Reputation Management Basics: The Trust Signals Every Business Needs

Your business is only as good as your brand’s reputation. When a customer is trying to decide whether to work with or buy from you, they will look to a variety of trust signals to tell them if it’s a good idea or not. 

If trust signals show them you have no reputation or worse, a bad reputation, customers will avoid and ignore you. But, if customers see a variety of signals that show your brand is trustworthy, they will be much more likely to take the next step in working with you. 

So, how do you provide the trust signals that customers need to keep going down the path to work with you? 

It starts with reputation management. 

What Is Reputation Management and Why Does It Matter? 

Reputation management is any effort your brand makes to shape the way the public thinks about you. It involves:

• Monitoring what is being said about your brand

• Influencing what people think and say about your brand

• Developing ways to generate positive sentiment about your brand 

Reputation management has become increasingly important in the digital age. Customers regularly search for information about a brand before doing business with them. In both B2B and B2C, customers rely on reputation when determining which brands to trust. 

One survey found that 70% of B2B respondents cited reputation as the most influential factor when choosing a company to do business with. According to Google, 83% of U.S. shoppers searched online for local businesses before visiting them. 

Customers are researching brands before they decide to do business with them, and what they find (or don’t find) will help them determine whether they will buy or not. 

If you want customers to continue down the path to working with you, you need to engage in reputation management and build trust signals for your brand. 

B2C Trust Signals & How to Get Them 

Reviews

Reviews are the most powerful element of reputation management for B2C brands. Research shows that online reviews impact 67.7% of customers’ purchasing decisions and that businesses can lose as many as 22% of customers when just one negative review is found by consumers. If you focus on just one trust signal in your B2C reputation management plan, start here. 

How to Get Them

Focus on generating reviews across a variety of platforms that your target customer uses such as Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Make requesting reviews a part of your sales process. Once a customer makes a purchase, develop a strategy that follows up with a request for a review. Include incentives that are likely to lead customers to leave an honest review, and test a few strategies to see which produces the most reviews. 

Accurate Social Media and Directory Listings

One way to quickly lose the trust of potential customers is to have them research you and find incorrect or out-of-date information. Your brand must have a digital footprint on both social media and relevant social directories (such as Yelp, Angie’s List, Google My Business, Apple maps, etc.), and the information on each must be accurate and consistent.

How to Get Them

Create profiles for your business on the social media platforms your customers are most likely to use and on directories relevant to your industry. Set up a system for managing and monitoring each page and regularly checking in to ensure that each page includes the most up-to-date accurate information. 

Recommended Reading: 5 Steps to Level Up Your Marketing Strategy

B2B Trust Signals & How to Get Them

Client Logos 

Customers trust brands that other brands trust. You can build trust with potential customers by featuring the logos of other brands that you have worked with in website content, sales materials, and social media posts. 

How to Get Them 

Reach out to past customers that you have a positive relationship with and ask them if you can feature their logo. Encourage brands to participate by including a link back to their website (which provides value to their website SEO). 

Quotes

Quotes from past clients are a great way to show potential customers why they should trust and choose your brand. Feature customer quotes on your website and in your sales material to highlight the benefits and values that your brand has provided to past customers.

How to Get Them 

A smart way to gain quotes is through a client satisfaction survey. Make it part of your process to end client projects with a questionnaire that asks where products and services can be improved. This helps gain valuable feedback for your team and gives you an opportunity to consistently collect client quotes. 

Case Studies

Take it even further with your reputation management by creating full case studies that tell the story of how you helped a past customer. Feature case studies on your website, in sales material, social media posts, and email content. 

How to Get Them

Create a process for interviewing satisfied customers. Conduct an interview and write a short or long-form case study. Length is less important than making sure that you clearly state the problem the client had, the solution your brand provided, and the results that can come from working together. 

Accurate Social Media & Directory Listings

As with B2C, social media and directory listings are also an important part of reputation management for B2B. Ensure that you are on relevant industry directories and that all information is correct so anyone using these channels can find and learn about you. 

How to Get Them 

Research other brands in your industry, and build business profiles on the same directories as your competitors. Also, create profiles on the social platforms where your target audience is most likely to spend time. 

Business and Professional Associations and Affiliations

In B2B, professional associates and affiliations can also be a powerful trust symbol. Add logos to your website that show your relationship with other industry-specific associations that your customers likely know and respect. 

How to Get Them

Again, look to your competitors to see what groups they are a part of. Choose to join associations that your target audience is likely to know and trust. Prioritize associations that have directories so you have another opportunity to get in front of your target customer. 

Recommended Reading: Three Ways Your Sales Team will Directly Benefit from Marketing Automation

Create a Strategic Reputation Management Plan

Customers don’t simply trust your brand because you ask them to. Consumers look to a variety of trust signals when researching a brand and determining if they want to do business with them or not. 

If you don’t have a reputation management plan set up to monitor, influence, and develop trust signals about your brand, it’s going to be difficult to build the confidence customers need to buy from you. 

Use these tips to set up digital trust signals for your brand, and then contact SpotOn Digital to see how we can help you craft a more robust reputation management plan. 

Talk to our team about how we can build a positive reputation for your brand through search, social, and sales strategies. Contact SpotOn today.