Reputation Matters

Several of the business owners who contacted us for crisis communications support have subsequently gone on to appoint us to handle their on-going PR and media relations.

Since RMS first launched, we’ve offered crisis communications support to clients.In fact, we’ve provided a dedicated service to members of the Federation of Small Businesses for many years.

The advent of social media and a more salacious press means that, nowadays, no business is immune from the rising tide of consumers intent on publicly airing their grievances about companies. The trend will continue as today’s savvy teenagers turn into tomorrow’s consumers.

All of which led us to the decision to package our crisis comms service as a stand-alone brand.

As you would expect, we started off by creating a name and settled on Reputation Matters – as well as conveying an important message, we were able to secure the domain name (an increasingly important consideration these days).

Next, our designers created the logo which tips a subtle nod to the masthead of the ‘red tops’ (think Daily Mirror, Sun, etc) but also emphasises our many years’ experience.

Design, build and copywriting of the website followed, which was checked over by our digital team to ensure it features the all-important keywords and phrases to register on Google.

Foundations in place, our attention then turned to running a small PPC campaign to test the level and type of enquiries we received.Within hours of this going live, we were inundated with enquiries but … it quickly became clear they weren’t the ‘type’ we wanted (“Can you remove nude pictures of my husband and me from Google please?” was a typical request).

We tweaked the copy on the PPC ads in order to appeal less to individuals and more to companies.It worked wonders – the joy of the accountability and flexibility of digital marketing!

Since Reputation Matters launched in April, we’ve helped protect many businesses from potentially damaging situations online and in the traditional media. In short, reputations have been protected.

The feedback we have received has been incredibly moving and the service we provide has clearly been much appreciated.

In order to maintain the momentum, our next action was to purchase data and launch an email campaign to select sectors.Again, we turned to our design team to create animated GIFs to grab the attention of recipients.

At the same time as the above activity, we set up joint ventures with select members of our network of professional advisors so they could confidently recommend any of their clients who were in need of crisis comms support.

Six months in and Reputation Matters is going a storm. As with all such things, on-going success will depend on us continuing to invest in further marketing activity. Next, we’ll be implementing a PR campaign that will be targeted at the sectors we feel are most vulnerable to crises.

If you’re a business owner who doesn’t have in-house expertise of handling crisis communications, please do make a mental note about Reputation Matters as you never know when a situation might arise.

If you’re a professional advisor with clients who need help, you know where to come.

And if, like many people, you’re unsure what constitutes a crisis, do check out some of the case studies on the Reputation Matters website.