that prove your point, or that state a common myth about your business and prove it wrong.
• Reuse your online content to get the most bang for your time investment: Particularly thoughtful reviews from customers can be used on your blog and website. A series of blog and Facebook posts giving customers useful advice can be translated to video for a series of posts on YouTube or can be compiled into a sponsored white paper or e-book to be shared with valuable prospects. Any compilation can be offered for download on social sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, where your company already has a presence.
• Ask satisfied customers for help in creating relevant and credible content: For example, a California restaurant sends a personal email to banquet planners for feedback after each event, with a humble call to action: “We try our best to meet all of our guests’ expectations. If you have a moment to make a brief comment about us on TripAdvisor it would mean the world to us.” The old adage that people will only write when they have something to complain about is often true. But if you know a customer is truly satisfied with the level of service you provide, you should not be shy about asking for a recommendation. LinkedIn makes this easy, as do many other social media sites. Try to identify which of your clients would not be burdened by the suggestion of a 140-character tweet or a quick post on Facebook.

In short, the various channels of digital marketing do not have to be chaotic and confusing. When you stop treating them as separate, unrelated channels and use them together to manage your company’s reputation, you can realize the combined power they bring to your marketing mix.