As a business owner, you’ve been accustomed to the fact that your online reputation is shaped by consumer perception. User-generated content including online reviews, forums, and social media conversations significantly influence your online image, prodding you to rethink your business strategies based on the impact of consumer perception and to amplify your online reputation management strategies to build brand loyalty.
A study by the SAS and the Pennsylvania State University looks closely into how reviews, ratings, and other marketing factors affect consumer behavior and purchasing decision. The research reveals the following takeaways:
• Consumers rely on reviews rather than the price to determine brand quality.
• Reviews, as opposed to ratings, are the strongest influencers of quality, value, and buying decision.
• Lowering your price doesn’t do much to mend negative reviews and low ratings.
• Price alone doesn’t determine consumers’ purchasing decision.
Conquering bad user-generated content can be baffling. But you could arm yourself with tools and strategies that would help you grow and maintain your consumer base, while polishing your online brand. Building a reputation fortress is important in shaping consumer perception and strengthening conversion rates, which are both essential to improve your brand and your bottom-line.
An effective reputation fortress is one that focuses on the FACTS (Focus, Assurance, Clarity, Time, and Social proof). You need to add focus on your page by implementing an effective call-to-action scheme that provides audiences with a sense of forward motion into your product. Consumers could march forward into your brand when they see or feel any assurance. You must embed safety on your website because consumers have never been more wary of where their money and attention go. Communicating safety and credibility entails clarity. Don’t confuse your audience with erratic content, and never conjure up an eyesore with unnecessary images, pop-up items, and other appendages.
Time is money, they say. This is certainly true given that online consumers can be passive at times. Try to win their short attention span through a time-efficient website that gives them everything they need all at a click of a button. While it takes years to build your consumer base, it only takes a minute to lose them.
A positive social proof is a powerful way to influence consumer perception. Having people telling others about how fantastic your product is makes the method more objective and trustworthy than other user-generated content. The whole remarketing process takes time and effort. You have to constantly monitor what other people say about your product and apply legitimate preventive tactics once you feel that your brand is being compromised.