Building up your brand is not easy. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to establish a strong online presence. After all, the first impression is everything, and in the online world where we can go from brand to brand in seconds, this is especially true. This means that figuring out how to monitor, control, and improve your online reputation should be essential to your marketing efforts. However, if we’re not making a strong enough case for online reputation management yet, let’s take a look at the numbers. Here’s how people use the internet to find a brand and make critical purchasing decisions:

Checking Out the Numbers

To be truly effective in your online reputation management effort, you should first identify the asset that you want to protect. In most cases, this is either your brand, products, or business name. Each of these assets is quite different from one another, but the main avenue through which your reputation propagates stays the same: the internet. So, on a micro level, the reputation management effort seems very different between these assets. However, on the macro level, the avenues through which you protect them and the methods that you will use are very similar.

Now let’s take a look at the raw numbers. According to Business2Community:

  • 37% of consumers will search for a local business online at least once a month
  • 85% of consumers state that they read the online reviews and testimonials of local businesses
  • 79% of consumers state that they consider online reviews to be as trustworthy as a personal recommendation
  • 65% of consumers state that they prefer businesses that have positive online reviews
  • 71% of consumers state that positive online reviews increased their trust in a business

The takeaway here is that the vast majority of potential customers use the internet to look into a local business, and that positive reviews have an overwhelming impact on their perception of the business. We can also conclude that positive online reviews create a snowballing effect that increases customer acquisition and retention as the reputation of a company grows.

However, online reviews have a disproportionate impact on several industries, while they are less impactful on others. For example, restaurants, private medical practices, and dentists top the list when it comes to the number of potential customers who check reviews before considering patronage. These are followed by general shops, hair/beauty salons, bars, and clothing shops. At the bottom of the list, you have real estate agents, taxi firms, and yoga classes/alternative therapies. This does not mean that you should completely disregard online reputation management if your business is in one of these latter industries. Instead, you would benefit from a strategy that places more emphasis on SEO, social media marketing, and the reduction of negative reviews and chatter online.

Looking for the Services of a Milwaukee Online Reputation Management Agency and Company?

As your business’ online presence grows, so does the amount of discussion regarding your brand. There are many aspects of reputation management that will come into play—from community management on social media, to negative review mitigation, and the promotion of your brand across multiple social media channels. Soon enough, you will need a dedicated team to handle the way your business is perceived online. At this point, it is best to hire an agency that has the experience and the tools to manage your online reputation management effectively. At Digital Destination, we have the expertise to handle any process related to online reputation management in Milwaukee. If you are interested in finding out more, contact us today.