Did your brand recently mess up and face a massive backlash? Maybe a customer made a viral post about a bug they found in your food. Or perhaps one of your crew members got attention for discrimination and poor customer service. Or maybe you posted something unintentionally offensive and insensitive.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”, says the great Warren Buffet.
To make the matters worse, the internet has changed the way reputation is perceived. Everyone’s online, magnifying a tiny mistake and spreading it rapidly like wildfire. The next thing you know, you’re the talk of the town, with nasty memes and boycotting threats being thrown against you.
A brand’s reputation is fragile, and even the world’s most powerful enterprises have their own share of reputation blunders. But they learned from them and managed to put things straight. You can do the same. While it seems impossible to repair a damaged reputation, you can still do so with a good strategy.
If your brand or business recently caught everyone’s attention for the wrong reasons, here are some digital marketing tips to fix reputational damage.
1. Take full responsibility and apologise
Your viral post might have good intentions but overly explaining yourself can give the impression that you’re blaming the viewers for their poor comprehension. Regardless of who’s at fault, it’s not the best time to point fingers.
Assess the damage and take full responsibility. Here are some tips to get your apology statement right:
- Act fast
- Be transparent, telling everyone what exactly happened so they can understand the issue
- Reach out to the affected person personally
- Own the mistake and don’t resort to blaming games and excuses
- Ensure it won’t happen again
If it’s your fault, be humble enough to own your mistakes and apologise. If it’s someone else’s fault, remain humble to admit that you’ve neglected or overlooked something that resulted in such a disaster. Explain how things went wrong but never defend yourself or make excuses to cover up.
2. Compensate for the damages
A public apology letter, no matter how sincere, isn’t enough — let it be known that you’re doing everything in your power to compensate for the disaster.
Next to paying for the damages and refunding their money, go to extra mile to offer them something for free. Next, remind your patrons that you’re taking measures to ensure it won’t happen again.
3. Take the pulse of the community
Shaping public reception after a crisis is the goal of every reputation management strategy. After issuing a statement, use a social monitoring tool to track all hashtags and keywords that feature your brand.
Check the impact of your press release across multiple media platforms too. You may use Google Alerts, Mention, and Buzzsumo to track mentions of your business online and have a recovery plan in line with the gravity of the situation. Remember to adjust your social media response plan based on research, not emotion.
4. Work closely with a digital marketing agency towards redemption
While you can’t predict when reputational damage may arise, it pays to have a systematic recovery roadmap prepared. If you’re working with a digital marketing agency, see how the marketing campaigns laid out for the next few months can be adjusted to make way for reputation PR.
Taking the feedback from customers and investors, form a step-by-step recovery process. One of the tactics includes creating informative and evergreen content materials, and relatable content with emotional impact. Instill trust and core corporate values into your messaging, shedding more light on the positive feedback and relationship acquired in the past.
Also read: How to Write Better Content That People Will Enjoy
5. Don’t try to delete negative feedback
Trying to clean up the mess by deleting negative comments can do more harm than good. It creates the impression that you’re guilty or trying to hide something. Instead, turn the negative criticisms into opportunities to improve your brand and its image.
Research customers’ comments to find commonalities. Start with the comments on your social media profile and your customer support inbox. Then, visit the comment section of articles and review sites. Respond to criticisms promptly, apologise, and keep in touch privately to provide solutions.
6. Find outside opportunities to restore credibility
One of the key ingredients of reputation management is being in full control of the situation. Next to remarkable changes taken within the realms of the online world, try to build authority outside the Internet. These include participating in events, becoming a sponsor, and joining charitable organisations.
Find the perfect timing, Doing “good deeds” right after a crisis may be seen as a pathetic move to save your face. Waiting too long to do good, on the other hand, can make your patrons lose interest.
The Bottomline
Building your credibility doesn’t happen overnight. Redeeming yourself after reputation damage can take even longer. But with a solid PR strategy and sincerity to improve, your positive actions can push your search results to page one and make your past backlash forgotten.
Author Bio: Carmina Natividad is a web content writer during the day and a foodie, musician, coffee connoisseur, and plant mom when her day shift is over. She enjoys sharing her insights about blogging, web design, SEO, and other forms of digital marketing. To know more about digital marketing, check out the blogs of SPRINT DIGITAL Agency Dublin.
