Developing a strategy for reputation management is becoming more important than ever, especially if you’re hoping to experience company growth. Failing to practice even a tiny amount of reputation management is a huge mistake. But what’s even more of a mistake is making one of these 3 costly mistakes when engaging in reputation management for your brand.
Failure to Focus on Making a Good First Impression
Studies show that you only have a short amount of time to make a good impression. Actually, saying that this amount of time is short is an understatement. Science shows that an individual has only 7 seconds to establish a good impression on a stranger, and the same goes for a company. A potential customer will decide if they like your brand within 7 seconds. If they do, you might make a sale, and if not, that individual will move on.
Failure to understand the importance of making a good impression is the first common (and costly) mistake of reputation management. You might think you have at least 1 minute or 2 to make a solid first impression on a potential customer, but this is far from the truth. As a person browses around your website or reads a few reviews, he or she will begin to form an opinion in just 7 seconds.
One of the best things you can do to ensure a good first impression is to focus on aesthetics of your online outlets. Functionality is a major aspect of a website, but if someone doesn’t like the way a website looks, the overall first impression will be negative and that person will leave the webpage (probably before 7 seconds has even passed).
Failure to Come Off as Authentic
Authenticity is an important component of developing a solid reputation. If you don’t come off as original or authentic, you won’t stand out from the other guys. You’ll just be clumped in with the other unoriginal industry members, which is not ideal if you’re hoping to increase your profit margin and customer base.
According to a source called TopDogSocialMedia, “the reason that authenticity is so important to your brand reputation management comes back to the fundamental principle that people buy from people that they know, like and trust. Being authentic helps people to know who you are. You will stand out from the competition and draw your ideal clients to you.” So whatever you do, try to be original.
Failure to Differentiate Between Marketing and Spamming
Maybe you think that the ultimate way to get the word out about your brand is to bombard as many people with as much information on your brand as possible. This is not the best way to do it, not by a longshot. Avoid this strategy since it comes off as extremely “spammy” and can even become annoying. Your best bet is to focus on engaging in a proper marketing strategy, rather than one that comes off as spammy.
