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How Brand Image Can Make or Break Your Business According to a Leading PR Agency

According to every PR agency operating in the 21st century, brand image is everything. Maybe you think that a brand is simply identified by a logo or name, but this isn’t the case at all. A brand is known best by the image that it puts forth, and that image relates back to several unique factors. Part of the image comes from the company’s overall performance and part of it comes from its ability to do good in the world.

Just as each individual person has an image or you might call it a reputation to uphold, so does a company. In fact, it is even more important for a company to keep a solid reputation than it is for an individual since business success depends on it. When a company isn’t focused on its image, this is when failure is imminent. One of the top PR firms of our age, Interdependence, discusses how the brand image can make or break your business.

It allows you to make a splash

The first thing you need to focus on in relation to your image is getting the attention of your targeted audience. In today’s world, adults are much more likely to experience ADHD symptoms, partly because there are so many things vying for our attention. It is up to you to get the attention of the audience you’re targeting.

There are plenty of ways to do this, but whichever method you use always try to paint yourself in a positive image. Use digital marketing strategies like search engine optimization, social media marketing, or video blogging to make the splash that’s needed to get the ball rolling.

It allows you to build trust early on

If the consumer doesn’t trust you, how can you expect to make the sale? Of course, a big aspect of trust has to do with the product you’re delivering and if it seems like a quality one. But another important trust factor is the image that your company puts across. Do you seem credible? Loyal? One way to build trust through brand image is by delivering on your promises. This can best be accomplished through a solid customer service team.

It shows that you’ve got your s*** together

A major aspect of brand recognition is showing that your company is as legit as they come. You can start by registering your business. You’ll also need a legit website, not one that looks homemade. Advertising and marketing yourself on social media will also help.

There’s nothing that’s a bigger turnoff to a potential customer than a company that lacks legitimacy. Part of this legitimacy will have to be developed over time, like obtaining customer reviews, but do what you can early on.

It makes your company more recognizable

The two-arcs that make up the McDonald’s “M”…this is a recognizable brand logo that anyone from around the world could pinpoint. Your goal for your brand is to become just as recognizable, at least within the audience you’re trying to relate to. It is important to have a logo or slogan that sets you apart – and ahead – of the competition.

Reputation Management Tips and Tricks for Small Businesses

If you’re running a small business or just starting one from the ground up, you might not think it’s necessary to invest time and/or money into reputation management. What you’re failing to see is that reputation management is even more crucial for small businesses and brand new startups.

Maybe you’re wondering, “But how is this possible if we have yet to establish our reputation?” That’s just it… you have no reputation, which is just as harmful as having a bad reputation. You need to put some serious effort into building your reputation so that your target audience actually knows you exist on planet Earth.

Hiring a service to help out with this task is never a bad idea, but not many small business owners have room for this in the company budget. If this is the case, there are plenty of ways to start working on building your brand reputation from scratch.

Before Anything Else, Google Yourself

In order to get a better idea of what your reputation actually is, there’s a simple way to find out: Google yourself. Just type your full company name into the search engine and let it rip. Check out the first 2 pages of results to see what comes up – anything after that is not extremely relevant since studies show that internet users stop after the first 2 pages.

This is a great way to get insight on how people perceive you, and if they do at all. If you don’t even show up on these results, you have an even bigger problem than if you have negative feedback. At least with negative feedback, people know you exist. With no results whatsoever, you won’t be getting much business from Google searches (which is the number resource for consumers).

Start Monitoring by Setting Alerts

There’s an easy way to keep tabs on your company – just set alerts to that you’ll be notified when anything is said about you and your company. Literally anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s something as big as a New York Times article mentioning your name or something as small as a customer review, you’ll be notified. Most alerts will be in regards to reviews on platforms like Google and Yelp, so if you get any negative feedback you’ll be able to act on it ASAP.

Positivity is Key

If there’s not a negative word said about you, that’s great and all, but it means nothing if there is also no positivity pointing in your direction. It is up to you to create positive content relating to your brand. This won’t just paint a picture of positivity for your potential customers, it will also help you to rank higher on search engines. The more that is said about you (hopefully positive things) the better Google will like you, ultimately resulting in better search results.

If You Can’t Remove the Negative, Make it Irrelevant

Some things just can’t be removed from the internet. This doesn’t mean you’re s*** outta luck, though. You can still do your best to get those negative articles, reviews, and feedback pushed further down on Google, which essentially deems them nonexistent.

Why Reputation Management Consultant Reviews Are So Positive

Reputation management consultants  offer a service which every business needs in their life and through their help and support they can take your business to the next level in terms of branding, sales and beating the competition. There is a reason why reputation management consultant reviews are so positive when you see them online and that is simply down to the great work which they do for a huge amount of companies in a wide array of sectors and industries. Let’s take a closer look what these companies are bale to do for business and why they have such glowing reports as a result.

Metrics

Is you ask most business owners what their online reputation is they probably won’t have the faintest idea and this is the first reason why a reputation management consultant is so important. These services will first carry out a full check across the internet to discover and understand where your company’s reputation is. Following this they will put in place metrics which will gauge the reputation and the change of reputation for their clients. These metrics provide highly valuable information for many businesses.

Social Media

Something which a lotto business owners fail appreciate is both the power which social media can have on their business and the level of focus which reputation management consultant firms place on social media management. It only takes an ill-informed Tweet or a poorly thought out Facebook post to cause a PR disaster for your company which could have serious ramifications for its public image and online reputation. Businesses love the work which a reputation management company does on social media and they will not only clean it up but also ensure that future social media work is carefully managed.

Reviews

Online reviews are the lifeblood of a business and if they are negative then this can have huge impacts on a company’s ability to sell and do business. Word of mouth has always been an important marketing tool and online reviews are no different, if they are positive then you can expect higher sales and increased profits, if they aren’t then you’ll find that you begin to lose more and more custom, and ultimately more money. Reputation management companies can highlight negative reviews and help your business address them and turn them into positives, they will also set up alerts so that you’ll know when they are being left.

Competition

Many companies who are facing stiff competition have often spoken positive about how reputation management companies have given them the power to close the gap on their competitors. A negative reputation online will only see you losing market share to the competition and once this is increased your business will be in a far better position to take them on and win over customers.

The reason these reviews are so often positive is because of the importance of a reputation and the huge array of benefits which companies enjoy when this is smartly managed and improved.