6 Tips to Help You Manage Your Small Business’ Reputation

There are so many aspects of small business marketing to keep up with that it can be easy to let some things slip under the radar. But if there is one area that you always want to stay on top of, it’s your business's reputation - it’s simply too important to ignore!

Why Does It Matter?

Before getting into the advice, you may wonder why managing your small business’s reputation is important. It comes down to the fact that your reputation is one of the biggest factors influencing a potential customer’s conversion journey from a lead to a client.

Most people will take a few minutes to check a company’s reputation online before hiring or buying from them the first time, so having a poor reputation can mean that your company misses opportunities. ??

?The following tips will help you stay on top of managing your business’s reputation:

Start By Googling Your Company

?Before you get too far in your reputation management, start by googling your company’s name. This will give you a better idea of your starting point. Pay attention to the positives and negatives in the search results.

?If you see negatives, think about how you can address or overcome them.

Plan to make changes to prevent similar complaints in the future. Also, make a note of those negatives and where they are so that you can directly address them in your strategy going forward.

Suppose you have a lot of negative reviews on one website or social media platform. In that case, you may want to focus your review strategy on responding to those reviews.

?Claim Your Listings and Domains

A simple by actually often ignored step that you hopefully haven’t overlooked is to register and list your business on all of the major directories. At the very least, make pages on Google My Business, Yelp, Bing, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The more platforms you can claim a page on, the better.

?This connects to the tip, claiming your domains. If your business name is still available on Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, and other social media platforms, claim it. If www.[yourcompany].com is available, buy the domain. Claim the Gmail account as well.

?Going through this process serves several purposes.

To start, it gives your customers even more ways to reach you. It also helps expand your online presence and deliver confidence in your brand by providing the same information everywhere.

?Consistency is crucial even small errors can tell search engines that you don't have one business but several so they subsequently rate you lower. Doing the small stuff right can make a massive difference. Remember the algorithms can't think they only work on what they see.

Doing this also prevents anyone with ill will from posing as your company. Others don’t even need to have bad intentions to hurt your business.

If someone from a business with a similar name makes a Tweet, potential customers may think it is from your company.

There’ll be even more confusion if they can’t find your official Twitter page, as they may assume the one with the controversial post is you. Be wary as this can ruin your reputation very quickly.

Encourage and Respond to Reviews

?Reviews are a crucial part of your online reputation. Think of reviews as a modern-day extension of referrals to family and friends.

Few people buy products or services without looking at a minimum of a few reviews.

?One thing to remember is a review is actually a referral to everyone who reads it, not just friends and family.

When did you take action based on a review from someone you didn't know?

To take advantage of this powerful opportunity, encourage your customers to leave reviews.

A simple reminder can do wonders this can be done via email or text message or verbally but automating the process can have a massive increase in its effectiveness.

If you don’t have enough reviews, you can offer discounts or freebies on a future purchase in exchange for a review but remember you can't offer an incentive for only good reviews.

In actual fact how you respond to negative reviews say more about your company than all glowing 5-star reviews.

Inevitably there will be unhappy customers (we are all humans after all). But if you do get negative reviews deal with them immediately and professionally and it will win you many new customers.

Go out of your way to respond to reviews, both the good and the bad. In the case of good reviews, you can say something simple like, “I’m glad you were delighted with our service. Look forward to seeing you again soon..”

In the case of bad reviews, try to resolve whatever issue the reviewer mentions.

For example, if they complain about product quality, offer a replacement. This will show others that if an issue does arise, you will work hard to overcome it. It essentially gives you the impression of outstanding customer support.

?Don’t Create Fake Reviews

?It can be tempting to use fake reviews to promote your business. This is especially true with so many fake reviews online and for smaller businesses that don’t have many reviews yet. However, it can hurt you in the long run.

?The bottom line is that someone will eventually realise you have fake reviews. When they do, your reputation will plummet.

?Create a Reputation As an Expert

?Part of managing your reputation also comes down to the content that you create and the posts you share on social media.

You want to create content that frames your company as an expert.

You can do this by sharing recent research and guides. Hopefully, people will start associating your company with expertise. Then, when they want a product or service your company offers, they will turn to you.