Why Online Reputation Management is Important to your E-Commerce Business

Every e-commerce business is usually concerned about its online reputation. That is what brings about Online Reputation Management (ORM). ORM is important because it allows online businesses to stay in control of their online reputation. It characteristically helps to control the narrative online particularly when it becomes negative. Even though unlike traditional public relations, ORM usually works quietly in the background focusing directly on the more technical aspects of maintaining a business’s online presence. Here is how ORM directly benefits your e-commerce business:

Establishing Trust with Customers: Customers interact more with a business and do business with it when they trust the business. Customers always want to at home with real people behind a business that respond to their inquiries/concerns. ORM helps to establish and nurture the required trust that manages to keep these customers.

Boosting Visibility: ORM helps boost your business’s visibility. This it does through various online channels you may choose to promote your business through. Using ORM, you can boost visibility for your business through social media and Google reviews. ORM is usually handy to provide an organic method for your business to appear high in the SERPs of search engines. This is yet another great way to boost visibility for your business.

Attracting Buyers/Customers: ORM helps to enhance a positive online reputation for your business. It thus helps to attract buyers/customers. Most shoppers prefer doing business with brands they trust and believe in. This helps to build brand loyalty for your business.

Damage Control: If you do business online, your business will inevitably take a hit at some point. How you respond to such scenario can make or break your business reputation. If it happens, what you do hinges on damage control which is easier with an effective ORM strategy. ORM strategy is handy because it serves as a very effective tool for addressing concerns and re-establishing trust.

Increasing Revenue: Significantly, businesses with better reviews, more stars and higher visibility almost always do better financially than those that ignore their reputations. A concerned business can always take advantage of ORM and work to improve its business online presence. Doing this is a surefire way to increase revenue in the business.

Providing Feedback: If you want your online business to continue to thrive and do better, do not ignore customer feedback. You must endeavor to care about and to listen to customer feedback. This is irrespective of whether the feedback is positive or negative. You can rely on ORM strategy to provide an avenue to obtain feedback from customers in a quick and efficient manner.

Now, how really do you begin to take on your Online Reputation? It’s a simple process that begins with identifying and responding to customer feedback across a variety of online channels. Start with a diligent Audit. This involves trying to figure out what is currently being said about your business online. It’s about the same idea as Googling your own business on the internet. Except in this case, your focus should mainly be on what pops up regarding your business. Pay good attention to the SERPs of search engines to access a plethora of information relating to your business. Specifically, you must:

•Focus on the results on page one, since that is what most people look at.
•Review all the places where your business name appears, such as online forums and social media.
•Open an incognito browser window and search for your business in Google.
•Take a good look at your Google Business Profile. This will show you any reviews, ratings and comments from customers.

From all these sources, you can carefully compile all the relevant data about where your business is mentioned online and what customers are saying, whether accurate or inaccurate, positive or negative. Next is to develop an ORM strategy to tackle the situation.