Brand reputation

Brand reputation is the brand perception shaped in the minds of consumers, partners, and investors about a specific brand. A company with a strong positive reputation gains customer trust and encourages word-of-mouth promotion.

In this article, we’ll unveil why brand reputation is important and 5 ways to build it. We’ll also provide you with a guide on how to measure your brand reputation.

Why is brand reputation important?

Although you might not notice it, brand reputation influences every aspect of your business, including success, profitability, and brand advocacy. These are the basic things you need to take care of. We’ll uncover the most important business fundamentals so that you consider watching your reputation.

First of all, the reputation of your company has an impact on credibility and trust. If your brand has a good reputation and many people recommend it, more prospects will trust you and strive to purchase from you. A positive reputation indicates that your business is credible and trustworthy, so customers won’t have to worry about the quality, price, delivery, refund policy, etc.

Secondly, your existing consumers will become loyal to your brand. If your current customers purchase your items again and again, they can experience superior quality, low prices, empathetic customer support agents, and other benefits of your brand. When they realize there’s no one better, they become loyal. Brand reputation influences consumer decisions on whether to stay with a brand or find a substitute. If the reputation is good, they stay.

Satisfied consumers can serve you as free word-of-mouth promoters of your brand. They recommend your company to friends and family online and offline by uncovering your products’ advantages. These people will help you obtain new clients, increase sales, and improve your brand image. However, people won’t advocate and choose a business with a negative reputation.

The reputation of your company is closely connected to sales and revenues. Your sales and profitability will improve if you have a good brand reputation.

Now that you know the benefits of having a positive brand reputation, it’s time to figure out the ways to establish it. In the next section, we’ll uncover the most effective techniques.

5 Ways to Build Your Brand Reputation

A proper strategy enables you to reap the benefits mentioned in the previous section. We’ll cover the most effective methods that will help you establish or improve your brand reputation.

1. Establish a strong brand identity. If you are starting to create a brand, you should consider brand identity. Developing a powerful reputation lets you make sure you know and understand your company values, mission, and principles and helps you decide how to act in different business situations. When building a brand identity, you need to establish a clear language, design the main branding elements like logo, colors, and imagery, and develop a brand voice.
2. Ensure your brand is present on multiple online platforms. Since the popularity of social media is constantly increasing, you should establish an online presence. It’s necessary to meet the needs of consumers who prefer social media platforms for shopping. Besides providing convenience to your prospects, you can promote your brand using various social media techniques. Consider creating reels, updating consumers about upcoming promos and releases, and responding to users’ mentions. This way, you’ll establish a positive image, impress customers, and show them that you care.
3. Ask consumers for feedback. Users who want to be satisfied with a purchase visit review websites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Google My Business. They can explore your brand's social media and mentions, reviews, and comments. If you want to shape a positive first impression, it’s essential to ask consumers to leave reviews, comments, and sentiments. This way, you’ll be able to provide potential customers with the necessary answers and establish trust in your brand. Make sure to provide your existing customers with seamless customer service, high-quality products, and after-sales service to satisfy them. Remember, every negative review damages your brand reputation. Consider leaving some space for your clients to write reviews. After receiving positive testimonials, you can share them on your website. You can send surveys to figure out what consumers like and dislike about your company. This information will help you identify your pain points and eliminate them.
4. Pay attention to customers’ responses. Listen to your customers because they are your main focus. By analyzing their comments, you can ensure a better product and service. If you plan to launch your product, consider providing testers to potential customers and asking them for their opinion. It’s a perfect way of finding out issues. If you’ve already launched your product, you can ask customers for feedback after they try it. The information you receive is precious for your reputation, usefulness, and credibility. You can use many marketing tools to keep your hand on the pulse and find out what users think about your company. You can use Google Alerts, social media listening, and reputation management tools.
5. Provide the best customer experience. Poor customer experience directly impacts your brand reputation. Unsatisfied consumers are more likely to write negative reviews, comments, and mentions. Afterward, your prospects can find the reviews and have a negative first impression. Keep in mind that people consider buying from companies with high ratings in crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. Bad reviews reduce your rating and worsen your reputation. That’s why always find space for improvement. Use feedback and satisfaction surveys to collect consumers’ responses about your product and brand in general. After receiving the answers, analyze them. Divide reviews into three groups: positive, negative, and neutral. Afterward, see how many responses you have in each column. See all the reviews to identify the problems people face most often. Strive to remove these problems from your product to improve customer satisfaction.

Now that you know the strategies, let’s proceed to the next section to unveil how to measure brand reputation. After exploring this section, you’ll be able to assess it and decide what steps to take next.

How to measure brand reputation?

Once you do all the steps to establish your brand reputation, you should choose the key metrics to assess it. We’ll uncover the most important indicators for you to consider.

• Pay attention to the share of voice. After you launch your brand to a wide audience, you need to find out how much buzz you’ve succeeded to generate. Share of voice refers to the brand awareness of your company compared to competitors on social media. This metric gives you a clear understanding of your position among competitors. If your brand reputation is lower than theirs, you can decide to make some strategic decisions. These steps will help you improve the situation. Moreover, you’ll be able to track information about your rivals and see your progress.
• Analyze sentiments. Sentiment analysis is used to determine whether the information received is positive, negative, or neutral. Track and assess impressions on social media, review websites, and other platforms. You need to identify the character of the majority of reviews and comments. Consider dividing all responses into three groups: positive, negative, and neutral. Afterward, see which of them prevails. If there are many positive reviews, then your brand reputation is great. However, having negative reviews damages your reputation. Take action to eliminate problems.
• Measure your reach. This metric indicates the number of people you have reached with your key message. The measure is crucial for your brand awareness since it shows how big your target audience is. With its help, you can find out whether the content you create and communicate to your audience reaches them. This way, you can evaluate the effectiveness and relevance of your articles, social media posts, advertising campaigns, etc.
• Explore mentions from industry influencers. When you see that opinion leaders in your niche leave positive comments about your product, it indicates that they appreciate your work. You can use these reviews on your website and social media to show that you are a credible company. This way, you’ll be able to establish a positive image of your brand and expand your reach. You can also ask these people to promote your product through their accounts to reach more qualified leads. Opinion leaders add value to your brand, show that your business is trustworthy and credible, and demonstrate the benefits of your product.

Congrats, now you know what brand reputation is and why it’s essential. Make use of our strategies to establish a positive brand reputation effectively.