INSIDER TIP: How Top Brands Combat Bad Online Reviews « Direct Response Marketing

May 7 2011

INSIDER TIP: How Top Brands Combat Bad Online Reviews

By Rich Gorman 40 Comments

FACT: Prior to buying online, 28% of consumers conduct their due diligence on the brand via search.

FACT: 72% of shoppers that conduct their due diligence and find negative reviews choose not to purchase.

FACT: 94% of customers that do not recognize charges on their billing statements search online for the company.

FACT: 43% of customer chargebacks come from customers who discover negative reviews on a company or brand.

FACT: Having a good online reputation will significantly increase revenues while simulatously decrease chargebacks.

Check it out:

Proactiv: Go to Google and type in “Proactiv”. The entire home page returns positive results. The Google suggest brings forth positive results.

Joliese Tan: Now go to google and type in “Joliese Tan” Kabam, complaints in your face. Yea yea, we all know this was a Dee offer, so brand management was never really an interest.

Joliese Tan is out of business. Proactiv is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. BTW, if you type in “Proactiv Scam” there are thousands of complaints that come up. Most consumers don’t find these complaints because:

1. Google doesn’t suggest them.

2. The home page of Proactiv searches has nothing but positive references to the brand.

So how did Proactiv obscure all of the negatives while Joliese tan did not?

They either retained a top PR firm such as Reputation Changer or they hired some serious SEO gurus.

When brands gain national recognition, search volume online increases accordingly. Out come the wolves:

- Affiliate marketers create fake review sites and attempt to poach leads searched for online. i.e. An affiliate marketer who ranked highly for Proactiv will make a ton of money by bashing their brand. All they have to do is say: “Proactiv sucks, this is why, click here to try a trial of this other skin care product.” Examples of affiliate sites that are notorious at this practice are:

WellnessStarts.com
HealthProductRating.com
ReviewOpedia.com
HealthProductReview.com

- Unreasonable Customers that forget to cancel or demand refunds where they’re not warranted will seek revenge online. It takes less than 10 minutes for these people to annihilate a company’s brand.

How do they do it? Easy. They anonymously post on sites like RipOffReport.com, Scam.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, etc. and within minutes achieve ranking online. With a modicum of SEO know-how, they plugin exact match keywords and achieve ranking.

- Companies have a huge financial incentive to tarnish their competitor’s brands. Trust me, it happens every day. Have you ever gone to the affiliate summit? LOL! It’s like a fucking soap opera. There’s 200 “CPA NETWORKS” that all do the exact same thing. Everyone says that their the best and offer “the highest payouts” and have the best “exclusive offers.” Then if you ask about another network, they’ll have some dirt to spill. Barf!

At any rate, if you have an offer online and are doing volume, make sure you retain a service to monitor your brand. By dominating the search results for your brand, you’ll make a helluva lot of money!

Jeremy

Using Reputation Changer right now to prevent fallout from the ass wipes you mentioned should one of them decide they don’t like us. So far so good, but prevention is key!
IMer

Have you ever considered purchasing an iphone app and decided against it because they only had 3 stars or because their reviews weren’t 100% positive? I know I have. Your post should be a flag for every business owner out there to retain some kind of firm. It doesn’t matter if you have 4 customers or 1000, there’s a chance someone will eventually post something negative about you. You have to be prepared.
Roger

I am surprised only 28% of consumers research before they buy. We will see this number increase as more and more smartphones find their ways into the hands of consumers.
Jameson

Do you see Reputation Changer as an SEO firm that also serves to prevent top rankings for negative results as well as corrects them when and if they appear?
Ethan

Proactiv has a huge team working on their brand management. They were, uh, proactive in assuring that they would be on top when the wolves came out. Some of their competition didn’t feel it was necessary to work on building their reputation before others had time to start posting.
Shawn

Do you think the chargebacks after the purchase are truly associated with finding negative reviews or moreso people trying to get something for nothing?
Cale

Reputation Changer knows their stuff. Get on a conference call with their team and you’ll know right away that they can and will handle business.
SeeMeRun

I have never been to affiliate summit, but I have watched the bashing from my computer and have stumbled into hundreds of websites aimed at robbing a sale by posting negative things. I am surprised that companies allow their affiliates to use this method.
Nate

Have you ever googled a brand and it DID return the negative results? I have and I will tell you I was instantly shocked by it. I felt like I HAD to choose that negative keyword search just to see what others were saying about the brand. I know that Reputation Changer can change these results, but am surprised that google supports negative searches in that way.
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  Google has a huge financial incentive to return negatives: People like to read negative stuff about other people. That’s why news organizations exist.
  
  Google’s #1 loyalty is to its shareholders. That means it is focused on getting the highest returns and most searches. They purposely rank sites like Scam.com or ComplaintsBoard.com higher!!
Ian

Can fake review sites be shut down for trademark infringement? We see some other major brands doing this and have altered our promotion methods so we don’t use the trademark directly for fear of having our asses sued off.
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  yes they can – but it costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time. some sites like RipOffReport.com will never remove a review, no matter how false it is. They even challenge you to sue them. Check this link out:http://www.ripoffreport.com/ConsumersSayThankYou/WantToSueRipoffReport.aspx
KC

I have seen more and more companies spending less on actual marketing and more on reputation – either in prevention, protection or reaction. There are to many outlets for people to complain and as you mentioned, it only takes 10 minutes.
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  exactly, plus brands that have a solid online reputation make a heck of a lot more money. i know for a 100% fact that there’s offers out there that are selling 15k coaching sessions and then getting refund requests bc people read about it being a scam. negative reviews will kill any business, especially in direct response
Eli

SEO is key in building your brand, but also in maintaining a positive attitude towards it. I assume that is why Proactiv’s google results don’t recommend “Proactiv Scam” or other negative search terms despite the affiliates and companies out there willing to post negative things to drive traffic to another site or brand.
Colby

Only 72%!! Wow! I don’t make a single purchase without some research, although I admit I consider their position and if I see an affiliate link or push to another product I discount their review.
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  yep me too
TheMan

The days of brands maintaining their credibility by working on their own brand (and leaving competition alone) are long gone. Companies have to retain a SEO company to keep their search results positive and outmaneuver competition that will do whatever it takes to take sales.
Sunny

Do you think the day of people being sued for false or retaliative reviews will come to an end? I talked to a friend last week who had a former client post a negative review about him and his company. They called an attorney and threatened to sue. The client took the post down, but I assume that on a large scale this would be nearly impossible (and expensive).
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  well it’s really easy to do it anonymously, which is what most people do. yea, attaching your name to a negative post is akin to walking into a police office with a video tape of you shooting someone!
CandyLand

The brands that understand what you just said are the ones that will make it through the next few years. Those that don’t embrace the trends will fail. I have watched this with social media clients who feel they can maintain a social media account when they have the funds. They don’t realize that more people search for an active social media account before purchases. Great points here Rich.
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  exactly! There’s a group out there called Trendy Media Group – they’re really good. Have you ever heard of them?
AffMe

What? Shady affiliates? NO!! LOL
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
WoodCarver

Rank Pay has the best system I have ever seen. If you don’t rank, you don’t pay… the concept is amazing!
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  exactly – talk about a guarantee!!!
GoogDemon

Results in days? What does the competition look like?
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  in days, that’s right…they’re pretty expensive but back the results with guarantees and stuff
Darin

Reputation management two years ago was a buzz word inside the industry (PR) that we all thought would become necessary and here, in 2011, it stares us in the face every day. As you mentioned, it only takes 10 minutes and one angry customer or client to put your sales in jeopardy. We have also seen this on mapping sites like Yelp and Google Places where customers can leave reviews. The problem is that these companies are highly utilized when people are traveling and looking for restaurants, hotels, etc. The rank, usually in stars, pops up on the GPS location and most people find they won’t even consider looking into the restaurant further if they aren’t ranking well at first glance.
Calvin

I am surprised at that 28% figure. I always search for companies and I know in managing a campaign for a baby/pregnancy oriented blog group that many of the readers are buying the products we recommend because it’s a “stamp of approval” from “real people.”
http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman

yup yup
Carl

We engaged Rank Pay after your last blog post and have to say that their system is intense. Paying for results is the only way to do business these days.
http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman

there is definitely a huge correlation with people finding negatives – the stats I listed are from a Nielsen study. I think it is also bc consumers forget to cancel and just like you said, want to get something for nothing!
http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman

i’ve worked with them in regards to doing other SEO work and they sent me to SEOinc.com, which is way too expensive! I guess SEOinc.com was founded by former Google employees.

Reputation Changer only works on brand reputation management and helping people reverse negative reputations.
Robert

We used Reputation Changer for one of our campaigns and have nothing but great things to say about their entire team. They were quick to respond to emails and just like Rich mentioned here, they jumped right on the work and results improved within days.
Jessy

You mentioned volume in your last paragraph. Do you feel that brands that are smaller or even personal brands such as freelancers and service providers should invest in reputation management?
- http://www.DirectResponse.net Rich Gorman
  
  absolutely. their best bet is to do it themselves. when they start making more money engage a service. Reputation Changer isn’t cheap so I don’t recommend it for people that are getting started out and have super low budgets.
Reigna

Word of mouth has turned into word of mouth via social media. Now you can see what people outside of your immediate circle are saying. I check brands on Facebook before anything else mostly because I am hopping to see them interacting and responding to posts and comments about their brand. Great post.
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