0 The Omnishopper: How to Attract Today's Consumers

• Online Reputation Management
• by Seth Pollins
• 08.15.2020

In recent years, the marketing world coined a new term to describe the type of consumer who browses and buys services and products across multiple platforms, both online and offline: the "omnishopper." The term initially referred to consumers who researched products online before shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, but recently the meaning has evolved. As the name implies, an omnishopper is an omnivorous shopper, who uses any resource, online or offline, to make an informed decision. No matter the form or venue, the omnishopper is motivated by data: Most omnishoppers research products and services assiduously before making a purchase. The goal, of course, is to buy the best product or service at the best price.  Content writers oblige this goal every day by writing top-ten lists. Sites like the Wirecutter offer buying advice for seemingly everything--from choosing the best cloth for your mask to starting an urban garden. And Reddit communities, like Buy it For Life and Frugal Male Fashion, cater to the omnishoppers' insatiable desire to discover the most durable or fashionable item at the best price. What unites all of these diverse queries is an emphasis on reviews--preferably star reviews, with detailed content. In this way, the modern omnishopper is simply the modern shopper. Most browsers browse products and research reviews before making any purchasing decision, online or offline. The website Retail Dive, which performed a consumer survey on the "psyche of the American consumer," presents the modern shopper's experience as a conundrum for businesses: "The pre-purchase shopping routine today takes many twists and turns as consumers move from clicks to bricks with relative ease to browse and buy. While convenient for shoppers, it's becoming harder for retailers to know exactly where and when the shopper journey actually begins." The marketing firm Criteo believes retailers need more data on shoppers: "Data is required on a mass scale and it needs to be granular—not just what shoppers purchased, but what they viewed, on what device, on what day, during what season, how they arrived on that page and where they went next." Criteo's "data" may help retailers answer the challenge of Retail Dive: "To know exactly when and where the shopping journey actually begins." Obviously, in the time of Covid-19, the retail journey is increasingly online. For retailers online and offline, however, the fundamental challenge is the same: How do you attract a browser's attention? And how do you assure, after initial discovery, your product is viewed favorably? To discover the answers to these questions, we view the browser's experience as a two-step decision-making process, and qualify how each step is influenced by different digital marketing techniques: SEO (search engine optimization) and ORM (online reputation management). Influence the Experience: SEO & ORM The omnishopper's buying behavior can be viewed as a two-decision process. 1. The first decision governs the initial search: what product or service to buy. 2. The second decision governs the second search: what website or company to buy from. To influence the first decision, a website must assure that its product is available on the results page--preferably in the first, second, or third spot. This is the goal of SEO: to make your website, or your content, more visible to browsers looking for your type of product or service. With special reference to your industry/niche business, your core products and services, and your location, SEO uses keywords to rank your site on the first SERP (search engine results) page. If successful, your SEO campaign will yield a variety of top results for different keywords. For example, if a browser searches for "raw denim jeans" (another popular Reddit community), he/she will confront a variety of informative websites as well as a few buying decisions. If your company sells raw denim jeans, SEO will help your product appear on the first page of the search results. I recently purchased a pair of raw denim in Philadelphia by doing precisely this: My search for "raw denim Philadelphia" uncovered a local store, Franklin and Poe, which had exactly what I was looking for.  Once a browser discovers your product, however, he/she will likely want more information--and possibly information from a third-party about your product. How often have you discovered a product and then immediately Googled reviews for the product? To influence this second decision, which may lead ultimately to a conversion, a business must assure that its product reviews are uniformly positive. This is the goal of ORM: to monitor and improve (or repair, when needed) the reputation of businesses, products, and services online. The Difference Between SEO & ORM SEO governs on-site optimization (although off-site optimization is also a viable SEO practice that mirrors certain functions of ORM). ORM governs the work across the Internet, influencing the image of your brand. ORM often uses SEO (as well as other digital marketing tools) as part of a comprehensive campaign to improve your online image.  To succeed online (and offline), you need both SEO and ORM. At SEO Sparta, we use a Google-centric approach to attracting favorable online reviews. This is less expensive then many other options for ORM, which may include third-party tools or plug-ins. Whatever the tools, we believe a combination of SEO and ORM is the best way to attract today's ominshopper. 

0 Effectively manage online reputation and customer reviews

• Online Reputation Management
• by Seth Pollins
• 05.12.2020

For local businesses, reputation may be the most critical determinant of success, and in the digital age, "reputation" is mostly governed by online reviews. This year's "Local Consumer Review Survey" from BrightLocal proves the point. Here, in BrightLocal's words, are the key findings from the survey: 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including 95% of people aged 18-34) Consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before feeling able to trust a local business 40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past two weeks – up from 18% last year 57% of consumers will only use a business if it has four or more stars 80% of 18-34-year-olds have written online reviews – compared to just 41% of consumers over 55 91% of 18-34-year-old consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations 89% of consumers read businesses' responses to reviews These findings prove another point--a point many local business owners fail to grasp: Online reviews dramatically affect the performance of brick-and-mortar stores. Simply put, a majority of consumers read online reviews for local businesses; and online reviews influence a majority of local consumer's buying decisions. Online reviews are so critical, in fact, the online marketing industry has created a new category to address the management of online reviews--ORM (online reputation management). Do you need online reputation management? "Yes," says Alex Stepman, who offers a Google-based ORM for local businesses at SEO SPARTA. "ORM is the emerging strategy for local businesses," Stepman says. "It's importance just might rival SEO." Do you currently have an online review strategy in place? If not, you're missing a significant branding opportunity--and you may be actively harming your business. In a previous post on online reviews, we offered three simple strategies for taking advantage of online reviews: claiming your business, soliciting reviews, and, most importantly, providing excellent customer service. These strategies can help you get into the ORM game. In today's post, we'll dive a little deeper into the day-to-day management of online reviews--specifically, negative reviews.   How do you defend against negative reviews? What happens if you get a negative review? How to Manage Online Reviews Good Customer Service = Good Online Reviews We spoke about customer service, but the point bears repeating: good online reviews begin offline, in your store experience. Your first-line defense against a negative review is a positive experience in-store. Moz's advice is as simple as possible: "Be sure every employee you hire is one you feel confident about representing your brand to the public, and that he or she receives ongoing support in carrying out your official customer service policy. Catch complaints before they become bad reviews." The key here is absolute attentiveness. To attract only positive reviews, you need to make sure every employee should be a stellar representative of your brand. So hire the right people. And importantly, empower your employees to make decisions that can satisfy customers immediately. Just remember: A single negative experience can lead to a negative review. Respond to Customer Complaints Immediately If you have an attentive staff, you should be able to catch customer complaints before they transform into negative reviews. The most well-reviewed brands perform this work consistently, offering what Moz calls a "complaint-friendly" shop. A complaint-friendly shop offers pro-active resolutions to all potential complaints, including signs urging customers to speak up about allegations, a mobile-friendly website complaint form, and a complaint hotline. Obviously, must local stores do not have the human resources to run a complaint line (though the owner could offer his/her direct number). Still, all stores do have the capacity to treat each customer with respect--and to listen earnestly to any complaints before they become problems. Respond to Negative Reviews Claiming your business profiles on the major review sites is a crucial step to exerting control of your online reputation. But merely claiming your profiles is not enough--you must join the conversation. As Moz says, "Reviews represent an ongoing conversation your customers are having about your business on the web." You can contribute to that conversation by responding to reviews--especially all negative reviews--in a proactive manner. When responding to reviews, though, don't shame the customer or dispute his/her account of the situation. Try to solve the problem--which is, for you, a negative review--by responding with a resolution. How will you make it right? Google-Based Online Reputation Management with SEO SPARTA Are you taking advantage of online marketing tools, like Google My Business? By taking advantage of the newest online marketing strategy, ORM, you can attract more customers to your local shop. Alex Stepman offers a Google-Based Online Reputation Management, which helps brands "leverage the influence of the key player in ORM." To learn more about how you can boost both your ORM and SEO with Google My Business, call us today: 215-900-9398.

0 Do You Need Online Reputation Management?

• Online Reputation Management
• by Seth Pollins
• 05.11.2020

NPR cited an on-going study from the Harvard Business School, which is researching the effects of minimum wage increases on San Francisco area restaurants. Preliminary data suggests that higher minimum wages increase the possibility of restaurant closure, with a caveat: "Restaurants with low or mediocre Yelp reviews have become more likely to go out of business. Places with high reviews have been unaffected." At the mention of Yelp reviews, our ears perked. When we recently wrote about local SEO and how online reviews affect businesses, our SEO Expert, Alex Stepman, told us about a local client who had closed shop and rebranded to escape the impact of several bad online reviews. The client, Stepman said, sold a quality product at a reasonable price, but was compromised by bad hires--employees, since terminated, who had offered poor customer service. Despite generally positive comments on the product, the Yelp reviews cited poor customer service as a justification for the poor reviews--several of three stars and less.  As the NPR segment noted: "Places with three and a half stars, about average, were 14 percent more likely to close after a minimum wage increase of one dollar. But restaurants with five stars, a perfect rating, weren't affected at all."  Poor customer service was likely not the only determinant factor in the closure of a majority of these San Francisco restaurants. The food was important too. But as Bon Appétit writes: "Some diners would argue the best food in the world won't make up for lousy service...A good dining experience is built on trust. It's the server's or host's responsibility to initiate that trust; they're the first point of contact a diner has. Conversely, great service can be enough to make up for things that go wrong in the kitchen." What amplifies mistakes in today's business environment, of course, is the easy availability of online reviews, like Yelp' s--the "novel dataset," as NPR reported, that has "economists excited about" the Harvard Business School's study. Do You Need Online Reputation Management? As we noted in our prior post on local SEO and online reviews, bad reviews must be managed, first, offline--in the day-to-day operations of a business. The three key elements of success have never changed. You must offer a quality product at a competitive price with superior customer service. Beyond your offline performance, however, your online reputation matters. The key is guaranteeing that your excellent performance offline matches your reputation online. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. However, unfair or biased, a single bad review can have consequences. In response to such slights, the online reputation management (ORM) industry promises to monitor and improve (or repair, when needed) the reputation of individuals and businesses online.  There is not much data about the current size of the ORM industry. In 2013, Forbes (without citing any specific evidence) pegged the worth at $5 billion. Meanwhile, Vendasta, which bills itself as the #1 platform for selling business solutions to local businesses, has produced a juicy infographic, "50 Shocking Stats About Online Reputation Management." Oddly, Vendasta offers no background to support its infographic (where and how the data was compiled)--a practice that seems at odds with building trust, a key factor in ORM. Are you now worried about your online reputation? Should you be "shocked" by ORM? More to the point, do you need a firm like Vendasta to manage your ORM? Probably not. As MarketingLand notes, "You don't have to break the bank to correct a reputation situation for yourself or a business. It can even be a DIY project — it isn't rocket science!" MarketingLand's approach is similar to the approach of SEO SPARTA, which advocates simple, timeless SEO techniques to improve (or repair) your brand's image. After all, what is SEO if not a form of reputation management? Among MarketingLand's "9 Key Points for Cleaning Up Your Online Reputation Nightmare Via SEO," you will find the same SEO techniques advocated on this blog, too, including positive content, title tag optimization, and URL optimization. Assuming you sell a good product at the right price with excellent customer service, the key of ORM is to replace any negative impressions with uniformly positive impressions via carefully crafted and optimized content.  SEO That Improves your Online Reputation with SEO SPARTA  We understand how to promote websites to manage your ORM effectively. To learn more about how we combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--with an emphasis on natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns, call: 215-900-9398. photo source