10 Reasons to Invest in Listing and Reputation Management Services

Are you struggling to get the exposure your business needs? Perhaps you feel like you’re doing all you can, but still can’t work out how to improve your Google rankings. In these circumstances and more, high-grade listing and reputation management could help you reach your goals.

A key part of any successful marketing strategy, listing management, and reputation management combine to ensure that not only do your audience end up with a positive impression of your organization, they also know exactly where it’s located, who it’s intended for, and how to reach you.

Here we take a look at what reputation and listing management are, as well as list ten reasons why this type of input is always worth investing in.

What is reputation management?

At its most basic, reputation management is using a mixture of online and real-life methods to ensure that the messages your audience gets about your brand are the positive ones you want them to receive. Techniques used in reputation management are a mixture of SEO, SM, customer engagement, and PR. Used together in a sustained campaign, these techniques optimize your online profile and send out an irresistibly appealing suite of messages that you’re the ideal business to use.

What is listing management?

Visibility is an important part of successful marketing. One way of being more visible when you’re a business is to appear in listings such as databases, catalogs, directories, review sites, or annotated maps. Not only do listings enable your audience to easily discover your NAP (name, address, and phone number) data, they also help to tie your business to a geographical area or particular service. Over time, consistent appearances in relevant listings will result in your business ranking higher in relevant searches relating to place (for example, hair salons in Brooklyn) and/or a particular service (agricultural machinery, for example).

Why Investing in Listing and Reputation Management is Worth it

1. Improve your Google rankings

How can I improve my Google rankings, I hear you ask! Listing and reputation management can boost your Google rankings significantly, potentially enabling you to feature on that all-important first page. Listings can work particularly well here, as links to a geographical location may give you a good chance of featuring on the service map that appears on the first page of a Google search result, below the ads, but above the top-ranking organic search result.

2. Showcase your reviews

The reality is that more than 90% of customers are influenced by customer reviews. Plenty of positive reviews is one of the most influential things you can do to boost your online profile. A large part of listing management involves ensuring your reviews stand out from the rest for the right reasons.

3. Improve site content

When was the last time your site was updated? Have you got fresh news? Up-to-date blog posts? An exciting, time-limited deal or special offer? Premium, new content is still one of the best ways to attract (and retain) your customers, boost your rankings and create a sustainable online presence. Reputation management includes ensuring your website is relevant, easy to navigate, and crammed with the sort of content your audience can’t get enough of.

4. Increase your backlinks

Backlinks are those handy links that allow potential customers to click-through to your site from other sites. Figures show that the more backlinks you have, the more traffic you’re going to get. This is especially true if you can get a link from a well-known and/or trusted site – which can be easier than you think when you use proven reputation management techniques.

5. Show your audience your character

Part of reputation management involves aligning yourself with causes and attitudes that fit your brand. Whether it’s your way of giving back to the community, a good cause that you’re aligning with, or the extra effort you make to source ethically, operate sustainably or reduce your carbon footprint, it’s important your customer base is aware of these facets of your operation. Positive publicity on these types of activities boosts your reputation and creates increased appeal for your audience.

6. Increase engagement with better SM use

Around three-quarters of the population use social media to inform their shopping decisions, which is why high-grade socials really do matter. Even if you’re a business that doesn’t traditionally focus on social media, it’s surprising the difference appropriate posts can make to your online presence. Reputation management helps you get your SM attracting the attention it deserves.

7. Consolidate your branding

Consistency is king! Prospective customers need to hear consistent, positive messages about what your business can offer. Use reputation management as a way of ensuring the right messages are the ones your audience consistently hears.

8. Handle bad news more effectively

Almost inevitably, there will be occasions when bad news hits. Luckily, if you’ve enlisted the help of a reputation management specialist, they’ll be able to come up with strategies to limit the damage at the same time as rebuild your reputation.

9. Become an expert resource

One of the best ways to come across in a positive manner to your audience is to become an expert in a particular area. If you’re able to provide your audience with genuinely helpful information, whether that’s how to use your products, sizing charts, “how-to” videos, or even a series of blogs that cover topics your audience is going to be interested in, you’re going to attract plenty of interest.  Being known as the go-to source of expertise in your field is a great selling point.

10. Discover the value of the small screen

Recent figures show that more than 50% of online traffic is from cell phone users. Using listing and reputation management techniques that ensure your information is easily accessible on the small screen is going to give you the edge when it comes to dealing with this group of customers.

Ready to discover more about the ways that reputation and listing management can deliver an excellent ROI?

Get in touch with the team at Jaimee Designs for a FREE site audit.