In part 1 of this two part article, we wrote of the vital importance of generating meaningful content as opposed to creating “fluff” to act as placeholders while engaged in a reputation management campaign. To review, a placeholder-based campaign is typically run as a quasi do-it-yourself project with a reputation management company setting up a variety of domains, such as numerous blogs, and then leaving it to the client to populate them with content.

A tight economy and heightened competition amongst reputation management companies has increased the use of this type of campaign as the fees involved can be lower than a full-fledged effort.  
Left on their own, many clients will dutifully write their blogs but without proper coaching will create a chain of content which literally goes nowhere. When optimized using a client’s name as the keyword, the blogs may start popping up near the front pages of the search engines resulting in a group of different listings all saying the same thing; nothing. 

While getting content which isn’t negative on to the front pages of the search engines is a good thing, meaningless content has many failings including its inability to bury high traffic listings, a confusing online profile, and the transparency of the effort to people familiar with this kind of strategy. There is another substantial risk to repetitive blog postings; that the search engines will eventually deem them as spam and take them out of their indices.

Should that occur, the reputation management campaign is effectively back at square one with any displaced negative listings likely to go back to their original levels, a client which now has the same problem but is out thousands of dollars, and a new delay in the timeframe to solution as the campaign must be re-started (probably with a different reputation management company).  For many reputation management companies which employ this kind of strategy, the failure of the campaign for the client doesn’t necessary translate to a failure for the company due to the fees collected during the initiation of the campaign. Whether paid on a monthly basis or divided equally into an upfront fee with the balance due upon completion, the company is typically well-compensated considering the do-it-yourself nature of the bulk of the work involved.  

As mentioned in part one, avoiding this type of situation is relatively simple; clients must work with a reputation management company which insists on the creation of content which will enhance their image while doing the needed reputation management work. It’s an unfortunate reality, but in trying to save money on a campaign a client will often get neither. It’s a well-worn statement, but in reputation management you truly get what you pay for due to the labor and skill required to conduct a successful campaign which reaches its objectives.  

At that point it really becomes a matter of how damaging the negative content is and how important it is to have it moved off of the front pages of the search engines. If the negative listings are a mere inconvenience, a do-it-yourself based campaign may be appropriate, especially if it can be determined that the potential failure of the campaign won’t yield serious consequences. On the other hand, if damaging listings are going to have material consequences, going with a reputation management company with a vested interest in successfully removing that content from the front pages of the search engines will prove to be the best investment.

Reputation Management LLC has two pricing programs which put them on the same side of table as their clients. In each program, the company sets benchmarks with the client prior to the initiation of the campaign which must be met. In one program billing is halted and fees are not accepted until the benchmarks are met and in the other, two months of fees will be returned as a rebate to the client should objectives not be met by the estimated end point of the campaign. To see which program can best suit your reputation management needs, call Reputation Management LLC today at (866) 530 7703.