September 4, 2024
13

What is Reputation Marketing? (The Complete Guide for Beginners)

What is Reputation Marketing? (The Complete Guide for Beginners)

Reputation marketing is a digital marketing strategy that aims to get you more customers by using your reputation to build shoppers' trust in your brand.

To achieve that goal, reputation marketing strategies focus on collecting and showcasing "user-generated content" (UGC), which means content that's been created by consumers instead of your business. Some examples of UGC include customer testimonials, social media posts or mentions, and online reviews and ratings from review sites like Yelp or Apple Maps.

reputation marketing example

Research shows consumers trust authentic UGC more than traditional advertisements, content creators, or influencers. That means promoting UGC is an effective way to market your business and build a positive reputation. 

So what's the best way to collect customer feedback? Where should you show off your online reviews to ensure they make the most impact? And what other key points should business owners be aware of? 

We'll cover all the basics in this beginner's guide to online reputation marketing, including:

  • The definition and purpose of reputation marketing
  • Why reputation marketing is important for businesses
  • How to use reputation marketing to grow your business
  • How the right tools can help your business streamline its reputation marketing efforts
  • Answers to FAQs, like how reputation marketing differs from reputation management

What is reputation marketing?

Forbes defines reputation marketing as “taking a proactive approach toward your brand’s presence.” Brand24 calls it “the strategic effort of shaping and influencing how others perceive a brand.” And Indeed describes it as the process of “monitor[ing], promot[ing] and highlight[ing] positive posts, comments, reviews or other content about your brand.” 

The core idea is to cultivate a positive reputation, then use it as a marketing asset by promoting and sharing good reviews, favorable brand mentions, and other UGC. 

social media comments search engine optimization brand marketing

How does reputation marketing differ from reputation management?

Reputation marketing and management are both aimed at protecting your brand's image and online reputation. If executed correctly, both tactics can help you attract new customers, inspire customer loyalty, and give your brand a competitive advantage over other local businesses.

The key difference is that reputation marketing is a proactive strategy, while reputation management is reactive in nature.

Reputation marketing focuses on showing off positive UGC, like the great reviews your business receives on Google Maps, Yelp, or Trustpilot. Its goal is to foster a positive brand image, and then use that image to entice potential customers into exploring your product or service, like in this example: 

amplifying positive brand content social media

Reputation management, on the other hand, is all about performing damage control when somebody mentions your brand in a negative way. Its goals include resolving negative reviews and customer complaints, pushing negative content lower in searches, and mitigating damage to your business reputation, as shown in this example: 

social media negative reviews negative feedback

To sum up, here's a table that briefly summarizes the main differences between reputation marketing and reputation management. 

reputation marketing efforts positive brand content negative reviews

What are the benefits of reputation marketing? 

Here are two compelling reasons why reputation marketing matters:  

  1. Consumers trust online reviews (and other UGC) more than brand content, which makes reputation marketing a highly productive promotional strategy.
  2. Ads featuring UGC cost less, yet attract more clicks, than ads that feature brand content. 

Shoppers trust consumer opinion more than brand-generated content

According to TINT's 2023 State of Social & User-Generated Content (SOSUGC) report, authentic UGC is perceived as more trustworthy than any other type of marketing materials. Consumers trust other shoppers' feedback more than content creators, influencers, or brand content.

Brand content is simply content created by your organization, rather than your clients or customers. In the set of images below, the top image shows an example of brand content (Rihanna, the owner of Fenty Beauty), while the image beneath it shows an example of UGC. 

brand generated content
user generated content

Online reviews are the perfect example of UGC — and the powerful impact it can make. BrightLocal research shows that 50% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from their friends or family members, up from 49% in 2022 and 46% in 2023. And according to eMarketer, shoppers trust reviews 12 times more than brand-generated marketing materials.

Ads with UGC cost less and deliver more     

In a study where researchers "ran A/B tests to compare how Facebook ads with customer content performed against ads with only brand content," the ads featuring UGC significantly outperformed the brand content advertisements — in multiple ways.

Compared to the ads with brand-generated content, the ads with user-generated content had a "300% higher click-through rate (CTR), 50% lower cost per click (CPC), [and] 50% lower cost per acquisition (CPA)."

If you're looking to drive down your customer acquisition costs, reputation marketing is a proven-effective strategy.

How to strengthen and implement your reputation marketing strategy

Here are five ways to strengthen your reputation marketing strategy and put online reviews to work for your business this year:

  1. Add your business to as many online review sites as possible
  2. Feature or link to positive reviews and ratings on your business' website
  3. Share positive feedback from customers on leading social media platforms like Facebook
  4. Incorporate positive customer reviews, ratings, testimonials, and other UGC into your ads 
  5. Use AI or other tools to help you manage your reputation efficiently and streamline your reputation marketing strategy 

1. Claim and verify your business listings on relevant review sites

Your business can achieve two goals at the same time — gaining insights into how customers feel, while enhancing your brand’s reputation — by gathering, tracking, and showcasing online reviews.

To maximize your brand presence and reach the largest audience, list your business on as many review platforms as possible. Here are some third party review sites your business should be featured on in 2024: 

  • Apple Maps (shown in the screenshot below) 
  • Better Business Bureau (BBB)
  • Foursquare
  • Google Maps (Google Business Profile)
  • Trustpilot
  • Yellow Pages (YP)
  • Yelp 
business listing example

It’s also important to list your business on industry-specific review apps or websites that are relevant to your product or service. Here are a few examples: 

  • Angi
  • Avvo  
  • Citysearch
  • DealerRater  
  • Glassdoor
  • HomeAdvisor
  • LegalMatch
  • Open Igloo
  • OpenTable
  • Rate My Landlord
  • RateMDs
  • Thumbtack
  • Vitals
  • Zagat
  • Zocdoc   
industry specific websites

Be sure to enable alerts and notifications to never miss a new review or rating. It's also important to stay on top of keeping your listings accurate and up-to-date with current hours, photos, and other details.

Here's Google's comprehensive start-up guide to creating and claiming your Google Business Profile

You might also be interested in learning how to add your business to Facebook, or checking out our complete guide to business listings and why they matter. 

2. Feature positive reviews on your website

One of the best places to showcase positive reviews is — unsurprisingly — your website. Here's an example of a positive review featured on a brand's homepage:

featured reviews on website  example

You can also build a separate, dedicated page just for reviews. Here's an example of an automotive dealership with a review page on their company website: 

a reviews page on a website

Clicking or tapping the link takes visitors to a page where they can read or leave reviews on Google or Facebook: 

facebook reviews

Here's an example of a plumbing and heating company using a similar strategy: 

example of a reviews page

Opening the review page provides visitors with links to the company's Google and Facebook reviews:

google and facebook request reviews

It also displays examples of positive reviews further down the page, like this Google review:

displaying a positive review

Or this Facebook review: 

displayng a review from facebook

3. Share positive reviews on social media platforms

Your website isn't the only place you can show off positive online reviews. Another way to boost your online reputation is by sharing positive customer feedback on social media platforms.

In fact, when it comes to checking out business reviews, consumers depend on social media almost as much as actual review websites. For example, Facebook consistently ranks as the second most popular source for reviews, surpassed only by Google.

While Facebook reigns supreme as the biggest social media platform, there are plenty of others that also wield powerful influence over shoppers. According to BrightLocal data, here are five of the top social media platforms consumers use most to check business reviews:

  1. Instagram — 34% of consumers checked Instagram reviews in 2024 (up from 32% in 2023)
  2. YouTube — 32% of consumers checked YouTube reviews in 2024 (down from 35% in 2023)
  3. TikTok — 23% of consumers checked TikTok reviews in 2024 (up from 20% in 2023)
  4. Reddit — 21% of consumers checked Reddit reviews in 2024 (up considerably from 15% in 2023)
  5. X (formerly Twitter) — 18% of consumers checked X (Twitter) reviews in 2024, up from 15% in 2023

Positive reviews aren't the only content you can share on your business profile. You can also showcase other content that customers post about your brand, like social media comments, Facebook Stories, or videos featuring your products in a positive light. 

sharing reviews on social media example

4. Integrate positive reviews, ratings, and testimonials into your ads

We've already looked at how incorporating UGC into your ads can result in higher click-through rates at lower cost-per-click. By featuring positive UGC in your Google or Facebook ads, and combining it with a short but powerful call-to-action, you're making it both compelling and convenient for users to check out your brand.

The bad news is that Google Ads review extensions were discontinued in 2018, which means "your Google ads... no longer have the privilege of being accompanied by third-party reviews," as WordStream explains in a blog post.

The good news is that there's now a Google Ads extension called Google Seller Rating, which automatically displays a star rating for your business based on customer reviews from sources like Yotpo, Trustpilot, and — of course — Google.

Learn how to launch your first Google Ads campaign, or explore how to start using Google Local Services Ads. Unlike regular Google Ads, Local Services Ads give your business an official Google badge to help inspire trust in consumers, similar to getting the Verified badge on X (formerly Twitter).

integrate positive reviews for your local business

5. Boost your efficiency with AI-powered reputation marketing software 

Shout About Us is an AI-powered, all-in-one dashboard for reputation marketing and online review management. Using Shout About Us, you can automate time-consuming but critical tasks that help you generate leads, improve customer satisfaction, and boost retention.

boost AI efficiency

We offer two unique solutions, enabling you to choose the approach that fits your organization's needs: ReviewNavigator and ResponseScribe.

ReviewNavigator is a comprehensive suite of services that includes:

  • Review Tracking — Your reviews from 50+ platforms are aggregated into one easy-to-navigate dashboard, plus automatic alerts to notify you about new ratings and reviews
  • Reputation Marketing — Shout About Us features built-in widgets that make it easy to show off great reviews on your website or social media accounts
  • Review Removal — We comb your reviews for comments that violate platform guidelines and take care of reporting negative feedback that doesn't comply
  • Review Response — Use AI and templates to easily respond to reviews from your all-in-one dashboard 
  • Review Generation — We use proven strategies for requesting customer feedback, like personalized email and text messages, to get your business more positive reviews and ratings fast
business review sites shotu about us supports

ResponseScribe provides personalized, on-brand responses to customer reviews on 50+ platforms. Your business can choose an AI or human-only response generation strategy, with human responses ready in 24 hours while AI responses are generated in minutes.  

Streamline your reputation marketing strategy with Shout About Us

Improve your brand's reputation, earn more referrals and positive reviews, and drive up your sales and revenue in 2024. With Shout About Us' AI-powered platform, you can automate tasks like reputation monitoring, removal of negative feedback, social media posting, and review generation with customized links and reminders for your customers.

Get started growing your brand's online presence with our reputation marketing and management platform. Schedule a demo of Shout About Us for your company today. 

Emily Homrok

Emily Homrok is a freelance copywriter with more than seven years of writing experience. She joined the Shout About Us team as a content strategist in 2020.

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