The goal of reputation management is to monitor what people are saying about the business. It’s easier to identify the potential responses depending on the current reputation. It’s even more important for manufacturing companies. People leave reviews online all the time. If they didn’t feel satisfied with what they got, they wouldn’t hesitate to say something bad. Therefore, it’s important to have a strategy for reputation management for manufacturing. The company should try to influence the conversations online and ensure that people have a positive view of the business.
Monitor the conversations
The first step in online reputation management is to assess the conversations. There should be a close monitoring strategy to determine what people are saying. Some of them might have a positive view of the company, while others don’t. If the conversations are generally positive, more people will feel entitled to purchase the products and services. However, if they’re mostly negative, potential customers might go away.
Create a response plan
After identifying the reviews about the company, the next step is to have a response plan. It would be great to hire an agency that will deal with online reviews. The company can also choose someone to work on online reputation as a full-time employee. If there are positive reviews, there should also be a strategy in responding to them. The same is true for negative reviews. Having a clear plan is crucial since online reputation management is dynamic. People will have something to say, and it’s not easy to control the narrative. Without a clear plan or custom event structures, there will be a delay in the responses.
Always highlight positive reviews
When people say something good about the company, they deserve a highlight. Up to 80% of people who read reviews decide to choose companies with a positive reputation. Even a single negative review will turn them off and make them decide to look for other options. While it’s not easy to stop negative reviews, there are ways to highlight the positive ones.
The company can invest in a review widget. It’s useful in collecting all the positive reviews and highlighting them on the website. They can also click on the link if they want to know more. Another strategy is by highlighting the positive words when responding to the reviews. For instance, instead of saying thank you to someone who left a positive review, the positive words should be repeated. It will allow the readers to remember the positive features of the company.
Responding to negative reviews
Responding to negative reviews is the most important part of reputation management. Again, the goal is to control the narrative and create a positive impression. If there are more negative reviews about the company, it will hamper the achievement of the goal. These reviews could be true, and they deserve an immediate response. People who felt dissatisfied with what they got from the company deserve an explanation. There should be an acknowledgment of the problem and an apology. The company should also be specific in saying what it will do to address the concerns.
If the reviews were incorrect or a product of falsehoods, there should also be an immediate response. It would be terrible to allow fake information to continue spreading.
Reputation management is part of SEO
There are different search engine optimization strategies. The goal is to rank higher in Google. When the search engine ranks different websites after the user types a keyword, the goal is to be on top. The problem is that given the number of companies that optimize the same keywords, it’s not easy to reach that goal.
There are different strategies to optimize the keyword and be among the top choices. Some companies forget about online reputation management. It’s not a direct part of SEO, but it will have an impact. The point is that search engines always want to give the users what they’re looking for. If they want the best manufacturing company and typed the keyword online, they deserve the best recommendation. Therefore, Google wouldn’t recommend businesses with negative reviews and overall reputation. If the user didn’t feel satisfied with the options on the first page, they will distrust Google. The point is that when the company wants to focus on online marketing, there should also be a strategy to promote a positive reputation.
Reputation management for manufacturing isn’t easy
It might seem that reputation management for manufacturing is easy. Asking people to leave reviews may not be a problem, however, there are plenty of details that go into this aspect of online marketing. It’s not even enough for businesses to rely on one or two people to do the job. It would be great to consider hiring an agency that will deal with online reputation management. They have experts who know what to do. They also understand reputation management well and think of ways to boost the business.