As a digital marketing agency, you offer many services to your clients. One of the most impactful, though, is reputation management services — and choosing the right reputation management platform is critical to the success of those services.
But it’s also paramount that you carefully consider how you price and sell reputation management services. Regardless of whether you choose to use GatherUp for your reputation management platform, we want to help you deliver reputation management for a profit. If chosen correctly reputation management software can be a huge revenue generator for your business.
1. Consider your goals and set a budget
The goal of reputation management is to improve brand image, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Depending on your clients, there could be several ways of achieving this such as generating more positive reviews or capturing actionable customer feedback. A platform that can help you do both will be more impactful to your overall marketing strategy.
Setting a budget is also essential. Not just when it comes to your initial investment, but over the long term. Consider the platform’s scalability as your agency grows. A platform that doesn’t cost a significant amount to add more locations or clients means more ROI for you.
2. List out your feature requirements
List the essential features you require, such as review monitoring, sentiment analysis, social media sharing, and reporting. Prioritize features based on your agency’s unique needs and the needs of your clients.
For example, integrations are key if you have clients who use a variety of CRM tools or are in specific industries (such as law, home services, healthcare, etc.) with a lot of review sites.
Note: Depending on how you choose to manage reputation management as a service will drive the features and capabilities you’ll need. If you plan to provide your clients login access to the platform then you’ll also need to ensure it provides:
- Customizable user credentials
- A white-labeled platform and training materials
- Customer support
3. Request a demo or trial of platforms that meet your requirements
Request a trial or demo to test the platform’s functionalities and usability. Use this opportunity to assess its suitability for your agency’s needs. Ask if they have any referrals or agencies that have used the platform to gather insights about their experiences.
Thoroughly review contract terms, including cancellation policies and pricing tiers. Consider the platform’s potential for adapting to future trends and technology advancements in reputation management — particularly when it comes to AI.
4. Conduct a profit margin analysis
A profit margin analysis for a reputation management platform is an essential part of your marketing strategy. It helps you ensure that your reputation management services are not only delivering value to clients but also generating a healthy profit for your agency.
Step 1: Determine all the costs associated with using the reputation management platform. These may include:
- Subscription or licensing fees for the platform
- Implementation and onboarding costs
- Any additional fees for data integration or customizations
- Costs related to personnel, including salaries for employees involved in managing the platform
Step 2: Calculate the revenue generated from offering reputation management services to your clients. This can include:
- Fees charged to clients for reputation management services.
- Upsell opportunities, such as offering additional services like social media management, SMS marketing, or content creation as part of your reputation management packages.
Step 3: Subtract the total costs (Step 1) from the total revenue (Step 2) to determine your gross profit. This represents the profit generated before considering indirect expenses.
Step 4: Account for any indirect expenses that are associated with reputation management but may not be directly tied to the platform itself, such as:
- Costs for any third-party tools or services needed to complement the platform
- Costs related to personnel, including salaries for employees involved in managing the platform
Step 5: Subtract the total indirect expenses from the gross profit (Step 3) to calculate your net profit. This reflects the actual profitability of your reputation management services after accounting for all costs.
Step 6: Calculate the profit margin and compare it across the different platforms you’re evaluating. A higher profit margin indicates more profitability, while a lower margin may signal the need to optimize costs or increase prices.
- Profit Margin (%) = (Net Profit / Total Revenue) x 100
Based on your analysis, you can make an informed decision about which platform is best. But this approach also informs pricing adjustments, cost optimizations, or expansion of your reputation management service offering to maximize profitability.
Consider GatherUp
Effectively managing the online reputation for all your clients is critical to improving search rankings and conversions. And a key piece of your marketing strategy.
GatherUp’s platform simplifies the reputation management process for you — allowing you to easily and efficiently gather, monitor, and respond to feedback and reviews and use them to inform your marketing campaigns (including SMS (or text) marketing), engage with customers, and improve the overall customer experience for your clients.
GatherUp also allows you to set appropriate user permissions to suit your organization and client needs. You can create multiple users and assign them access to certain locations — or all locations — empowering clients to handle review management, or your for team to take charge.
To learn more about how GatherUp can support your agency business, schedule a demo.
