In the modern age, every startup and small business owner understands the importance of brand reputation in helping them gain customers, stand out from competitors, and ensure continuity. Recent statistics suggest that less than 60% of buyers would shop from a business with a 3-star rating, which you might think is a pretty good score. At the same time, around 95% of consumers would opt for a business with a 4+rating.
Therefore, building a strong online reputation has become essential for growth. Whether you’re a newbie or a veteran, you’ve most likely come across terms like reputation management and reputation marketing. However, in contrast to popular belief, these are two different concepts even though they serve the same goal – to build and sustain a positive brand perception.
In this post, we’ll share the difference between online reputation management vs. reputation marketing and when to use each.
What Is Online Reputation Management?
Reputation management is the continuous process of maintaining your company’s brand image through crisis management. It mainly involves tuning into social commentary and responding to negative comments/reviews/criticism and misleading information on sites, forums, and social media.
When to Use Online Reputation Management
Online reputation typically involves monitoring what your target audience says about your brand on the internet. Therefore, it’s are active process designed to suppress and address negative feedback on different platforms and forums. Popular methods or strategies include:
1. Social Listening
Social listening, or social media listening, involves monitoring mentions and conversations related to your brand on Facebook, Instagram, and other mainstream platforms. You can use your findings to respond to negative reviews, incorporate them into your content, or design marketing campaigns to address consumer pain points.
2. Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a popular tool that alerts businesses whenever someone mentions their business online. It helps them track their online references and ensure they’re in a positive context.
3. Reputation Enhancement SEO
Reputation enhancement SEO is an SEO strategy that mainly focuses on combating negative information to improve online rankings and build a positive perception of their brand for prospective visitors and buyers.
What Is Online Reputation Marketing?
Reputation marketing is a proactive reputation enhancement strategy typically blended with marketing campaigns to gain positive customer reviews. It involves promoting your brand through blogs, press releases, reviews, testimonials, and referrals, among other content types, to attract and retain customers instead of addressing their complaints or feedback.
When to Use Online Reputation Marketing
Since online reputation marketing is more proactive than its counterpart, it involves building and marketing your reputation instead of monitoring and protecting it. For example, when you get positive reviews following a successful project, you can use them as testimonials on your site. Popular methods or strategies include:
1. Online Reviews
Sharing reviews on multiple platforms, such as your website or social media accounts, is one of the go-to methods of online reputation marketing.
2. Review-Based Marketing Ads and SEO
Many modern marketers incorporate positive customer reviews into their advertising and SEO strategy to bring new leads. By sharing others’ positive experiences, you can pique your target audience’s interest and generate more clicks, traffic, and sales.
Bottom Line
So, there you have it – the key difference between online reputation management vs. reputation marketing. RMG Digital Solutions is a leader in SEO branding and reputation enhancement. We have the tools, expertise, and solutions to transform your online reputation through marketing and management. Feel free to get in touch with us and let us devise a tailored solution for you.