Author: AX Admin

  • Why You Should Invest in Online Reputation Management?

    Why You Should Invest in Online Reputation Management?

    Online reputation management has to be an integral part of your business as your customers invariably research and read about you online before engaging with your business.  They make decisions based on what they see and read about you. 

    Why is Online Reputation Management Important for your Business?

    Social Listening:

    Online reputation management allows businesses to know and understand what their customers and potential customers think about them online.  This gives businesses insights about emerging customer preferences, tastes, trends, feedback on their product or services, customer complaints, grievances, etc. 

    Review Management:

    Let us look at the customer journey; let us assume that you and your family is planning to eat out at a local Chinese restaurant.  What is that you do?  If you are like most people, you read the reviews.

    It is the same with other businesses too; local grocery, doctor, hospital, school, mechanic, creche, old age home, etc.  While positive reviews could help these businesses, negative reviews could sink their ship.

    Unless you put a review management process in place and be responsive to your customers, you risk bad reviews tarnishing your business, revenue, sales, and growth.

    Customer Relationship:

    When your business responds to reviews and ratings, you interact with your customers.  Customers will appreciate the fact that you are responsive and care for them.  This builds and boosts brand loyalty.

    Helps to Create Positive Perception:

    A well-executed online reputation management strategy helps you look good in the online space.  It builds trust, credibility, brand awareness, and loyalty.

    Boosts Sales and Revenue

    People often buy from companies they trust. Trust is essential in any business. That is exactly why you should invest more time and money in online reputation management.  This not only helps you minimize negative reviews, complaints, negative media coverage, etc, in the search results but also helps you consistently build a positive and credible image for your business.

    Positive Reviews and Testimonials are Great Advertising Opportunities

    People trust reviews and testimonials and they are the best advertising tools for your business.  An effective ORM strategy will get the highest mileage from these positive reviews and testimonials.

    Invest in Online Reputation Management

    Online reputation management helps you attract great talent

    Job searchers often go to a company’s social profiles, job portals, review portals.  A good online reputation attracts the best talents to your company.

    Online Reputation Management Can Pre-empt and Prevent a Reputational Crisis

    A robust ORM process can pre-empt and prevent any crisis arising out of negative media coverage, adverse events, key stakeholder issues, malicious campaigns, etc.

    In conclusion, how you manage your online reputation will decide the success or failure of your business.

    You should get in touch with us for a customized ORM solution just for you.

     

  • Online Reputation Management (ORM) For Playschools/Preschools

    Online Reputation Management (ORM) For Playschools/Preschools

    Parents give a great deal of thought to which playschool or preschool their child goes to. Things that the parents are worried about are the safety of their child, infrastructure, quality of teachers, syllabus, hours of work, creche facility, after-school child care, etc.

    Before deciding on a playschool, 90% of parents research online.

    Smartphones, social media, and online review platforms have made it easy for students, parents, and even teachers to voice their experiences, opinions, and thoughts online. Smartphones also make it very easy to take pictures and videos and post it on social media. The search results and the social media space get populated by these reviews and feedbacks.

    Negative reviews, feedback, and complaints in the search results will dent the image of your preschool and negatively impact your business prospects.

    How does your playschool/preschool center’s (ORM) online reputation management look?

    Do you know which forums, blogs, or social media groups the parents talk about your preschool? Are you there where the parents are?

    What they see and read online about your playschool will impact how future prospective students and parents perceive your school.

    Your online reputation management can impact inquiries, enrolment and retention.

    While it is obvious that playschools need to have a great positive online reputation, how to go about with Online Reputation Management for Playschools/Preschools is a question.

    To begin with, let us discuss a few things that you should do to build a positive image of your playschool:

    • Monitor: Monitor the conversations around your playschool; set up a social listening team.
    • Social Media: As social media is the most efficient tool for brand awareness and brand building; use it judiciously and strategically.  Select the appropriate social media platform where your target audience is most likely to dwell and go the full nine yards.
    • Respond: Set up a system to attend to reviews; both negative and positive.  Ensure that you have great ratings and reviews.  This will help a great deal in building a positive image for your playschool.

    Whom to contact for online reputation management for playschools/preschools?

    There is more to online reputation management of playschools/preschools than that meets the eye. In addition to some issues discussed above, uncontrollable events and malignant campaigns could tarnish your online reputation.

    A professional ORM company like AiPlex is someone with whom you must collaborate.

    The team at AiPlex will monitor your brand mentions across the web, enforce trademark and wordmark, delete defamatory content that violates the community guidelines of different social platforms, manage negative mentions, propagate positive sentiment and build goodwill for your playschool brand.

    The crisis management team will guide you if there is a reputational crisis. Drop us a line to know how?

     

  • Online Reputation Management For Higher Education Institutions

    Online Reputation Management For Higher Education Institutions

    If you own an institution or you are a marketer responsible for maintaining an overall reputation for a college/university, then this article is just what you need…

    Read on to know what online reputation management for higher education institutions is and why you need ORM for universities.

    Higher education is a huge investment and a big decision for everyone involved; it opens the door to endless opportunities for students in their professional lives, as well as enables them to live a more fulfilled life. No matter what specialization or course a student chooses for himself/herself, the priority has always been shortlisting a reputed institution.

    Parents would like to choose the best possible institution for their children. Online is where they search for information about the institutions; online reviews answers in Q&A forums such as Quora, mention in discussion forums, etc.  This is the reason implementing online reputation management for higher education institutions has become a mandate in your reputation-building efforts to ignite growth opportunities.

    Online Reputation Management ORM for Higher Education Institutions:

    Customers, disgruntled students, parents, patients, etc., vent their dissatisfaction in the online space. Educational institutions are no exception. Derogatory comments or negative reviews negatively impact institutions and could end up being detrimental to the prospects of a college/university. ORM for higher education institutions can help you mitigate such risks to your institution and business.

    A strong online reputation that projects a very positive perception of your educational institute or university will lead to a better ranking for relevant keywords, better conversions, and thus increased admissions.

    Now that we understand what online reputation management ORM for higher education institutions (colleges/universities) can do for you let us, dig deep…

    Online Reputation Management for Higher Education Institutions

    Benefits of Implementing ORM for Higher Educational institutions:

    Gaining Trust of Customers:  

    A good reputation helps an institution improve its credibility and trust among the students and their parents. This is the driving force when it comes to deciding where do they want to spend time and money to gain a degree. Creating a strong public image online/offline, garnering testimonials/positive reviews from satisfied students will help your institution stand out and win the trust of the students.

    Increased Admissions:

    To take admission or not to – this decision largely depends on a clear, strong, and appealing public image. The better your online and offline presence is, the more you can attract students. A positive ORM for universities and colleges creates a positive buzz around your institution and attracts not just locals, but students from other states and foreign nationals as well.

    Better Faculty:

    Implementing effective online reputation management for higher education institutions does not only attract students but also brings in the best faculties in the country to teach the future of the country i.e., students.

    Placement Opportunities from Reputed Corporates:

    Employers prefer colleges/institutions/ universities that have a good overall reputation. The best corporates line up at highly-reputed institutions for their campus selection.

    Competitive Advantage:

    An institution’s reputation is what everybody checks before making a final decision on admission. Ensure that you look good in the online space.   We can do this for you.

    If you are looking for a quick, responsive, and effective ORM strategy for your institution, just drop us a line here and get in touch.

     

  • Why Reviews Matter In Financial Services – ORM for Finance

    Why Reviews Matter In Financial Services – ORM for Finance

    Do online reviews only come in handy while choosing which local restaurant serves the best customer service and meals? No. Times are changing, and the rising concerns over Online Reputation Management in finance explain why reviews matter in the fin-serv market, just as much.

    Experts have repeatedly emphasized how reviews and ratings influence customer purchase behavior, regardless of which industry it may be. Converting your prospects, even in today’s cut-throat marketplace, becomes a walk in the park when your company boasts of a strong online reputation.

    So in case your financial services firm isn’t performing as per your projections, continue reading to find out why:

    The Importance of Reviews in Today’s Financial Services Industry

    Let’s suppose that a customer is looking for the best health insurance services for their family, and they can only find time to research on Google amid their busy corporate schedule. You’ll lose the prospect instantly if your services do not show up in the first few search results, or even worse if you show up with negative reviews and subpar ratings.

    This alone is a major example of why ORM for finance is so important in today’s evolving marketplace.

    Consumer behaviors are changing simultaneously – research shows that Google searches that include the keyword “best” have risen by 80% since 2016, which indicates how people also want nothing but the best. Also, here’s the deal with search engines – the algorithms always prioritize offering the most relevant and authentic information to the users.

    What does this change translate into for fin-serv businesses? It’s simple – market competition will only rise with time, and your reputation could be your greatest asset in such circumstances. Hence, the higher the ratings, the faster you cut through the noise and reach new potential customers.

    Why Reviews Matter In Financial Services - ORM for Finance

    Tips To Safeguard Your Online Reputation

    We understand that ORM is a relatively new concept for financial services; however, doing things the right way could still make a huge difference. Here are your best DIY online reputation management in finance tips:

    • Pay attention to online reviews: Today’s digital environment is influenced by online reviews; staying up-to-date helps brands recognize their core strengths and neglected flaws. Keep an eye on how your customers are talking about your brand online, including both positive and negative reviews.
    • Keep your customers close, but competition even closer: Are people praising, or bashing your competitors online? Observe silently and take notes – it’s an important aspect of ORM for finance. These reviews and ratings could create new opportunities for your brand to introduce new features and offers that lead to higher conversions.
    • Do not stray away from your core values: It is pretty self-explanatory. The fin-serv industry strives on reputation; customers cannot rely on companies that do not stay true to their brand values.

    Summing It Up

    In the end, your business’s reputation is everything. If your goals are to scale your business higher and to reach out to newer customers, then make sure to stay in tune with what your customers are talking about your brand. Prominence is key – do not forget.

    If you’re looking for the one-stop solution to your online reputation management for financial services, Aiplex can help you, let’s have a chat.

     

  • Hospital Reputation Management – Why Do Hospitals Need ORM?

    Hospital Reputation Management – Why Do Hospitals Need ORM?

    Healthcare tops the list of industries and marketplaces that thrive on a strong public image — and that is why hospital reputation management has become more important than ever.

    The surge of numerous online review websites has resulted in dissatisfied patients and customers sharing their experiences wherever they can. Any negative experience gets amplified in the online space and severely jeopardizes the reputation of hospitals. Insurance regulations are also getting stricter towards hospitals with subpar ratings. Ultimately, a bad public image severely dents future partnerships and growth opportunities for hospitals and healthcare facilities.

    However, ORM for hospitals could greatly help hospitals maintain a strong online reputation and flourish in today’s marketplace. Continue reading to find out why and how:

    Why Should Hospitals Care About Their Online Reputation?

    A recent study reveals, on average, 1 out of every 11 patients leave with a bad experience, leading them into posting bad reviews that impact the hospital’s online reputation. Such patients also share their experiences in their social groups and other forums which could stop other potential patient admittees from choosing these hospitals.

    Another study reveals that hospitals that prioritize customer satisfaction and proactively address customer grievances in the online space, see a 12% increase in profit returns every year. Now that the “why” is clear, let’s proceed towards exploring the key perks of online reputation management for hospitals:

    Top Benefits of Implementing ORM for Hospitals

    Online reputation management, one of the hottest buzzwords in today’s digital marketing landscape, can benefit the hospitals in various ways including:

    1. Opportunity to Gain a Higher Ranking

    Why are more and more companies investing in ORM? Well, it is so that they can be favored by the Google SERPs. It’s no secret that the algorithm shows websites with the highest ratings and positive reviews on top to offer viewers authentic information. Hospitals can eventually gain higher search engine page rankings when searched for on Google by implementing online reputation management for hospitals.

    2. Hospitals Can Gain the Trust of Customers

    With negative reviews and bad comments all over the internet, it’s getting harder for customers to choose which hospital would provide them with the best quality of healthcare. Building a strong online/public image and positive perception can help hospitals earn their customer’s trust. By analyzing the positive reviews, people will be assured that the facility doesn’t indulge in malpractices and would treat them well.

    Hospital Reputation Management — Why Do Hospitals Need ORM?
    Hospital Reputation Management — Why Do Hospitals Need ORM

    3. Newer Promotional Opportunities

    Finally, ORM for hospitals helps hospitals project a clear, strong, and marketable public image. A positive reputation makes it easier for them to promote themselves on various platforms through campaigns, be it online or offline.

    Summing It Up

    It goes without saying —a good online reputation opens hitherto unexplored new opportunities and helps in customer acquisition. This helps hospitals control their public image and leads to better growth and business opportunities.

    If you represent a hospital and wish to learn how AiPlex can help with your reputation management, please drop us a line.

     

  • 8 Ways Brands Can Grow Their Business Through Social Listening

    8 Ways Brands Can Grow Their Business Through Social Listening

    Your Customers Are Speaking: Are You Listening?

    Social listening tools monitor social media conversations and allow companies to capture what customers are saying around their preferred keyword(s), be it – a product, brand, industry, or anything that’s relevant to their business. With the right social listening data, brands can assess their reputation, brand sentiment, and gain valuable customers insights.

    Let’s discover eight ways brands can leverage social listening data:

    • Maintain Brand Reputation: Monitoring your brand’s online presence and other relevant information which might affect its reputation ensures that you see the bigger picture while unleashing its full potential. Crawling mentions in real-time in various languages across 100+ million online sources plays a crucial role in improving a brand’s reputation.
    • Helps Track Your Brand: Social listening allows you to monitor your brand’s activity across various social media platforms. It ensures that you don’t miss out on any brand mentions or other parties associated with it.
    • Understanding Your Audience: It is important to have a strong sense of whom you are trying to target before creating content. Demographic insights help answer questions like – which gender is most outspoken, which country the current audience belongs to, audiences’ common interests,   most prominent professions, etc.
    • Competitors Analysis: Analysing your competitors’ strategies, marketing campaigns, and keeping track of their products and features allows you to compare your own outcomes. This in turn helps you develop and change strategies that aren’t performing.
    • Identifying Influencers And Brand Advocates: Social listening can help brands discover new influencers or help them partner with influencers who are already mentioning the concerned brand to their audiences. Identifying brand advocates and rewarding them with giveaways or special offers helps foster a good relationship with them.
    • Improving SEO: Most social listening tools help monitor the web at large, including news websites and blogs. This kind of web monitoring can be beneficial for companies that are looking for new ways to improve their sites’ online image and user-generated content.
    • Analyze The Impact of Marketing & PR: Monitoring campaigns, launches, and other initiatives provide insights on reach, sentiment, and other conversations around the topic. Thus, social listening helps evaluate the impact of a campaign and measure its ROI.

    • Write Better Content: Social listening can help with content marketing in multiple ways. It can keep you updated with the trending topics related to your industry. It can also help you create better content with social data.
    8 Ways Brands Can Grow Their Business Through Social Listening

    Conclusion

    Social listening is one of the most effective methods which brands can leverage to stay afloat and thrive in today’s competitive digital economy. It can help improve a brand’s approach to audience analysis and adapt as per the needs of the target audience.

     

  • 5 Trends That Will Shape Influencer Marketing This Decade

    5 Trends That Will Shape Influencer Marketing This Decade

    Long gone are the days when traditional marketing was the mainstay of marketing and advertising. Digital marketing is taking the lion’s share of marketing spends, and the pandemic has added a new dimension to how brands reach out to their target audience.

    In this backdrop, influencer marketing as a niche has witnessed exponential growth and acceptance from brands and users alike. It is projected to reach $10 billion in spending in 2022. However, this phenomenal success of influencer marketing begs the question: How the influencer ecosystem will mature to keep up with the growing demand?

    5 Influencer Marketing Trends That is Shaping the Future

    #1. The Dominance of Micro-influencers

    The mantra of going smaller to reap bigger has allowed micro-influencers to play a key role in the influencer ecosystem. The reason being micro-influencers with less than 10,000 followers created better engagement rates for brands than mega influencers and celebrities. According to experts, an average engagement rate of 1%-3.5% is considered a pretty solid number. Anything above 3.5% is what defines viral content. Micro-influencers on TikTok garner an engagement rate of 8.9% on their posts, wherein Insta micro-influencers garb 3.86% engagement rates. The icing on the cake here is that these influencers enjoy over a 20% higher conversion rate. That can be a serious boost in sales for businesses. And, there are other benefits too – low cost of the campaigns, niche market to target, and loyalty of followers to enjoy.

    #2. Instagram is the Choicest Platform

    Unfortunately for TikTok, the ban is official and more nations have joined to keep the app away from users’ phones. Yes, it was a setback for TikTok influencers, but that was short-lived. Other platforms, especially Instagram, rose to the occasion and allowed its users to become the most successful influencer marketers. Courtesy of the new IGTV feature (Instagram TV), Insta gives the brands something new to play around with. This new feature equips brands to better educate TG about their new or upcoming products/services using the power of Insta-influencers. As per recent data, Instagram has 1 billion monthly active global users, unlike TikTok, which currently faces a ban in six countries, with three more nations likely to join the bandwagon. So, Instagram became the best bet automatically for businesses to use influencer marketing strategy.

    #3. Metrics Gaining Importance

    Now, metrics are important to juxtapose social media influencers and brand positioning. After all, influencers are not doing charity – they charge. But, if influencer marketing doesn’t generate results, there’s no point in making it an integral part of your campaign. The above point shows influencers bring positive results, but to measure that against CPA requires data-driven metrics. The latter determines audience interest and new audience reach. Also, these data can paint the real picture of how well your influencers are effectively using the growing trends to improve your sales.

    Brands and influencers

    #4. More Videos to Consume

    The average engagement rate of video posts stands at 52%. That is enough to show why video posts of influencers will continue to trend in this decade. Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms are vying to get the top position with their video features and equipping all users to become nano influencers with their video posts. Embedding the brand’s products inside the video content makes it sound less pushy yet serves the end purpose effectively.

    #5. More Brands will Stand for a Cause

    Even though Pepsi faltered in its advertising effort to stand up for ‘Black Lives Matter cause, brands are witnessing a change in consumer behavior. That being “standing for a cause”. Today’s consumers are more informed than their predecessors. Therefore, brands and influencer marketers should follow the same approach to resonate better with their TG.

    In conclusion, one thing remains constant – the consumer market is extremely volatile and forever changing. Brands should stay abreast with the trends to connect with their customers and keep evolving to resonate better. Also, the fact that influencers need to adapt to the changing trends to stay relevant remains undeniable. The trends are here to stay. It’s entirely up to brands and influencers how they make optimal utilization of the changing trends.

     

  • 9 Reasons Why Influencer Marketing is Effective

    9 Reasons Why Influencer Marketing is Effective

    Apart from celebrities, an influencer refers to anyone who has an influence over their established follower base on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat, etc. Sure, a post from a celebrity can help you get better reach; but only an influencer can help you capture your target audience efficiently. 

    Here’s a list of 9 reasons why influencer marketing is effective:

    • Direct Hit on Target Audience: While brand image plays a significant role, a marketing strategy involves identifying and reaching out to the target audience with proper research. So, an influencer with authentic engagement is just the right fit for your brand to reach out to the target audience because of their vast followers.
    • Boosts your SEO: Search engine optimization improves the reach of the brand. A direct link to your brand’s website on an influencer’s blog can help drive traffic and boost your ranking online.
    • Improved Credibility: Influencers are generally viewed as 3rd party, unbiased sources; hence their followers trust their advice. So, collaborating with relevant influencers not only strengthens brand reputation but also improves credibility. This helps brands build loyal brand advocates.
    • Adds Value: Since people search for information with facts, online reviews are a great source to fuel your marketing strategy. Hence, Influencer marketing is a great way to assure your audience that your product will add value to their lives.
    • Faster Customer Acquisition: As influencer marketing is inbound in nature, it can reach out to the target audience directly. So, the conversion rate is higher and hence it is an effective strategy.
    • Helps in Building Content Strategy: Getting fresh ideas every day is not an easy task but with the help of influencers, brands can create engaging content that resonates with the audience to stay relevant.
    • Bridges the Generation Gap: Brands can reach out to millennials and gen Z through influencer marketing.
    • You are in for the long haul: Influencer have earned the trust of their followers over a period of time and when these influencers endorse your brand the audience trust them. Influencer marketing is a brand building exercise that makes your audience believe in your brand.
    • Become a Trend Setter: When influencers feature brands and their products, other bloggers and sites make it popular by spreading the news. Thus, this helps influencers in setting trends.
    why influencer marketing is effective

    Conclusion

    To build long-term relationships with influencers, brands need to ensure that they pick influencers that match their values. Because the success of influencer marketing depends on the type of influencer a brand chooses to associate with.

     

  • 5 Things to Look Out for While Searching For an Influencer

    5 Things to Look Out for While Searching For an Influencer

    Finding the right influencer is not an easy task, and brands just cannot finalize an influencer based on the number of followers they have. It is important that marketers choose influencers that are brand-safe, productive, and engaging.

    Here are the five key factors brands should consider while choosing influencers for their Influencer Marketing Campaigns:

    What is their Reach?

    Simple metrics like followers, subscribers, and views on influencers’ posts and videos can help brands determine their popularity. But brands need to be aware of bots and pods to eliminate fake accounts.

    What is their Engagement?

    Engagement is an important factor because it helps marketers determine how active an influencer’s audience is based on the likes, comments, and shares their content receives. It helps them understand how active an influencer’s audience is and how the audience reacts to their content.

    How can they help lift the Brand?

    People tend to trust and believe influencers they like. So, when brands make use of big influencers, they can significantly help boost their brand awareness. 

    Influencer Marketing Campaigns

    On what platforms are they available?

    There are several platforms where influencers post their content. Since each platform has its advantages and disadvantages, it is important for brands to consider influencers based on the brand’s business goals and objectives.

    That being said, influencer marketing on Instagram is a $1 billion industry. While Facebook has a larger user base it’s not as popular for influencer marketing.  Data like this should be considered before choosing the platform for your campaign.

    What is their Reputation?

    All public figures have different reputations based on how they project themselves to the world. Influencers with a good reputation will provide a boost in brand awareness, whereas influencers with a bad reputation can be unfavorable for your brand image. Hence brands need to be careful while choosing influencers.

    Before choosing an influencer, brands need to research their target audience and ensure that the values of influencers match their brand values.