The average local business has 39 reviews on Google My Business. How many do you have? Although an important piece of running your business, online reputation management (ORM) is given little attention or sometimes ignored entirely.
So let’s talk about ORM services. Although ORM is known to be a sore subject for many business owners, it doesn’t have to be. Think of it as a word of mouth referral -- just online.
A great online reputation doesn’t happen overnight and it certainly doesn’t magically happen on its own -- it takes work. Taking control of your reputation is an endeavor that requires time and effort that, as a busy business owner, you might not always be able to commit to.
And rest assured, you are not alone. Fifty percent of local marketers can’t put more effort into their online reputation due to a lack of time. But what if time was no longer a factor? ORM services streamline the entire process.
The hardest part about online reputation management is that improving it takes time, whereas tarnishing it can take seconds with a few bad reviews. It seems unfair, right?
Eighty-two percent of consumers read reviews for local businesses, including 93 percent of people aged 35-54. So even if you’ve ignored your online reputation in the past, that’s no longer a viable option.
It’s your responsibility to be proactive and take action. You don’t have to sit back and feel helpless, there are plenty of resources and things you can do to take control of your online reputation with the help of ORM services.
The main purpose of ORM services is to help you grow, manage, and protect your online reviews and reputation. This is achieved by allowing you to:
ORM services help to improve and establish your brand’s credibility and reputation. When consumers see that you have a mix of authentic reviews and that you respond to them, they’re more likely to trust your business because it seems genuine. You don’t want people thinking you run a scam.
Use ORM services to respond and engage with customers effortlessly. When consumers see that you engage with customers and try to rectify a bad situation, you’ll be rewarded. In fact, 45 percent of consumers say they’re more likely to visit a business that responds to their negative reviews.
And it’s not just a few consumers who read reviews, Among consumers that read reviews, 97 percent read businesses’ responses to reviews.
ORM services help provide your business with an easy way to engage with your customers. You're able to show satisfied customers how much you appreciate them and their business and inform unhappy customers of how much you care and how you will work to fix the situation.
Customers interact with your business through reviews because they want to communicate with you and expect a response. By replying to reviews, you are showing customers that they are not being ignored and as such, encouraging customers to engage with your brand while also addressing their needs.
Review ratings are the biggest driver of clicks in local SERPs. In other words, your reviews matter -- a lot. You can use reviews to boost traffic to your website and even your physical store.
Reviews are the first impression between your business and a new customer -- which holds a lot of power. Use your reviews to stand out from your competition so customers choose to engage with your business.
Did you know that positive online reviews are the best way to improve your digital reputation and SEO?
A positive online reputation helps customers trust businesses, converts searchers into leads, and boosts local search rankings. It’s an effective and cost-efficient way to grow your customer base by highlighting the strengths of your business and working on the areas that require improvement.
ORM also allows you to track every mention of your business online. This means you can take steps to make sure that you have full control over your reputation and do damage control and repair what's already out there.
Having more reviews and better ratings improve your search engine ranking. Google uses reviews to rank your business. The more reviews you have, the better your business will rank.
According to experts, review signals make up 15 percent of Google's local pack ranking factors.
With almost every business having an online presence, the internet is where people turn to do research and gather more information about a business. What consumers find will influence their purchase decisions, which means you want your business to get found.
In addition to getting found, you want to control how and where your business appears and what your prospective customers see online. Take control of your online presence with ORM services.
Use the power of ORM services to turn searchers into buyers -- become the best business of choice over your local competitors in searches for your category.
Consider GoSite’s get reviews tool, which allows you to take control of your online reputation by sending review requests to drive positive word-of-mouth business and increase your ranking on search engines all from a single dashboard.
Regardless of how you feel about ORM, you have to embrace it because it is and will continue to be an essential component of running a business in today’s age. Having the right ORM strategy can be the difference between growing your business and going out of business -- the choice is yours to make.