This guide is a continuation from Part 1.
Phase 3 – The Post-Audit Follow Up
You ought to now possess an overview of how well the brand is being perceived in your field, as well as around your targeted consumer base, as a consequence of this rapid assessment.
If the results of the brand reputation audit are great, that is absolutely fantastic! Establish a recurring calendar appointment in order to perform the audit again a minimum of every one to two weeks, as poor press could sprout up rapidly, as well as destroy an organization’s reputation very quickly if not addressed right away.
But, if you reveal any weak spaces, you ought to immediately take a bit of corrective action. As mentioned before in this guide, the initial aspect you will wish to address will include bad reviews upon popular ratings portal sites. The majority of those services, unfortunately, are going to prohibit business owners from removing bad feedback, unless fraudulent intent could be proven. If it was an error on your end which resulted in a poor review from a disgruntled consumer, your chances of getting it pulled off of the website is going to be slim.
However, as you will not have the ability to erase the impact of bad feedback, you could go a long way toward improving the brand’s reputation by politely responding, as well as providing instant solutions to the offended person. Future customers are going to witness your efforts as remediation as proof of a business which cares about its consumer experience – turning the, at times, poor review to a blessing that is in disguise.
Not even the best apologies, of course, could beat a string of bad reviews. If the brand reputation audit is significant, pervasive problems which will go above a handful of uncharacteristic poor reviews, you will have to conduct a bit of massive damage control by reassessing your organization’s priorities, as well as policies to beat the issues you have uncovered.
Beyond poor reviews, it is probable that the brand management audit may reveal a press release or web review article which will position your business in a poor light – whether because of a legitimate worry or as a consequence of your competition’s own efforts of branding.
If you witness these poor media mentions appearing within the SERPs, the kind of corrective action you will wish to take will include carrying out off page search engine optimization activities which will promote your very own web pages or websites that have good brand mentions within the search engine results pages.
In reality, managing your Internet brand could be a full time duty, given the expanding scope of consumer behavior upon the Web. By making brand management ongoing work a portion of your organization’s promotional plan, you will have the ability to build up your Internet presence to the point which any future bumps within the road are going to more than likely be eclipsed by the total, overall, value you have built.
