Improving brand reputation (i.e., brand consideration) means implementing a series of strategic ideas to get people to be positively influenced by the brand, thus leading them to trust the brand.
To trigger this trust relationship, you need to work on the target audience’s perception of the brand, building a congruent, credible and trustworthy image, as well as an active and satisfied community.
But what does brand reputation mean? Why should you improve it and what are the best strategies to increase it? Let’s look at it together.
What is brand reputation?
Brand reputation can be defined as the impression people have of your brand based on their direct experience or what they hear about the company. This, however, depends on many factors. For example, the way the company positions itself to consumers, the tone of voice chosen for communication, social media presence, online reviews, customer service to employee policies.
In fact, according to Ipsos, brand reputation is a complex issue
“and is a consequence of so many factors: from communication to the actions and choices the company makes at the socioeconomic level, from how it treats its employees to its public image, from the opinion different stakeholders have of it to its ability to attract new talent, from investor confidence to brand authority.”
Creating a good positive “first impression” (but especially maintaining it over time) is therefore important to make the brand trustworthy and grow your business, standing out from other competitors.
Brand reputation or brand awareness? Find out the difference by reading our article:
How to increase brand awareness
Do you know your target audience?
For the brand to grow positively, the first thing to do is to figure out how to know and reach your target audience online.
Audiences have a fundamental impact on business , and customer satisfaction is one of the best metrics for measuring brand reputation. For people to trust your brand, however, you have to get to know them, understand what they want and what they really think of your company.
To do this you can turn to professionals who will analyze several parameters, such as:
- Social listening: that is, what customers say and think about your brand on social networks
- Reviews: useful for understanding what consumers think of your products and services
- Organic website traffic: to understand how many people already know about the brand and search for it directly on the search engine, without additional steps (or suggestions)
Why you should improve your company’s brand reputation: the benefits
To understand how brand reputation can affect a consumer’s choice, think about the last time you made a purchase.
How did you choose the product? Did you search search engines for information and reviews? Did you ask friends and relatives if they knew the brand? Did you take into account the recommendations of friends and relatives, perhaps buying a product from another brand that they considered better than the one you had in mind?
If you have done all these things, then brand reputation has influenced your decision. Therefore, it is crucial for a company to work on it because:
- Creates a positive image of the company
- fuels brand visibility
- increases brand awareness
- consumer confidence improves
- Creates a competitive advantage over other competitors
How to improve brand reputation: 5 tactics to try
To build a successful image, and for the community to be satisfied, one must consciously manage communication. The website, social networks, reviews–so many elements contribute to building a company’s image and its perception. There are at least 5 things you can do to enhance it.
1. Improves the shopping experience
Customers who have had a bad buying experience will tend not to buy a product or service from the same brand again (Source: Microsoft). That’s why it’s good to invest in a functional e-commerce and website with a simple and comprehensive purchase path. For example, you can:
- Improve the navigation or user interface
- offer different payment and shipping options
- Ensure quick answers in case of users’ doubts and questions
- Post product photos, ratings, customer testimonials, customer success stories
To do this, you can build a website or e-commerce from scratch, or revise one that is already online by correcting any errors and optimizing it for the user.
Have you heard of customer experience?
Learn why customer experience is important for your business
2. Create valuable content on the company blog
Curating your company blog with thought-provoking articles can be helpful in increasing your brand consideration. Ideally, you should consider topics of current or common interest to your target audience-perhaps accompanied by ebooks, practical guides or infographics-capable of sparking active discussion.
Planning an editorial plan with reliable content can be helpful in getting across what the company’s values are, as well as conveying authority and expertise on the topics covered.
Obviously, to improve organic search engine rankings (and be found by readers), it is a good idea to use SEO techniques or employ a copywriting service to achieve a consistent and effective web presence.
3. Ask for reviews
People trust sincere feedback. In research on “The Importance of Online Customer Reviews” shared by Invesp, it was found that “customers are willing to spend 31 percent more for a company with excellent reviews.” So, directly asking your target audience to write a review about the service or product purchased can be a great way to improve brand reputation.
You can ask for it after a sale, if you have a physical store, or do it online, with a post on Facebook or Instagram, or by printing a QR code on the product packaging. If your business also has an e-commerce you can also reserve a dedicated area for reviews
post-purchase.
4. Multichannel strategy and advertising
Relying on the multichannel strategy embraces the idea of the target audience using more than one to meet their needs. This allows you to increase brand consideration by posting targeted content in newsletters, on social or on Google (including with Ads) in a way that delivers a specific message or enhances your strengths.
For example, a small business can use Google Ads and improve its reputation, perhaps through advertisements that can enhance their strengths and distinctive features.
Similarly, one can create content on social media and collaborate with influencers, with whom one shares themes and values, to spread a feeling of trust in the product or service (but also in the brand) among followers.
With e-mail marketing, on the other hand, one can work onaffirming the brand’s values and strengths by sharing specific topical content that the company cares about, but also people’s testimonials.
5. Take care of your community
A satisfied community is a great business card for your brand because it will always speak well of your company and how you deal with your audience. To do this you must:
- Listen to the target audience, and understand that every compliment and every piece of feedback (even negative feedback) is helpful in making you grow.
- Show empathy, without minimizing criticism, advice or other comments.
- Solve problems, and come up with effective solutions with speed and respect for your target audience (even offering discount coupons, for example, if shipping is delayed).
- Have a good dose of humility, toward criticism but also in case of mistakes.
All it takes is one misstep, such as an error in handling a shipment or a testy response to a dissatisfied customer, to quickly destroy an excellent brand reputation.
Brand reputation and threats: what should be paid attention to?
There are many benefits that a good marketing-and brand reputation-strategy can bring to a company. At the same time, however, one must pay close attention to external threats and stay ahead of the curve to avoid repercussions on sales. Corporate image, in fact, can suffer severe crises due to:
- Negative opinions and reviews: utmost attention should be paid to the quality of the product and service offered to avoid image damage
- Overtaking competitors: you must always update your marketing strategy to prevent a competitor from gaining more visibility
Changes: a product or service must be renewed-and improved-to keep up with the times and the needs of its target audience
Improving and maintaining brand reputation: why turn to professionals
The target audience’s perception of the company is important because it influences their purchases, but also that of potential customers. Knowing how to communicate your brand values well – and understanding how to manage the community – is therefore crucial. That is why it is good to turn to professionals who, after a study of the company and buyer personas, can devise a winning strategy and improve brand consideration.
At Isola you can request a personalized marketing consultation to evaluate together the best way to grow your business!
Want to improve your brand reputation? Find out how to do it!
