Online Reputation Case Studies

Problem: This company had been targeted by a client who did not get approved for a loan, for which he felt he was qualified. The non-approval was based on a combination of the financial situation of the client and tightened lending requirements at the lender. The targeted company acted diligently in their processing of the application and made no promises of approval. Despite this, the client initiated a campaign of negative postings on a variety of websites, including Rip off Report and The Complaints Board. Due to the heavy traffic on these boards the negative content, which was baseless, began to show up on the front pages of the search engines when the company name was used as the search term. Feeling the impact of the negative content as traffic to their site decreased, the company engaged Below The Line Marketing Group to counter the attack.

Analysis: Thousands of backlinks and high traffic to complaint sites and forums. Systematic breakdown of all keywords. Review of complaint site’s legal and post guidelines.

Solution: The plan put into action was divided into two components. One component being the deletion of as much of the untrue negative content as possible from websites. The second component was to create and market new content to move the negative postings which would not be deleted off of the front pages of the search engines. BTLMG, which has a working relationship with The Complaints Board, was able to get negative content removed from the site while the Ripoff Report, which has a standing policy of never removing posts regardless of their inaccuracy, left the posts in place.

Overall outcome: Below the Line Marketing Group, using their proven techniques, was able to displace the negative content from the front pages of the search engines within 3 months. BTLMG was retained by the company to monitor any new negative content, which it does up to this day.

Problem: A leading UK based construction company held a number of important contracts with the government and local government clients. When faced with large-scale spending cuts, the client contacted a number of key suppliers asking them to cut their costs in order to prevent a reduction in orders.

As gossip about the cuts spread online, the company released a statement but erroneously put the wrong contact name as the source. The news was picked up by a number of leading UK newspapers and newswires and quickly spread across the internet. The named member of staff suffered stress and personal attack in social media sites and forums and was hounded by the press.

Analysis: Identified the source of the spreading news and contact media to amend or remove the story; to push the news down the search engine listings and to generate positive PR in order to negate any damage caused by the affair.

Solution: Below the Line Marketing Group quickly identified websites that had published the news and contacted them to request that the articles be amended with the correctly named person. The issue was highly sensitive and every care had to be taken to protect the people involved. Once the news sources had been contacted, additional press releases were sent out to correct the initial story and to generate additional PR that would be picked up by search engines, pushing the original version lower down in the listings.

Overall outcome: Through effective project management and a systematic approach, BTLMG was able to remove the incorrect news item from 95% of websites that had published it. Through SEO consultancy, we were able to remove the news from top rankings on search engines for key searches, by creating positive news that took higher positions.

Problem: A historic, family run hotelier in the Swiss Alps needed to help set itself apart from the competition. With so many accommodations to choose from, guests have an abundance of choices for their stays.  Bookings were declining over the last few years as other locations spent more on marketing and customer desires changed with time.

Analysis: Complete customer profiling was done to determine current and ideal customers. Breakdown of all major competitor’s online activities and study of new backlinks, content locations, and messages was suggested to push the client sales.

Solution: Required SEO work was done on the current website, as well as on social media outlets that lead to more website traffic and longer browsing times. Dozens of pages of new content based on hundreds on new keywords were created in series of micro-sites to inform potential customers of the client advantages.

Overall outcome: The client began to receive more bookings in the first months and learned how to make new customers a part of their online social media outlets. A remarkable 23% increase in overall sales from the year before put a smile on the client’s face.

Problem: In this study an individual was listed as a person of interest for a crime committed in a large city in southern Europe. The story made the local news and was also listed on its website. Another suspect was ultimately arrested for the crime but whenever the client’s name was searched, the “person of interest story” would come up as the top ranking. Unfortunately for the client, the closing of the case never mentioned him by name so there was no story to be found, which exonerated him. The person of interest story remained in the top spot and ultimately became a topic of conversation when potential clients would search for information on him. Realizing that the story would follow him around indefinitely unless he took action, the client retained Below the Line Marketing Group to push the story off of the first pages of the search engines.

Analysis: Considering that the damaging story was on a highly trafficked news site, BTLMG has centered on an intensive campaign of creating articles, press releases, and white papers to both displace the news piece and to raise the profile of the client’s business.

Solution: The strategy began paying dividends shortly after its initiation due to the search engine optimization techniques employed. As the new content began making its way up the search engine results pages the client’s website, which had not been optimized previously, began to get increased visits and he began to get calls for his views and opinions on topics which he had covered in his white papers and articles.

Overall outcome: The news story was moved off of the front pages of the search engines within a few months. BTLMG continues to provide monitoring and SEO services for the client.