Majority of the people who own B2B business think that online reputation management is only for business to consumer model. In fact, it is one of the popular myths in ORM industry. Whoever owns a business, has a reputation. When someone has some sort of reputation, it must be established, protected, and managed. In order to do that online reputation management is necessary.
Whether you have B2B business or B2C business, the ultimate goal is one and the same, that is to own a reputation which grows your business. The only thing that change is the strategy. Yes, the methods used to establish a good reputation for B2B business may vary from methods used for B2C business. Therefore, in this blog post, we are presenting the seven crucial steps to gain a solid B2B online reputation.
1. Improve your website experience
What do your clients do when they come to know about your B2B business? They will obviously check out your website. Typing your brand or business name on Google is all it takes to reach your website. What if your website is slow? What if it has poor navigation, confusing call to action buttons, low quality content or thin content, unresponsive, or non user friendly qualities?
Obviously, your clients do not develop a good opinion about your B2B business. Your website acts like a virtual door for your business, which is open for 24 hours a day and three sixty five days a year. Hence, it makes sense to make sure your website has some above-average standard, qualities or features. Here are some basic qualities your online presence must have.
- Device friendly
- Simple navigation
- User friendly experience
- Browser friendly
- Lightning speed
- Superior web design
- Fresh content
- Meaningful call to action buttons
These things make your website appear more standard and appealing. As the result, you will be able to convert more people.
2. Go for paid tools
Every good thing comes with a price. Yes, there are many free online reputation management tools, but they have their own limitations. Paid ORM tools are more effective and can cover a large area. They usually make your work simple and effortless.
Most of these tools are used for monitoring brand mentions or to know what others are saying about a particular brand. This is important because the word of mouth is more likely to become viral. Just one viral content can destroy the hard-earned reputation of your B2B business. This can be even worse if the negative review is on a popular review website with high search engine ranking. Potential clients those who search your brand or business name get to see the bad review. As the result, you will lose the clients in the beginning itself.
These tools do a wonderful job in making you know your current reputation. That is they will help you find online contents that can harm your reputation. Based on these observations one can craft ORM strategies to repair the reputation.
3. Leverage social proof
Before approaching you, there is this one fundamental thing that every potential client does. That is he or she visits your website. And this act largely impacts their business decision. So, it is an excellent idea to use the content on your website to convert your visitor into customer.
As a business owner, you will tell good things about your brand. Your clients know this fact very well. What really matters is what others are saying about you? So, fill your B2B business website with social proofs such as client testimonials, feedbacks and detailed case studies. After reading these contents, people will be more likely to opt you.
Furthermore, you can use the aforementioned content in various other places such as social media posts, emails, and pay per click ads. This will make your claims more credible and trustworthy. As a result, you will get more and more opportunities.
4. Utilize social media platforms
We live in a social media era. According to a recent study, there are over 2.2 billion monthly active Facebook users. Also, an increase of 10% in the number of Facebook users is noticed after every year. In addition to that, more than 80% of the decision makers use online communities to do a research on a brand. These three statics are enough the prove the importance of social media in digital marketing and online reputation management.
Majority of the online reputation management goals such as client relationships, brand awareness, brand recognition, addressing client concerns, feedback, gaining large number of Google reviews, can be achieved through social media. These things establish trust and help you gain the confidence of the clients.
5. Harness the power of content marketing
Quality content is the most important ingredient for Search engine optimization, Pay per click, Email marketing, Social media marketing, as well as online reputation management. Without high-quality fresh content, there is no online reputation management.
That is the reason why content marketing has grown exponentially. In fact, more than 80% of B2B companies consider it as an important marketing strategy. The biggest plus point of content marketing is that, along with SEO, PPC, SMM, it improves ORM too.
So focus on creating various online materials such as infographics, videos, images, blogs, or social media posts, and stimulate interest in your B2B business. Furthermore, you can establish yourself as an industry leader with these contents.
6 Take part in industry events
Apart from content marketing, there is one more method to establish yourself as an expert in the industry. That is by taking part in the industry events actively. How will this improve your online reputation? It is quite simple. Whenever you attend an industry even, you get noticed. More the events you attend, more mentions you get. In other words, you will be in the news, social media posts, and people’s conversation. As the result, you will be considered as one of the top industry experts.
Running an ask me anything campaign on social media can also do wonders. It is just another way of saying you are the best in the industry.
7. Promote on Google search
What if a client searches a business like yours and finds your name on the top position of Google? Without a doubt, he will be surely impressed with you. He will conclude that you are a big name in the industry. In short, he will find your business credible and trustworthy.
Here, search engine optimization is the only method to place your website in the top position of the Google’s search engine results page. Yes, SEO can help you in improving your online reputation.