Your Digital Footprint: How Your Business is Defined By it
Having an online presence for your business can mean the difference in seeing sales skyrocket and staying stagnant. Your local reputation can be likened to your business’ digital footprints, or how your company is perceived online by the traces that have been left, such as information listings, reviews, and ratings. By keeping your business’ local reputation well honed and curated you can not only boost your overall reach through trusted websites like Google, Yelp, Yellowpages, and the myriad of other information sites online today, but allow your customers to see you in a professional and accomplished light. However, leaving the wrong digital footprint can have the same, or worse, effects on your business as never having an online presence at all.
How Can You Optimize Your Local Reputation?
According to one study from Harvard in 2015, this effect on business may be more severe than originally thought.
The study shows that a one star review difference on Yelp could result in between 5 and 9 percent of business gained or lost.
This should exemplify the kind of power our local reputation has on how our business is perceived and how it can drive business. Understanding how to influence and manage your local reputation can lead to a larger online reach, more exposure, and an increase in business. This process is known as reputation management.
Reputation management is a process by which through planning, strategy, and diligent effort you can begin to shape your local reputation in a way that will drive business and increase sales. One of the most simple and effective ways to begin to enliven your local reputation is to encourage your customers to leave reviews for your business online and then to respond to all comments, compliments or criticisms, that come your way. In this way you can encourage return business in acknowledging their appreciation with good reviews and show less satisfied customers that you care about their opinions. This is an especially prevalent starting point considering 30% of customers consider if a business responds to a review when judging a local business.
When judging a local business, 30% of customers consider if and how the business responds to reviews.
Planning and Strategizing with Empowered Pulse
Planning and strategizing on how to optimize your local reputation with a digital consulting firm is an excellent way to make sure you cover your bases and look as professional as possible to returning and potential customers. Empowered Pulse provide their years of experience working with a variety of small business’ and major corporations alike to enhance their local reputation through dynamic and influential management to provide tangible results to your social media campaign. You can get your free reputation report here, to find out just how your business looks online, or get in contact to find out about Empowered Pulse’s full range of services.