What can be done to measure your brand’s reputation?

There is one thing that is a determining factor in how successful a brand can be in the marketplace. This is known as brand reputation. When a brand is perceived positively, it is logical that its sales will increase. However, if this is not the case, much more effort will have to be put in order to gain a foothold in the market.

Working with businesses is complex and requires a lot of effort on the part of their owners. It is not just a matter of creating a product or service and placing it on the market in the hope that it will receive maximum attention from consumers. The reality is that a series of actions must be taken if we are aiming to achieve good results.

When it comes to calculate brand reputation, there are a series of measures that are more or less simple to execute and that can shed a lot of light on the value that brand has in the eyes of customers. With this information at hand, it will be easier to define a strategy to achieve a positive evaluation, both online and offline.

What people value on a brand

To get a better understanding of this whole issue, the first thing to do is to put yourself in the shoes of the people who are looking at the product or service you are offering and considering paying for it. Think about what elements could help these potential customers feel confident in the brand and see it as a valuable option. Among the possible aspects that can be touched upon are:

• Have testimonials or positive comments from third parties on social networks, our website and digital spaces such as Google My Business. If you do not have any positive comments or even have many negative ones, people tend to leave that brand aside and move to a better reviewed one.
• Have product presentations that are interesting and eye-catching so that customers notice the product and are encouraged to try it by themselves.
• Present the information needed to allow potential customers to know what they can do with the product or service offered, focusing mainly on the benefits it brings.
• Share content on digital channels that is useful for users and not just based on our own self-valorisation as the best in the market.

Working in the online world

Brand reputation today is taking on much more significance when it comes to online versus offline. The continued use of social media and search engines as a hub for information, entertainment and shopping is telling brands that they need to be online and do the work to succeed.

In this respect, the aspects that will help to measure reputation through these channels are:

• Presence on social networks: having a profile is not the same as having a presence on social networks. Presence implies activity, conversation, publications, among others. If the brand only appears with a monthly sales post or has months without publishing anything, it is very likely that its reputation on this channel will diminish and this will influence the general valuation of the brand.
• Brand tracking with keywords: this is a very valuable trick because it offers accuracy in verifying what is being said about the brand or how it is positioned in the different channels. Several tools can be used for this purpose, both to define the best keywords and to verify their behaviour at a general level. One of the most reputable ones is Buzzsumo.
• Read the comments: being aware of what people are saying about your brand is another essential factor to create a good reputation. If you notice that many people are complaining, for example, about the shipping times, you need to review this and make the appropriate changes so that there are no more problems and everything is positive.

Building brand reputation

For a brand that is just starting out or has achieved results that are not entirely satisfactory, it is a good plan to have a proposal on the way forward to achieve a positive brand reputation. Possible actions to take include:

• Define your own personality, indicating data such as the tone of voice to be used, the visual resources, the way in which you are going to address users, the type of advertising you are going to work with, among others.
• Maintain good communication with customers and potential customers. That involves using friendly and respectful language, even when things can get a little out of hand. Brands that maintain a positive approach and make people feel important almost always make a good impact on their customers.
• Spend time getting to know potential customers and what they want. This is an important factor because it will allow you to share information and details that are really important to the recipients and that they value. Dedicating yourself to publishing what the brand thinks is good, without taking into account your market, is a serious mistake that failing brands often make.
• Share quality content. Content that helps and inspires followers is considered valuable content by them, which helps them to develop a stronger bond with the brand and to have it present as a reference that helps them in the subject they are working on.
• Reconcile online and offline practices. This is a premise that seeks to ensure that uniformity is maintained between what is said and done in online channels and what is said and done in offline channels. The idea is that the discourse followed in one channel can be reflected in practice. For example, if through social networks the customer service system has a defined personality to converse with users, this same impression should prevail when providing customer service through offline channels.

In summary, to have a good brand reputation, businesses should focus on two main factors: having a quality product or service and ensuring that communication with their customers is the most appropriate according to the brand’s own conditions.