Marketing Strategies that Can Boost Your Business Reputation

Reputation is, beyond a doubt, one of the cornerstones of the business world. In a situation where there is no warranty or surety, the reputation of a company is the only safety net that a client has. While it is not 100 percent reliable, it is still a huge psychological relief and a significant boost to one’s sales or their ability to wrap up a contract.

Unfortunately, it is quite problematic for a new business to establish a reputation, seeing as how they might get trapped in a vicious circle. Without clients, they won’t be able to build up their reputation, while without positive reputation they won’t be able to attract clients. Luckily, there are several marketing strategies that can effortlessly give your business reputation the needed boost.

1. Transparency

The first thing you can do to make your clients feel safe is be transparent. For instance, if you are running an e-store, list the full price of the products you’re selling, including taxes and delivery costs. Some retailers choose not to list the full price in order to make it appear lower, yet studies have shown that unexpected costs are one of the main reasons of shopping cart abandonment.

When it comes to providing a service, the situation is a bit different, yet your safest choice is to regularly report on your progress. Apart from this, it can be surprisingly reassuring to constantly update your clients on what to expect in the future, even if the estimates aren’t looking up, at the moment.

2. Networking

You would be surprised just how deeply can a personal relationship affect your success in the business world. Imagine a scenario where you go to an industry-related event and just try to make friends. In some situations, people you make a great impression on will even be willing to give you a word of mouth (WOM) recommendation, even though they’ve never personally done business with you.

3. Reduce the risk

The main reason why some people are reluctant to work with new companies is the fear of losing the invested resources. Luckily, there are more than a couple of ways to reduce the risk. One of them is to get a surety bond. The way in which this works is quite simple, your business (the principal) and your client (the obligee) get a third party (the surety) to vouch that the client will see their money back should you fail to deliver on the deal. Still, from the standpoint of marketing, you need to ensure that your potential clients are informed that you are willing to undertake such obligations in order to make their investment secure.

4. Collect feedback

The greatest problem with reputation is that it is not a simple matter. You see, there are several factors that can affect the performance of your company. Imagine a scenario where your company never fails to deliver on time, yet the quality of the end product is not that great. In this scenario, trying to improve the speed of the process is a clear miss, because that was not the problem in the first place. Because of this, you need to create an efficient feedback collecting system. Here, you need to get your customers into the funnel, guide them through the review process and monitor their behavior.

5. Showcase your success

As soon as you get your first client, you need to ensure that the work is done flawlessly. Why? Well, apart from being a great business practice, showcasing your success is probably the most effective marketing strategy out there. A single picture of a satisfied customer or a job well-done is more efficient than the most heart-breaking testimonial in writing. The reason behind this is mostly the fact that it is in human psychology to react to positive emotions of others, as well as the fact that our brain registers visual information 60,000 faster than a verbal one.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, marketing strategies can give your business reputation a considerable boost, however, this is only the first step towards building your success. A good reputation, once made, requires constant maintenance and can sometimes be tainted beyond repair by a single slur. In order to avoid this disastrous outcome, you need to monitor your brand across the digital world and make sure that you address every problem appropriately as soon as you notice it. Sometimes, a well-timed apology can improve your brand’s reputation better than a job well-done ever could.

Read more:

• Key Strategies to Improve Your Reputation Marketing Today