The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

[Garrett Sussman]

Today's post:

THE BEST CANDIDATES FOR REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
ARE THOSE WHO DON’T “NEED” IT



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The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

When agencies pitch “reputation management,” they’re typically pitching “crisis management.” The reality is that most businesses aren’t in a reputation crisis, but they can certainly benefit from building brand reputation, winning more customer reviews, and leveraging the marketing value of third-party review sites like Google and Yelp.

Ironically, the value proposition of these activities resonates most with those who are already doing them. So why would you try to sell this kind of service to a customer who doesn’t need it? Isn’t that a bit like “selling ice to an Eskimo”?]

How often do you use these value propositions when pitching to prospects?

Is there anything that you pitch that wasn't included in the post?

Are your clients starting to ask more about your review marketing and reputation management services?

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[JustinB]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

I like how you broke down the types of ORM between online reputation management and crisis management. I am very fond of using the phrases; Reactive ORM and Proactive ORM.
Good Article Garrett, however all the different fonts etc. made it a tad hard to read.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

Thanks Justin. I agree about Proactive ORM vs. Reactive ORM. I also believe 'review marketing' will continue to grow as a legit marketing channel, separate from 'Reputation Management,' once more companies understand the value of the content.

Also, thank you so much for the feedback about the design of the post. If the fonts are affecting the way it's consumed, that's something I need to address!

How do you pitch reputation management and review marketing? Do your clients typically come requesting those services or is it something that gets discussed after they've considered your other offerings?

 

[James Watt]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

That's a great breakdown of things Garrett, especially good list of different benefits and angles to potentially steer a conversation with a client in. Sometimes brainstorming up those list of ways to look at what a service does can be the hardest part. Which I suppose is yet another benefit of getting frequent client feedback... they'll tell you what they love and hate, and those reviews don't just have to be supporting content in sales materials. Some of the best converting headlines, subheads, bullet points, and overall angles come straight out of client feedback, word for word even.

 

[JustinB]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

We try to focus on certain niches that are heavily reliant on review marketing. These are the types of businesses that don't necessarily have a bad online image, more like a neglected game plan for that aspect of business, so they will usually have an average review of 2-3 stars, and a desire to improve their brand and the reputation surrounding that brand. We have been moving over to include the more successful local businesses who want to have more control over their spotless or near perfect record, and Phil Singleton (from your article) put this very eloquently in your article,
"This is why companies with good online reputation need professional reputation management services to help preserve and continually improve their online reputation – because the stakes get higher and they have more to lose.”

As far as how we find clients, we do direct mail and word of mouth. Our traditional client base has been largely more large company and brand names which don't make the best for local orm necessarily, but they do speak volumes on our content creation services which is the primary ingredient in SEO imo. Which is why we package up our ORM service with elements of Local SEO, helps the client regain the control over the dialogue for their brand in the search engines.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

Thanks for the kind words James!

That's a great point about feedback. That's why I love the idea of review marketing/reputation management being the intersection between customer service, content marketing and SEO.

It's interesting in regards to our platform as well, because our goal is to get customers directly on the third party review site to leave their review. However, we have clients that prefer collecting the review first (maybe it's the need to be the gatekeeper, and process that feedback first).

We believe the reviewers need to focus on writing the review. We try to avoid having them write the review and then having to copy and paste it to the 3rd party site. It adds another step, and might deter the specific call to action.

It's a tricky dilemma.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

Thanks Justin.

You hit on a very interesting point. The difference between the way a small business approaches review marketing versus bigger organizations/brands/enterprises. In a lot of way they are all very different animals. And to your point, while you incorporate elements of Local SEO into the bigger marketing strategy, they have very different needs from much smaller clients who depend on Local SEO.

 

[Steve Conrad]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

I would use this article in a reputation management service package for positioning and messaging. It's much better to prevent reputation from urgent management necessity rather than try to put down fire once it's set.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

Thanks Steve!

As Justin mentioned, there's a distinct difference between proactive and reactive ORM. I predict that more agencies will be promoting the proactive ORM services in step with their content marketing, influencer marketing, customer advocacy, and customer acquisition value props in the near future.

Something to keep an eye on!

 

[Steve Conrad]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

Exactly. Proactive ORM can add value to a content management package, supplied and measured along with social media reaction, search engine benefits and CRM.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Re: The Best Candidates for Reputation Management Are Those Who Don't "Need" It

Hey Justin.

Changed up the fonts on the blog. Thanks for your feedback. I'd love to know if the posts are easier to read now.