Your reputation is important. Online reputation management (ORM) is about improving or restoring your name or your brand’s good standing. Let us look at some stats before we break down Online reputation management.

• 7 out of 10 customers will leave a review if they’re just asked to by the business
• 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation
• 74% of respondents said that positive reviews make them trust a business more
• 60% said that seeing negative reviews makes them question the quality of a business

Online Reputation Management are strategies that help businesses improve and respond to online reviews customers leave about their Business on popular Review sites. If we look at the reasons why ORM is so important to your business.

Top Reasons Why Online Reviews Are Important To Your Business

More than ever, potential customers go on the internet to look at online reviews so they can make decisions about which local businesses to patron, what products to purchase or which services to use.

Despite the facts, many businesses still think they can ignore online reviews and are secretly hoping that reviews will quietly go away. Many businesses have been burned by customers who left bad reviews online, and it’s tarnished their view of the importance and credibility of online reviews. Many of them reviewers are just grumpy people complaining, but as a digital marketer, your job is to explain to your clients why they need to proactively protect their reputation.

Reviews Can Help You Rank Higher On The Search Engines

When local searches are performed, search engines want to provide their searchers with the best local businesses in the search results. One way the search engines can determine this is by the number of positive and negative reviews that are online about your business. Research has shown that online reviews play a part in where your site ranks against your competitors.

With all things being equal, if one business has no reviews, another business has five 3-star reviews and another business has ten 4-star reviews, which business would you choose? Your customers are evaluating the exact same thing when they try to decide if they’re going to contact you or one of your competitors.

Social Media Is Now a Part of the Buyer Journey

People often go to social media channels, like Facebook, to ask friends or family members for business recommendations.

Social media is also quickly becoming a crucial part of a consumer’s buyer process. People look to friends and family for advice on local products and services. Facebook even allows people to leave reviews about a business on their platform. Consumers also use Social Media sites as mini search engines to look for a business’ social media page to find out more information.

Reviews are social proof of the quality of your business and cannot be ignored.

Reviews Impact Buying Decisions

Think about it. When you want to purchase a product or service, what do you do first? Chances are you do online research and look at what other people are saying about the product or service you’re interested in buying. Yes, you probably even read online reviews! And if you were to ask your clients how they personally buy products or services, chances are they’re looking at reviews, too.

This means that your business must have a plan of action to garner Online reputation management, monitor reviews that are being left about your business, respond to positive and negative reviews and then promote the positive reviews all over the place!

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