Tips for Successful Brand Management

The internet has changed the way that companies present themselves to the masses, whether or not they actually have web properties to manage. Every time a company does something bad it seems to find its way online. Managing perception among internet users is nearly impossible because once something gets out, it has a tendency to spread like wildfire.

Letting Followers Do the Talking

Generating regular content for web properties is difficult. Coming up with new things to say on a consistent basis is harder than it looks. Rather than force out updates, the following that a web property garners can do all the talking. Word-of-mouth advertising is one of the most effective ways to promote a company. Good or bad, let them say what they have to say. Positive feedback in this arena can do more for a business than pretty much anything.

Unifying Web PropertiesSince there are so many ways for a company to present its message, it’s natural for companies to have multiple properties on different websites. Clients and customers should get a consistent message no matter what property they visit. All of the properties should also feed into each other in an effort to increase their growth. The demands of the audience for each web property are different and the content should reflect that.

Interacting with CustomersIt makes no sense for a company to have a web presence and never use it as a means of opening up the lines of communication with customers. Some companies even disable the ability of their customers to send messages on Facebook or they take forever to reply if they have the function enabled. This approach will only lead to discontent among the customer base. Receiving feedback can help companies figure out their shortcomings and fix them.

Knowing the AudienceAll companies have a demographic that follows their every move. As a result, all content that’s posted on the internet should address that audience. Additional advances should be made to people who are unaware of the brand. The content should circle back around to the original message intended for the main audience.

5 Lessons on Effective Brand Management

Irrespective of the size of your business, here are some key lessons:-

1. Make sure your business name properly communicates your message

The first step towards customer satisfaction and effective brand management is to properly communicate your message; you can do this by ensuring your business name and domain name properly communicate your message.

In Brand.com’s case, while the initial name, Reputation Changer, to some extent communicates their message, a major challenge they had to deal with was with competing with Reputation.com; in most cases, it’s easier to confuse Reputation Changer for Reputation.com and as a result their marketing efforts was benefiting a competitor.

However, by switching to a more memorable domain name, not only did they get out of the shadow of a major competitor but they can stand out and will be the first to come to mind when people think of a solution to managing their brands.

The effectiveness of this approach is beyond doubt, with a commenter going as far to say the following on a Techcrunch article covering the rebrand: “The new domain name gives a more accurate depiction of the firm’s services. Managing a company’s online reputation takes real branding skills. This is an art and not a science. Just another example of how Reputation Changer is ahead of the curve.”

2. Build relationships with authoritative sources that provide brand reviews

A quick search for the term “brand.com reviews” on Google shows this in action; the first few results are from Brand.com and when you dive deeper into the results, you’ll start seeing coverage from authoritative sites that cover Brand.com. Some of these results come from USAHerald, Techcrunch, Mediabistro and Technorati.

You don’t necessarily need a large budget to do this and you don’t have to get coverage on Techcrunch to be successful at it; you can start by building relationships with authoritative blogs in your niche.

Sometimes, you’ll need to pay to get coverage and sometimes you’ll get it naturally by building relationships and pitching your brand at the right time; however, the most important lesson is to ensure you’re able to control what people say about your brand online, at least to some extent.

3. Create social media profiles for your brand

If you don’t have profiles on social media sites, now is the time to start building up your profiles.

It’s easy to ignore Facebook and Twitter but the reality of having active profiles on these sites isn’t always about direct ROI, most of these sites have authoritative domain names that rank very easily for relevant keywords in Google.

If you have an active brand profile on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other relevant social networks, these profiles will also be displayed when people try to find you.

4. Contribute regularly to relevant blogs

A lot of brands are starting to realize the importance of content marketing when it comes to shaping their presence online; instead of having negative reviews about your business rank for brand terms, you can take control of your search results by becoming a regular contributor to authoritative blogs in your niche.

Gradually, you’ll start to build authoritative, content-rich profiles on these sites and your profiles will eventually start to rank for your brand-related terms; people will see this when they search for your brand and will be more likely to check out what you have to offer.

5. Make sure your product/service is exceptional

This is very important. While the above tactics might help your brand for awhile, if your product or service is not exceptional, the number of negative reviews about your brand will only keep increasing and it’s only a matter of time before they start outranking you for brand terms.

If you create a good experience for your customers, they’ll write about it wherever they can and this will further help your brand image.