DAC Bridges the Brand Reputation Gap with Survey

DAC’s recent study of reputation management from nearly 900 marketing executives worldwide revealed 71 percent of marketers are concerned with managing their brand’s reputation in today’s digital advertising and social media environment. Alarmingly, 50 percent of those brands aren't actively executing a reputation management program.

“The importance that consumers place on online brand reputation is extremely high, and ratings and reviews can be a significant driver for business revenue,” said Nasser Sahlool, DAC’s Senior Vice President of Strategy. “It is clear from the data that marketers struggle with every aspect of reputation management, from staffing and strategy, to process, technology, and measurement.”

As a leader in digital performance marketing, DAC defines online reputation management as the monitoring of user-generated content in the form of product, location, and brand reviews, as well as using customer feedback to try to solve problems and promote positive sentiment for brands. Successful programs include ratings and reviews on search and social media platforms, marketplaces such as Amazon, industry-specific platforms such as Tripadvisor, and brand websites.

For all the elements of a holistic reputation management strategy, respondents were most challenged by the inability to measure the impact of a reputation management program and found themselves lacking the necessary flexibility and agility to properly execute reputation management. Beyond these challenges, the findings showed:

• 67 percent of respondents find it challenging to hire with the reputation management experience needed
• Respondents indicated that turning customers into brand advocates is the desired outcome of a reputation management program, but over 40 percent of respondents are not actively doing this
• Brick-and-mortar marketing remains ever-important, with 82 percent of respondents placing importance on marketing their physical locations over the next three years

These challenges show up in capability and executional gaps as they relate to the utilization of technology platforms built to support reputation management. For example, while 64 per centsay that it would be very useful for them to monitor and manage reviews across all major online review sites, including Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, etc., only 59 per centdo so.

“Marketers instinctively understand the potential negative impacts of not actively managing online reputation, but what is often overlooked are the considerable positive strategic implications of this work,” added Sahlool. “Applying data science, strategic insights, operational rigor, content, and technology can fundamentally improve business outcomes. DAC is here to meet our clients wherever they are on their reputation management journey.”

The survey findings can be accessed here.

DAC GROUP: Headquartered in Toronto, DAC is a leading global digital performance agency helping marketers connect with consumers from enterprise right down to the hyper-local level since 1972. DAC is passionate about helping businesses build, maintain, and optimize their online presence leveraging internal expertise in everything from content strategy, UX and creative storytelling, to paid media, SEO, and analytic insight to drive performance and nurture loyalty.