Many things go into building a solid online presence for your business. First of all, you need to have a professional, mobile-friendly site. Aside from that, you have to drive visibility in as many ways as possible, including social media marketing, digital advertising, SEO, and so on.
Having a positive brand reputation on and offline means that only your customers see you as credible and trustworthy, but they’re also likely to buy your products and services.
To have a solid brand reputation strategy, it would help if you focused on creating positive customer experiences based on your customers’ wants, needs, values, desires, opinions, etc., and how these can help shape how they see your brand or business.
This post will walk you through the seven effective ways to build a strong reputation for your online store.
1. Prioritize customer service
Your online reputation may not always have a fair representation of your service. However, it builds a solid foundation of it.
That’s why building a solid reputation online starts with next-level customer service. Ensure you provide excellent customer service with every interaction you have with your customers.
As much as possible, be friendly and polite. Always be on time, and don’t hesitate to apologize for any mistakes. Offering excellent customer service doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be getting good reviews. However, the catch is that if you do get reviews, you will likely get the kind of reviews you want in the first place.
Even if people aren’t completely satisfied with your products and services, good customer service will help turn this around. Be willing to go the extra mile to get things right, like offering a discount, gift certificate, etc. This shows them that you appreciate them.
2. Actively ask for and respond to reviews
Although you can actively shape your channels, like your blog and social media, and the direction it’s heading, the thing is, your brand has its own external online presence.
Whether good or bad, people who feel strongly about your brand will find a way to share their thoughts publicly. Review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook, and Google By Business all play a crucial role in helping share public perceptions about a particular brand or business. This includes the minds of individuals who have never directly interacted with your brand.
You can get some control over reviews when you create a space where customers can leave reviews and then add customer testimonials to your site. If you’re selling products on your ecommerce site, make sure there’s a space where customers can rate and review what they bought.
3. Listen to feedback
There will also be steps you need to take to influence how people think about your brand. You can add a form builder to create custom feedback directly on your site.
Whether you plan to get beta testers for products during development or ask for your customer’s input after using your product or something, their input is precious in the long run.
As your company scales, there are many platforms and tools you can use and monitor to know what exactly people are saying about your brand.
4. Be honest and open
Are you looking for an “it factor” to set you apart? One of the first steps is to identify what makes your business special in the first place.
Make sure you pitch this idea to your customers as a unique value proposition with the promise of transparency. Moreover, customers can easily detect dishonest pitches miles away, and they’ll immediately know whether or not you’re trying to impress them or be someone you’re not.
You must identify your strong points and highlight these exciting tidbits to know what makes you unique. Doing so allows customers to connect with your brand even beyond the items that are available for purchase.
5. Leverage social media
Social media is a powerful tool to use in your arsenal and connect with your target market. Some popular social media channels include Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Youtube.
You can them to:
- Share the latest news, updates, and promos about your ecommerce store.
- Engage with customers, and answer their queries.
- Establish credibility and trust by sharing user-generated content.
- Monitor what other people are saying about your brand.
- Get insights like social media analytics to enhance your marketing strategy.
Be consistent with your postings, and ensure your content is informative, relevant, and valuable to your target audience. This will grab their attention and keep them engaged.
6. Build relationships
As a business owner, you must build professional relationships with others in your industry. Taking time to build positive relationships allows you to win more customers, and retain current ones. It also boosts your reputation and scales your business at the sale time.
Remember that building relationships are the key to long-term success. As long as you connect with the right people in your niche or field, you’ll be presented with new opportunities, and you can connect with brand advocates for your business.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Those are the ways you can build a solid reputation for your online store. Building a good reputation for your online store can significantly impact your customers in the future. Meanwhile, bad press and negative feedback can harm your business in the long run.
Now that more and more people are reading reviews of other people’s experiences online and deciding to purchase based on that feedback, it’s increasingly crucial that you ensure you protect your business at all costs.