With brand reputation management, businesses can take the reins of their online reputation by managing audience engagement, reviews, local SEO, and information security.
Learn more about the roles of marketing and cybersecurity in digital brand reputation management.
What is Brand Reputation Management?
Brand reputation management refers to the continuous process of protecting the way your brand is perceived by the public, including your customers. This reputation is hard to measure directly because it’s not a single number. It’s more about having a finger on the pulse of your audience. What are they saying? What’s trending about your company? Are people happy with your products or services? What’s the general thought on your industry?
A positive brand image and reputation can be a massive difference maker for people making purchasing decisions.
For most businesses, managing brand reputation starts with your digital presence and how you market yourself online.
How Marketing Helps Brands Manage their Reputation
The most obvious way to manage brand reputation is through digital marketing efforts. Email marketing campaigns, social media, website design, ads, videos, and other forms of digital marketing are all great ways to establish your brand voice and engage with people positively.
Related: 5 Reasons You May Need Managed Marketing Services
Here’s a deeper look into the ways that digital marketing and branding can help businesses manage their reputation:
Manage the Customer Experience Throughout the Buyer’s Journey
It’s important for businesses to engage with their audience before and after they become customers to provide as positive of an experience as possible so that one day those people become brand ambassadors who write good reviews and recommend your business to others.
95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase because people want assurances that your business is legitimate, provides good customer service, has high-quality products, and will give them a positive experience overall. For higher-priced products and services, good reviews boost the chance of a conversion by 270%.
This also involves sending occasional reminders to customers to leave reviews after a purchase, which can also be accompanied by a discount or giveaway to encourage participation.
Social Media Presence
Though it may seem like an odd combination, social media and healthcare businesses like plastic surgery clinics are a perfect match to help engage with your audience to provide a positive, personalized experience.
Here are some of the main benefits of social media for healthcare clinics:
- Raising Awareness and Educating People on Your Services: Want to know what’s new and trending in your industry? Social media is a good way to keep your finger on the pulse of what people are saying about your services, industry, and business, allowing you to share appropriate information, answer questions, and reach people who are interested in learning more.
- Engage Directly with Your Audience: Social media is unique in that it gives businesses a way to directly communicate and engage with people. By replying to posts, exploring hashtags, and responding to direct messages, you can answer questions, perform customer service, or just interact with your audience.
- Share Your Content: Social media is a great place to share blogs, infographics, videos, and other forms of content with interested people. To increase engagement, tag appropriate people and hashtags or find more niche audiences in related communities on sites like Tumblr or Reddit.
- Find Your Ideal Audience: Speaking of community websites, social media is littered with niche communities all over that can be used to find interested and like-minded people. Searching hashtags and subreddits are examples of ways you can seek out people who are interested in your services and directly communicate with them.
Build a Website That Works for You
Your website is truly your brand’s digital hub. It’s oftentimes a first impression or visitors who are brought there through organic or paid search, and it’s the home of all your content, service pages, gated pieces, conversion forms, and contact information. With proper design and writing, a website can provide visitors with a world-class, positive experience that engages and keeps them coming back for more.
Related: How Important is Your Website User Experience?
That user experience is paramount for a modern website that people expect to be beautiful, easy to use, intuitive, and helpful. A bad website is not only a bad representation of your brand, but it actively drives people away. 42% of people will leave a site because of poor functionality.
Cybersecurity’s Role in Brand Reputation Management
Another area of technology that can have a big impact on your brand’s digital reputation is cybersecurity. The trust of your customers is hard to build and can be destroyed in an incredibly short amount of time due to lost data that’s been entrusted to a business.
In healthcare, this is even more important because of the sensitivity of the data being obtained from patients. Health information is valuable to cybercriminals and is a frequent target for attacks.
Clinics need to do everything they can to protect this data, meaning doing what it takes to build a strong cybersecurity foundation filled with the necessary modern solutions, including:
- Network Monitoring
- Endpoint Security
- Identity and Access Management
- Compliance Services (HIPAA)
- Awareness Training
This goes beyond installing some antivirus software and calling it a day. Modern cybersecurity defenses need to be complex because cybercriminals are using more advanced tactics every day.
In Conclusion
Your business’ reputation is something worth managing and protecting. With digital marketing strategies like social media engagement, effective web design, and review management—paired with strong cybersecurity—you can maintain a positive public reputation online.
Learn more about how marketing services can help with reputation management, patient outreach, and audience growth.