A good name, they say, is better than silver or gold. Ask the most successful people how important a good reputation is as a component of their careers, and the answer is sure to be a unanimous YES. They will also tell how that it takes time to build a good reputation and that you must guard it fiercely because they know how easy it is for a reputation to be shattered in moments.
As Robert Greene wrote in his book, The 48 Laws of Power, “… your reputation is the cornerstone of your power. It will protect you and help influence how the world judges you, at least to some extent.” So, how do you do these? How do you build a good reputation, and ensure it stays that way?
Key Points
- Brand reputation is defined as the image, based on experience, that an individual or an organization has among other actors regarding a certain brand.
- For companies with valuable brands, reputation is an important intangible asset, as it influences the individual’s ability to cooperate.
- Reputation can either come from actively chasing a good reputation, or it can be earned when people interact with your business.
- Factors that impact a brand’s reputation include customer service, quality, social media presence, company values, and marketing and advertising.
- Your company’s reputation is one of its most important assets. It can drive awareness of your brand, bring in new customers, and increase sales.
Reputation: What Does It Mean?
In general terms, reputation is the collective beliefs or opinions people share about something. It could be a movie, a painting, or the state of a country.
However, when it comes to business and management, it is the widespread opinion that people have of your company as a whole. This opinion tends to skew black or white: a company is either reputable or not, for example. Based on these, brand reputation is defined as the image, based on experience, that an individual or an organization has among other actors regarding a certain brand.
Reputation today represents an equivalent of traditional terms such as honor or virtue. For companies with valuable brands, reputation is an important intangible asset, as it influences the individual’s ability to cooperate.
Where Does Reputation Come From?
When you first start your company, you don’t have much of a reputation to speak of. So where do reputations come from? There are two sides of this coin.
- Actively pursuing a business reputation. The first is the reputation your business is actively pursuing. For example, if you’re trying to build a positive reputation, then you might invest in a brand management strategy, media relations, and a reputation management solution.
Reputation PR can help you promote the image of your company you want others to have. Reputation management tools utilize brand tracking to help you measure your reputation across channels and see how it evolves over time using media monitoring technology.
- Earned reputation through people interacting with you: The second side of the coin is other people. These are your customers, prospects, and the general public. Every time someone interacts with your company, you’re building your business reputation.
These interactions don’t stop with transactions and customer service. When someone reads a news article, blog post, or social media post from you, they’re interacting with your brand. Other peoples’ content, such as positive or negative reviews, also influences your online reputation.
With both sides of the coin, your business reputation is earned. It comes from the opinions people form when they interact with you as well as from the work you put into it. This is why reputation management is important. Just like any other form of management, reputation management includes planning, building, maintaining, nurturing and controlling an organization’s or brand’s reputation with all relevant stakeholders.
To do so, you need a good reputation management strategy in place. The checklist below is a comprehensive guide you can use to develop a strategy to manage your reputation.
Creating A Reputation Management Strategy
Why Reputation Management Is Important
The longer you’re in business, the more your brand image will “fine-tune,” with or without your help. The most successful companies are those that take an active say in how people think and feel about the brand. That’s where reputation management can prove valuable.
According to a 2005 study by Rosa Chun, senior lecturer at Manchester Business School, it’s unusual to find an internal reputation management department that’s directly responsible for managing corporate reputations. Instead, it’s often a shared effort. Marketing and communications handle the external perceptions, while human resources manage internal culture.
Creating, curating, and maintaining a positive reputation for a corporation is no easy task, but one of the most important facets of human psychology is to be consistent. Research by Roger Martin of the Rotman School of Management has shown that a customer’s loyalty to a company or brand relies more on familiarity than organic “trust.”
Customers love to do what feels comfortable, so companies that are quick to change their identity in the face of a PR disaster may be more likely to lose customers in the long run. For example, they might create lots of positive content to make any negative content matter less.
The better approach is often a slow and steady one, focused on rebuilding trust through multiple channels.
What Shapes a Brand’s Reputation?
Reputations go beyond positive reviews or negative reviews, though these do play a role. You can build a strong brand image based on the following details:
- Visual cues. Company name, logo, and all of the imagery related to your visual identity reinforce a consistent brand name.
- Mission, vision, value proposition, or philosophy. The guiding light of a company’s internal culture, these elements have a ripple effect when it comes to corporate reputation.
- Behavior of members within the organization. What people are saying or writing is key. Articles, word of mouth, news, social media, and online reviews.
- The success and positioning of the business. A spot on the Fortune 500 list will contribute to a positive reputation, for example.
- Corporate communications. People can only form opinions on what they know, so make sure you share all the positive things your company is doing.
Factors That Impact Brand Reputation
Many things can contribute to a good brand reputation. Here are some of the most significant ones:
#1. Quality
One of the most important factors that establishes a strong brand reputation is the quality of your company’s products or services. It’s like a first impression: Make a good one, and you’ll be on your way toward closing a sale; make a bad one and you’ll have a difficult time winning over potential customers. Companies making good products have a better chance at getting a good first impression—a key element in developing a good reputation.
#2. Customer service
Intangible customer experiences big and small shape how people feel about your brand. Whether it’s smiling customer service representatives, friendly follow-up emails, or seamless return policies—they all contribute to a positive impression of your business and make repeat purchases more likely.
Every interaction with the public is an opportunity to build brand reputation. Social media platforms are important not just for creating positive interactions but also for amplifying positive user-generated content and reinforcing your branding efforts.
#4. Company values
Your company’s ethics and brand values can be a key factor in your company’s reputation, because customers prefer to shop from companies that share their values. Treating employees well, tapping brand ambassadors with similar values, implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives, and setting sustainability goals can all help build your company’s image.
#5. Marketing and advertising
A clever marketing campaign can help reach your target audience and introduce your brand in a positive light. To shape public opinion and give your brand a competitive edge, create ads that stand apart from the rest while clearly reflecting your brand values. In today’s world, a targeted ad that resonates with your audience can go a long way in bolstering your brand image.
How To Build A Strong Brand Reputation
Here are some ways to help shape your business’s image and safeguard your brand reputation:
#1. Be responsive
Reputations are built one interaction at a time. Treat your customers with careful attention. Being responsive on social media and having a strong online presence will also help amplify positive messaging that can reinforce customer loyalty.
#2. Be consistent
A strong brand reputation is reinforced by consistent branding. Customers who aren’t sure which products you provide or what your company’s personality is will have a less definitive idea of your particular brand. By adhering to best practices and brand guidelines, you can maintain a strong brand identity to help safeguard your reputation.
#3. Engage with reviewers
There are lots of review sites out there—from Google and Amazon to the Better Business Bureau and Angi. Most sites let business owners engage directly with the public, allowing them to practice reputation management.
Use your business profile on social media sites, search engines, and third-party vendors to respond to online reviews, comments, questions, and complaints effectively and transparently.
#4. Protect your reputation
As legendary investor Warren Buffett once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” This is why preventing damage to your reputation is just as important as building it.
To prevent a damaged brand reputation, make sure your employees have excellent customer service training, your products and services live up to advertising, and effective quality control is in place. Ensuring a positive working environment is another intangible way to safeguard your reputation. A toxic workplace or disgruntled employees can be detrimental to your brand’s reputation.
#5. Emphasize the positive
To build a strong reputation, it’s important to let people know you provide high-quality products or services. Emphasize your reputation for quality by sharing social proof on social media and incorporating positive reviews into your advertising efforts.
Showcase other qualities that make your business unique. Are your shipping boxes made with recycled paper? Do you practice corporate sustainability? Does your company support local school initiatives or donate to charities? Many actions can help build a positive reputation for your business, but no one will know about them if you don’t spread the word.
#6. Fix any damage
If something does go wrong, get out in front of it. That might mean hiring a crisis management team or simply dedicating time to acknowledging the mistake, taking steps to correct it, and telling the public about your plan to prevent a recurrence.
How To Build A Good Online Reputation
Why should you build an online reputation? Because a positive online reputation will have a beneficial effect on your business goals. Your reputation precedes you, and this saying has never been truer than in the current era of the Internet and businesses’ online presence.
Outlined below are some of the most effective ways to build your online reputation:
#1. Monitor the Web
Before you start any brand-building activities, you need to know what people are already saying about your brand. Even if you don’t run any online campaigns, your potential customers might be looking for information about your company.
Monitoring brand reputation will help you assess the current state of your brand’s reputation. You will know whether your reputation is positive and you have a solid base to build on. Or maybe you should work some more on a positive brand reputation?
To see all brand mentions, you can try using brand monitoring tools. These will help you:
- Measure the volume of mentions. This metric will tell you how many times your keyword has been mentioned online. If you see a spike in the volume of mentions, it means that your brand-building campaign is working — more and more people are talking about your brand.
- Track the sentiment. Sentiment analysis will tell you whether the talk around your brand is positive or negative. If it’s positive, then your campaign is going well. If not, there’s a potential storm going on around your brand and you need to act quickly.
- Set up notification systems. The sooner you know about any issues, the faster you can react.
- Measure social media reach. You want to know what was the impact of your brand reputation-building campaign. One of the metrics you can use to calculate the result of the campaign is the estimated social media reach. This metric will tell you how many social media users could have come in contact with your messages.
A social media profile is a must when you want people to find your business. While they seek information, they don’t stop at the search engine. Checking restaurants, hotels or advertising agencies on Facebook is often the first thing potential clients do before deciding for a particular offer. On your fan page try to post interesting and entertaining content which will engage your followers.
The presence in other social media channels will also help your company’s reputation. You can be informed about the newest products or links to articles on your webpage on Twitter. Remember to write brief and conspicuous posts in there.
Looking for an audience related to your field you should create a company account on LinkedIn which brings together professionals. But some industries, such as design, use Pinterest as their source of inspiration. Therefore, if you offer furniture or wallpapers, a good move would be to add pictures of your products there.
Try to react to people’s comments, pin their works or show interest for some publications on your accounts. That is how building relations starts, something your business will benefit from in the future.
#3. Design a user-friendly website
In the real world, you often give the clients a small piece of paper with your company name, address and contact number. On the Internet, this informational function belongs to your webpage. Therefore, you should think over its whole conception and content.
It is best to start with a domain name that should be catchy, short, and unambiguous. Most often, it is the name of your brand.
Next, focus on the home page. Pay attention to its design and don’t overcrowd it with too much information. Otherwise, the readers may quickly get lost. You will achieve an interesting visual layout with clear and brief text and well-matched graphics or pictures. It’s important to have and follow a web design project plan to create the best possible visitor and customer journey on your website.
Detailed information should be placed in the sections. The most important among them are “about” and “contact”. Fill the first one with a description of your company and photos of your greatest achievements. The second subpage is the space for the address of the headquarters, a local phone number or toll-free number of your business, e-mail, map, and driving directions.
#4. Write a blog
Content is king! This old saying is still true. Investing in a robust content marketing strategy will bear fruit.
Running a blog popular in your industry can have various benefits to building a positive online presence.
First, writing a blog will help you grow brand awareness. The more people know about your brand, the more are they willing to buy your products. A blog will help you organically establish your company as an industry leader. To do that you need to publish well-researched articles regularly.
Share your knowledge, bad and good experiences, and reveal some behind-the-scenes mysteries. This will help you become a go-to brand within your industry.
Secondly, content marketing is a great way to generate new leads. Building a positive brand reputation will have a positive effect on your bottom line and will help achieve your business goals.
A blog is the perfect place to share the values of your company and products and create the image of an expert. Put a lot of effort into it – avoid language mistakes and overcomplicated words, and enrich your articles with creative infographics, relevant charts, and pictures.
#5. Keep your content simple
No matter if you fill in some section on your website or post on your blog, Facebook fan page, or Twitter account, try to use normal language. Your every written expression should also be honest and (especially in the case of messages and e-mails) polite.
These are only a few ways to build a good reputation which we know they successfully work. But every company might have its own secret techniques for creating a positive image. Would you like to give some of your brilliant ideas away? If yes, share them in a comment!
To get customers to give you feedback on your products or services, it is often enough to simply ask them. For example, you can send a short survey or an invitation to give feedback with a link to a review site. Of course, if you are making large-scale sales, such activities will be very time-consuming. However, there are tools available on the market that automate the entire process.
#6. Reply to every request or opinion
It is important to show your current or potential clients that your business is accessible and you treat people respectfully. For this reason, you should respond to every online message or review. If someone’s comment is negative, by writing a polite and understanding answer, you will probably avoid conflict and spreading bad opinions.
You shouldn’t ignore the positive posts as well. These are even better, and it is best to take advantage of them and proudly share them on your social media profiles. They serve as great proof of the quality of your services or products.
Before responding to any message, make sure you have enough time for it. Writing an answer in a rush will only worsen the situation and your image.
People are looking for companies they can trust. Before making a decision, they will research the brand and product extensively. One of the ways to build trust is by sharing positive experiences of others. You can show off your achievements or awards or any positive feedback you get from happy customers.
People trust companies that are experienced and award-winning. They like to see some successful realizations and hope for the same effects for their projects. If clients admire some organization, they even forward positive news on social media profiles and recommend your business to others in the real world.
How To Build & Improve Your Company’s Reputation
Your company’s reputation is one of its most important assets. It can drive awareness of your brand, bring in new customers, and increase sales. So, if you are looking to make a name for your business or to improve its reputation, try these tips.
#1. Authority
One way to foster a great reputation for your company is to show that you, as the business owner, are an industry authority. Do everything you can to turn yourself into an expert. Read about industry trends, tech, and terminology. Stay current. Make regular appearances at industry functions, such as trade shows, conferences, and other networking events.
Share high-quality content online and get it in front of as many people as possible. If people see you as an expert, your company’s reputation will improve.
#2. Transparency
Transparency is very important to a business’s reputation. Consumers want to know what a business is all about, and they want to know they can trust your business.
“If you’re looking for an ‘it factor’ that sets your brand apart from the competition, identifying what makes your business special and unique is the first step,” says Shelby Allen at Zero Gravity Marketing. “Pitch this to your customers as a unique value proposition with the promise and policy of being transparent with your target audience. Something like, ‘Trust is important to us. As the world’s first 100% sustainably produced clothing brand, it’s our policy to be completely transparent about the eco-friendly production process of our products for your peace of mind.’ Customers can smell dishonest pitches from miles away, and they’ll know if you’re trying to be something you’re not.”
#3. Have a Great Product/Service
Above all else, make sure you are offering a high-quality product or service to your customers. Your reputation will be hurt by giving them something subpar for their hard-earned money. Use feedback to give you ideas for possible improvements. Listen to customers, and keep the quality high.
It takes work to get consumers to notice your business and to hold it in high regard.
If you can show off your expertise, deliver a great product or service for a great price, and stay engaged with customers, people are going to hold you in high esteem. Ultimately, your sales should benefit.
#4. Offer competitive Prices
Keep your prices in line with those charged by similar companies. If you’re charging more than the competition, you may get a reputation as being overpriced. If you’re positioning yourself as a luxury brand, maybe that’s worth it, but financial concerns are extremely common now, so staying competitive is most likely to be in your best interest.
#5. Customer Service
Bad customer service can have a severely negative impact on a business’s reputation. Make sure customer service is a priority. Always encourage feedback from customers and respond accordingly. Make yourself and your employees available across as many channels as possible to help customers with their needs and concerns. Make sure you have a well-trained staff.
Acknowledge when your service or product hasn’t lived up to its promise, and do what you can to make it right with the customer, whether that’s a discount, a free gift, or a refund. Be consistent with good customer service and your reputation will be rewarded.
#6. Online visibility
Every company these days needs to have an online presence, whether or not they conduct any business online. Potential customers need to know your location, hours of operation, etc. as a bare minimum. However, it’s not enough to just have a website and a few social media accounts.
Visibility counts for a lot when it comes to reputation. Use social media regularly. Engage. Don’t create a post and then ignore the social media page until you post again. Read and respond to comments. Engage with other social media accounts rather than only on your business profiles. Put yourself out there.
Use search engine optimization best practices to help people find your site in Google, and that includes local SEO.
#7. Responsiveness
When someone sends you a message or calls you, answer as soon as possible. Respond to online customer reviews and comments on social media. Answer questions, and address both positive and negative feedback. Be present, and always respond. Ignoring negative comments will not help your brand and may even backfire by giving you a reputation as a company that doesn’t care about its customers.
#8. Cleanliness
If you have a brick-and-mortar place of business, make sure you are keeping it clean and tidy. That includes clutter. Try to ensure the place is presentable before opening each day, and keep things as tidy as possible throughout the day. That includes restrooms, hallways and windows.
If you run an online business, make sure your website has a clean and clutter-free design that is easy to use and presents a great user experience.
Why a Good Reputation Matters for a Business
Why is reputation important for any business? It sounds obvious that a good reputation matters, but its role can’t be stressed enough. Simply put, a business is only as good as its reputation. This applies to global brands as well as local businesses, and everything in between.
Consumers are increasingly informed about the companies they do business with. In fact, 85% of consumers research brands and products online before making a buying decision. And 86% would pay more for services from a company if they had a better reputation than a cheaper competitor.
What’s more, a company’s digital presence is not like a business card or brochure. It’s a dynamic, evolving, multi-channel entity. Some of those channels you control, like your website and blog. But for others, like Google Reviews, Yelp!, and other review sites, influencer content, and media mentions, your customers are in the driver’s seat. User-generated content plays a heavy role in your reputation development because people are more likely to trust it compared to company-sponsored marketing.
Interestingly, 76% of companies believe they are better than average when it comes to reputation. That sounds like an overly optimistic bell and illustrates companies likely still have some work to do. If you aren’t in the above-average category, then it’s time to raise the bar on what an “average” reputation can do.
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